Knowledge Management

Syllabi
 Course Outcomes
Course Code and 309 – Knowledge Management
Course Name
Generic Elective – University Level (GE) Course
CO # Cognitive Course Outcomes
Abilities
CO309.1 Remembering DEFINE the key terms and concepts in Knowledge Management

CO309.2 Understanding DESCRIBE the Knowledge Management cycle

CO309.3 Applying DISCUSS the types of Knowledge and its implications

CO309.4 Analysing OUTLINE the importance of capturing knowledge elements and

its structures application as a competitive advantage to business
CO309.5 Evaluating EXPLAIN the human and business aspects of knowledge
management
 Data
• Unorganized and unprocessed facts
• Set of discrete facts about events in the form
of structured record of transactions
• Evaluating data leads to information
• Insurance , banking depend heavily on data
 Information
• Facts and figures based on reformatted and
processed data
• Aggregation of data - makes decision making
easier
• Information is understanding relations
• It has meaning , purpose and relevance
• example – p & l statement
Transformation from Data to information
Information
Statistical
Analysis
Reorganize
Remove
errors
Data

Data becomes information when meaning or value is added to

improve the quality of decision making
 Knowledge
• Knowledge removes complexity and uncertainty
• Broader, richer and harder to capture than data
or information
• Knowledge- actionable / relevant information
available in right format, at right time and right
place for decision making ( Tiwana 2000)
 Knowledge
• Knowledge is human understanding of a
specialized field of interest that has been
acquired through study and experience.
• Focus on sustainable competitive advantage
• Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experience,
values, contextual information and expert insight
that provides a framework for evaluating and
incorporating new experiences and information
 Data Information Knowledge
Statements about Organized, systematized Human interaction with reality
reality data
Meaningful links people make in their
Unsorted bits of fact Data that is sorted , minds between information and its
Analyzed and displayed application in action in a specific
A representation of a setting
fact, a number, word, Data that has been
image, picture or assigned a meaning Ability to turn information and data
sound into effective action
Data that is meaningful
Measurements Or useful to someone An organizational resource consisting
of the sum of what is known.
A discrete, objective Potential for action
fact about events resides in the user Systematizing and structuring
Information for a specific purpose
A statement of fact
Information whose validity has been
about measurements
established through tests of proof
 Wisdom
●Wisdom is the highest level of abstraction
○ vision
○ foresight
○ ability tosee beyond the horizon
●the summation of ones career experience in
specialized area of work
 W
is
d
o
Knowledge
m
Acti onable
informati on

Informati on
( Data in formati on)

Data
Data , Information and knowledge
Knowledge Management
Quality

Knowledge Creativity
Management
Sustainable
Competitive
Advantage
 Characteristics of knowledge
• Knowledge involves human interaction with
reality or information about reality
• Knowledge is subjective to the knower as
person-> individualization
• Knowledge is social in nature
• In knowing something I believe it to be true
– responsibility and commitment
 Characteristics of knowledge
• Knowing takes place in relation to existing
knowledge
• Knowledge involves a judgment
• Knowledge has a moment of categorical
imperative(unconditional rule of conduct )
and can induce a cognitive dissonance
 Characteristics of knowledge
• Knowledge is always part of dynamic system
-Constantly developing
• Knowledge is gregarious by nature- socialization-
reinforced, challenged, modified, improved and
validated
• Knowledge processes-always a part of open system.
• Knowledge creation is a process of innovation.
 Alternative views of knowledge
• Subjective view of knowledge- represents
knowledge as a state of mind or as a practice
• Objective view of knowledge- represents
knowledge as an object , an access to
information, or as a capability.
 Subjective View of Knowledge

• According to the subjective view, reality is socially constructed

through interactions with individuals.
• Knowledge is viewed as an ongoing accomplishment that
continuously affects and is influenced by social practices
• knowledge cannot be at a single location, as it has no existence
independent of social practices and human experiences.
• knowledge could be considered as
– A state of mind
– Or as practice.
 Knowledge as State of Mind
• Organizational knowledge is viewed here as the beliefs of
the individuals within the organization
• Various individuals have differing experiences and
backgrounds , their beliefs and hence knowledge, could
differ from each other.
• Consequently, the focus here is on enabling individuals to
enhance their personal areas of knowledge so that they
can apply them to best pursue organizational goals.
 Knowledge as Practice
• According to this perspective, knowledge is viewed as being held by
a group and not as being decomposable into elements possessed
by individuals.
• Thus, knowledge is “neither possessed by any one agent, nor
contained in any one repository”.
• knowledge resides not in anyone’s head but in practice.
• It is comprised of collective beliefs, which are better reflected in
organizational activities .
• Knowledge is “inherently indeterminate and continually emerging”.
 Objective View of Knowledge
• Opposite of the subjective view.
• According to this view, reality is independent of human
perceptions and can be structured in terms of a priori
categories and concepts.
• So, knowledge can be located in the form of an object or
a capability that can be discovered or improved by
human agents.
• The objective view considers knowledge from three
possible perspectives.
 Knowledge as Objects
• knowledge as something that can be stored,
transferred, and manipulated.
• Consistent with the definition of knowledge as a
set of justified beliefs, these knowledge objects
can exist in a variety of locations.
• Moreover, they can be of several different types
such as declarative , procedural, tacit etc.
 Knowledge as Access to Information
• knowledge is viewed here as something that
enables access and utilization of information.
• This perspective extends the above view of
knowledge as objects, emphasizing the
accessibility of the knowledge objects.
 Knowledge as Capability
• This perspective differs in that the focus here is
on the way in which knowledge can be applied
to influence action.
• This perspective places emphasis on knowledge
as a strategic capability that can potentially be
applied to seek a competitive advantage.
 Perspectives
on knowledge

Subjective Objective
views views

Knowledge as Knowledge as
Knowledge as Knowledge as Knowledge as
a state of access to
practice an object capability
mind information
 Types of knowledge
•Shallow and deep knowledge
•Shallow or surface knowledge- minimal understanding
of the problem area
•Deep knowledge- understanding acquired as a result
of a number of years experience and may require
understanding of workings of complex processes
 Types of knowledge
• Knowledge as know-how-
• Knowledge based on accumulated lessons of
practical experience
• Needed to build expert systems
• Capturing practical experience requires social
tools
 Epistemology- meaning
• It is the theory of knowledge-
– Its methods
– Validity
– Scope
– Distinction between justified belief and opinion
 Types of knowledge
• Expert and novice
• Experts represent their know-how in terms of
heuristics- rules of thumb based on their
experience-empirical knowledge
• In building knowledge base heuristics generally
operate in the form of if then statements
 Reasoning and heuristics
• Reasoning by analogy
• Formal reasoning
• Exact reasoning/ deductive reasoning
• inductive reasoning
• Case based reasoning
 Common sense as knowledge
• It is a collection of personal experiences and
facts aquired over time.
• We take it for granted
 Declarative knowledge
• Declarative knowledge may be characterized
as “know what,” whereas procedural
knowledge may be viewed as “know-how.” To
 Procedural and Episodic knowledge
• Procedural knowledge an understanding of
How to do a task or to carry out a procedure
usually involves psychomotor skills
• Declarative knowledge is information that
experts can easily discuss.- awareness
knowledge
 Procedural and Episodic knowledge
• Procedural knowledge- resides in -short term
memory
• Used to diagnose electrical system of a car by
pointing to causal relationship.
• Best way to capture declarative knowledge –
structured interview
 Semantic knowledge
• Deeper kind of knowledge
• Highly organized, chunked knowledge
• Resides in long term memory
• Includes major concepts, vocabulary, facts and
relationships
 Episodic knowledge
• Knowledge based on experimental information or
episodes
• The longer a human expert takes to verbalize his or
her knowledge, the more semantic or episodic it is.
• Resides in long term memory
• Its use is automated.- driving
• Expert generally explains by examples/ scenarios
 Explicit knowledge
• It typically refers to knowledge that has been
expressed into words and numbers.
• It can be shared formally and systematically in
the form of data, specifications, manuals,
drawings, audio and videotapes, computer
programs, patents, and the like.
 Explicit and tacit knowledge
• Tacit knowledge is knowledge embedded in the human mind
through experience and jobs
• Coined by Hungarian medical scientist Michael Polanyi
• It includes intuitions, values and beliefs that stem from years of
experience
• It is the knowledge used to create explicit knowledge
• Also called as whispers in the ears
• Difficult to share across space and time.
• Knowing how
• Embodied knowledge
 Explicit and tacit knowledge
• Explicit knowledge is knowledge codified and
digitized in books, documents, reports,
whitepapers, spreadsheets, memos, training
courses
• Easier to retrieve and transmit
• Knowing that
• Theoretical knowledge
Explicit knowledge Tacit knowledge
• Easier to identify • Personal and hard to
• Can be stored formalize
• Reusable for decision • And communicate
making • It is heuristics, mind sets,,
unconscious values
• Stored in human mind
• Vulnerable to loss
 Expert Knowledge
• It is information woven into the mind of the expert
to solve complex problems quickly and accurately
• Chunking knowledge-knowledge is stored in
expert’s long term memory. Knowledge
compilation or chunking enables experts to
optimize their memory capacity and process
information quickly
 General or Specific Knowledge
• This classification of knowledge focuses on
whether the knowledge is possessed widely or
narrowly
• General knowledge -is possessed by a large
number of individuals and can be transferred
easily across individuals.
• Knowledge of cricket rules
 General or Specific Knowledge

• Specific knowledge, or “idiosyncratic knowledge,”

-is possessed by a very limited number of
individuals, and is expensive to transfer
• Knowledge of a coach
• Three types:
– technology-specific knowledge
– context-specific knowledge
– context-and-technology-specific knowledge
 Technology specific knowledge
• deep knowledge about a specific area.
• It includes knowledge about the tools and techniques that may
be used to address problems in that area.
• Acquired as a part of some formal training and is then
augmented through experience in the field.
• Examples
– the scientific knowledge possessed by a physicist
– the knowledge about computer hardware
– the knowledge of project management techniques (such as PERT
charts and critical path analysis) is technology specific
 Context-specific knowledge
• Refers to the knowledge of particular circumstances of time and
place in which work is to be performed.
• It pertains to the organization and the organizational subunit
within which tasks are performed.
• For example, the detailed knowledge a design engineer
possesses about the idiosyncrasies of the particular design group
in which she is working is contextually specific.
• Contextually specific knowledge cannot be acquired through
formal training but instead must be obtained from within the
specific context.
Context-and-technology specific knowledge
• It is specific in terms of both the context and the
technical aspects.
• It simultaneously involves both rich scientific
knowledge and an understanding of the particular
context.
• knowledge of how to decide on the stocks to
acquire within an industry
 Knowledge and expertise
• Expertise –knowledge of higher quality
• It addresses the degree of knowledge.
• One who possesses expertise is able to perform
a task much better that those who do not.
• The word “expert” can be used to describe
people possessing many different levels of skills
or knowledge
 Categories of expertise
1)associational (black box)
2) motor skills
3) theoretical (deep)
 Associational Expertise
• This expert can associate the observations of the
performance of the device to specific causes purely based
on his experience.
• This individual may have expert-level associational
understandings of these devices and may be able to fix
almost any problem encountered.
• However, if he encounters a new, previously unseen
problem, he may not know how to proceed because he
does not understand the inner workings of the device.
 Motor Skills Expertise
• Motor skill expertise is predominantly physical rather than
cognitive; therefore, knowledge-based systems cannot easily
emulate this type of expertise.
• Humans improve these skills by repeated and coached practice
• riding a bicycle, hitting a ball, and downhill snow skiing.
• experts - their reactions seem spontaneous and automatic
• Result of continual and persistent and coached practice.
• Cricket
• These processes do not involve conscious thinking
 Theoretical (Deep) Expertise
• Finding a solution to a technical problem often
requires going beyond a superficial understanding of
the domain.
• We must apply creative ingenuity—ingenuity that is
based on our theoretical knowledge of the domain.
• This type of knowledge allows experts to solve
problems that have not been seen before and,
therefore, cannot be solved via associational expertise.
 Theoretical (Deep) Expertise
• Such deeper, more theoretical knowledge is
acquired through formal training and
• hands-on problem-solving. Typically, engineers
and scientists who have many years
• of formal training possess this type of
knowledge.
 Other types
• Simple knowledge focuses on one basic area.
• Complex knowledge draws upon multiple distinct areas of
expertise.
• Classification by the role of knowledge within organizations:
– Support Knowledge
– Tactical Knowledge
–Strategic Knowledge
• .
 Other types
• Support knowledge -Relates to organizational
infrastructure and facilitates day-to-day operations
• Tactical knowledge- Pertains to the short-term
positioning of the organization relative to its markets,
competitors, and suppliers
• Strategic knowledge - Pertains to the long-term
positioning of the organization in terms of its corporate
vision and strategies for achieving that vision
 Characteristics of knowledge
• Explicitness of knowledge –
• Reflects the extent to which knowledge exists in an explicit form
so that it can be stored and transferred to others.
• It indicates that it may be more appropriate to view explicitness as
a continuous scale.
• Explicit and tacit kinds of knowledge are at the two ends of the
continuum, with explicit knowledge being high in explicitness and
tacit knowledge being low in this regard.
• Any specific knowledge would then be somewhere along this
continuum of explicitness.
 Codifiability and teachability
• Codifiability -reflects the extent to which
knowledge can be articulated or codified, even
if the resulting codified knowledge might be
difficult to impart to another individual.
• Teachability- reflects the extent to which the
knowledge can be taught to other individuals,
through training, apprenticeship, and so on.
 Specificity
• Specific knowledge is directly related to the concept of
knowledge specificity.
• A high level of knowledge specificity implies that
• the knowledge can be acquired and/or effectively used only
by individuals possessing certain prior knowledge.
• Knowledge specificity implies that the knowledge is
possessed by a very limited number of individuals and
• is expensive to transfer.
 Specificity

Contextual Technical
Knowledge knowledge
specificity specificity
 Reservoirs of knowledge
• Knowledge in People
• A considerable component of knowledge is stored in people
• Some knowledge is stored in individuals within organizations. For
instance, in professional service firms, such as consulting or law
firms, considerable knowledge resides within the minds of
individual members of the firm.
• The knowledge stored in individuals is the reason several
companies continually seek ways to retain knowledge that might
be lost because of individuals retiring or otherwise leaving the
organization.
 Reservoirs of knowledge
• Considerable knowledge resides within groups because
of the relationships among the members of the group
• Groups form beliefs about what works well and what
does not, and this
• knowledge is over and above the knowledge residing
in each individual member -the collective knowledge is
synergistic—greater than the sum of their individual
knowledge.
 Knowledge in Artifacts
• knowledge is stored in organizational artifacts as well. Some
knowledge is stored in practices, organizational routines, or
sequential patterns of interaction. In this case, knowledge is
embedded in procedures, rules, and
• norms that are developed through experience over time and
guide future behaviour.
• For example, fast-food franchises often store knowledge
• about how to produce high-quality products in routines.
 Prerequisite to
Experience based
Conceptual Practical Provide
training of junior
Knowledge Knowledge Mentorship
officers

Contributes to Leads to

Academic Experience(Delib
Preparation
Loan Expertise
erate practice) Indicator of
Expertise

Self
Minimum or no Confidence
bad loans
Conceptual Model of expertise
Thank You!!