KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT Knowledge Fundamentals Raymund Sison, PhD College of Computer Studies De La Salle University [email protected]

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENTKnowledge Fundamentals

Raymund Sison, PhDCollege of Computer Studies

De La Salle University

[email protected]://mysite.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty/sisonr

CSC707M (Knowledge Management) Dr. Raymund Sison 2

Data

Data Raw, unprocessed record of an aspect of an event

A particular sale of a particular item on a particular day


Data vs. Information



Information Processed data Daily sale of a particular item


Data vs. Information vs. Knowledge



Information Processed data Daily sale of a particular item

Knowledge Actionable information (Drucker, 1999)

Daily sale of a particular item has been increasing steadily for the past six months, and…

Drucker, P. (1999). Management Challenges for the 21st Century. New York: HarperCollins


Activity 1

Form groups (according to the project groupings).

Each group formulates answers to the question, “What makes information actionable (i.e., what are needed for one to be able to act on information)?”

A representative from each group will share his/her group’s answers with the class.


Knowledge as Actionable Information

What makes information actionable? Experience Values Knowledge



What makes information actionable? Experience

• Improves judgment so that one is better able to… Know how to detect actionable information, i.e.,

to know whether to act on information one has received or perceived

Know how to search for actionable information



Values, biases• Color judgment so that one’s judgment of

the actionability of information, or search for actionable information is either… Intensified Weakened



Knowledge• Enables one to act on information judged to

be actionable, so that one knows… How to act (what to do) and when How to learn from this judgment and action, and

their consequences

Notice that there are 2 kinds of knowledge here: declarative and procedural.


Kinds of Knowledge

Schemas Strategies

Concepts Rules

Facts Procedures Simple

Complex

ProceduralDeclarative

•Generalized or episodic•Common sense or specialized•Surface (textbook) or deep•Tacit or explicit


Kinds of Knowledge: Declarative vs. Procedural

Declarative Knowledge that describes “what”

• E.g., that quality is this company’s primary value; that quality is defined as conformance to the specific standards namely…; that quality is impacted by various factors such as…

Procedural Knowledge that describes “how”

• E.g., how to fill up a form, how to diagnose a problem, how to grow the company


Activity 2

With your group, discuss then write on the board the 3 most important pieces or chunks of knowledge that people in your client organization need in order to accomplish their knowledge work.

A representative from each group will discuss his/her group’s answers in front.


Further Examples of Knowledge

Knowledge of a particular job• E.g., how to elicit and specify user

requirements; how to teach computer programming

Knowledge of how to make a product• E.g., the Coke formula

Knowledge of who knows what in a company


Further Examples of Knowledge

Knowledge of how to put together a team that can achieve a particular task

Knowledge of how to get things done in a company

Knowledge of a particular customer account

Knowledge of a country and its business customs


Kinds of Knowledge

Schemas Strategies

Concepts Rules

Facts Procedures Simple

Complex

ProceduralDeclarative

•Generalized or episodic•Common sense or specialized•Surface (textbook) or deep•Tacit or explicit


Kinds of Knowledge:Simple to Complex

Fact Something that exists, actually

happened, or is true• E.g., 1+1=2; Manila is the capital of the

Philippines

Procedure Series of steps for accomplishing a task

• E.g., addition procedure, enrollment procedure



Concept A class of things that have the same

defining or characteristics attributes• E.g., integers, knowledge management

Rule (a.k.a. principle) A principle that guides behavior or the

ways things are done• E.g., “Find a balance between codification

and personalization.” Some rules are heuristic, e.g., “If it’s cloudy,

bring an umbrella.”



Schema Structured clusters of interrelated

concepts• E.g., taxonomy, solar system model, ERD

Strategy A plan or method for achieving any

specific goal• E.g., business strategy, testing strategy, KM

strategy


Kinds of Knowledge:Generalized vs. Episodic

Generalized (a.k.a. semantic knowledge)• Decontextualized knowledge of facts about

the entities and relations between entities in the world E.g., birds have wings

Episodic• Knowledge about events or entities that are

marked as happening at a particular time E.g., what I did last summer


Kinds of Knowledge:Common Sense vs. Specialized

Common sense• E.g., Eat well to be well; knowledge about

healthy living

Specialized• E.g., Carbohydrates, protein, and fat must

be consumed in the following proportion 70:25:5; knowledge about healing the sick


Kinds of Knowledge:Surface vs. Deep

Surface (a.k.a. textbook knowledge) Knowledge that everyone (in a particular

field) knows• E.g., diagnosing the flu

Deep (a.k.a. expert knowledge) Knowledge that one only gains through

years of experience• E.g., detecting meningitis


Kinds of Knowledge:Explicit vs. Tacit (Polanyi)

Explicit Knowledge is easy to make available to

another for inspection• E.g., a recipe; a written explanation of a business

process

Tacit Knowledge that is very difficult to make explicit Some say that 90% of all organizational

knowledge is tacit• E.g., how to quickly convince people about an idea;

how to quickly elicit requirements from users


Know-what

Know-how

Know-why

Care-why

Kinds of Knowledge:Know-what to Care-why (Quinn)

Quinn, J., Anderson, P. & Finkelstein, S. (1996). Managing Professional Intellect: Making the Most out of the Best, Harvard Business Review (1996), pp. 71-86.



Know-what • Knowledge gained primarily through books

Know-how• Knowledge gained primarily through

experience

Know-why• Deep knowledge of complex cause-and-

effect relationships E.g., knowing just when to sell (stockbroker);

knowing the perfect moment to hit (baseball player)



Care-why• Very deep knowledge that explains why

highly motivated, creative, and energetic groups and companies outperform larger corporations with more money and resources

• Exists in a company’s culture

• Most difficult (some say impossible) for a knowledge management system to support


Know-what

Know-how

Know-why

Care-why

Where do you think would most companies be?


KM Pyramid (Rosenberg)

Level 2: Information Creation, Sharing, and Management

Level 3: Enterprise Intelligence

Level 1: Document Management Documents stored online; Online access & retrieval

Capturing & distributing expert stories; communication & collaboration

Building expert networks; performance support

Rosenberg, M. (2000). E-Learning: Strategies for Delivering Knowledge in the Digital Age. New York: McGraw-Hill.


Knowledge Representationfor Level-3 KM

Four major knowledge representation approaches: Logical

• Example: first-order predicate logic

Procedural• Example: if-then rules

Network• Examples: semantic networks, conceptual

dependencies

Structured• Examples: frames, scripts, objects


Predicate Logic Example

father(abraham,isaac). father(isaac,jacob). father(jacob,judah). father(jacob,joseph).

XY(father(X,Z)father(Z,Y)grandfather(X,Y))

XY(father(X,Y)ancestor(X,Y))XY(father(X,Z)ancestor(Z,Y)ancestor(X,Y))

Questions: Is Isaac the father of Jacob? Who is the grandfather of Jacob?Who are the children of Jacob? Who are the ancestors of Jacob?

Facts

Rules


Production Rules Example

FactsRules


Another Production Rule Example

Rule 578:

IF[1] the infection which requires therapy is

meningitis, and[2] organisms were not seen on the stain of the

pending csf culture (CULTURE-1), and[3] the type of the infection may be bacterial, and[4] the patient has been seriously burned

THEN there is suggestive evidence that Pseudomonas-

aeruginosa is one of the organisms (other than those seen on cultures or smears) which might be causing the infection


Semantic Network Example


Conceptual Dependency Example


Frames Example


Script Example


Script Example


Script Example


Activity 3

With your group, choose one of the 3 most important chunks of knowledge earlier identified by your group.

Describe and represent part of this knowledge using any combination of the 4 knowledge representation approaches.

A representative from each group will discuss his/her group’s answers in front.


Knowledge and Knowledge Workers

Who are knowledge workers? Workers who rely on considerable

knowledge to perform their tasks Workers whose productivity are

determined by 6 factors (Drucker):• Understanding of what his or her task is

This is not as clear as it may seem In contrast, a manual worker knows what the

task is. His/her main question is how do best perform this task.

Drucker, P. (1999). Management Challenges for the 21st Century. New York: HarperCollins.


Knowledge and Knowledge Workers

• Degree of autonomy• Continuing innovation (as part of the

knowledge worker’s task and responsibility)• Continuous learning and teaching• Quality as well as quantity of output• Knowledge worker’s being treated as an

“asset” rather than a “cost” Knowledge worker must want to work for the

organization in preference to all other opportunities


Knowledge and Knowledge Organizations

Some definitions: KO = knowledge intensive organization =

one for which knowledge is greater in value than traditional assets

KO = an organization that views knowledge as at least equal in value to traditional assets

KO = one in which the value added of employees is the knowledge they possess



Examples: High-tech firms Engineering organizations Research laboratories Consulting houses Marketing organizations Sales organizations Software organizations



Organizations that work on a ‘project’ basis, e.g., lawyers

Recruitment/head hunter organizations


Knowledge Economy

Economy in which a/the main driving force is knowledge (a.k.a. high-tech).


Debate

In general, knowledge management is NOT cost-beneficial to implement in the Philippines.

Debate mechanics:• Round 1: T1-T2-Disc

• Round 2 (Rebuttal): T2-T1-Disc

• Round 3 (Conclusion): T1-T2

• Panel: Review, decision, justification