Understanding Knowledge Management concept

Dr. Rajendra Suwal

Management and Leadership Development Specialist

Nepal Administrative Staff CollegeApril 3, 2013

Overview of the Session

• Define knowledge• Explain knowledge Management Concept•Learn the characteristics of knowledge management.•Describe knowledge management tools.• Describe useful applications for distributing, creating and sharing knowledge•Describe some useful Knowledge Management tools for Environment aspects

What is Knowledge?• Data = collection of facts, measurements,

statistics• Information = organized data• Knowledge = contextual, relevant, actionable

information– Strong experiential and reflective elements– Dynamic– Branches and fragments with growth– Difficult to estimate impact of investment– Evolves over time with experience

• Information that changes something or somebody—becoming grounds for action by making an individual, or institution capable of different, more effective action - Drucker, The New Realities

Knowledge

• Explicit knowledge– Objective, rational, technical– Policies, goals, strategies, papers, reports– Codified – Leaky knowledge

• Tacit knowledge– Subjective, cognitive, experiential learning– Highly personalized– Difficult to formalize– Sticky knowledge

Why people do not want to share knowledge?• “Knowledge is power”•  “I don’t have time”•  “I’ve got too much real work to do”•  “That’s not my job”•  “You’re just using other people’s ideas and taking the

credit”•  “I want to do things my way”•  “This is how it’s always been done”• “I’m already suffering from information overload”• “You should already know all the answers”•  “It’s just another management fad; if I ignore it, it’ll

eventually go away” • “What’s in it for me?”

Knowledge Management in the Organization

• SYSTEMATICALLY & ACTIVELY MANAGING AND LEVERAGING STORES OF KNOWLEDGE IN AN ORGANIZATION

• Organizational learning mechanisms Processes to create, gather, store, maintain, disseminate knowledge

Why KM is Needed

• Traditional reasons for KM are:– Improving Decision Making by reusing

knowledge– Capturing knowledge from transient work

forces• Additionally, we are finding we need KM

because of:– Supporting knowledge communities– Obsolescence/Innovation– Knowledge persistence

What Experts say on Influence of Knowledge on Success

• Peter Drucker (the one factor)• Toffler (Survival in Knowledge Age is

not who can read or write but who can learn and unlearn quicker)

• Tom Peters (sum total of value-added)

• Handy, Drucker (primary factor of productivity)

A few Foundation Principles and Building Concepts

• Knowledge Influences Success • Knowledge Resides in the Heads of People • Two Types of Knowledge

– Codified– Personalized

• Knowledge Sharing Requires a Conduit to Happen Systemically

• Technology is the conduit• Knowledge Sharing Requires Trust • KM embraces both the Knowledge Based

organization and the Learning Organization• KM has planned architectural frameworks

Knowledge Requires Capture, Organization, Access and Leverage

• OLD WAY– Capture form is written,

auditory or graphical representations

– Organization is via tables of content, indexes, classification systems used by publishers, libraries, etc

– Access when physical body goes to where the knowledge is located…a library, a company, a research laboratory, a school

– Tacit knowledge rarely tapped

– Leverage is a sum game

• NEW WAY– Capture from is digits in

cyberspace– Organization via

software programs designed upon engineering principles, mathematical equations, word associations in cyberspace 24/7/365

– Access wherever the physical bodies link via computers

– Tacit knowledge tapped using many different technological tools

– Leverage is exponential, multiples upon multiples

Technology Changes

• KM is integrating technologies that aid collaboration and/or knowledge storage– Wiki, blogs, social networks– Semantic Web– GIS – Data Fusion - Integration technologies

(XML, SSE)– Visualization technologies– RFID and sensor networks– Social Network Analysis

KM Wikis Blogs & Social Networks• Use of wikis for collaborative projects improves the ability

of project members to collaboratively author documents.• Use of blogs or wikis to create virtual discussion spaces

where discussions can continue 24/7 with no physical boundaries.

• Use of blogs, wikis, Linkedin, or Facebook to create knowledge worker spaces, communities of practice, and social networks. This allows knowledge workers to discover the experts among them and to learn from each other.

• Use of second life to create virtual worlds for knowledge transfer.

• Use of blogs or wikis to connect knowledge sources for new knowledge creation and repositories of best practices and other artifacts.

KM and the Semantic Web

• Semantic web is a goal where everything on the web is expressed in a common ontology– Improves our ability to find relevant knowledge– Facilitates knowledge storage– Enhances knowledge creation

KM and Data Fusion

• Data fusion is about taking different data streams and putting them together to add decision support value– Allows experts to create knowledge – Utilizes RSS feeds, SSE, XML

• Main application is GIS which fuses multiple data streams to create mapped knowledge repositories

KM and Visualization• Knowledge Visualization improves knowledge

transfer by providing tools that allow knowledge workers to manipulate knowledge into representations that have more meaning (incorporates context and culture)– Second life allows for avatar representations and a

virtual world where knowledge can be abstracted and shared in a non-threatening environment

– Mapping technologies such as topic maps and GIS create knowledge abstractions based on topics, geography, etc. and to control overload by using knowledge to determine what should be presented

– Knowledge portals to provide self directed visualization of knowledge through customization.

KM and Mapping• Knowledge Mapping allows for better

organization of knowledge to facilitate knowledge retrieval– Utilizes taxonomies and ontologies– Mapping technologies such as topic maps and

GIS allows faculty to organize knowledge based on some taxonomy

– Utilizes organizations based on topics, skill sets, people, geography, subject, etc..

KM & Social Network Analysis• Social Network Analysis provides a tool

that helps researchers identify knowledge sources and flows– Looks at formal communications such as

reports and email– Looks at informal communications such as

who you go to when you need to know something

– Maps the two together to give a view of where knowledge is and how it flows

Integrating Initiatives• Trend is to combine KM with new

technologies into strategic organizational initiatives such as:– Customer Relationship Management, CRM– Supply Chain Management, SCM– Data mining to discover knowledge– Enterprise Resource Planning, ERP– Project management mature processes– Communities of Practice, CoP

Critical Success Factors

• A Knowledge Strategy that identifies users, sources, processes, storage strategy, knowledge and links to knowledge for the KMS

• Motivation and Commitment of users including incentives and training

• Integrated Technical Infrastructure including networks, databases/ repositories, computers, software, KMS experts

• An organizational culture that supports learning and the sharing and use of knowledge

Critical Success Factors

• A common enterprise wide knowledge structure that is clearly articulated and easily understood (an ontology)

• Senior Management support including allocation of resources, leadership, and providing training

• Learning Organization• There is a clear goal and purpose for the

KMS

Knowledge Management Systems

• Knowledge:– Awareness and understanding of a set of

information and the ways that information can be made useful to support a specific task or reach a decision

• Knowledge management system (KMS):– Organized collection of people, procedures,

software, databases, and devices used to create, store, share, and use the organization’s knowledge and experience

Overview of Systems

Data and Knowledge Management Workers and Communities of Practice

• Personnel involved in a KMS include:– Data workers:

secretaries, administrative assistants, bookkeepers, other data-entry personnel

– Knowledge workers: people who create, use, and disseminate knowledge

• Examples: professionals in science, engineering, and business; writers; researchers; educators; corporate designers

• Chief knowledge officer (CKO): top-level executive who helps the organization use a KMS to create, store, and use knowledge to achieve organizational goals

• Communities of practice (COP): group of people dedicated to a common discipline or practice, such as open-source software, auditing, medicine, or engineering– Excel at obtaining, storing,

sharing, and using knowledge

Obtaining, Storing, Sharing, and Using Knowledge

Knowledge Management System

Knowledge Management Enablers

• Leadership• Knowledge champions, such as CKOs• Culture• Access• Technology• Learning Culture

More on the Importance of Corporate Culture

• Changing the culture is imperative. • To create a climate in which employees

volunteer their creativity and expertise, managers need to look beyond the traditional tools at their disposal: finding ways to build trust and develop fair process.

• That means getting the gatekeepers to facilitate the flow of information rather than hoard it.

• And offering rewards and incentives.

Organizational Changes

• Knowledge management efforts can completely collapse boundaries

• A knowledge management system cannot work through hierarchies

• Individual and team learning processes must become the true driver of organizational learning

Sustainability of a KM Endeavor There are three fundamental processes that

sustain profound changes such as the introduction of a KM system:– developing networks of committed people– improving business results– enhancing personal results

To achieve sustainability, there must be a focus on learning, and learning how to harness the learning capabilities that lead to innovation.

• The emergence and development of informal networks must be supported so that people can share their tacit knowledge and help one another.

Definition of Environmental Aspect

• An environmental aspect is the part of an activity, product, or service that interacts with the environment. An aspect can be thought of as the actual or potential “cause” of an environmental impact.

• Aspects can be regulated or unregulated.

Examples of Environmental Aspects

• Vehicles emit exhaust• Water leaks from distribution system• Fueling spills occur• Containers not closed• Noise from aircraft engine run-up testing• Lights and computers left on at night• Copier paper bleached with chlorine• Bicycles don’t emit exhaust

Knowledge Management in reference to Environment Aspects

• As pointed out earlier, KM is essentially about facilitating the processes by which knowledge is created, shared and used in organizations.

• Creating a knowledge environment usually requires changing organizational values and culture, changing people’s behaviors and work patterns.

Processes• At the organization level, the processes can

be:– coming out with KM policy and strategy– providing induction packs full of “know how” to

new staff; – creating databases of all environment related

publications produced by an organization so that staff can access them from their desk;

– conducting exit interviews when staff leave so that their knowledge is not lost to the organization;

–  

Processes…2– providing ongoing learning so that people can

constantly update their knowledge on environments; –  encouraging people with interest on environment to

network with each other; –  creating electronic filing systems that can be

searched in a number of ways, making the information much easier to find;

–  redesigning offices to be open plan so that staff and managers are more visible and talk to each other more;

– creating intranets so that staff can access all kinds of organizational information and knowledge that might otherwise take a great deal of time and energy to find.

KM tool box for Environment Aspects

• After Action Reviews (AARs): A tool pioneered by the US army and now widely used in a range of organizations to capture lessons learned both during and after an environment activity or project.

• Communities of Practice: Communities of practice link people together to develop and share knowledge around environment aspects  

• Conducting a knowledge audit: A systematic process to identify an organization's knowledge needs, resources and flows on environment aspects, as a basis for understanding where and how better knowledge management can add value.

KM tool box for Environment Aspects…2• Identifying and sharing best Environment practices

Approaches to capturing best practices discovered inside or outside the organization and sharing them for the benefit of all.

• Knowledge harvesting A tool used to capture the knowledge of “experts” and make it available to others.

•  Social network analysis Mapping relationships between people, groups and organizations to understand how these relationships either facilitate or impede knowledge flows.

•  White pages A step-up from the usual staff directory, this is an online resource that allows people to find colleagues with specific knowledge and expertise on environment.

Acknowledgements• Peter Senge• Art Kleiner• Blaise Zerega• Charlotte Roberts• Richard Ross• George Roth• Bryan Smith• James Brian Quinn• William Truran• J Michael Pemberton• Sarah Cliffe

• David A. Nadler• Rick Mullin• Ellen M. Lapp• Thomas Stewart• Peter Feltham• Howard Rheingold• Nick Bontis • Morten T. Hansen• Jim Bair• Henry Mintzberg• James Cortada

Thank you for Listening