Team FRN Ryne JoynerAntoine Woods Jason Griffin Darrell Boyd

Although knowledge management is gaining wider acceptance, few organizations today are fully capable of developing and leveraging critical organizational knowledge to improve their performance Many organizations are so complex that knowledge is fragmented, difficult to locate and share, and therefore redundant, inconsistent, or not used at all. Today’s environment of rapid change and technological discontinuity, knowledge becoming quickly obsolete Not enough research on managing knowledge

What is Knowledge?  Meaningfully organized accumulation of information through experience, communication, or inference  Can be viewed as a “thing” or a “process”  Distinguished from data and information -Data represent observation or facts -Information results from placing data within some meaningful context.

Tacit - Knowledge subconsciously understood and applied -Difficult to articulate -Developed during direct experience and action -Usually shared through conversation, storytelling, and shared experience Explicit -More precisely and formally articulated, although removed from the original context of creation or use

 Declarative  Procedural  Casual

General Knowledge Often publicly available, and independent of particular events Since general knowledge is commonly shared, firms can more easily exchange it and codify it Specific Knowledge Context-Specific Knowledge Codifying specific knowledge so that it is meaningful across an organization requires that the firm describe its context along with focal knowledge—must explicitly define this knowledge

See page 3 figure 1 for example

Utilizes four primary resources: Repositories of Knowledge Knowledge Refineries Knowledge Management Roles Information Technology Roles

The key components of knowledge repositories are structure and content to address all types of knowledge. Meaningful concepts, categories, and definitions (declarative knowledge) Processes, actions, and sequences of events (procedural knowledge) Rationale for actions or conclusions (causal knowledge) Circumstances and intentions of knowledge development and application (specific contextual knowledge) Linkages among the various types of knowledge

5 Stages Acquisition Refinement Storage ad Retrieval Distribution Presentation Acquisition, refinement, and storage create and update the knowledge platform, whereas retrieval, distribution, and presentation derive various views of that knowledge

Many organizations have different approaches to managing knowledge -Some assign a chief knowledge officer who comprehensively handles knowledge management as a cross organizational process. Is responsible for the organizations knowledge architecture -Others assign cluster groups who is responsible for knowledge management. There roles include championing knowledge management, educating the organization, mapping knowledge, and integrating the organizational and technological resource critical to the knowledge management architecture.

The Information technology infrastructure provides a seamless “pipeline” for the flow of explicit knowledge through the five stages of the refining process to enable:  Capturing Knowledge  Defining, storing, categorizing, indexing, and linking digital objects that correspond to knowledge units  Searching for and subscribing to relevant content  Presenting content with sufficient flexibility to render it meaningful and applicable across multiple contexts of use

Using Information Technology (World Wide Web, groupware), a firm can build a multimedia repository for rich, explicit knowledge. The organizations can then capture and store units of knowledge in forms that assign various labels, categories, and indexes to inputs. (finding knowledge) Effective use of information technology to communicate knowledge requires that an organization share an interpretive context. If this knowledge is not interpreted, it would be a waste of data.

Integrative applications -Exhibit a sequential flow of explicit knowledge in and out of a repository. Integrative applications are usually published, and follow routines. Interactive Applications -Focus on supporting interaction among people with tacit knowledge. Forums and blogs are the most widely used interactive applications. Highly interactive forums support ongoing, collaborative discussions among the producers and consumers as one group.

Technology Research Inc. -Leading international provider of market information and industry analysis to IT vendors and purchasers. -Employs over 300 analysts and publishes over 15,000 research reports that address more than fifty distinct subject areas Use the steps of the Knowledge Refining Process and has been highly successful. Routine processes and structure is the key to this company’s success

Buckman Laboratorieswww.buckman.com/ -$300 million international specialty chemicals company -Over 1,200 employees operating in over 80 countries -Recognized leader in Knowledge Management This company’s success in based on its highly Tech Forum system and interactive social ecology. Employees routinely check, update, and post on the Tech Forum application.

Customers stated the ability of Buckman to leverage its collective knowledge via Tech Fourm was the main reason why they bought their product. Buckman’s advantage is not just the tech side of things, but the willingness of the companies workers to create, share, and reapply information is the key Buckman Labortories uses both tactic and explicit knowledge to have a successful company.

Knowledge Management exist within four primary contexts that influence how management affects an organizations performance.  Strategic  Knowledge  Organizational  Technology

Addresses an organization’s intent and ability to exploit its knowledge and learning capabilities better than the competition.

Addresses the competitiveness of an organization’s knowledge. Existing knowledge can be compared to what an organization must know to execute its energy.

Reflects the organization roles and structure, formal and informal, as well as the sociocultural factors affecting knowledge management such as culture, power relations, norms reward systems, and management philosophy

Addresses the existing information technology infrastructure and capabilities supporting the knowledge management architecture. One adage states that knowledge management is 10 percent technology and 90 percent people.

Understand their strategic knowledge requirements. Devise a knowledge strategy appropriate to the firms business strategy. Implement an organizational and technical architecture appropriate to the organizations knowledge processing needs. These factors enable the organization to apply maximum effort and commitment to creating, applying, sharing, and improving its knowledge.

Organizations that are managing knowledge effectively understand their strategic knowledge requirements. They devise a knowledge strategy appropriate to the firms business strategy. Also successful firms implement an organizational and technical architecture appropriate to the organization’s knowledge processing needs.