1. Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION TO KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
WELCOME!
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION TO KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

2. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
To explain the diversity of disciplines that constitute the field of knowledge management
To distinguish between different perspectives in knowledge management
To assess the differences in the management of knowledge from ancient to modern times

3. KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY
Driven by knowledge intangibles rather than natural resources, capital or low skilled labour
Economic performance based on knowledge, technology and learning
Mobilising knowledge to add value to goods and services

4. KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY
Peter Drucker argues that the workplace is changing and there was an increasing distinction between the manual worker and the knowledge worker.
To him, a manual worker used his hands to produce goods and services, whereas a knowledge worker used his head to create ideas, information, an knowledge that could add value to the firm

5. Knowledge workers
Professionals, associate professionals or managers with graduate level skills in critical thinking, communications and technology.
In 2006 they accounted for 42% of all employment in the UK!

6. WHAT’S ALL THE KM FUSS? KM started around the mid-1990s
Knowledge seen as the most important source of competitive advantage
Came from consultant beginnings
Some strongly into IT, some strongly into HR and some into strategy
Academic roots in organisational learning, information systems, strategy and finance

7. KM fuss
Unlike physical resources, knowledge is not depleted after its use
Knowledge grows through transfer and exchange
Globalization has supported the knowledge economy, as knowledge management methods and importance has been exported to lower-wage economies with the request to build products (outsourcing)!

8. What is knowledge management?
KM is an interdisciplinary concept.
Literature perspectives on KM:
Information systems orientation
Human resources management
Strategic management
Cultural change management

9. Knowledge management
Interdisciplinary approach to KM, gives KM strengths and also challenges
One discipline will not be sufficient to have all the tools and business processes to manage knowledge
One outcome though>> many definitions of KM
See figure 1.2>>

10. TREE OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Figure 1.2 Tree of knowledge management – disciplines, content and activity

11. DEFINITIONS OF KM
Table 1.1 Representative sample of knowledge management definitions

12. DIMENSIONS OF KM
Figure 1.3 Dimensions of knowledge management

13. KM definition
Taking into consideration the dimensions of KM, it can be defined as:
“The effective learning processes associated with exploration, exploitation and sharing of human knowledge (tacit and explicit) that use appropriate technology and cultural environments to enhance an organization’s intellectual capital and performance”

14. DIMENSIONS OF KM
Figure 1.3 Dimensions of knowledge management

15. Data vs. information vs. knowledge
Data - “known facts or things used as a basis of inference or reckoning”
Quantitative or qualitative
Problem with data, it needs context (quantitative). Also depends on the perception and perspective of the transmitter and receiver (qualitative)

16. M. C. Escher (1960) “Ascending and descending”

17. DATA, INFORMATION & KNOWLEDGE
Information in dictionary – “something told”, “the act of informing or telling”
“systematically organized data”
Systematic implies the ability to predict or make inferences
7, 9, 11, 13, ?
To inform = data needs to be organized.
The receiver of the message can give a subjective meaning then, it is info.

18. DATA, INFORMATION & KNOWLEDGE
Practically, knowledge can be considered “actionable information”
However, it is much more complex, in chapter 2 we will explore it.
Each one of us has a subjective perception of the world, and therefore subjective evaluation of information, so somehow, our knowledge base influences our interpretations.

19. DATA, INFORMATION & KNOWLEDGE
Figure 1.4 Data, information, knowledge and purposeful action

20. Wisdom and truth
Wisdom and truth have been shown to have higher qualities than knowledge.
Wisdom: is the ability to act critically or practically in a given situation.
It is based on ethical judgement related to individual’s belief system
Can be captured in proverbs and quotes:

21. Some proverbs
Children have more need of models than of critics (French)
You can’t see the whole sky though a bamboo tube (Japanese)
There is plenty of sound in an empty barrel (Russian)
Wonder is the beginning of wisdom (Greek)

22. Truth Truth is even more problematic
Our tacit theories or conceptions of the world affect our observations.
Theory-neutral observations do not exist!!
It means there are multiple truths of social phenomena!
T.S. Eliot – The rock (1934):
Where is the life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

23. History of KM: Oral traditions
Oral tradition and the use of human memory to store knowledge
Word of mouth
Bardic traditions (stories and poems to praise)
Historical tales
Poetry
Songs
Sayings
Epic poems
...etc.

24. ANCIENT TIMES: KNOWLEDGE & ORAL TRADITIONS
Utilises natural human memory
Requires prolonged contact between two or more individuals
Lengthy process spent memorizing information leaving little room for critical evaluation
Recited traditional rituals, myths, legends, music and epic poems

25. BUZZ GROUP What is the best way of memorising something?
What are the problems of using memory for knowledge sharing?
Figure 1.6 Scribe comparing two texts in a monastery (© The British Library Board
(Lansdowne 1179 f34v))

26. SUMERIANS & CUNEIFORM Sumerians emerged in Mesopotamia around 3500 BC
Developed writing system called cuneiform
Three-corned stylus cut different combination of wedges (‘cunei’) into damp clay tablets
Early tablets mainly contained numbers – precursor to money
Used for land management, bills, taxes and contracts (marriage), legends and mythology.
Developed ‘archive mindedness’

27. KING ASHURBANIPAL’S LIBRARY
Writing becomes an artificial memory with an objective existence
Training required many years of arduous study under headmaster or ummia in ‘tablet houses’
House of Knowledge (bit mummi) contained around 1200 distinct texts

28. KING ASHURBANIPAL’S LIBRARY
Palace library (Nineveh) contained over 10,000 works contained in 30,000 clay tablets
Omen texts predominate, astrological dreams and exorcisms.
Includes literary and archival material and horoscopes, incantations, prayers, hymns, fables, proverbs and poetry

29. WRITING DEVELOPMENT
Different technology used to make knowledge more transportable than clay or stone tablets
Wood, bamboo, bark, palm leaf, bone, ivory, leather, metal, cloth, silk, Papyrus (Egyptian) and Chinese paper
Thought writing – transmit ideas visually through objects and human representations such as 50,000 Chinese characters and 700 Egyptian hieroglyphs
Sound writing – phonetics can manage with 20–50 signs
More information can be stored in less space

30. Egyptians Formal writings on stone Informal on papyrus
The most famous library of Pharonic Egypt is the complex built by Ramses II
Included texts on poetry astronomy, history, engineering, agriculture and fiction.
“The house of healing for the soul”

31. KM in ANCIENT GREECE Books written on papyrus rolls or parchment
Aristotle’s Lyceum and Plato’s Academy possessed a library

32. KM in ANCIENT GREECE
Literacy was much more widespread in ancient Greece.
Establishing a compete text of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey
Selling of knowledge through books
Establishment of the great library of Alexandria, 323BC
History, philosophy, music, visual arts, studies in language and literature and commentaries

33. KM in ANCIENT GREECE
Pergamum library in Asia Minor housed around 200,000 rolls, Alexandria library 600,000 rolls!
Possibly seized by Mark Anthony in 41 BC and presented as a gift to Cleopatra, as a compensation for the losses by Julius Ceasar, who destroyed 400,000 rolls in Alexandrian war. but scholars are divided as to the accuracy of this information

34. RISKS TO KNOWLEDGE IN ANCIENT ROME
First public library was found in 39 BC, containg Roman and Greek books.
Other libraries also existed
Risks:
Libraries vulnerable to fires
Damage to texts by insects or frequent handling
When Ovid fell from favour with Augustus, his works were removed from libraries in 8 AD
Triumph of Christianity over paganism in 4th century led to decay of traditional culture

35. MEDIEVAL LIBRARIES
Adherents of Latin Christendom preserved recall of the past
Most common libraries were found in monasteries.
Scrolls changed from papyrus to parchment
Books invented as practical information conveyance and valued commodity or revered object, art and artefact simultaneously
Table of contents and indexes first appeared

36. MEDIEVAL LIBRARIES Elevation of the role of monks as scribes.
Reading and understanding Bible, theological study included history, science, and mathematics as part of understanding God’s creation.

37. MEDIEVAL LIBRARIES Religion was elevated above other knowledge domains
Monks were involved in reading scripts, copying theological texts, and writing commentaries.
Collections were kept in book chests, closely guarded (lock and key), monks were allowed to access one book at a time

38. MEDIEVAL LIBRARIES
12th century, intellectual life was moving back from rural monasteries back to urban centers, to match the need to train and educate people
Cathedrals had traditionally trained monks on Music, theology, canon law…etc. then, more secular interests; arithmetic, rhetoric and astronomy.
The same time of cathedral schools, the rise of universities 1200 University of Paris (renowned for theology), and Oxford university.
Undergraduate will be 12 years old, to study 6 years, liberal arts (
reasoning and argument = Grammar, rhetoric, logic
Natural laws of universe = Arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy.

39. PRINTING & KNOWLEDGE SHARING
In 1455 Johann Gutenberg invented printing with movable type and printed 42-line Bible
16th century – new technology of copperplate engraving improved quality
1545 – as books proliferated Conrad Gesner published Bibliotheca Universalis
Literacy rose as a result of printing press with Protestanism emphasis on private reading of Bible
18th century – introduction of newspapers, mechanisation of bookmaking process and cheap wood pulp

40. IT & KNOWLEDGE SHARING
Computers leading to ‘paperless’ society but increased paper to be stored as printout backups
‘Information explosion’ leads libraries to share resources
Print has limitations – learning based on dialogue
Dialogue through , groupware and video conferencing systems
Can store vast amounts of data into data warehouses for store, analysis and retrieval

41. ROOTS OF MODERN DAY KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Organisational learning
Psychology
Information systems
Strategic management
Culture

42. TIME FOR REFLECTION
What lessons can we learn from history to improve the quality of knowledge management within organisations?