1. Chapter 11
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

2. Learning Objectives
Define knowledge and describe the different types of knowledge
Describe the characteristics of knowledge management
Describe organizational learning and its relationship to knowledge management
Describe the knowledge management cycle
Describe the technologies that can be used in a knowledge management system

3. Learning Objectives
Describe different approaches to knowledge management
Describe the activities of the chief knowledge officer and others involved in knowledge management
Describe the role of knowledge management in organizational activities
Describe ways of evaluating intellectual capital in an organization

4. Learning Objectives Describe how KMS are implemented
Describe the roles of technology, people, and management in knowledge management
Describe the benefits and drawbacks of knowledge management initiatives
Describe how knowledge management can revolutionize the way an organization functions

5. Introduction to Knowledge Management
Knowledge management concepts and definitions
Knowledge management
The active management of the expertise in an organization. It involves collecting, categorizing, and disseminating knowledge

6. Introduction to Knowledge Management
Understanding, awareness, or familiarity acquired through education or experience. Anything that has been learned, perceived, discovered, inferred, or understood. The ability to use information. In a knowledge management system, knowledge is information in action

7. Introduction to Knowledge Management
Knowledge-based economy
The modern, global economy, which is driven by what people and organizations know rather than only by capital and labor

8. Introduction to Knowledge Management

9. Introduction to Knowledge Management
Characteristics of knowledge
Extraordinary leverage and increasing returns
Fragmentation, leakage, and the need to refresh
Uncertain value
Uncertain value of sharing
Intellectual capital
The know-how of an organization. Intellectual capital often includes the knowledge that employees possess

10. Introduction to Knowledge Management
Explicit and tacit knowledge
Explicit (leaky) knowledge
Knowledge that deals with objective, rational, and technical material (data, policies, procedures, software, documents, etc.)
Tacit knowledge
Knowledge that is usually in the domain of subjective, cognitive, and experiential learning. It is highly personal and hard to formalize

11. Introduction to Knowledge Management
Knowledge management systems (KMS)
A system that facilitates knowledge management by ensuring knowledge flow from the person(s) who know to the person(s) who need to know throughout the organization; knowledge evolves and grows during the process

12. Organizational Learning and Transformation
Learning organization
An organization capable of learning from its past experience, implying the existence of an organizational memory and a means to save, represent, and share it through its personnel
Organizational memory
That which an organization “knows”

13. Organizational Learning and Transformation
The process of capturing knowledge and making it available enterprisewide
Learning skills include:
Openness to new perspectives
Awareness of personal biases
Exposure to unfiltered data
A sense of humility

14. Organizational Learning and Transformation
Organizational culture
The aggregate attitudes in an organization concerning a certain issue (e.g., technology, computers, DSS)

15. Organizational Learning and Transformation
Reasons people do not like to share knowledge:
General lack of time to share knowledge and time to identify colleagues in need of specific knowledge
Apprehension or fear that sharing may reduce or jeopardize people’s job security
Low awareness and realization of the value and benefit of the knowledge others possess
Dominance in sharing explicit over tacit knowledge, such as know-how and experience that requires hands-on learning, observation, dialogue, and interactive problem solving
Use of a strong hierarchy, position-based status, and formal power

16. Organizational Learning and Transformation
Reasons people do not like to share knowledge:
Insufficient capture, evaluation, feedback, communication, and tolerance of past mistakes that would enhance individual and organizational learning effects
Differences in experience levels
Lack of contact time and interaction between knowledge sources and recipients
Poor verbal/written communication and interpersonal skills
Age differences
Gender differences

17. Organizational Learning and Transformation
Reasons people do not like to share knowledge:
Lack of a social network
Differences in education levels
Ownership of intellectual property due to fear of not receiving just recognition and accreditation from managers and colleagues
Lack of trust in people because they may misuse knowledge or take unjust credit for it
Lack of trust in the accuracy and credibility of knowledge due to the source
Differences in national culture or ethnic background and values and beliefs associated with it

18. Knowledge Management Activities
Knowledge management initiatives and activities
Knowledge management initiatives have one of three aims:
To make knowledge visible, mainly through maps, yellow pages, and hypertext
To develop a knowledge-intensive culture
To build a knowledge infrastructure

19. Knowledge Management Activities
Knowledge creation is the generation of new insights, ideas, or routines
Four modes of knowledge creation:
Socialization
Externalization
Internalization
Combination

20. Knowledge Management Activities
Knowledge sharing
Knowledge sharing is the willful explication of one person’s ideas, insights, solutions, experiences to another individual either via an intermediary or directly
In many organizations, information and knowledge are not considered organizational resources to be shared but individual competitive weapons to be kept private

21. Knowledge Management Activities
Knowledge seeking
Knowledge seeking (knowledge sourcing) is the search for and use of internal organizational knowledge
Lack of time or lack of reward may hinder the sharing of knowledge or knowledg seeking

22. Approaches to Knowledge Management
The process approach to knowledge management
Process approach
The process approach to knowledge management attempts to codify organizational knowledge through formalized controls, processes and technologies

23. Approaches to Knowledge Management
The practice approach to knowledge management
Practice approach
The practice approach toward knowledge management focuses on building the social environments or communities of practice necessary to facilitate the sharing of tacit understanding

24. Approaches to Knowledge Management
Hybrid approaches to knowledge management
The practice approach is used so that a repository stores only explicit knowledge that is relatively easy to document
Tacit knowledge initially stored in the repository is contact information about experts and their areas of expertise
Increasing the amount of tacit knowledge over time eventually leads to the attainment of a true process approach

25. Approaches to Knowledge Management
Best practices
In an organization, the best methods for solving problems. These are often stored in the knowledge repository of a knowledge management system

26. Approaches to Knowledge Management
Knowledge repository
The actual storage location of knowledge in a knowledge management system. Similar in nature to a database, but generally text-oriented

27. Approaches to Knowledge Management
Developing a knowledge repository
Knowledge repositories are developed using several different storage mechanisms
The most important aspects and difficult issues are making the contribution of knowledge relatively easy for the contributor and determining a good method for cataloging the knowledge

28. Information Technology (IT) in Knowledge Management
The KMS cycle
KMS follows six steps in a cycle:
Create knowledge
Capture knowledge
Refine knowledge
Store knowledge
Manage knowledge
Disseminate knowledge

29. Information Technology (IT) in Knowledge Management

30. Information Technology (IT) in Knowledge Management
Components of KMS
KMS are developed using three sets of technologies:
Communication
Collaboration
Storage and retrieval.

31. Information Technology (IT) in Knowledge Management
Technologies that support knowledge management
Artificial intelligence
Intelligent agents
Knowledge discovery in databases
Extensible Markup Language (XML)

32. Information Technology (IT) in Knowledge Management
Artificial intelligence
AI methods used in KMS:
Assist in and enhance searching knowledge
Help establish knowledge profiles of individuals and groups
Help determine the relative importance of knowledge when it is contributed to and accessed from the knowledge repository

33. Information Technology (IT) in Knowledge Management
AI methods used in KMS:
Scan , documents, and databases to perform knowledge discovery, determine meaningful relationships, glean knowledge, or induce rules for expert systems
Identify patterns in data (usually through neural networks)
Forecast future results by using existing knowledge
Provide advice directly from knowledge by using neural networks or expert systems
Provide a natural language or voice command–driven user interface for a KMS

34. Information Technology (IT) in Knowledge Management
Intelligent agents
Intelligent agents are software systems that learn how users work and provide assistance in their daily tasks
They are used to elicit and identify knowledge

35. Information Technology (IT) in Knowledge Management
Knowledge discovery in databases (KDD)
A machine learning process that performs rule induction, or a related procedure to establish knowledge from large databases

36. Information Technology (IT) in Knowledge Management
Knowledge discovery in databases
Model marts
Small, generally departmental repositories of knowledge created by employing knowledge-discovery techniques on past decision instances. Similar to data marts. Also see model warehouses
Model warehouses
Large, generally enterprisewide repositories of knowledge created by employing knowledge-discovery techniques on past decision instances. Similar to data warehouses. Also see model marts

37. Information Technology (IT) in Knowledge Management

38. Information Technology (IT) in Knowledge Management
Extensible Markup Language (XML)
XML enables standardized representations of data structures so that data can be processed appropriately by heterogeneous systems without case-by-case programming

39. KMS Implementation Knowledge management products and vendors Knowware
Technology tools that support knowledge management

40. KMS Implementation Software development companies and EIS vendors
Collaborative computing tools
Knowledge servers
Enterprise knowledge portals (EKP)
An electronic doorway into a knowledge management system

41. KMS Implementation Software development companies and EIS vendors
Electronic document management (EDM)
A method for processing documents electronically, including capture, storage, retrieval, manipulation, and presentation
Content management systems (CMS)
An electronic document management system that produces dynamic versions of documents, and automatically maintains the current set for use at the enterprise level

42. KMS Implementation Software development companies and EIS vendors
Knowledge harvesting tools
Search engines
Knowledge management suites

43. KMS Implementation Knowledge management products and vendors
Knowledge management consulting firms
Knowledge management ASPs

44. KMS Implementation
Integration of KMS with other business information systems
With DSS/BI Systems
With AI
With databases and information systems
With CRM systems
With SCM systems
With corporate intranets and extranets

45. Roles of People in Knowledge Management
Chief knowledge officer (CKO)
The person in charge of a knowledge management effort in an organization

46. Roles of People in Knowledge Management
The functions of the CKO include:
Set knowledge management strategic priorities.
Establish a knowledge repository of best practices.
Gain a commitment from senior executives to support a learning environment.
Teach information seekers how to ask better and smarter questions.
Establish a process for managing intellectual assets.
Obtain customer satisfaction information in near real-time.
Globalize knowledge management

47. Roles of People in Knowledge Management
Skills required of a CKO include:
Interpersonal communication skills
Leadership skills
Business acumen
Strategic thinking
Collaboration skills
The ability to institute effective educational programs
An understanding of IT and its role in advancing knowledge management

48. Roles of People in Knowledge Management
The CEO, officers, and managers of the organization
The CEO is responsible for championing a knowledge management effort
The officers make available the resources needed to get the job done

49. Roles of People in Knowledge Management
Officers
CFO ensures that the financial resources are available
COO ensures that people begin to embed knowledge management practices into their daily work processes
CIO ensures IT resources are available
Managers also support the knowledge management effort and provide access to sources of knowledge

50. Roles of People in Knowledge Management
Community of practice
A group of people in an organization with a common professional interest, often self-organized for managing knowledge in a knowledge management system

51. Roles of People in Knowledge Management
KMS developers
The team members who actually develop the system
KMS staff
Enterprisewide KMS require a full-time staff to catalog and manage the knowledge

52. Ensuring the Success of Knowledge Management Efforts
Success stories of knowledge management
Implementing a knowledge management strategy can:
Reduce loss of intellectual capital
Reduce costs by decreasing the number of times the company must repeatedly solve the same problem
Reduce redundancy of knowledge-based activities
Increase productivity
Increase employee satisfaction

53. Ensuring the Success of Knowledge Management Efforts
Useful applications of KMS
Finding experts electronically and using expert location systems
Expert location systems
Interactive computerized systems that help employees find and connect with colleagues who have expertise required for specific problems—whether they are across the county or across the room—in order to solve specific, critical business problems in seconds

54. Ensuring the Success of Knowledge Management Efforts
Knowledge management valuation
Financial metrics for knowledge management valuation
Focus knowledge management projects on specific business problems that can be easily quantified
When the problems are solved, the value and benefits of the system become apparent

55. Ensuring the Success of Knowledge Management Efforts
Knowledge management valuation
Nonfinancial metrics for knowledge management valuation—new ways to view capital when evaluating intangibles:
Customer goodwill
External relationship capital
Structural capital
Human capital
Social capital
Environmental capital

56. Ensuring the Success of Knowledge Management Efforts
Causes of knowledge management failure
The effort mainly relies on technology and does not address whether the proposed system will meet the needs and objectives of the organization and its individuals
Lack of commitment
Failure to provide reasonable incentive for people to use the system

57. Ensuring the Success of Knowledge Management Efforts
Factors that lead to knowledge management success
A link to a firm’s economic value, to demonstrate financial viability and maintain executive sponsorship
A technical and organizational infrastructure on which to build
A standard, flexible knowledge structure to match the way the organization performs work and uses knowledge

58. Ensuring the Success of Knowledge Management Efforts
Factors that lead to knowledge management success
A knowledge-friendly culture that leads directly to user support
A clear purpose and language, to encourage users to buy into the system
A change in motivational practices, to create a culture of sharing
Multiple channels for knowledge transfer

59. Ensuring the Success of Knowledge Management Efforts
Factors that lead to knowledge management success
A level of process orientation to make a knowledge management effort worthwhile
Nontrivial motivational methods to encourage users to contribute and use knowledge
Senior management support

60. Ensuring the Success of Knowledge Management Efforts
Potential drawbacks of KMS
Failing to pick up the signals in the environment that might have suggested a change in strategy or product focus
Neglecting the creative process of new knowledge creation—applying yesterday’s solutions to tomorrow’s problems