Understanding Knowledge

Management concept
Dr. Rajendra Suwal
Management and Leadership
Development Specialist
Nepal Administrative Staff College
April 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 dont have time
Ive got too much real work to do
Thats not my job
Youre just using other peoples ideas and taking the
credit
I want to do things my way
This is how its always been done
Im already suffering from information overload
You should already know all the answers
Its just another management fad; if I ignore it, itll
eventually go away
Whats 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 valueadded)
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 locateda
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
organizations 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 dont 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 peoples 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;

Processes2
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 Aspects2

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