Knowledge Management in IT Era

Dr. A. Patrick
Assistant Professor.
Department of Commerce,
College of Commerce & Business Management
Osmania University
Hyderabad - 7
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• Changing Needs
Goods & Services • Time-to-market
s s • ‘Smart’ Products
ene • Customization
Information siv
Ma on • Service
rke e sp
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riv R • Quality
en Flexibility • Intangibles
 Knowledge Management

• Definitions
• Do you really need KM?
• Do you need a CKO?
• What’s the strategy?
• Types of knowledge management systems
• Organizational changes to expect
• KM software tools
 Two Kinds of Knowledge
Knowledge is intangible, dynamic, and
difficult to measure, but without it no
organization can survive.
• Tacit: or unarticulated knowledge is more
personal, experiential, context specific, and
hard to formalize; is difficult to communicate
or share with others; and is generally in the
heads of individuals and teams.
• Explicit: explicit knowledge can easily be
written down and codified.
 The Knowledge Economy
The move from an industrially-based economy
to a knowledge or information-based one in
the 21st Century demands a top-notch
knowledge management system to secure a
competitive edge and a capacity for learning.
 The Knowledge Economy
• The new source of wealth is knowledge, and
not labor, land, or financial capital. It is the
intangible, intellectual assets that must be
managed.

• The key challenge of the knowledge-based

economy is to foster innovation.
 The Knowledge Economy

For several decades the world's best-known

forecasters of societal change have
predicted the emergence of a new economy
in which brainpower, not machine power, is
the critical resource. But the future has
already turned into the present, and the era
of knowledge has arrived.
--"The Learning Organization," Economist Intelligence
Unit
Knowledge Management is the explicit
and systematic management of vital
knowledge - and its associated processes
of creation, organisation, diffusion, use
and exploitation.
• Knowledge Teams - multi-disciplinary, cross-functional
• Knowledge (Data)bases - experts, best practice
• Knowledge Centres - hubs of knowledge
• Learning Organization - personal/team/org development
• Communities of Practice - peers in execution of work
• Technology Infrastructure - Intranets, Domino, doc mgt
• Corporate Initiatives - CKOs, IAM, IC accounting
Sharing existing knowledge
“Knowing what you know”

Knowledge for Innovation

“Creating and Converting”
• Customer Knowledge - the most vital knowledge
• Knowledge in Products - ‘smarts’ add value
• Knowledge in People - but people ‘walk’
• Knowledge in Processes - know-how when needed
• Organizational Memory - do we know what we know?
• Knowledge in Relationships - richness and depth
• Knowledge Assets - intellectual capital
 Innovation Cycle KM Cycle
Collect
Codify
Identify
Classify

Embed
Product/ Knowledge Organize/
Process Create Store
Repository

Share/
Use/Exploit Disseminate
Diffuse Access
 The Knowledge Economy
The knowledge economy rests on three
pillars:
• The role that knowledge plays in
transactions: it is what is being bought and
sold; both the raw materials and the finished
goods
• The concurrent rise in importance of
knowledge assets, which transform and add
value to knowledge products
• The emergence of ways to manage these
materials and assets, or KM
 Definitions
• Designing and installing techniques and
processes to create, protect, and use known
knowledge.
• Designing and creating environments and
activities to discover and release knowledge
that is not known, or tacit knowledge.
• Articulating the purpose and nature of
managing knowledge as a resource and
embodying it in other initiatives and
programs.
 Do You Really Need KM?
• Competitive success will be based on how
strategically intellectual capital is managed
• Capturing the knowledge residing in the
minds of employees so that it can be
easily shared across the enterprise
• Leveraging organizational knowledge is
emerging as the solution to an increasingly
fragmented and globally-dispersed
workplace
 Do You Really Need KM?
• If your department wants to stop constantly
reengineering and downsizing: talented
people are assets to be developed for a
global 21st Century
• If you are interested in the Knowledge Grid
• If you understand that reuse of knowledge
saves work, reduces communication costs,
and allows a company to take on more
projects
Organizational Knowledge: Why
Is It Important?

• Knowledge can be embedded in processes,

products, systems, and controls
• Knowledge can be accessed as it is needed
from sources inside or outside the firm
• It is versatile and can be transferred
formally, through training, or informally, by
way of workplace socialization
• It is the essence of the competitive edge!
 Does a KM System Need a
Chief Knowledge Officer?

• Only if your organization is serious about

implementing a knowledge management
program

• Economic realities and and competitive

edge factors play a large role
 What’s the Strategy?
There are two very different knowledge
management strategies:

• Codification Strategy

• Personalization Strategy
Knowledge Management Types

• Competency Management

• Knowledge Sharing

• Competitive Knowledge Management

 For Successful Managing of
Knowledge
Focus on five tasks:
• Generating knowledge
• Accessing knowledge
• Representing and embedding knowledge
• Facilitating knowledge
• Transferring knowledge
It is a process of instilling the culture and
helping people find ways to share and utilize
their collective knowledge.
 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.
 The Technological Divide
• Generating organizational knowledge
invariably means converting the tacit
knowledge of the individual into explicit
knowledge accessible by all. Information
technology is most effective when it enables
this social process.
• Companies must think through their
technological systems.
• Technology such as Intranets and advanced
collaborative software have made
Knowledge Management possible.
 Organizational Changes
• Lines between departments and operating
divisions blur
• 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
 Why KM? What’s the Big
Deal?
• By instituting a learning organization (KM-
intensive), there is an increase in employee
satisfaction due to greater personal
development and empowerment.
• Keeps your employees longer and thereby,
reduces the loss of intellectual capital from
people leaving the company.
• Saves money by not reinventing the wheel
for each new project.
 Why KM? What’s the Big
Deal?
• Reduces costs by decreasing and achieving
economies of scale in obtaining information
from external providers.
• Increases productivity by making knowledge
available more quickly and easily.
• Provides workers with a more democratic
place to work by allowing everyone access to
knowledge.
Why KM? What’s the Big Deal?

• Learning faster with KM

• Learning faster to stay competitive
• KM software and technological
infrastructures allow for global access to
an organization’s knowledge, at a
keystroke
 In Successful KM Programs
• Information is widely disseminated throughout
the organization. Wherever it is needed, it is
accessible.
• Accessible at a fast rate of speed.
• Virtual communities of practice share what is
known in a global fashion, independent of time
zones and other geographic limitations.
• Business boundaries are broad, and often
virtual in nature.
• Collaboration to support continuous innovation
and new knowledge creation.
 Symptoms of KM Diffusion
Challenges
• No internal learning communities
• Lack of psychological safety
• Lack of workplace trust
• Arrogance of people who believe they
know everything, so why try?
• Lack of communication within an
organization made evident by continually
reinventing the same wheel
• Negativity and unrealistic expectations
 KM and Future Planning
• Where are we going? What are we here
for?
• People need awareness of the whole: in
what direction is the organization going?
• To have a goal to reach in the future can
provide great incentive for a KM initiative.
• Effective leveraging lies within an
organization’s capacity for rethinking and
recreating. Scenario thinking can help us to
see the blind spots, and help to create the
future we want.
 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.
 Sustainability of a KM
Endeavor
• For significant change to lead to
sustainability, hierarchical control must be
put aside.
• The emergence and development of
informal networks must be supported so
that people can share their tacit knowledge
and help one another.
• Managers need to surrender control.
• And mental models need to be examined.
 Business
Transformation
Learning (BPR, TQM, culture)
Organization Innovation

Knowledge
Management

Intellectual Information
Assets/Capital Management
Knowledge-based
Systems
 Intelligence Human, judgemental

Contextual, tacit
Knowledge Transfer needs learning

Information
Codifiable, explicit
Easily transferable
Data
Source: The knowledge creating company, I. Nonaka and H. Takeuchi

Tacit Socialization Externalization

From

Explicit Internalization Combination

Tacit Explicit
To
 Chaotic knowledge processes

Human knowledge and networking

Information databases and technical networking

Systematic information and

knowledge processes
• Create/discover - 3M, Glaxo Wellcome
• Codify - BHA, Standard Life, PwC
• Diffuse - H-P, Thos. Miller, Rover, BP
• Use - Buckman, Steelcase, PwC, Andersen
etc.
• Process/culture - Cigna, Analog
• Conversion - Monsanto
• Measure/exploit - Skandia, Dow
• A strategy led initiative - learning org. focus
• Workshops to convert rhetoric to action plans
• Using Intranets to share R&D, help approvals
• Library, document management support
• Reoreinted Technical Architecture
• Challenge is creating ‘sharing culture’
Bottom Line - better RoIC
Enablers Leadership
Structures - Cultures - HR Policies - Vision

Levers
Measure
Processes Peopl Information Space
-
e
ment

Foundations
‘Hard’ infrastructure - Intranet, groupware Tools and
etc.
+ Techniques
‘Soft’ - Skills, learning,
• A key enabler
• Access anytime, anywhere, anyhow
• Lotus Notes, First Class, Intranets - groupware
• Point solutions e.g. data mining, mapping
• New generation of Knowledge Based systems
• Focus on the I (Information - about Knowledge)
• Hybrid, virtual teams
• A culture of sharing - vs. information fiefdoms
• Directors of Knowledge (Intellectual Capital)
• Facilitating knowledge processes
– change teams, development workshops etc.
• Developing personal skills
– info management, ‘dialogue’, online techniques
• New measures of human capital, capabilities
• Strong link to business imperative
• Compelling vision and architecture
• Knowledge leadership
• Knowledge creating and sharing culture
• Continuous Learning
• Well developed ICT infrastructure
• Systematic knowledge processes
1. Find out where you are!
– do an assessment; look for existing practice
2. Identify the knowledge champions
– and top level sponsors
3. Start the learning process
– attend seminars, site visits, assemble resources
4. Understand the seven knowledge levers
– find how knowledge adds value to your business
5. Identify Related Initiatives
– an opportunity for collaboration?
6. Initiate a Pilot Project
– look for quick wins, within long-term framework
7. Assess Organizational Readiness
– assessment plus enablers, levers, foundations
8. Develop a road map for knowledge
– vision, goals, strategies, resources, networks.”
 KM Software Tools
• Globalserve • Imagination
• Knowcorp • Excalibur
• Hyperknowledge Technologies
• MicroStrategy • Imaging Solutions
• The Molloy Group • Grapevine
• KnowledgeX Inc. Technologies
• • Intraspect Software
WebFarming.com
• Milagro: The Power
• Softlab Enabling
Tools of Imagination
 Knowledge Management?
• The essence of knowledge management is
understanding and valuing intangible assets
over tangible
• Understanding that human and intellectual
capital are the greatest resources
• Managing the skills and competencies that
lie within an organization, and allowing them
to blossom
• Allowing people to be the best that they can
be; optimizing performance
 Commentary

Confusion >>>>> Disappointment >>>> and

Concern over Knowledge Management
 Acknowledgements
• Peter Senge • David A. Nadler
• Art Kleiner • Rick Mullin
• Blaise Zerega • Ellen M. Lapp
• • Thomas Stewart
Charlotte Roberts
• Peter Feltham
• Richard Ross
• Howard Rheingold
• George Roth
• Nick Bontis
• Bryan Smith
• Morten T. Hansen
• James Brian Quinn
• Jim Bair
• William Truran
• Henry Mintzberg
• J Michael Pemberton
• James Cortada
• Sarah Cliffe
Thank you !!