Evolution, Basics and Importance of Knowledge Management [PDF]

Zitiervorschau

A REPORT ON EVOLUTION, BASICS AND IMPORTANCE OF KNOWLEDGE MANGEMENT

BY

DEEPTI. T

08MBI027

JESUWIN THILAK 08MBI049 MIRIA PUNNEN

08MBI062

ABSTRACT: Knowledge Management is the discipline of enabling individuals, teams and entire organizations to collectively and systematically capture, store, create, share and apply knowledge, to better achieve their objectives. Companies need to be concerned about how they create, organize, interconnect, and access their knowledge assets in order to be competitive and innovative in the marketplace. Although not all companies have a formal knowledge management (KM) team with a business plan, most companies are making efforts to manage their intellectual knowledge in one way or another. Employees must understand their role in creating and sharing knowledge, and how some of the basic KM principles can be applied to benefit the employee and the organization. Knowledge has long been recognized as an important asset. We can trace the evolution of knowledge through several overlapping phases such as: before knowledge management, awakening and emergence, bandwagon and relabeling, growth, segmentation and consolidation, re-evaluation and redefinition and in search of new identity. As remarkable as the new technologies are, they are not the total answer, but provide great potential. They need to be enabling new innovative knowledge processes across rich knowledge communities. These new knowledge processes and knowledge communities need to be strategically aligned to the objectives of the organization. And most importantly, they need to be aligned to the principles of organizational success. We need to go ‘back to basics’ of knowledge management and concentrate on the basic activities of identifying knowledge, creating knowledge, storing knowledge, sharing knowledge and using knowledge effectively. Increasingly, organizations are knowledge-intensive. Knowledge is that vital resource that gives them competitive advantage and adds value to its operations. The importance of knowledge management is very immense and the benefits include internal organizational benefits, including efficiencies and effectiveness, benefits from efficient processing of information and knowledge and benefits to external customers and stakeholders. Key words: Knowledge management, evolution, basics, importance, benefits, knowledge creation, knowledge-sharing and knowledge storing

INTRODUCTION: “Knowledge is possessed by humans … as truths and beliefs, perspectives and concepts, judgments and expectations, methodologies and know-how. Knowledge is used to receive information – to recognize and identify; analyze, interpret and evaluate, synthesize, assess and decide; adapt, plan, implement, and monitor – to act” (Wiig, 2000) The life cycle of products is becoming shorter in the current economy due to the faster implementation of innovations. The current era’s lean management needs decisions to be taken on all the levels of the organization. For this it becomes essential that the necessary knowledge is available through all the organizational levels. Companies are going global to a vast extent with geographically distributed department divisions and virtual companies in some cases. Gaining competitive advantage in such scenarios depends on the timely availability of knowledge and an efficient knowledge management. The evolution of knowledge management can be traced through several overlapping phases: Before knowledge management: (up to 1995) Sharing knowledge was for a purpose and knowledge management was not formally recognized. Awakening and emergence: (1995-1997) Knowledge management becomes explicit and was featured at conferences and gained attention on management agendas. Bandwagon and relabeling: (1997-1999) Knowledge management was actively promoted as strategic, particularly by the large management consultancies, which used their own internal KM programs as exemplars. As a consequence, it was taken by IT departments, and many software and service suppliers relabeled their products and services as ‘KM solutions’. Growth, segmentation and consolidation: (1998-2005) KM is increasingly pervasive- across functions, all sizes of organization, all sectors and all geographies. Some companies dispersed their central KM teams into business units. Re-evaluation and redefinition: (2001-2005) Many companies embark on formal KM programs for the first time, while others disbanded their central KM units. There is increased questioning as to KM's distinctive essence. After all, knowledge underpins many other enterprise initiatives - such as innovation, ecommerce and customer relationship management. Significantly, many providers of 'KM solutions' have

relabeled their products (again) as content management, portal or enterprise information solutions. In search of new identity: (2004 onwards) As web-based and content management technology becomes more mature, IT-enabled KM solutions become more commonplace. There is also a renewed interest in the 'human' side of knowledge management. Knowledge management is now well established. It is widely practiced (under many different labels) in organizations of all shapes and sizes. It has been avidly taken up in developing economies such as India, China and Malaysia. Although many so-called management fads start to fade away after a period of 5-7 years, knowledge management is alive and well. Monthly magazines, quarterly journals, and annual conferences devoted to one or another aspect of KM are a well established part of the landscape. We know a lot about how to improve organizational performance through effective knowledge management. However, the quality of practice of knowledge management across organizations is highly variable. The fundamental point is that KM, both now and in the future, is about the proactive approach of managing knowledge and that doing this better will contribute to improved organizational outcomes. Data – information- knowledge: Data is set of records. Data represents a fact or statement of event, a raw data with no knowledge of relationship. Information is when we attach semantic (meaning) to the data. Information wraps understanding of relation in context of the subject. Knowledge is when we attach intelligence to the information. Derivation of knowledge: The knowledge derivation is of two types: explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge: it is difficult to communicate, can hardly be formalized. It is an embodied form of knowledge stored in the brain. Explicit knowledge: it can be formalized on different levels and can be communicated with ease. It is a disembodied form of knowledge and it can be stored in different media (documents, data bases etc).

Classification of knowledge flows: knowledge flows in organizations is as follows: Socialization: oral communication of individuals. Example: giving instructions. Externalization: transformation of implicit knowledge into explicit knowledge. Example: writing a book. Combination: transformation of explicit into explicit knowledge. Example: a book review. Internalization: transformation of explicit into implicit knowledge. Example: memorizing content. THE ESSENTIALS: •

Customer Knowledge - the most vital knowledge in most organizations.

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Knowledge in Processes - applying the best know-how while performing core tasks

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Knowledge in Products (and Services) - smarter solutions, customized to users' needs.

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Knowledge in People - nurturing and harnessing brainpower, your most precious asset.

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Organizational Memory - drawing on lessons from the past or elsewhere in the organization.

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Knowledge in Relationships - deep personal knowledge that underpins successful collaboration.

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Knowledge Assets - measuring and managing your intellectual capital.

PRACTICES: A wide variety of processes and practices are used in knowledge management. Creating and discovering: data mining, text mining, environmental scanning, and content analysis. Sharing and learning: sharing best practice, cross functional teams, after action reviews, learning networks. Organizing and managing: knowledge centers, expertise profiling, knowledge mapping and information resources management.

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS:

The following are the critical success factors. •

Knowledge Leadership - a compelling vision actively promoted by senior management.

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Clear Business Benefits - tracking success and developing new measures.

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Systematic Processes - knowledge mapping.

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A Knowledge Sharing Culture - teams that work across boundaries.

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Continuous Learning - though learning networks.

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An effective information and communications infrastructure - groupware and other collaborative technologies, such as an intranet.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE: Basics of knowledge management by prof. Dr. Dimitris Karagiannis: The author gives an overview of the basics of knowledge management, importance and classification of knowledge management. Know how: managing KM for competitive advantage by TCS (white paper): This white paper talks about how a company turns the reams of data it generates daily into actionable knowledge. The paper examines how information can be managed to achieve better decision making and knowledge sharing around the organization. The importance of knowledge management by Karen Battersby: The author explores the components of a knowledge management system and highlights the range of benefits knowledge sharing can have in firms. The evolution of knowledge management by David Skyrme: This article highlights the evolution of knowledge management so far and the future of knowledge management.

Why km – the importance of KM by Ron Young:

The author talks about the ways to better achieve objectives of an organization with effective knowledge management and also say that apart from reducing costs, effective knowledge management should also dramatically increase our speed of response as a direct result of better knowledge access and application. Why knowledge management by David Skyrme: This article talks about the benefits of knowledge management and highlights the point that successful companies are those that consistently create new knowledge, disseminate it widely throughout the organization and quickly embody it in new technologies and products. Knowledge management-back to basic principles by Ron Young: In this article the author presents some of his most recent thoughts, ideas and developments concerning knowledge management. The author goes back to the basic principles and then briefly outlines some simple strategies for identifying, creating, storing, sharing and using knowledge. He then gives some view on the future of knowledge management. KM basics by David J. Skyrme: This article talks about the essentials, best practices and critical success factors for effective knowledge management. The author also advocates that KM is the explicit and systematic management of vital knowledge- and its associated processes of creation, organization, diffusion, use and exploitation- in pursuit of business objectives. Knowledge management- applying the basics by Lynnette Simpson, Robbins Giola: The article outlines how companies need to be concerned about how they create, organize, interconnect and access their knowledge assets in order to be competitive and innovative in the market place.

ANALYSIS: Knowledge management has gained utmost importance in today’s world, as timely availability of knowledge is an underlying factor for any organizations success. Availability of knowledge depends on how well the knowledge is shared, communicated and stored throughout the organizations. Humans thirst for knowledge has resulted in the evolution of knowledge management over the years. The knowledge hierarchy can be classified into data, information, knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is grouped into two types: tacit and explicit. Tacit knowledge is difficult to capture as it is the knowledge which individuals acquire through their experiences, interactions and observations. The challenge for any company is the capture of this tacit knowledge and converting it into explicit form, so that information will be available immediately in times of need. Explicit knowledge is the documented knowledge and can be in the form of reports, documents, manuals etc. Explicit knowledge forms only 20% of an organizations knowledge base, whereas the remaining 80% is tacit knowledge stored in the brains of people. Knowledge creation in an organization is a continuous process and follows a spiral pattern between socialization, externalization, combination and internalization. If an organization can motivate people to share, communicate and coordinate the tacit knowledge which they have acquired, KM in organization will be successful. This in turn can help in increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of a company. CONCLUSION: The knowledge-management system should focus on creating, capturing and disseminating knowledge and information. Always remember that managing such knowledge may not necessarily mean codifying it onto a computer system, for example, tacit knowledge (that is, knowledge in people’s heads) is often best transferred between people directly. In this situation, the knowledge-management system could facilitate putting people in touch with each other. It is better to think of knowledge as a flow between different sources, rather than as a static object, and this will help identify the appropriate actions to manage it.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: •

Basics of knowledge management by prof. Dr. Dimitris Karagiannis, 2001.

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Know how: managing KM for competitive advantage by Tata consultancy services white paper/the economic intelligence unit 2005.

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The importance of knowledge management by Karen Battersby managing partner/vol6/2003

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The evolution of knowledge management by David Skyrme 2011

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Why KM- the importance of knowledge management by Ron Young 2005

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Why knowledge management David Skyrme 2011

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Knowledge management- back to basic principles by Ron Young 2012

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KM –basics by David J. Skyrme 2007

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Knowledge management-applying the basics by Lynnette Simpson, Robbins Giola 2008