Concept of Knowledge Management
Corporate knowledge provides a competitive advantage if individuals can access and share it. Knowledge management connects people with information by identifying and codifying document contents in a meaningful way. Effectively managed knowledge improves decision making, skill transfer, risk management and strategic planning. Thinking of knowledge as a resource means placing importance on collecting, sharing and protecting it.
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History
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Cultures value knowledge. In the past, people acquired knowledge through trial and error and by serving as an apprentice to knowledgeable people. The modern history of knowledge management began with the work of theorists like Peter Drucker, who suggested that knowledge was an organizational resource as valuable as equipment and buildings. In the 1990s, knowledge management became a business opportunity for consulting companies like Ernst & Young, Arthur Andersen and Booz-Allen & Hamilton. Today, knowledge management professionals can receive approved training and formal certification from The Knowledge Management Certification Board.
Significance
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Knowledge puts data and information into a context that allows individuals to act on it in useful ways. Possessing knowledge about a competitor, for example, helps understand their plans and offers an opportunity to counteract their potentially disruptive activities. Using knowledge from past projects, helps improve level of effort estimates and reduce problems on future projects.
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Tasks
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Knowledge management typically follows six iterative steps beginning with creating and capturing data, then refining it with context information, storing, tagging and disseminating it. Although all steps are essential to knowledge management, refining and storing in extractable formats requires the most skill from knowledge management professionals. Knowledge professionals often talk about two types of knowledge that need capturing: explicit and tacit. Explicit knowledge involves hard data like numbers or sales figures; while tacit knowledge includes interpretation of data based on experience. The value in knowledge management comes from being able to extract information and knowledge based when needed.
Tools
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Tools that facilitate capturing, codifying and sharing knowledge take advantage of technologies developed for applications in database management, artificial intelligence, data mining, natural language, library science and collaborative interaction. Anthony Wensley, Associate Professor of Information Systems at the University of Toronto writing for the International Center for Applied Studies in Information Technology, also includes process modeling and workflow management as potential knowledge management tools. Selecting the best tools for knowledge management requires detailed stakeholder's needs analysis mapped to the capability of individual tools or tool suites.
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References
Resources
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