Post on 11-May-2015
Introduction to Knowledge Management
Getting a taste for the product…
SO…
Exploiting knowledge is NOT a technology issue…
If you spend more than one third of your budget on technology then it’s a technology project...
Knowledge implies a knower; the rest is information...
We need to avoid KM Mumbo-Jumbo…for example...
"We need to use a knowledge ecology paradigm to synergistically decouple the informatic elements in the emerging strange attractors in your company's marketplace by deconstructing the knowledge worker and empowering them to become an adaptive learner in a virtual workplace within a chaotic and non-deterministic universe of data
derived economic value."
Information Management
1. Policies, guidelines, authoritative sources
2. Policies for physical data stores3. Improved information access
Knowledge Management
4. Intellectual assets linked to strategic direction5. Knowledge management culture
6. Identify experts7. Capture tacit knowledge and insight
8. Collaborative environment and culture9. Extend KM to partners and customers
The Changing Organisational Environment
20th Century
Functional departments in single locations
9 to 5, Monday to Friday working
Hierarchical management structures with fixed roles
Emphasis on intra-organisational working
Organisationally structured training and development
21st Century
Geographically distributed individuals with remote and mobile working
24/7 society Flatter management
structures, matrix management, multi-tasking and project team based
Greater emphasis on partnership and alliances
Personally tailored training and development
What is an Organisation?
“And if you really think deeply about it, you discover that every organisation and every institution, without exception, has no reality save in your mind. It’s not in buildings. Those are manifestations of it. It’s not its name, it’s not its logo, and it’s not some fictional piece of paper called a stock certificate. It’s not money. It is a mental concept around which people and resources gather in pursuit of common purpose”.
Dee Hock: Founder & Former CEO of Visa International
Managing knowledge…is not a new problem!!!
“An immense and ever-increasing wealth of knowledge is scattered about the world today; knowledge that would probably suffice to solve all the mighty difficulties of our age, but it is dispersed and unorganised. We need a sort of mental clearing house for the mind: a depot where knowledge and ideas are received, sorted, summarised, digested, clarified and compared.”
H.G. Wells: The Brain: Organisation of the Modern World: 1940
Here is the Third Wave view!
“It’s not about an encyclopaedia that captures everything that anybody ever knew. Rather, it’s about keeping track of those who know the recipe and nurturing the culture and the technology that will get them talking.”
Ward, Adrian: Workers Frontier International
Differentiating betweenData, Information & Knowledge
Data is facts, pictures or numbers presented without a context
Information is organised data presented in context
Knowledge is information in context together with an understanding of how to use it
Defining Knowledge & Knowledge Management: The KPMG Model Knowledge: The information contained
within the organisation about customers, products and services which is contained within people’s minds or filed in analogue or digital format.
Knowledge Management: A systematic attempt to use knowledge within an organisation to improve overall performance.
Are these definitions valid?
Explicit & Tacit KnowledgeData
Knowledge
Information
1, 2, 1, 4
Name # # # # #Smith, J. 1 2 1 4 0XXXXXX X X X X 0XXXXXX X X X X 0
KNOWHOW
SKILLSEXPERIENCETRAININGEDUCATIONETC
Tacit
TacitExplicit
Explicit
The Knowledge in Knowledge Management - http://home.att.net/~nickols/Knowledge_in_KM.htm
Davenport & Prusak’s33% KM Rule
Resource management Organisational culture Information technology What about the missing 1%?
INNOVATION
INNOVERSITY
How should organisations approach KM?Questions an organisation must ask itself...
How should an organisation new to KM get started?
How do you create a culture favourable to KM? How do you measure and reward progress? How do you manage knowledge content
systematically? How do you create a KM architecture which
encourages the flow of knowledge? What level of human resources do you need to
invest in KM? How do you sustain impetus in KM?
Knowledge Management:Critical Success Factors
Leadership Trust Collaboration Information & Communication Technologies
Human Resource Management Organisational Culture
Semiology
The theory of signs and symbols
“What is important in a text is not what it means but what it does and incites to do. What it does: the charge or affect it contains and transmits. What it incites to do: the metamorphoses of this potential energy into other things.”
Jean-Francois Lyotard
The Signification Process
SIGN
SIGNIFIEDSIGNIFIER
DENOTATIONCONNOTATION
BlackboardVirtualSpace
Issue-basedOn-line
Discussion
Content
Creating a Symbol
Discuss
ionDialogueDiscourse
STRATEGIC MANAGEMEN
T
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
ICT MANAGEMENT
PROCESS
KnowledgeInformation
SkillsPeople
possiblerequire
d
User Training
Hardware Strategy
Systems Managemen
t
User Training
SoftwareStrategy
SystemsDevelopmen
t
User Support
Business Objectives
Critical SuccessFactors
KnowledgeNeeds
Core Process
Knowledge Strategy
determinedetermine
generate
generate
define
Th
e SK
I Mo
del
Th
e SK
I Mo
del
THE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT BURGER
Strategic Management
Meeting core business objectives
ICT Management
Users define technologies rather
than technology defining the user
Knowledge Management
Learning to trust people’s ‘know-how’
Beer&
Burgers?
It’s for Everyone
Organisational Culture as
“Snakes & Ladders”
In conclusion...
KM is NOT a definitive theory OR a universal paradigm...
It offers a way of developing and understanding:-
community; meaning; learning and identity
which improves:-
knowledge creation, sharing, storage and transfer within an organisation
It started as a...
It may have started as a fad
but it is attempting to become
rigorous, however, it may be nonsense:-
The Nonsense of Knowledge Management
http://informationr.net/ir/8-1/paper144.html
Essential Reading Brooking, Annie F. (1999) Corporate Memory: Strategies for
Knowledge Management London: Thomson
Collison, C. & Parcell, G. (2001) Learning to Fly: Practical Lessons from One of the World's Leading Knowledge
Companies Oxford: Capstone
Davenport, Thomas H.& Prusak, Laurence (1998) Working Knowledge: How Organisations Manage What They Know
Harvard: Business School Press
Wenger, E. et al (2002) Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School
http://www.knowledgeboard.com
geoffrey.walker@unn.ac.uk
http://www.geoffwalker.net
Communities of Practice, Networks & Technologies: The Dynamics of Knowledge Flows within Community-based Organisations in North East England.