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Knowledge Management

S. M. Sharma PMGT/NAIR

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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.

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What is Knowledge????????

What is there to Manage???????

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What is Knowledge?

Data becomes information when it’s organized; information becomes knowledge when it is placed in actionable context. Without context, there is little value.”

–Kent Greens, CKO, SAIC Consulting

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Types of knowledge

Explicit – knowledge that is codified, recorded, or actualized into some form outside of the headBooks, periodicals, journals, maps,

photographs, audio-recordingsWeb pages, websites, portals

Tacit – Knowledge from experience and insight, not in a recorded form, but in our heads, intuition-

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Knowledge grid

Four categories:

what we know we know; what we know we don't know; what we don't know we know; what we don't know we don't know.

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What Knowledge Exists?

Customer 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? History , heritage

Knowledge in Relationships

Knowledge Assets - intellectual capital

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KM

The explicit and systematic management of vital knowledge (share what you know)- and its associated processes of creation, organization, diffusion, use and exploitation(Innovation).

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Why KM?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iyc09hAJ6Xs

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By instituting a learning organization (KM-intensive), Increase in employee satisfaction Greater personal development and

empowerment. Reduces attritionReduces Loss of intellectual capital Saves money by not reinventing the wheelReuse of knowledge saves work, reduces

communication costsGeographically dispersed workforcePressures of downsizing

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Who should Manage?

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Knowledge Process should be facilitated by

-A knowledge culture, based on incentives,

-Strong management leadership, that values, shares, and uses knowledge.

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Strategies

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KM Approaches

Technological

Psychological

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Codification strategy

Knowledge is carefully codified and stored in databases, where it can be accessed and used easily by anyone in the organization. - "economics of reuse."

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Personalization strategy

knowledge is closely tied to the person who developed it and is shared mainly through direct person-to-person contacts-logic of "expert economics”

Both strategies are important

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Need Analysis model of KM

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What enables KM?

Structures and attributes that must be in place for a successful knowledge management program.

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Enablers

Leadership Knowledge champions(CKO) Access -content rich and navigation lean Technology-search engines and data storage

technologies; helps link people to the global resources of the organization. Efficient and User friendly.

Learning Culture-trust and collaboration.

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Steps for Implementation

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Diagnosis: Interviews, Questionnaire, Involve all stakeholders

Design: management support , Communication, Appropriate technology selection, Employees involved in planning/Conception

Realization : Usability test (simplicity in dealing with interfaces)QUIS(questionnaire for user interaction satisfaction), Learnability, utility

Roll out: Communication Strategy before, in between and after, evaluate input, output and process factors

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How to successfully do KM?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.

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Push Strategy

The first variation is based on the notion that information can be distributed to all employees through the “watering can“ principle.

This means that a central decision is made about what will be communicated and what will not (Probst et al., 2010).

This can also be seen as a disadvantage because a flood of information must then be processed by each individual employee

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Pull Strategy

In this strategy, each employee is specifically responsible for getting the information they require (Gray & Tehrani, 2004). This is a way to prevent the flood of information.

The challenge is whether each employee will receive the information they require despite a shortage of time, interest and knowledge

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Point Strategy

If a person is only given the location where the information can be found and is not provided with the information directly (Gray & Tehrani, 2004). This approach is especially positive when dealing with complicated knowledge topics depending on the type of knowledge

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Example

Yellow Pages: Case study in the (R&D) department of an

international biotechnological company. The company decided to develop and

implement a “corporate yellow pages” expert finding system(different from blue pages or Q&A systems)

Ref: Implementation Process of KM initiative: yellow Pages By Stephanie Gretsch et al.

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It encouraged knowledge documentation knowledge about the specific expertise

of individual employees and experiences with projects and external cooperation partners

-By creating profiles of employees and documenting their expert knowledge, experiences or networks.

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Conceptualization /Design of YP Individual aspects: Kind of info in the page-

affects employees

Technical, Research, Products and Customers, Experiential knowledge from previous projects, Domains relevant to organization,

Validity, soundness and credibility

Right amount of info to differentiate between entries (structuring aids to limit input options)

Photo or video of expert – gives first impression, trust, closeness- people recognize a face

Contact info-closer geographically > chances

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Conceptualization /Design of YP Organizational aspects:

Structures, Processes and Rules

Participation, motivation (monetary/reminders), qualification, mgmt support (time to fill, use), common language, regulations, Info when last updated

Technical Aspects: One third rule(Tech M or KM),hardware/software of platform

Searching people/documents-search results ordered logically

Perception,color,typography,orientation,navigation,layout,style,screen design

Training, usability, learn ability, efficiency, satisfaction

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For knowledge communication & opportunities for exchanging and networking with employees from other R&D sites, corporate yellow pages provide the platform to search for experts and for employees to interact by exchanging knowledge and experiences.

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Accenture’s KM model

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KM IT tools

• E-Mail, Internet • Intranet • Document Management • Workflow/Groupware • Imaging• Information retrieval systems• Electronic publishing systems• Data Warehousing and Data

Mining

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NAIR’S KP for IR

http://www.nair.indianrailways.gov.in/view_section.jsp?lang=0&id=0,6,481

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