Knowledge Management seminar to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland

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Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland

Knowledge Management Seminar Wednesday 18th October 2000

Presentation by Hazel Hall

Senior Lecturer in Information Management

School of Computing, Napier University

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Knowledge Management Seminar

Presentation to the Edinburgh General Discussion GroupInstitute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland

18th October 2000

Lecture content

• Knowledge Management (KM) goals• KM as an antidote to knowledge fragmentation in organisations• Approaches to KM• Research in KM at Napier University• Areas of debate and interest in KM

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18th October 2000

KM goals

• Realise the wealth of your company’s intellectual capital!Identify and share explicit and implicit information!

• Create open, extended enterprises and knowledge culture!• Win improved productivity through creating value from existing

resources, responsiveness to change, innovation!

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18th October 2000

KM as an antidote to knowledge fragmentation in organisations

• Geographical disparity and global time differences• Under-used/ignored knowledge bases, organisations not

knowing what they know• Multiple information sources in a variety of formats, information

overload• Poor IT infrastructures• Culture of mistrust and/or poor communication• Staff retention problems (both unintended and deliberate)• General information illiteracy

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18th October 2000

KM - as a relatively new and multi-disciplinary area

Significant interest from 1995 onwards from researchers in:

• business management• information science• computer science• psychology• artificial intelligence• knowledge engineering

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18th October 2000

Public sector interest in KM

• Our competitive future: building the knowledge economy• Scottish Enterprise• Business Shop Network

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18th October 2000

Interest in KM for commercial opportunity: software vendors

• KM is a buzz term (heir to MIS, DSS, EIS …)• Vendors align marketing strategies with the buzz• Examples: data mining software; yield management software;

process handbooks; intranets; browsers; data warehouses; filters; software agents…

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18th October 2000

Interest in KM for commercial opportunity: service providers

• Knowledge about knowledge production has become a commercial product in its own right

• Management consultants sell expertise• Academics raise research funding, sell courses, get invited to

ICAS for lunch!

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18th October 2000

Three broad theoretical approaches to KM

Davenport & Cronin (2000, para 1) offer 3 articulations:

• KM1 from the literature of library and information science• KM2 from the literature of process engineering• KM 3 from the literature of organisational theory

http://www.alise.org/nondiscuss/conf00_Davenport-Cronin_paper.htm

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18th October 2000

KM1

KM = organisational management of internally and externally produced publications

i.e. KM = information management (IM): acquisition, cataloguing, classification and organisation of resources for subsequent retrieval and use

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18th October 2000

KM2

KM = management of “know-how”

i.e. KM = mapping and modelling techniques and tools to identify organisational knowledge assets and then recompile them for business advantage

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18th October 2000

KM3

KM = provision of conditions for knowledge creation

i.e. KM = related to environmental factors to create knowledge culture

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18th October 2000

Research in KM at Napier University: examples from the Information Management Group, School of Computing

• Motivations for knowledge sharing across intranets: reward systems (both explicit and soft) and enabling conditions

• Taxonomies• Communities of practice and networked learning• KM in academe• Innovation, KM and the use of space• Training and development of knowledge workers: learning

about KM whilst “experiencing” KM

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18th October 2000

Research in KM at Napier University: examples from other units

• Modelling processes of KM• KM in advertising• KM and teledemocracy• KM and careers guidance

Knowledge Management in the Age of Networks - conference to be held at Redwood House, Friday 27th October 2000

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18th October 2000

Areas of debate and interest in KM - possibly of particular interest to participants

• Representation of knowledge assets on the balance sheet• Value of KM activity and tools• Taxonomies• Training for knowledge work, particularly within the context of

traditional measures of achievement in British education

Documents

Knowledge Management seminar to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland