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.