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Knowledge Management E xponential growth of Information, Information Technology and Internet has propelled the knowledge-intensive industries as a ‘New Economy’ and has led to the growing recognition of the importance of knowledge as a critical resource for modern business environment. The world economy has come a long way from the agrian age to industrial age and from industrial age to information age. And now the knowledge age has come face to face with the critical challenges of the Twenty first century. In an era of knowledge revolution, all organisations need to be experts at identifying, codifying, retrieving and sharing know-how to secure a substantial competitive advantage.Knowledge,
basically, is the full utilization of information and data, coupled with
the potential What is Knowledge? Information and knowledge could be seen as closely related and complementary stages along the same road and as such, both perform essential roles in the decision making process. Wilson (1996) presents a useful illustration of this with the notation of a processing hierarchy. This shows that by selecting and analysing data, information can be produced; by selecting and combining information, knowledge can be generated; from this, decisions can be made and action can be taken. Wilson has produced a simple, yet extremely helpful diagram 4, setting out the inter-relationships of the different concepts, with a short textual example, which puts it into an everyday context.
Types of Knowledge Various experts associated with the field of knowledge Management (KM), have propounded different views on the types and classification of knowledge. However, we would employ the following generally accepted categorisation: Explicit Knowledge Explicit knowledge, referred to as procedural knowledge, refers to knowledge that is or can be, written down or in other words documented. According to Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995), explicit knowledge is that which ‘can be expressed in words and numbers and can be easily communicated and shared in the form of hard data, scientific formulae, codified procedures or universal principles’. Tacit Knowledge Tacit Knowledge refers to the knowledge that a being needs to act and react in its environment, for example to play cricket. It is unformulised, related to intuitions, feelings and emotions. Tacit knowledge can not be easily documented or explained; it is best transferred through an apprenticeship model, and often requires skills that supersede pure instruction. A good example of tacit knowledge is the ability to ride a bicycle (or a bike). We know how to ride a bike but it is very difficult to explain in words to others and document it in the form of a manual on how he/she learnt this skill. Potential Knowledge Potential Knowledge represents business intelligence and refers to knowledge that can be extracted from the highly structured data stored in databases – ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems and business operational applications. An organisation contains voluminous amount of data from various sources and in various formats. The prime sources are the databases spread across the various divisions and departments within the organization. Data mining techniques can, under favourable conditions, extract valuable knowledge from an organisation’s databases. What is knowledge Management ? Sometimes people are confused about the subject of knowledge management. People wonder "what exactly is it?" Or, alternatively, "is it a new name for Information Management?" But, we know that information is not a synonym for knowledge, which is an intellectual concept, referring to the condition of knowing or understanding something. According to Barron, "Knowledge Management (KM) is an integrated, systematic approach to identifying, managing, and sharing all of an enterprise’s assets, including databases, documents, policies or procedures, as well as previously unarticulated expertise and experience held by individual workers" According to Gartner Group, "KM is an emerging set of process, organizational structures, applications and technologies that aim to leverage the ability of the capable, responsible, autonomous individuals to act quickly and effectively. It achieves this end by providing such an individual with ready access to enterprises and the entire store of knowledge, including much of what is known but not documented." From the above discussion, we can say that KM is:
Conclusion Knowledge is the most precious and powerful asset, which must be protected and stored for further innovations to secure the companies in a competitive world. Most of the renounced companies now have realized the importance and usefulness of KM in today’s fast changing scenario. These companies have started to adopt long term knowledge management planning and strategies to protect their knowledge assets for reuse and innovation in the future. Business knowledge, in fact, refers to the knowledge regarding markets, products, technologies and organisations, that a business owns or needs to own and which enables its business process to generate profits, add value etc. KM is not only about managing these knowledge assets but also managing the processes that act upon these assets. The processes include: developing knowledge; preserving knowledge; using knowledge and also sharing knowledge. In many respects, knowledge management is a journey that never ends. This is so because ours is a dynamic and constantly evolving environment, which poses new challenges and obstacles. Whether this journey is worthwhile or not, depends upon the benefits of the KM programme which it is able to deliver along the way. q
BARRON (T A), SMARTER (Frankenstein). The Merging of E-learning and knowledge management. Alexandria: American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), 2000 NONAKA (Ikujiro) and TAKEUCHI (Hirotaka). The knowledge–creating company: how Japanese Companies create the dynamics of innovation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995 WEBB (S P). Knowledge Management: linchpin of change. London: ASLIB, 1998 WILSON (D A). Managing Knowledge. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann in conjunction with the Institute of Management, 1996 |
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of people’s skills, competencies, ideas, intuitions, commitments and
motivations. In today’s economy, knowledge is a matrix of people, money,
leverage, learning, flexibility, power, and competitive advantage.
Knowledge is more relevant to sustain business than capital, labour or
land. Though knowledge provides the ability to respond to novel
situations, it somehow remains the most neglected asset today..