Knowledge Management (KM)

We define knowledge management as a business activity with two primary aspects:

1. Treating the knowledge component of business activities as an

explicit concern of business reflected in strategy, policy, and
practice at all levels of the organization.
2. Making a direct connection between an organization’s intellectual
assets — both explicit [recorded] and tacit [personal know-how]
— and positive business results.

In practice, knowledge management often encompasses identifying and

mapping intellectual assets within the organization, generating new
knowledge for competitive advantage within the organization, making vast
amounts of corporate information accessible, sharing of best practices, and
technology that enables all of the above.

Why we need knowledge management now

We need to manage knowledge to identify some of the specific business factors,

including:

Marketplaces are increasingly competitive and the rate of

innovation is rising.
Reductions in staffing create a need to replace informal knowledge
with formal methods.
Competitive pressures reduce the size of the work force that holds
valuable business knowledge.
The amount of time available to experience and acquire knowledge
has diminished.
Early retirements and increasing mobility of the work force lead to
loss of knowledge.
There is a need to manage increasing complexity as small
operating companies are trans-national sourcing operations.
Changes in strategic direction may result in the loss of knowledge
in a specific area.

Knowledge and information have become the medium in which business

problems occur. As a result, managing knowledge represents the primary
 opportunity for achieving substantial savings, significant improvements in
human performance, and competitive advantage.

Forms of Knowledge:

Technical Knowledge vs. Practical Knowledge

Knowing that vs. Knowing how

Propositional knowledge vs. Procedural knowledge

Conscious knowledge vs. Tacit knowledge

Comprehension knowledge vs. Apprehension knowledge (direct

(about) acquaintance)

Stages of Knowledge management:

Stage 1- Defining targets for Knowledge management

The first step is for companies to analyse their own operations and determine their
aims. This means asking questions such as:
How do we handle knowledge, why do we need knowledge management, and what
practical outcomes are we expecting from it?

Stage 2- Staff project “Knowledge management”

KM is designed to support staff in their work by giving them access to the

knowledge which the organisation possesses, and also make the knowledge which
staff collectively possess available to the organisation as a whole. The idea is for
employees put life into the KM scheme in the course of their everyday work, so
they have to be involved with implementing or modernising it. So we need to ask
ourselves how to introduce "employee-based knowledge management"?

Stage 3- Knowledge map of the organisation

What knowledge or what sources for knowledge exist in the company and where
are they? What knowledge needed where? No KM is possible without a clear
overview of this information. What needs to be considered when producing a
knowledge map such as this?
Stage 4- Customers/ suppliers knowledge

Companies do not revolve around themselves. They work for customers, they work
with suppliers, they act in the market, according to the law and the norms of
society. All that is a challenge for the KM of the company. How does it secure
sufficient knowledge about the company's environment, how does it learn from its
environment?

Stage 5- Knowledge network

In any organisation, you only know which nodes a knowledge network needs to
connect if you already have determined which users need which items of
knowledge and where this knowledge can be found, whether it is inside or outside
the company.

Stage 6- Knowledge management in practice

Everyday routine is crucial for each KM stage. Do staff accept it and do they keep
the knowledge in the system updated? Is the knowledge of the organisation
growing and is the organisation operating more competently? Is the company
perceived from outside to be a competent organisation, and can it benefit from it?
Knowledge management means promoting this sustainable use of knowledge. How
does it work?

Stage 7- Continuing Improvement

KM and sustained improvement go hand in hand. What does sustained

improvement do for the company? This question introduces the checking of the
KMS itself. Where is improvement required, where are there possibilities for
further improvement?