Knowledge management

Draft

Definition

• Knowledge management is the problem of capturing, organizing, and retrieving information in an organization.

• “Knowledge Management is a new branch of management for achieving breakthrough business performance through the synergy of people, processes, and technology. Its focus is on the management of change, uncertainty, and complexity.” (WWW Virtual Library on Knowledge Management)

• “Knowledge Management caters to the critical issues of organizational adaptation, survival, and competence in face of increasingly discontinuous environmental change.... Essentially, it embodies organizational processes that seek synergistic combination of data and information processing capacity of information technologies, and the creative and innovative capacity of human beings.” (WWW Virtual Library on Knowledge Management)

Related issues:

• Organizational learning
• Community of practice
• Virtual community
• Change management

Typologies

Views

Here is quote from Dave Pollard []

A big problem with KM is that, like the six blind men feeling different parts of the elephant, the term has come to mean many different things to different people, and hence nothing at all:

• Academics: KM is anything that allows us to do something better in business than we can do without it
• Consultants: KM is an aspect of business process improvement
• IT People: KM is any software that concerns itself at least vaguely with databases or content management systems
• Librarians: KM is the new name for what special librarians have always done
• HR People: KM is the process surrounding non-classroom learning curricula

• “When defining knowledge management some people emphasize intellectual capital, others think of supporting technologies, whereas others put community building first.” (Ritsko and Birman)

What is knowledge management ?

Knowledge management is the synergy of people's knowledge, processes, and technology and therefore it makes sense to discuss knowledge management in terms of knowledge management systems (KMS). Gallup (2001) introduces four frameworks to study and discuss these systems.

“Knowledge management systems are the tools and techniques that support knowledge-management practices in organizations .... In summary, KMSs can be thought of as systems composed of people, tools and technologies.” (Gallupe, 2001).

In his General Systems Framework for Knowledge Management Systems (KMS), Gallupe (2001:66) defines three components of a knowledge management system.

• Inputs: Knowledge, people, tools
• Process: Interaction of Knowledge, People and tools
• Outputs: Useful Knowledge

These three components interact through feedback loops.

His second framework is the Four component Model of KMS, based on an earlier model of Group Decision Support Systems. A KMS is

• A Knowledge base (or repository) subsystem
• A Group support (or knowledge transfer) subsystem
• A User-Interface subsystem
• Knowledge users / knowledge generators (so each user has a double role)

The third framework of Gallupe (2001) is a Knowledge Life Cycle that follows knowledge through the stages of its life cycle form creation to disposition.

1. Knowledge creation or acquisition
2. Knowledge codification and storage
3. Knowledge transfer or dissemination
4. Knowledge use

Daniel K. Schneider has the impression that this kind of heavy waterfall model may one of the reason why knowledge management seem to fail ....

The fourth and final Framework focuses on KMSs to support knowledge management practices. “This framework incorporates the process and structures inherent in the 'General Systems' and the 'Four Components' models, respectively. In addition, it implicitly uses the 'Knowledge Life Cycle Model' to help categorise knowledge-management practices and uses of KMSs. The 'Knowledge Management Practice' framework is based on the work of Gray and Chan (1999). This framework examines knowledge-management practices along two dimensions. The first dimension is the processto be supported (problem recognition or problem solving). The second dimension is the class of problem being solved (new or unique, previously solved). The integration of these dimensions results in four types of knowledge-management practices that may be supported by KMSs.” (Gallupe, 2001:67)

Knowledge management in education

It can play a important role both in formal and informal settings.

Examples:

• The C3MS project-based learning model that engages students in collective activites, like knowledge sharing.
• This Wiki (since May 2006, we started encouraging our graduate students to share their literature reviews, see the french version).

Technology

Gallup (2001) defines the following kinds of tools to support knowledge mangement systems.

Intranets	Private internet-based networks using Web-browsers to share knowledge.
Information retrieval programs	Tools to search corporate knowledge/data bases as well as external knowledge sources to provide access to a wide variety of knowledge.
Database management systems	Combine with intranets and information network tools to provide a platform to build specific knowledge management tools.
Document management software	Provide the means for capturing, storing, and distributing knowledge in the form of documents as opposed to discrete data.
Groupware	Software and hardware that enables workgroups to communicate and collaborate. Groupware tools typically have features that enable groups to perform such tasks as generating ideas (create new knowledge) and reaching consensus.
Intelligent agents	Software programs that can filter out the knowledge that the user really needs. This may be particularly important in knowledge-intensive situations where particular knowledge sources need to be monitored.
Knowledge-based or expert systems	Store the knowledge of experts in the form of rules or cases and then provide that knowledge to novices or other experts.

A few tools

"Real" KM systems

• Specialized commercial portals (need refs here)

Specialized

• Conversation systems like Babble that reify conversations
• Knowledge-building community tools like Knowledge forum

Light-weight

• Wikis
• Blogs (using RSS-based) syndication
• C3MS portals
• Forums

Links

• WWW Virtual Library on Knowledge Management

• KMWorld Magazine Archives

• KMForum - from their homepage:“virtual community of practice focused on furthering the fundamental theories, methods, and practices supporting the Knowledge Professions.”

References

Pratical

• IBM System Journal, Special issue on Knowledge Management, 40 (4), 2001

HTML Index

• Ritsko, John J. and Alex Birman, IBM System Journal, Special issue on Knowledge Management, 40 (4), 2001, 812-813.

Technical

• T. Erickson, D. Smith, W. A. Kellogg, M. Laff, J. Richards, and E. Bradner, Socially Translucent Systems: Social Proxies, Persistent Conversation and the Design of Babble, Proceedings of the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI'99), ACM Press, New York (1999), pp. 72-79.

• E. Bradner, W. A. Kellogg, and T. Erickson, The Adoption and Use of Babble: A Field Study of Chat in the Workplace,Proceedings of the European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (ECSCW'99), Kluwer Academic Publishers,

Background

• Michael H. Zack (1998), If Managing Knowledge is the Solution, then What's the Problem? HTML Preprint, published in Knowledge Management and Business Model Innovation, Yogesh Malhotra (ed.), Idea Group Publishing, April, 2001

• Brent Gallupe (2001), Knowledge management systems: surveying the landscape, International Journal of Management Reviews 3 (1), 61-77. doi:10.1111/1468-2370.00054 Abstract (Access restricted)