Knowledge Management Definitions

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT DEFINITIONS

Definition

Knowledge Management is a strategy for managing the knowledge captured, delivering the correct knowledge to the appropriate people at the correct time in order to help the know-how collected from different employees, customers, partners to be used to improve the productivity and performance of the organization.
Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995), Quintas(1997), Stephen Denning (2000).

In simpler words, Knowledge management seeks to make the best use of the knowledge that is available to an organization, creating new knowledge in the process.

For
Drucker (1969) supports the fact that knowledge can be managed. He argues to the fact that it’s all about how the individual worker do with the knowledge they have, how they manipulate and use it.

Against
Sveiby (2001) is against the fact that knowledge can be managed. Kotzer(2001) supports the fact that knowledge can’t be managed as it is between two ears only.



Benefits of Knowledge Management

• KM facilitates promotes innovation by encouraging the free flow of ideas.
Through the coordination and exploitation of organizational knowledge resources, innovative ideas are obtained for the business benefit.
• Customer service and efficiency is improved
This is improved to reducing the response time for the customers in case of call centre.
• The value of employees’ knowledge is recognized by rewarding them.
This ensures employees retention as they are given incentives.
• The redundant processes are eliminated and the operations are streamlined.
This allows reducing cost by eliminating the redundant or unnecessary processes.

In brief, KM can result in improved efficiency, higher productivity and increased revenues in the organization.
KiKM(2005), Levinson(2007)


CHALLENGES OF KM

• Getting employees on board
Individual knowledge known as tacit knowledge should be recognized as this encourages the employees to share it with others.
• Requires ongoing maintenance
Knowledge get stale very fast, the contents in a KM program should be constantly updated, amended and deleted. As knowledge is dynamic, it keeps on changing.
• Retrieving the effective knowledge
The challenge of KM is to determine what information within an organization qualifies as valuable. All information is not knowledge and all knowledge is not valuable. The key is to find the worthwhile knowledge within a vast sea of information.
• Decrease training costs and time for new employees.
Levinson(2007)


WHY KM FAILS

KM usually fails because the strategy usually adds additional steps to the jobs of already overworked employees. Then things get busy, workers don’t bother about extra steps and they don’t want to add another layer to their daily routine.
Levinson(2007)

Proposed Solution

A friendly environment should be created for the employees to share their ideas and hence the employees who contribute to knowledge sharing should be recognized for their effort. Hence KM can be part of their daily routine. The companies create incentives to motivate their employees.
This can work BUT the danger is that employees will participate with the motive of earning incentives only without the regard to the quality and significance of the information provided. Employees will contribute solely for incentives. This can lead to the failure of KM.
Levinson(2007)


Tools used for KM

The tools available in the knowledge management box include items like centralized databases, electronic message boards, web portals, search functions, shared drives.

Conclusion

Therefore, a good knowledge management system should reinforce an organizational culture that promotes sharing and learning, makes information more widely available, reduces duplication efforts, helps companies develop best practices and allows for the passing of valuable information as employees leave the organization.


KM is here to stay

KNOWLEDGE IS LIKE LIGHT. Weightless and intangible, it can easily travel the world, enlightening the lives of people everywhere. Yet billions of people still live in poverty unnecessarily. Knowledge about how to treat such a simple ailment as diarrhea has existed for centuries but millions of children continue to die from it because their parents do not know how to save them.

REFERENCE

Denning, S. (2000) What is knowledge management? www.stevedenning.com Available at: http://www.stevedenning.com/what_is_knowledge_management.html [accessed on 30-01-2010]

Nonaka, I. & Takeuchi, H. (1995) The knowledge creating company: how Japanese companies create the dynasties of innovation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sveiby (2001). Available at: http://informationr.net/ir/8/paper144.html?referer=www.clickfind.com.au [accessed on 30-01-2010]

Drucker P. (2001). Available at: http://informationr.net/ir/8/paper144.html?referer=www.clickfind.com.au [accessed on 30-01-2010]

KiKM (2005). Available at http://www.kikm.org/KM_Benefits.htm [accessed on 31-01-2010].

Kontzer, T. (2001). Available at http://www.callcentermagazine.com/article/IWK20010604S0011 [accessed on 31-01-2010].

Levinson, M. (2007). Available at http://www.cio.com/article/40343/Knowledge_Management_Definition_and_Solutions [accessed on 31-01-2010].

Quintas et al. (1997). Long Range Planning, Vol. 30, No. 3, pp. 385 to 391. Printed in Great Britain.