A Concept of Implementation Knowledge Management (KM) in Organization

Contents

Introduction

Concept of Knowledge Management

Challenges in Knowledge Management

Strategy of Knowledge Management

Introduction
Knowledge has become the key asset.., The ability to collect,
integrate and apply specialized knowledge of an organizations members is fundamental to a firms ability to create and sustain competitive advantage. we need systematic

work on the quality of knowledge and the productivity of knowledge the performance capacity, if not the survival, of any organization in the knowledge society will come increasingly to depend on those two factors [Drucker,1994

KM Definition KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT describe a set of practices that help improve the use and sharing of data and information in decisionmaking. KM is the explicit and systematic management of vital knowledge and its associated processes of creating, gathering, organizing, diffusion, use and exploitation. (Skyrme, 2003)

Cont.. DOING WHAT IS NEEDED

KM is a group of systems and practices for identifying, capturing, storing and disseminating information. Not just one system All types of information

Why KM is Important?
Knowledge Management Systems help in creating, sharing and using the collective knowledge of its products, processes and people to increase workplace productivity and reduce activities that reinvent the wheel (Fontaine 2002)

Cont.. KM can be seen as; a way to improve performance (Ostro, 1997; Bassi, 1997), productivity and competitiveness (Maglitta, 1995), a way to improve effective acquisition, sharing and usage of information within organisations (Maglitta, 1995), a tool for improved decision making (People Management, 1998; Cole-Gomolski, 1997a, 1997b).

Role of KM in Todays Organization

KM is important for organizations that continually face downsizing or a high turnover percentage due to the nature of the industry.

Reason for Implementing KM

Text

Globalization and Competition

Restructuring and Downsizing

Sharing of Best Practices

Successful Innovation

Cont..

Understanding Knowledge Management requires an understanding of knowledge and differentiate between data vs information vs knowledge.

What is Knowledge ?

Data

Information

Knowledge

Knowledge Basic
The Pyramid

data information knowledge

Information that changes something or somebody becoming grounds for action by making an individual, or institution capable of different, more effective action. (Drucker, The New Realities)

Knowledge

Wisdom/ Intelligence
Knowledge Information Data

Human, judgmental, insight Contextual, tacit Transfer needs learning

Codifiable, explicit Easily transferable

Data vs Information vs Knowledge

Example: It is raining. DATA: represents a fact or statement of event without relation to other things. INFORMATION: embodies the understanding of a relationship of some sort, possibly cause and effect. KNOWLEDGE: represents a pattern that connects and generally providing a high level of predictability as what is described or what will happen next. Example: The temperature dropped 15 degrees and then it started raining.

Example: If the humidity is very high and the temperature drops substantially the atmosphere is often unlikely to be able to hold the moisture so it rains.

Cont..

The Transformation Of: Data Information Recorded Knowledge Into Digital Form Has Precipitated Organizational Change

Characteristic of Knowledge

Knowledge cannot easily be stored

Knowledge should be studied in context knowledge is ineffectual if it is not used

Information has little value and not become knowledge until it is processed.

Type of Knowledge
Tacit Data and information in peoples heads Tacit Knowledge; Personal Context-Specific Difficult to formalize Difficult to communicate More difficult to transfer

Cont..
Explicit Discrete data and information Explicit Knowledge; Packaged

Easily codified
Communicable Transferable

Type of Knowledge

Domain of KM
80% - Organizational processes and human factors 20% - Technology

Process

Cont..
The Knowledge Management Approach Text Has 3 core organizational resources
People The Key Realms of Knowledge Management1 People

Process
Knowledge Management

Technology

Technologies

Processes

People People manage the system and processes. Need is to convince people about the benefits of strategic knowledge management.

Processes Careful management of the alignment of strategies, principles, processes and practices needs to be done.

Technologies Contributor to the health and effectiveness of the organization.

Knowledge Management Continuum

The Knowledge Management Continuum is comprised of

Data

Information Knowledge

Cont..

Knowledge Information Data

Data is the first key step in making important decisions that shape administrative services or academic programs

Information is data that is processed. Information deals with the way that data is related.

Knowledge is information that is modeled to be useful Knowledge examines the patterns within a set of information.

Stages Of Knowledge Management

Collecting Information

Storing Information
3

Making Information Available

4 Use of Information

Knowledge Creation Process

Knowledge Transfer Process

Knowledge Embedding Process

KM life Cycle

Challenges in KM
1. Developing a working definition of knowledge Not developing a working definition of knowledge is a critical error contributing directly to many errors and failures in the knowledge-management process (Fahey and Prusak, 1998). Management should encourage social interaction and dialogue in the organization.

Challenges in KM
2. Dealing with Tacit Knowledge and Utilization of IT Very difficult to articulate tacit knowledgehighly situated in the context and to abstract it from its context of application would mean to lose much of its intrinsic meaning and value (Kakabadse et al., 2001). Managerial incentives might helpful for effectively sharing and dealing with tacit knowledge especially in case of critical knowledge projects.

Challenges in KM
3. Adaptation to Cultural Complexity Inappropriate culture is generally regarded as the key inhibitor of effective knowledge sharing (McDermott and ODell, 2001). Developing an organizational culture geared towards knowledge management and innovation should be one of the main concerns of top management.

Challenges in KM
3. Attention to Human Resources Success of any KM initiative is critically dependent on having competent and suitably motivated people taking an active role in the process (Robertson and OMalley Hammersley, 2000; Hislop, 2003). Effective human resources management policies must be implemented.

Challenges in KM
4. Developing New Organizational Structures Developing a new organizational structure must be balanced with the crucial need for business continuity. New structures may be developed to be valid for some parts of the organization or to be limited with a specific time constraint the knowledge management initiative imposes.

Challenges in KM
5. Coping with Increased Competition Intense worldwide competition forces the firms to take new actions responding to environmental demands, pressures, and challenges almost day to day. Specific knowledge management programs should be designed as flexible as possible.

Strategies in KM
1. The importance of KM What benefits does the organization expect to gain from their work with KM? How will it affect the employees' work?

Strategies in KM
2. The Importance Of Support From Top Management

Top management encourage processes KM, includes helping to set up, fund knowledge networks, as well as defining and developing the skills of learning from other people (Mayo, 1998).

Strategies in KM
3. The Importance of Communication A large proportion of the organizations failed to implement the strategies because of a lack of communication.

Strategies in KM
4. The Importance of Creativity

The implications of business creativity will depend upon the type of fusion created between KM and the basic skills of creativity management (Kao, 1997).

Strategies in KM
5. The Importance of Culture and People It is the difficult task of overcoming cultural barriers, especially the sentiment that holding information is more valuable than sharing it (Warren, 1999; Anthes, 1998).

Strategies in KM
6. The Importance of Sharing Knowledge When people leave, the HR department asks for their company car keys and so on. Why not conduct a recruitment interview in reverse to retrieve information?(Mayo,1998)

Strategies in KM
7. The Importance of Incentives

To improve this process it is crucial to reward employees that contribute their expertise and to make sure employees understand the benefits of KM (Cole- Gomolski, 1997b).

Strategies in KM
7. The Importance of Time

The greatest enemies of knowledge sharing are the time that is required to input and access information and the lack of motivation among potential users (Mayo, 1998).

Strategies in KM
8. The Importance of Evaluation The evaluation system can made to use KM. ``Best practice'' is shared within the firm, or to the use of far more sophisticated tools to measure the outcomes.

Conclusion
Knowledge management is more than creating a knowledge archive and invoking retrieving mechanisms. However, it may not be easy to design and implement a knowledge management policy that serves an organizations needs in full. Sometimes knowledge is clearly defined in the original source, but too often it is not. Thus a need for clarification of what we are talking about whenever the word ``knowledge'' is Used.