Much attention is now being paid to knowledge management within organizations as a critical factor in its success. What is your understanding of knowledge management?
Knowledge Management is a new way and method of thinking and acting in the information age. You want to manage your data and information for extracting new knowledge from them by data mining or acting with grate performance by using that data and information in a perfect time and place. So, for this, you must first recognize your knowledge, Organize them, Save them, share them, Use them with Knowledge Management Processes by helping of Knowledge Management Systems and you implementing them by KM Methodology.
Data is the driving sign book
Information is driving licence
Knowledge is driving in a good way
Wisdom is driving in a stormy wether
KM can direct your organization from Data to Wisdom.
Hi Haitham,
you may find some of my work on KM helpful for answering your question, the latest being: Knowledge Management Evolution: Reflections on Past and Predictions for Future
Regards
Meliha
Dear Haitham,
For better understanding of the notion of KM, you need to review the early discussion on KM before reviewing the latest debate. For that reason, I do encourage to read the following books:
Ahmed, P. K., Lim, K. K., and Loh, A. Y. (2002). Learning through knowledge management. Oxford: Routledge.
Nonaka, I., & Takeuchi, H. (1995). The knowledge-creating company: How Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation. Oxford: Oxford university press.
Dalkir, K. (2005). Knowledge management in theory and practice. London: Elsevier Butterworth–Heinemann.
Du Plessis, M. (2006). The impact of organisational culture on knowledge management. Oxford: Chandos Publishing.
Good luck
Knowledge management refers to an instrument to reach the goals of organization. Every unit has knowledge which we should share through many activities such as conducting seminar, coaching, training. In order to do so, It can raises the organization performance.
Adding my 2 centimes
Knowledge management is an intellectual data system used to process raw data into information through managelment information systems wheree the information is retrieved, processed, and stored, and used from a database too solve problems, create solutions, as well as learning and training for coaching, training, seminars, webinars, and other forms of training material. This management of knowledge leads to organisational learning as discussed by Bandura, Chris Argyris, and Peter Senge.
I hope this addition helps
Dr Réagan Lavorata
The following reference can be useful:
-Chaolemen Borjigen, (2015) "Mass collaborative knowledge management: Towards the next generation of knowledge management studies", Program, Vol. 49 Issue: 3, pp.325-342, doi: 10.1108/PROG-02-2015-0023
In contrast to this query's pious hope, which I share, Thomas Davenport wrote in Whatever Happened to Knowledge Management? (Wall Street Journal, 24 June 2015) that the rise of Google, a new focus on analytics and Big Data, and various organizational and cultural challenges had each played a role in the discipline's declining popularity. He concluded that knowledge management is gasping for breath. How Would You Motivate Interest in Knowledge Management?, available at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313397160_How_Would_You_Motivate_Interest_in_Knowledge_Management, passes comment on the plethora of definitions, argues that the "why" of knowledge management is hardly ever made practicably explicit by those who sell its virtues, but submits nonetheless that one can motivate interest in knowledge management if people readily understand what it means, what the intermediate objective is, and how the accomplishment of that will contribute to individual and collective performance.
Article How Would You Motivate Interest in Knowledge Management?
I am writing a paper on the future of KM and perceive 3 trends, one being SPECIALISATION, where big data, business intelligence and business analytics fit very well what is known as KM "codification" strategy.
What is knowledge management?
Knowledge management in organizations is to continuously extract, capture, store, share & improve the knowledge (evolved from data & information) so that it can be used by all the business units / users to improve the organizational performance.
With the proliferation of Big Data Analytics, Analytics of Things (AoT), Internet of Things (IoT) that can capture & process various types of structured & unstructured data & information at batch or real time level can transform the way we handle & use knowledge management now vs previously e.g. 20 years ago.
knowledge management is defined as a tool aiming at selecting, retaining and sharing knowledge in order to achieve organizational objectives. The following references may help you to understand this concept:
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d3ad/e3cab7cbe6a820f137419ad851b7b20ec3ff.pdf
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/01435129910291175
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07421222.2001.11045674?journalCode=mmis20
The essence of knowledge management comes down to creation of possibility of obtaining the influence on the resources of knowledge in organisation (Rey, Maassen,
Gadeib, Bruecher, 1998). Knowledge management includes performing a cycle of actions such as gaining knowledge, storing knowledge and implementing changes on the basis of that knowledge. Knowledge management is a process
in which there is certain sequence of actions and specific relations between various kinds of actions. Knowledge is defined as ‘information combined with experience, context, interpretation and reflection’ (Davenport, Long, Beers, 1977). The definition implies that man is the only subject of developing knowledge, because man is the only resource of the organisation capable of learning, developing potential and conceptual thinking. However, knowledge management should be “accompanied” by the use of IT tools.
As Bandura, Chris Argyris, and Peter Senge all agreed, yes humans are the ones who are capable and who are the engines of learning in all organisations. The use of IT tools works with the use of a database management system applying management information systems (MIS) to manage data that is then processed into a knowledge base
Dr Lavorata
Knowledge management has generally divide into two camps over time.
The first, and largest, is the technology camp which basically promises to take the organization's knowledge and store it into easily accessible data bases and software for others to use. This is gaining the reputation of over-praising and under-performing. Many say it has given KM a bad name.
The second, and smaller, but growing camp is social knowledge management. This camp focuses on the relational and human network aspects of knowledge -- we learn from others, the networks we are embedded determine what we know, etc. This camp utilizes some technology (i.e. social network analysis) to take organizational x-rays to see the various knowledge cluster in an organization. This group believes you need to understand the social dynamics before you can do the technological solution. Our organization is firmly in this second camp.
The social knowledge management aspect that goes along with the technical database storage and retrieval management system is how organisations learn through their personnel and any formal or graveine (informal) communications.
Using what we know and constructing upon it can help to build a social knowmedge management system ready for the technical tools that enhance it
Dr Lavorata
From my brief exposure to knowledge management as a topic. Knowledge management in its purest essence is learning, knowing, sharing and storage of knowledge, whether it be inside a person's head, (expert or learner) and the sharing of this knowledge on an individual, company or market. The other branch of knowledge management is more towards information technology basis, which is more specialised. Knowledge management is more about the management of knowledge and the sharing of this to help an organisation become a learning one, which leads to better competitive advantage. Employee engagement is linked to knowledge management in that, the more an employee, manager or leader knows and shares their knowledge, the better morale, productivity or performance of an organisation. This answer comes from learning the theory of knowledge management and the real life application of knowledge management within my own organisation.
The core strength of the organization must be coupled to the desired goal. Organizational knowledge predominantly resides in human resource. It is essential to assimilate, create, store and transfer knowledge, in order to leverage the same for organizational growth and development. The comprehensive process of creating a knowledge-intensive organization is knowledge management.
Knowledge Management, is a concept and a term that arose approximately two decades ago, roughly in 1990. Very early on in the KM movement, Davenport (1994) offered the still widely quoted definition:
"Knowledge management is the process of capturing, distributing, and effectively using knowledge." This definition has the virtue of being simple, stark, and to the point. A few years later, the Gartner Group created another second definition of KM, which is perhaps the most frequently cited one (Duhon, 1998):
"Knowledge management is a discipline that promotes an integrated approach to identifying, capturing, evaluating, retrieving, and sharing all of an enterprise's information assets. These assets may include databases, documents, policies, procedures, and previously un-captured expertise and experience in individual workers."
The core strength of the science of knowledge management is the manner of being an integrated discipline and allowing organisations to organise, grow, and learn using advanced database systems that retrieve, store, evaluate, share, and identify, as well as implement learning systems processed from raw data transformed into useful information.
Dr Lavorata
Dear Haitham,
Please read the book 'Knowledge Work and Knowledge - Intensive Firms' by Mats Alvesson, 2004, OUP Oxford. It addresses the concept of knowledge in a work and organizational context, professional or knowledge work, and knowledge-intensive firms. Alvesson provides a critical, moderate social constructivist understanding of these themes and the interest in knowledge management, organization and the "knowledge economy". Professional service as well as science and high-tech work and firms are treated. The concepts of knowledge and knowledge management are discussed. The ambiguity of knowledge in the input, process and output of professional work is emphasized.
It is well used time to read texts written by Mats Alvesson, Lund University, Sweden.
Best,
Lars Nordgren, Lund University
Dear Haitham,
There is a wonderful book of Donald Hislop 'Knowledge Management in Organizations' 2009, Oxford University Press, that will give you an idea about: what is knowledge management, knowledge-intensive companies and their employees,iInnovation dynamics and knowledge processes.
Best
Sophia Loughborough University
Another book you may find helpful is Working Knowledge by Thomas Davenport and Laurenence Prusak. It was one of the first books I read on the subject.
Ten years ago, KM Australia did a survey asking everyone to give their definition of knowledge management. Attached is a recently released (again) report with 184 responses to this question. It would be interesting to compare those responses with current ones. Meliha
Knowledge management is ‘any process or practice of creating, acquiring, capturing, sharing and using knowledge, wherever it resides, to enhance learning and performance in organizations’ (Scarborough et al, 1999 as cited in Armstrong, 2009).
Armstrong (2009) wrote:
“Ten ways in which HR can contribute to knowledge management
1. Help to develop an open culture in which the values and norms emphasize the importance of sharing knowledge.
2. Promote a climate of commitment and trust.
3. Advise on the design and development of organizations that facilitate knowledge sharing through networks, teamwork and communities of practice (groups of people who share common interests in certain aspects of their work).
4. Advise on resourcing policies and provide resourcing services that ensure that valued employees who can contribute to knowledge creation and sharing are attracted and retained.
5. Advise on methods of motivating people to share knowledge and rewarding those who do so.
6. Help in the development of performance management processes that focus on the development and sharing of knowledge.
7. Develop processes of organizational and individual learning that will generate and assist in disseminating knowledge.
8. Set up and organize workshops, conferences, seminars, communities of practice and symposia that enable knowledge to be shared on a person-to-person basis.
9. In conjunction with IT, develop systems for capturing and, as far as possible, codifying explicit and tacit knowledge.
10. Generally, promote the cause of knowledge management with senior managers to encourage them to exert leadership and support knowledge management initiatives.”
Reference
Armstrong, M., 2009. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice(11thed). Kogan Page,London and Philadelphia.
The definition of knowledge management is the gathering, retrieval, and processing and manipulating of data into information which is then effectively transforming that information into knowledge which is captured, distributed, and effectively used applied, analysed, and synthesised into a base of knowledge of which can be built upon for further learning.
Dr Réagan Lavoraata, PhD
Differente authors have explained knowledge management and its processes. This reference provide a concise but clear view of the processes investigated by many authors (and algo a great framework for KM metrics):
Goldoni, V., & Oliveira, M. (2010). Knowledge management metrics in software development companies in Brazil. Journal of Knowledge Management, 14(2), 301-313.
Alavi and Leidner (2001) is a very well cited work that provide a framework for knowledge management and KM systems:
Alavi, M., & Leidner, D. E. (2001). Knowledge management and knowledge management systems: Conceptual foundations and research issues. MIS quarterly, 107-136.
Also, there's a KM topic here on Research Gate, you can find some useful questions and answers there: https://www.researchgate.net/topic/Knowledge-Management
Kind Regards,
Andrea
To me very simply the knowledge management is about the cultivation of a autonomous culture through different practices that ensures the activities like knowledge acquisition, creation, sharing, and application so that an organization can achieve higher innovation and organizational performances.
This definition of knowledge management is assimilated from Nonaka's article, Zack et al., (2009), and Gold et al., (2001) with contents from a video conversation between Professor Eric Tsui and Professor Aino Kianto.
I would highly recommend you this video of Professor Aino Kianto and Professor Eric Tsui on knowledge management dynamics. Very insightful indeed!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKuVM9UPeIw
To me Knowledge Management(KM) is basically the creation, application and most importantly the sharing of applied knowledge and its achieved outcome(s). The organizations who want to acheive high standards in the competitive market must ensure the deployment and employment of Knowledge Management Systems(KMS). Besides looking into the conventional KM tools and practises the organizations must explore cognitive and behavioral theories / tools that can influence and motivate the individuals in transforming themselves from an traditional ordinary worker to a modern Knowledge Worker.
This following article may help to understand various perspective the question:
Article The role of employee knowledge and behavior towards sustaina...
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