There is no clear definition for knowledge management because the knowledge itself is very hard to define. But many scholars tried to give a near appropriate definition.
According to Online YourDictionary it can be defined as “The process of creating, institutionalizing, and distributing knowledge among people for the purpose of improving and organizing business processes and practices”.
According to NASA” Knowledge management is getting the right information to the right people at the right time, and helping people create knowledge and share and act upon information”(Nasa, 2005).
Further the CIO.com “KM is the process through which organizations generate value from their intellectual and knowledge-based assets”, the generating value is achieved through codifying the all the stakeholders knowledge and share it with others to establish best practices.
But knowledge management as a business activity can be defined in two aspects. They are “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” and “Making a direct connection between an organization’s intellectual assets”.( Barclay and Murray, 1997)
In my point of view knowledge management is not a single process, but it is a set of processes which creates, distribute and utilizing the knowledge available for the benefit of an organization. Analysing the meaning of knowledge management in a vacuum has no meaning, therefore it should be analysed in a context. I would like to base by argument in an organizational context.
In Robert Kaplan’s view ‘‘managing knowledge capital will be critical for organizations to create a sustainable, competitive advantage”. In this competitive business environment the success can be achieved through the knowledge based assets such as skills, abilities and motivation of people and the databases and information it posses. (Switzer, 2008).
Further, for many organizations knowledge management is used to share information about customers, products and services which can help to improve competiveness of the business (Ashdown and Smith). There is always a question whether the organizational knowledge is manageable or not. The answer would be yes, for that primarily the individual’s knowledge about the specific field should be identified as a tacit knowledge which can be converted in to explicit knowledge through performing job in their own way. Through identifying the best practices with in the organization will help the organization to create database called “knowledge repositories” (Rowley, 2002)
Unlike the traditional organizations which give priority to the physical assets, modern “knowledge companies” give preference to the knowledge asset. The biggest obstacle to be overcome to attain this transition is to encourage the “knowledge manager” to share their knowledge. By providing greater pay for what they are producing, by offering them more learning opportunities, allowing them to make independent decisions and by give them place in corporate decision making and so on will encourage them to share tacit knowledge explicitly. (Switzer, 2008).
This is very much true in many traditional organizations. When I was first joined the company as a graduate where there is no graduates in that department. As a fresher I was assigned to a senior person to be trained. But, he was very reluctant to share the knowledge because he had the fear that he will lose his position in the department where he learnt the job with nearly six year of experience for me just joined to his equal position with no experience. I had a very hard time because I had to learn everything by myself.
Organizational culture plays a key role in knowledge management. The organizational culture is shaped by many factors such as structure, system and technology. The relevant choice will shape the organizational culture that ultimately decides the success or failure of the Knowledge management projects. (Balthazard and Cooke, 2004)
Through this analysis of this subject I realized that Knowledge management is not just a technology it is a collection of methodologies that is driven by practice that involve people, process and technology. The productivity and efficiency of an organization can be improved immensely by implementing correctly with the consideration of organizational culture and clearly defined goals.
References.
CIO.com, "Knowledge Management Definition and Solutions". Available at http://www.cio.com/article/40343/Knowledge_Management_Definition_and_Solutions, Accessed on 2nd may 2009.
Barclay.R.O and Murray.P.C (1997), “Knowledge praxis”. Available: http://www.media-access.com/whatis.html. Accessed on 2nd may 2009.
Ashdown.B and Smith.K, “Development of a model for managing organizational knowledge” Available at: http://www.osti.gov/inforum99/papers/orgknowl.pdf. Accessed on 2nd may 2009.
Switzer, C. (2008), Time for change: empowering organizations
to succeed in the knowledge economy, Journal of knowledge management, 12(2): 18-25
Rowely, J., (2002), “Eight questions for customers knowledge management in e- business”, journal of knowledge management, 6(5), 500-511. Available at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/ViewContentServlet;jsessionid=1E22F4DF40739563AA658F8F232AF65F?contentType=Article&Filename=Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Articles/2300060508.html, Accessed on 3rd may 2009.
Nasa. (2005). What Is Knowledge Management? [Online]. Available: http://km.nasa.gov./whatis/index.html Accessed on 3rd may 2009.
Balthazard, P. A. and Cooke, R. A., (2004), “Organisational Cultural and Knowledge Management Success: Assessing The Behaviour – Performance Continuum”, 37th Hawaii International Conference on system science – 2004. Available at http://www.thestep.gr/trainmor/dat/%7B8a7c6309-2338-4a07-b413-8854a235f4f8%7D/article.pdf [Accessed on 3rd may 2009.
Tuesday, 5 May 2009
Data, Information and Knowledge
Data, information, Knowledge are the frequently used terms in knowledge management which are closely linked and sometimes very difficult to distinguish. Although data and information seems to have same meaning, information is on top of data which is a base in a hierarchy and knowledge is on top of information followed by wisdom. This model of hierarchy is called ‘pyramid to wisdom’ is first proposed by Russel Ackoff.
Data
Data has been given many meaning by different people according to the circumstance of its use. In information science it is described as “Unprocessed information”, whereas in other areas it has given a meaning as” representation of objective facts”.(Hey, 2004). According to (Bellinger et al, 2004), data is something that has no importance other than its existence. But generally data is more static in nature, and it also used to represent discrete values about an incident, more than anything information cannot exist without the useful data.
In my point of view data can be explained as a type of information, because when data is arranged in a structured format it can provide information to a certain extent. In organizations employees are asked to enter their daily work in a excel sheet to generate the performance report every month, for example the no of transaction that a person has completed in every hour in a cash counter is just some data but when it is put together in a structured format in an excel sheet the data itself is an information to the management.
Information
Generally information can be expressed as a processed data which has specific meaning and that can be used for a specific purpose .Moreover; it is can guide people in their decision making.
Data itself has no meaning, when the creator adds meaning by adding value it become information. The value can be added through various methods such as Contextualizing, Categorizing, calculating, correcting and condensing. (Davenport, 2000).
For examples, in many organizations many set of data are collected in a specific format to see how each and every employee is performing their job. This is just a collection of data which has no meaning. But, at the end of each month this data is analysed further by categorizing, calculating and condensing to create report called performance report which is valuable information which helps the organization to decide how to reward the employees who have performed well in their job.
Knowledge
Knowledge has been defined by many people in many ways by many people. Nonaka and Takeuchi accepted the knowledge as “Justified true belief”, whereas many English dictionaries define it as “Knowledge is understanding based on experience” (Firestone, 2001). In my point of view knowledge is an understanding of a subject which a person gain through his studies and experience.
Also knowledge can be expressed as a”fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information, and expert insight” which gives a framework to assess and to include new experiences and learning information which are initiated in the mind of knower. Knowledge is an integrated part of human mind that is originated from information through human effort. (Davenport, 2000)
Although many people suggest many definitions for knowledge it is a very difficult to be defined in a single definition. The knowledge a person inherit in him depends on his mental capacity to absorb the information around him through his education and experience, and how he analyses the information and organize it in his mind. Therefore the level of knowledge each and every person posses is always different. The knowledge a person inherit in him is called the tacit knowledge which include mental model and beliefs in addition to know how. When a person invents a new knowledge he is basically reinventing himself. Converting this tacit knowledge of an individual in to explicit knowledge is process of finding a way express knowledge which is inexpressible. Through this conversion of individuals tacit knowledge in to a explicit knowledge that is available for all creates a knowledgeable society around us.
For example, in an organization there are different people performing different duties. Some people have less educational background but they have years of experience in the field. But some are very educated but they have limited exposure to the specific field. But the knowledge level of these people to perform a given task is not purely depends on how much education or experience they posses, it is purely how they analyses the situation and apply the tacit knowledge they have to solve the problem. Although the education and experience help a person to increase their knowledge level, but to solve the problem they have to have the wisdom to see how they have to use their knowledge. Therefore the wisdom is very essential to utilise the knowledge to the fullest.
• Firestone, J. M.(2001) Key Issues in Knowledge Management. In Knowledge and Innovation, Journal of the KMCI. Vol. 1, No. 3, April 2001, Knowledge Management Consortium International. Accessed on 30th April 2009, from: http://www.kmci.org/media/firestoneissueskiv1n3.pdf .
• Wilson, T.D. (2002) "The nonsense of 'knowledge management'" Information Research, 8(1), Accessed on 30th April 2009, from: http://InformationR.net/ir/8-1/paper144.html .
• Bellinger, G., Castro, D., & Mills, A., Data, Information, Knowledge and Wisdom, Retrieved on 28th April 2009, from: http://www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htm.
• Hey, J., (2004), “The Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom Chain:The Metaphorical link”, Retrieved on 29th April 2009, from: http://best.me.berkeley.edu/~jhey03/files/reports/IS290_Finalpaper_HEY.pdf
• Davenport, T., & Prusak, L., (2000). Working Knowledge: How Organisations Manage What They Know. Retrieved on 29th April 2009, from: http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/book/t_davenport_1.html [2009, 29/01/2009].
Data
Data has been given many meaning by different people according to the circumstance of its use. In information science it is described as “Unprocessed information”, whereas in other areas it has given a meaning as” representation of objective facts”.(Hey, 2004). According to (Bellinger et al, 2004), data is something that has no importance other than its existence. But generally data is more static in nature, and it also used to represent discrete values about an incident, more than anything information cannot exist without the useful data.
In my point of view data can be explained as a type of information, because when data is arranged in a structured format it can provide information to a certain extent. In organizations employees are asked to enter their daily work in a excel sheet to generate the performance report every month, for example the no of transaction that a person has completed in every hour in a cash counter is just some data but when it is put together in a structured format in an excel sheet the data itself is an information to the management.
Information
Generally information can be expressed as a processed data which has specific meaning and that can be used for a specific purpose .Moreover; it is can guide people in their decision making.
Data itself has no meaning, when the creator adds meaning by adding value it become information. The value can be added through various methods such as Contextualizing, Categorizing, calculating, correcting and condensing. (Davenport, 2000).
For examples, in many organizations many set of data are collected in a specific format to see how each and every employee is performing their job. This is just a collection of data which has no meaning. But, at the end of each month this data is analysed further by categorizing, calculating and condensing to create report called performance report which is valuable information which helps the organization to decide how to reward the employees who have performed well in their job.
Knowledge
Knowledge has been defined by many people in many ways by many people. Nonaka and Takeuchi accepted the knowledge as “Justified true belief”, whereas many English dictionaries define it as “Knowledge is understanding based on experience” (Firestone, 2001). In my point of view knowledge is an understanding of a subject which a person gain through his studies and experience.
Also knowledge can be expressed as a”fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information, and expert insight” which gives a framework to assess and to include new experiences and learning information which are initiated in the mind of knower. Knowledge is an integrated part of human mind that is originated from information through human effort. (Davenport, 2000)
Although many people suggest many definitions for knowledge it is a very difficult to be defined in a single definition. The knowledge a person inherit in him depends on his mental capacity to absorb the information around him through his education and experience, and how he analyses the information and organize it in his mind. Therefore the level of knowledge each and every person posses is always different. The knowledge a person inherit in him is called the tacit knowledge which include mental model and beliefs in addition to know how. When a person invents a new knowledge he is basically reinventing himself. Converting this tacit knowledge of an individual in to explicit knowledge is process of finding a way express knowledge which is inexpressible. Through this conversion of individuals tacit knowledge in to a explicit knowledge that is available for all creates a knowledgeable society around us.
For example, in an organization there are different people performing different duties. Some people have less educational background but they have years of experience in the field. But some are very educated but they have limited exposure to the specific field. But the knowledge level of these people to perform a given task is not purely depends on how much education or experience they posses, it is purely how they analyses the situation and apply the tacit knowledge they have to solve the problem. Although the education and experience help a person to increase their knowledge level, but to solve the problem they have to have the wisdom to see how they have to use their knowledge. Therefore the wisdom is very essential to utilise the knowledge to the fullest.
• Firestone, J. M.(2001) Key Issues in Knowledge Management. In Knowledge and Innovation, Journal of the KMCI. Vol. 1, No. 3, April 2001, Knowledge Management Consortium International. Accessed on 30th April 2009, from: http://www.kmci.org/media/firestoneissueskiv1n3.pdf .
• Wilson, T.D. (2002) "The nonsense of 'knowledge management'" Information Research, 8(1), Accessed on 30th April 2009, from: http://InformationR.net/ir/8-1/paper144.html .
• Bellinger, G., Castro, D., & Mills, A., Data, Information, Knowledge and Wisdom, Retrieved on 28th April 2009, from: http://www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htm.
• Hey, J., (2004), “The Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom Chain:The Metaphorical link”, Retrieved on 29th April 2009, from: http://best.me.berkeley.edu/~jhey03/files/reports/IS290_Finalpaper_HEY.pdf
• Davenport, T., & Prusak, L., (2000). Working Knowledge: How Organisations Manage What They Know. Retrieved on 29th April 2009, from: http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/book/t_davenport_1.html [2009, 29/01/2009].
Knowledge Management Models
Knowledge is the most valuable asset that needs to be managed properly to achieve its benefits. Knowledge management models give a framework through which the knowledge can be managed. There is wide range of knowledge management models available to create, store and retrieve knowledge within an organization.
Most organizations use the traditional information processing model to share their knowledge which is based on the myths such as “Knowledge management technologies can deliver the right information to the right and to store and retrieve human intelligence”. But the new paradigm proposed by churchman (Malhotra, 2000) which is called as a sense making paradigm of knowledge management emphasize that the “knowledge resides in the user and not in the collection of information it is how the user reacts to a collection of information that matters.” This new paradigm helps the organization to share the knowledge effectively to achieve competitive advantage.
Knowledge management models can be categorized in many ways such as Cognitive Model, Network Model, Community of practice model and Quantum knowledge management models. It also can be to categorized as Knowledge category model and Intellectual capital models
In Cognitive model, the knowledge is considered as an asset and it is considered as something to be managed and accounted SECI (Socialization, Externalization, Combination, and Internalization) Model proposed by Nonaka (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995) is one of the well-known cognitive models available. In this model the knowledge is categorized as Tacit and Explicit, and it focuses on knowledge conversion within the organization (i.e. Tacit to explicit, explicit to explicit, explicit to tacit, and tacit to tacit). It is mostly considered as more controlling in approach and more focus is given to standardize the knowledge and duplicate it further.
The network model of knowledge management is derived from the network organizations where the knowledge creation and sharing are considered as a main aspect for the organizational learning. Other than these above mentioned models there exist an oldest model of knowledge management which is called a community of practice model where the sense of common enterprise that can bring all together as one social entity to share their knowledge with each other through a shared commitment and the newest development in this field called quantum model which at the same time integrate and interrelate with all the people in the organization to solve more complex problems that can bring great benefits to its stakeholders(Kakabadse et al, 2003).
According to McAdam R. and McCreedy S. (1999) the knowledge category model is used to classify knowledge in to discrete elements and the Scandia Intellectual capital model believe that knowledge management can be isolated into human, customer and growth elements which are part of human and organizational capital. Both Nonaka’s SECI model which has been explained earlier and the Boisot’s model come under the knowledge category model and both of these two models have some similarities where in SECI model knowledge is categorized in to tacit and explicit but in Boisot’s model it is categorized as codified (easily transmittable) , un codified(not easily transmittable) knowledge and diffused(easily shared) , undiffused (not easily shared).
By looking at the SECI model in action in a learning process will help us to understand it further. Socialization is a process, through which the experience, understanding and skills (tacit knowledge) are shared through observations, discussion or by spending time in the same environment. Externalization process which is a key for knowledge creation is where the tacit to explicit knowledge conversion take place. Blog is a good example which supports the externalization process by facilitating to capture personal knowledge and distribute discussions among others which is very useful in a learning process. Combination is a process where tacit to tacit knowledge conversion take place, the captured knowledge is in the form of explicit knowledge which can be shared through blogs and wikis that provide learning repositories that contain more up to date, context rich, easily searchable learning assets and RSS helps to share resources which can facilitate the learning process. Finally through the Internalization process explicit knowledge can be converted to tacit through bringing the learners together more aggressively and supportively through multi user simulation to learn through shared experience. (Chatti et al, 2007).
In Conclusion, although there are many models available in knowledge management, the suitable selection of appropriate model should be adapted or created according to the specific need of an individual or organization.
References
Kakabadse, N., Kakabadse, A., Kouzmin, A.(2003), "Reviewing the knowledge management literature: towards a taxonomy", Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 7 No. 4, pp.75-91.
Malhotra, Y.(2000) ,” Knowledge Management & New Organization Forms: A Framework for Business Model Innovation”, Last accessed 10 April 2009 at: http://www.brint.org/KMNewOrg.pdf.
Nonaka tekeuchi(1995),SECI model, Last accessed 11 April 2009 at: http://www.12manage.com/methods_nonaka_seci.html
McAdam R. and McCreedy S. (1999),”A critical review of knowledge management models. The Learning Organization”: An International Journal, vol.6, no.3, pp.91-101 accessed on
11th April 2009.
Chatti,M.N, Klamma, R., Jarke, M., and Naeve, A.(2007),” The Web 2.0 Driven SECI Model Based Learning Process ”, Last accessed 14 April 2009 at: http://www-i5.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/i5new/staff/klamma/download/ICALT07_CKJN.pdf
Most organizations use the traditional information processing model to share their knowledge which is based on the myths such as “Knowledge management technologies can deliver the right information to the right and to store and retrieve human intelligence”. But the new paradigm proposed by churchman (Malhotra, 2000) which is called as a sense making paradigm of knowledge management emphasize that the “knowledge resides in the user and not in the collection of information it is how the user reacts to a collection of information that matters.” This new paradigm helps the organization to share the knowledge effectively to achieve competitive advantage.
Knowledge management models can be categorized in many ways such as Cognitive Model, Network Model, Community of practice model and Quantum knowledge management models. It also can be to categorized as Knowledge category model and Intellectual capital models
In Cognitive model, the knowledge is considered as an asset and it is considered as something to be managed and accounted SECI (Socialization, Externalization, Combination, and Internalization) Model proposed by Nonaka (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995) is one of the well-known cognitive models available. In this model the knowledge is categorized as Tacit and Explicit, and it focuses on knowledge conversion within the organization (i.e. Tacit to explicit, explicit to explicit, explicit to tacit, and tacit to tacit). It is mostly considered as more controlling in approach and more focus is given to standardize the knowledge and duplicate it further.
The network model of knowledge management is derived from the network organizations where the knowledge creation and sharing are considered as a main aspect for the organizational learning. Other than these above mentioned models there exist an oldest model of knowledge management which is called a community of practice model where the sense of common enterprise that can bring all together as one social entity to share their knowledge with each other through a shared commitment and the newest development in this field called quantum model which at the same time integrate and interrelate with all the people in the organization to solve more complex problems that can bring great benefits to its stakeholders(Kakabadse et al, 2003).
According to McAdam R. and McCreedy S. (1999) the knowledge category model is used to classify knowledge in to discrete elements and the Scandia Intellectual capital model believe that knowledge management can be isolated into human, customer and growth elements which are part of human and organizational capital. Both Nonaka’s SECI model which has been explained earlier and the Boisot’s model come under the knowledge category model and both of these two models have some similarities where in SECI model knowledge is categorized in to tacit and explicit but in Boisot’s model it is categorized as codified (easily transmittable) , un codified(not easily transmittable) knowledge and diffused(easily shared) , undiffused (not easily shared).
By looking at the SECI model in action in a learning process will help us to understand it further. Socialization is a process, through which the experience, understanding and skills (tacit knowledge) are shared through observations, discussion or by spending time in the same environment. Externalization process which is a key for knowledge creation is where the tacit to explicit knowledge conversion take place. Blog is a good example which supports the externalization process by facilitating to capture personal knowledge and distribute discussions among others which is very useful in a learning process. Combination is a process where tacit to tacit knowledge conversion take place, the captured knowledge is in the form of explicit knowledge which can be shared through blogs and wikis that provide learning repositories that contain more up to date, context rich, easily searchable learning assets and RSS helps to share resources which can facilitate the learning process. Finally through the Internalization process explicit knowledge can be converted to tacit through bringing the learners together more aggressively and supportively through multi user simulation to learn through shared experience. (Chatti et al, 2007).
In Conclusion, although there are many models available in knowledge management, the suitable selection of appropriate model should be adapted or created according to the specific need of an individual or organization.
References
Kakabadse, N., Kakabadse, A., Kouzmin, A.(2003), "Reviewing the knowledge management literature: towards a taxonomy", Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 7 No. 4, pp.75-91.
Malhotra, Y.(2000) ,” Knowledge Management & New Organization Forms: A Framework for Business Model Innovation”, Last accessed 10 April 2009 at: http://www.brint.org/KMNewOrg.pdf.
Nonaka tekeuchi(1995),SECI model, Last accessed 11 April 2009 at: http://www.12manage.com/methods_nonaka_seci.html
McAdam R. and McCreedy S. (1999),”A critical review of knowledge management models. The Learning Organization”: An International Journal, vol.6, no.3, pp.91-101 accessed on
11th April 2009.
Chatti,M.N, Klamma, R., Jarke, M., and Naeve, A.(2007),” The Web 2.0 Driven SECI Model Based Learning Process ”, Last accessed 14 April 2009 at: http://www-i5.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/i5new/staff/klamma/download/ICALT07_CKJN.pdf
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