Knowledge Management

Davenport and Prusak [1] defined Knowledge Management (KM) as follows:

“Knowledge Management is the name given to a set of systematic and disciplined actions that an organization can take to obtain the greatest value from the knowledge over which it disposes”.

In other words it consists of processes to capture, distribute, and effectively use knowledge.

Amrit [2] clearly defined the three fundamental processes of knowledge management as:

knowledge acquisition. The process of development and creation of insights, skills, and relationships. Knowledge formalization tools are examples of direct knowledge acquisition. Data capture tools with filtering abilities, intelligent databases, note-capture tools, and electronic whiteboards are examples of information technology components that can support indirectly knowledge data acquisition.
knowledge sharing. Disseminating and making available what is already known. A decision support system that provides a novice physician best clinical practice is an example of knowledge that is being shared with that clinical agent. Possibly, the sharing process has to be optimized on the specific context.
knowledge utilization. Learning is integrated into the organization. Whaever is broadly available throughout the company can be generalized and applied, at least in part, to new situations.

Three fundamental knowledge management processes

Amrit [2] listed typical technology tools able to support each stage (see the above picture). Ideally, knowledge management tools, should support a continuous process enabling users, who are utilizing the system for accomplishing their processes, to add, in the same time, new knowledge and share it.

Keep in mind, KM is about process, not about digital networks or smart intranets, the management of knowledge has to support and improve the business process. Technology is only an enabler which is strongly dependent from the organization context.

Tacit and Explicit Knowledge »

References

[1] Davenport T.H., Prusak L.
Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know
Harvard Business School Press, Boston, 1997

[2] Amrit Tiwana
The Knowledge Management Toolkit
Prentice Hall, 2002

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KM CONTENT

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Knowledge Management

References