What is Knowledge Management? Prof. Elaine Ferneley + Prof. Andrew Basden km@basden.demon.co. uk

1. What is Knowledge Management? Prof. Elaine Ferneley +Prof. Andrew Basden km@basden.demon.co.uk

2. Objectives • What is Knowledge Management (KM)? • What are the driving forces? • Role of KM in today’s organization • Knowledge • Knowledge Management Systems • Effective Knowledge Management Prof Elaine Ferneley

3. “Knowledge has become the key resource, for a nation’s military strength as well as for its economic strength… is fundamentally different from the traditional key resources of the economist – land, labor, and even capital…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] Knowledge as Key Resource Prof Elaine Ferneley

4. > One week in 2007 A person’s lifetime in 18th century A world of rapidly growing knowledge …. Prof Elaine Ferneley

5. Knowledge management (KM) may be defined simply as doing what is needed to get the most out of knowledge resources. KM focuses on organizing and making available important knowledge, wherever and whenever it is needed. KM is also related to the concept of intellectual capital. What is Knowledge Management? Prof Elaine Ferneley

6. Skryme (1999) Knowledge Management Definition Knowledge Management is the explicit and systematic management of vital knowledge and associated processes of creation, organization, diffusion, use and exploitation • explicit: knowledge is explicitly recognized; • systematic: too important to be left to chance; • vital: focus on what is important; • processes: encourage knowledge creating environment. Prof Elaine Ferneley

7. Why we need Knowledge Management now(http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~alm/kam.html) • Marketplaces are increasingly competitive and the rate of innovation is rising. • Reductions in staffing create a need to replace informal knowledge with formal methods. • Competitive pressures reduce the size of the work force that holds valuable business knowledge. • The amount of time available to experience and acquire knowledge has diminished. • Early retirements and increasing mobility of the work force lead to loss of knowledge. Prof Elaine Ferneley

8. Why we need Knowledge Management now(http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~alm/kam.html) • Most of our work is now information based. • Organizations compete on the basis of knowledge. • Products and services are increasingly complex, endowing them with a significant information component. • The need for life-long learning is an inescapable reality. • In brief, knowledge and information have become the medium in which business problems occur. As a result, managing knowledge represents the primary opportunity for achieving substantial savings, significant improvements in human performance, and competitive advantage. Prof Elaine Ferneley

9. Creating Capturing Sharing Capitalising Knowledge Management Components K n o w l e d g e This course will focus on these Knowledge Management Components

10. People Processes Information Information & Communication Technology Knowledge Management The composite management of: Prof Elaine Ferneley

11. What are Knowledge Management “Systems” ? • Social/Structural mechanisms(e.g., mentoring and retreats, etc.) for promoting knowledge sharing. • Leading-edge information technologies (e.g., Web-based conferencing) to support KM mechanisms. • Knowledge management systems (KMS): the synergy between social/structural mechanisms and latest technologies. Prof Elaine Ferneley

12. The middle layer addresses the KM life cycle A knowledge organization derives knowledge from customer, product, and financial knowledge. Also from financial practices Indicators of knowledge: thinking actively and ahead, not passively and behind Using technology to facilitate knowledge sharing and innovation THE KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATION Culture Competition Create Collect Organize Knowledge Organization Technology Maintain Intelligence Refine Disseminate Knowledge Management Process Leadership KM Drivers Prof Elaine Ferneley

13. Data: Unorganized and unprocessed facts; static; a set of discrete facts about events Information: Aggregation of data that makes decision making easier Knowledgeis derived from information in the same way information is derived from data; it is a person’s range of information Data, Information, and Knowledge Prof Elaine Ferneley

14. The DIKW Pyramid Prof Elaine Ferneley

15. Some Examples • Data represents a fact or statement of event without relation to other things. • Ex: It is raining. • Information embodies the understanding of a relationship of some sort, possibly cause and effect. • Ex: The temperature dropped 15 degrees and then it started raining. • Knowledge represents a pattern that connects and generally provides a high level of predictability as to what is described or what will happen next. • Ex: If the humidity is very high and the temperature drops substantially the atmospheres is often unlikely to be able to hold the moisture so it rains. • Wisdom embodies more of an understanding of fundamental principles embodied within the knowledge that are essentially the basis for the knowledge being what it is. Wisdom is essentially systemic. • Ex: It rains because it rains. And this encompasses an understanding of all the interactions that happen between raining, evaporation, air currents, temperature gradients, changes, and raining. Prof Elaine Ferneley

16. Learning by experience: a function of time and talent Learning by example: more efficient than learning by experience Learning by sharing, education. Learning by discovery: explore a problem area. Learning Prof Elaine Ferneley

17. Mechanistic approaches to KM • Mechanistic approaches to knowledge management are characterized by the application of technology and resources to do more of the same better. • The main assumptions of the mechanistic approach include: • Better accessibility to information is a key, including enhanced methods of access and reuse of documents (hypertext linking, databases, full-text search, etc.) • Networking technology in general (especially intranets), and groupware in particular, will be key solutions. • In general, technology and sheer volume of information will make it work. Prof Elaine Ferneley

18. Cultural/behavioristic approaches to KM • Cultural/behavioristic approaches, with substantial roots in process re-engineering and change management, tend to view the "knowledge problem" as a management issue. Technology — though ultimately essential for managing explicit knowledge resources — is not the solution. These approaches tend to focus more on innovation and creativity (the "learning organization") than on leveraging existing explicit resources or making working knowledge explicit. • Assumptions of cultural/behaviouristic approaches often include: • Organizational behaviours and culture need to be changed … dramatically. In our information-intensive environments, organizations become dysfunctional relative to business objectives. • Organizational behaviours and culture can be changed, but traditional technology and methods of attempting to solve the "knowledge problem" have reached their limits of effectiveness. A "holistic" view is required. Theories of behaviour of large-scale systems are often invoked. • It’s the processes that matter, not the technology. • Nothing happens or changes unless a manager makes it happen. Prof Elaine Ferneley

19. Classification of Knowledge Management Systems Knowledge Discovery Systems Knowledge Capture Systems Knowledge Sharing Systems Knowledge Application Systems As this course is an IS course we will focus on these Knowledge Management Technologies Prof Elaine Ferneley