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Training on Knowledge Management,

Yoseph Woubalem (PhD)

Certified Management Consultant

Hidar 4,2015

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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A. Concepts of Knowledge Management

B. Knowledge Management Process

C. Enablers & Challenges of Knowledge Management

D. Knowledge Transfer Strategies

E. Implementing Knowledge Management

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By the end of the training participants will be able to:
 Discuss the concept of knowledge management
 Identify the steps in implementing KM practice.
 Examine the rationale for KM in an organization.
 Describe the roles of technology, people, and
management in knowledge management
 Apply the knowledge transferring strategies by
mainstreaming knowledge management

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A. Concepts of Knowledge Management

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 Introduction
 Studies show that, these days, managers and
executives in organizations are preoccupied
with knowledge management.

 KM has become such a strategic resource of

organization that it is viewed as the basis of a
competitive advantage in the organization.

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Difference among DATA,INFORMATION &
KNOWLEDGE

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 Data, Information and Knowledge
What is Data?
 Data are discrete, objective facts.
 Data are some sort of raw materials, facts and
figures which relay something specific.
 Data are expressed in number or word or letter
without any context.

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 Data, Information and Knowledge

What is Information?
 For data to become information, it must be
contextualized, categorized, calculated and
condensed.
 Information thus paints a bigger picture; it is
data with relevance and purpose.

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 Data, Information and Knowledge… cont’d
 Essentially information is found in answers to questions
that begin with such words as who, what, where, when,
and many more.
 A mere collection of data is not information.
What is Knowledge?
 Knowledge is applied information that actively guides
task execution, problem-solving, and decision-making.
 Knowledge is any text, fact, example, event, rule,
hypothesis, or model that increases understanding or
performance in a domain or discipline.
 Knowledge is often called the infinite asset because it is
the only asset that increases when it is shared.

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 Data, Information and Knowledge… cont’d
 Knowledge is information in action.

 A justified true belief.

 Knowledge is at the highest level in a hierarchy with

information at the middle level, and data to be at the
lowest level.

 It is the richest, deepest and most valuable of the three.

 Information with direction, i.e., leads to appropriate

actions.

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 Data, Information and Knowledge… cont’d

 Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed

experience, values, contextual information,
expert insight and grounded intuition.

 The current popular conceptualization of

knowledge is to view it as a continuum
between explicit knowledge and tacit
knowledge.

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 Data, Information and Knowledge… cont’d

Data Relevant and

Knowledge
Processed Information Actionable

DEPLOYMENT CHART

Database DEPT 1
PHASE 1 PHASE 2 PHASE 3 PHASE 4 PHASE 5

DEPT 2

Wisdom
DEPT 3

DEPT 4

3 4 5
1 2

Relevant and actionable processed-data

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Data, Information and Knowledge …cont’d

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 Wisdom
 It is the ability to discern or judge what is true,
right, or lasting.

 It is the quality of having experience, knowledge,

and good judgment, the quality of being wise.

 Knowing how to use information, it presents an

integration of all aspects of the personality
including affects, willing, cognition, and life
experience.
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 Wisdom is…
 Types of knowledge
 In modern economy, knowledge is able to harness
the organization's competitive advantage.
 Knowledge is the product of organization and
systematic reasoning applied to data and
information.
 There are two type of knowledge: tacit
knowledge and explicit knowledge.

 Both tacit and explicit knowledge enable

organizations to respond to novel situations and
emerging challenges.
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 Types of knowledge… cont’d

Tacit Knowledge

Knowledge Management
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Knowledge Iceberg
 Where Does Corporate Knowledge Reside?

26% 42% 20% 12%

Paper Employee’s Electronic Electronic

Documents Brains Documents Knowledge Base
 Tacit/Embedded Knowledge
 It is personal.
 It is stored in the heads of people.
 It is accumulated through study and experience.
 It is developed through the process of interaction
with other people.
 It grows through the practice of trial and error and
the experience of success and failure.
 Tacit knowledge is context-specific.
 It is difficult to formalize, record, or articulate.
 It is essential prerequisite for making good
decisions.
 “ We may know more than we can tell.” Polanyi
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 Explicit /Leaky Knowledge
 It is stored in documents, database, websites,
emails and the like.
 It is knowledge that can be readily made
available to others and transmitted or shared in
the form of systematic and formal languages.
 Explicit knowledge comprises anything that can
be codified, documented and archived.
 It includes knowledge assets such as reports,
memos, business plans, drawings, patents,
trademarks, customer lists, methodologies and
the like.
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Distinction between tacit and explicit
knowledge

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 What is Knowledge Management?
 An integrated approach or process of creating, sharing,
and applying knowledge to enhance organizational
performance productivity and learning.
 A discipline that harnesses an organization’s largely
untapped resources and one of the factors of
development.
 KM is about making the right knowledge available to
the right person at the right time.
 KM is the systematic, explicit, and deliberate building,
renewal, and application of knowledge to maximize an
enterprise’s knowledge-related effectiveness and returns
from its knowledge assets.

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Responsibility of Knowledge Management

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Building a KM Rationale

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 Significance of KM
1. Improved services and products,
2. Growing innovation and invention,
3. Enhanced financial/economic figures,
4. Improved value chain analysis,
5. Better customer management,
6. Satisfied and proud internal customers,
7. Improved internal business processes,
8. Goodwill and reputation,
9. Built in competitive advantage.

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B. Knowledge Management Process

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 The KM Process Cycle
 KM cycle model provides a useful way to organize
one’s thinking about KM processes.
 The process cycle model is particularly valuable in that
it uses the generally accepted terminology of KM and
makes use of alternative paths in order to make
important distinctions.
 The KM Process Cycle includes:
1. Knowledge creation
2. Knowledge acquisition
3. Knowledge refinement
4. Knowledge storage and retrieval
5. Knowledge transfer
6. Utilization
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 The KM Process Cycle … cont’d
1. Knowledge Creation
 Knowledge creation is the generation of new insights,
ideas, or routines.
 Involves developing new knowledge or replacing existing
knowledge with new content.
 The focus of this is usually on knowledge creation inside
the boundary of the firm or in conjunction with partners.
 Four modes of knowledge creation: socialization,
combination, externalization and internalization.

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 The KM Process Cycle…
2. Knowledge Acquisition

 Involves the search for, recognition of, and

assimilation of potentially valuable knowledge,
often from outside the organization.

 Some processes for acquiring knowledge from

external sources- searching (as on the Internet),
sourcing (selecting the source to use) and
grafting (adding an individual who possesses
desired knowledge to the organization).
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Knowledge Acquisition Tools

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Knowledge Acquisition Tools … cont’d

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Knowledge Acquisition Tools … cont’d

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 The KM Process Cycle …
3. Knowledge Refinement

 Processes and mechanisms that are used to select,

filter, purify and optimize knowledge for
inclusion in various storage media.

 Tacit, or implicit, knowledge must be explicated,

codified, organized into an appropriate format
and evaluated according to a set of criteria for
inclusion into the organization’s formal memory.
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 The KM Process Cycle
4. Knowledge Storage and Retrieval
 Organizational memory includes knowledge
stored in the minds of organizational
participants, that held in electronic repositories,
that which has been acquired and retained by
groups or teams and that which is embedded in
the business’s processes, products or services
and its relationships with customers, partners
and suppliers. 38
 Knowledge Storage/Memory

 Physical repositories/hard copies

 Electronic repositories/databases

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Knowledge Categorization

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 Knowledge Retrieval
 Finding stored knowledge for dissemination and
transfer. The following mechanisms can be
employed:

 Indexes

 Codification systems

 Search software like intranet and or internet

portals

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 The KM Process Cycle … cont’d
5. Knowledge Transfer

 In order for knowledge to have wide

organizational impact, it usually must be either
transferred or shared.

 Transferring and sharing may be conceptualized

as two ends of a continuum.

 Transferring involves the focused and purposeful

communication of knowledge from a sender to a
known receive. 42
The KM Process Cycle … cont’d

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 Sharing Mechanisms
 Common access to explicit, recorded
knowledge

 Directory of experts

 Mentor/coach/apprentice

 Joint projects - resource lending

 Meetings - in person, virtual

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 Knowledge Maintenance
 States of Knowledge
 current and accurate
 old, but still interesting
 wrong
 irrelevant
 Maintenance Triggers
 retention period
 expiry date
 review cycle

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 Knowledge Maintenance … cont’d

 Maintenance Activities

 review and update

 discard /delete/ destroy

 archive

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 The KM Process Cycle … cont’d
6. Utilization
 It is the organization's ability to benefit from knowledge, and its
circulation among all employees in order to increase functional
skills, and creative abilities, which lead to improved quality of
service provided by the organization to its customers.

 Anticipated improvements are the primary basis that organizations

use to judge the value of KM initiatives.

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 C. Knowledge Transfer Strategies

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.” Plutarch

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 Concepts of Knowledge Transfer

 Knowledge transfer refers to the process by which

knowledge is transferred to people and organizations that
can benefit from it.

 Knowledge transfer is the intentional communication and

integration of knowledge between individuals or groups
within an organization.

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 Knowledge Transfer Strategies:
KM Tools and Technologies
Successful knowledge transfer involves neither
computers nor documents but rather
interactions between people!! Mason & Mitroff

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 Twenty Essential KM Tools and Techniques
1. Brainstorming 11. Document Libraries
2. Learning’s ideas capture
12. Knowledge Bases
3. Peer Assist
13. Knowledge Assessment
4. Learning Reviews
14. Blogs
5. After Action Reviews
15. Social Network services
6. Expert Locator
16. Voice
7. Communities of Practice
17. Advanced Search
8. Storytelling
18. Knowledge Clusters
9. Virtual Work Spaces
19. Taxonomy
10. Physical Work Spaces
20. Knowledge Cafe

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D. Enablers and Challenges of KM in
Organizations

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Enablers of KM

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 1. Organizational Leadership
 Top management commitment is essential for
successful KM activities.

 Leaders are required than managers.

 Transformational leadership that ensure the

application of Intellectual stimulation is
required.

 Conflict stimulation may be required especially

to boost creativity.
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 2. Organizational Structure
 Mechanistic Organization
1. A rigid and tightly controlled 1. Highly flexible and adaptable
structure structure
2. High specialization 2. Low degree of specialization
3. Rigid departmentalization 3. Flexible departmentalization
4. Narrow spans of control 4. Wider span of control/informal
rules
5. High formalization
5. Low level of formalization
6. Down ward communication
6. Free flow of information,
7. Low level of participation in communication in every direction
decision making
(centralization) 7. Empowered employees
(decentralization)

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 3. Organizational Culture
 The shared norms, beliefs, behavioral expectation
and meanings
 A collection of tradition, values, beliefs and
attitudes that constitute a pervasive context of
every thing that we do in organization.
 The social process by which members share their
values, beliefs, norms, and knowledge
 Very often, open, deliberative, delegating, and
rewarding cultures are recommended for
successful KM activities.
 “As the soil, however rich it may be, cannot be
productive without cultivation, so the mind
without culture can never produce good fruit.”
Seneca
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 4. Technological Infrastructure
 Internet

 Intranet/Group ware

 Extranet

 Data warehousing

 KM software

 Decision support systems

 Data management systems

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 Main Challenges of KM and Managing Change
in Applying KM

 Barriers for KM in Organizations:

① Barriers in organization/culture

② Individual factor

③ Barriers in Technology

④ Barriers in Content

⑤ Barriers in Routine and Procedures

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Knowledge Management Approach

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 1. Top-Down KM Approach

 Technology-centered KM approach
 Started building IT infrastructure
TOP
 Gradually added more applications
 Built around technology by
MIDDLE
defining more knowledge manager
roles

BOTTOM

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 2. Bottom-Up KM Approach

 Decentralized KM approach

TOP
 Knowledge-sharing initiatives at
grassroots level
 Led to development of Communities
MIDDLE of Practice (CoPs)
 Success from initiatives getting
mgt.’s attention and eventual support

BOTTOM

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 3. Middle-Out KM Approach

A centralized KM group was created

to facilitate the KM program
TOP

MIDDLE

BOTTOM

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 E. Implementing Knowledge Management

“The great end of life is not knowledge, but

action”. Thomas Henry Huxley
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Steps to implement KM in an Organization
1. Identifying the business problem (phase one)

2. Preparing for change (Phase two)

3. Advocate and learn (creating the team) (Phase three)

4. Perform the knowledge audit (phase four)

5. Develop strategy (phase five)

6. Design and launch KM initiatives (phase six)

7. Expand and support (phase seven)

8. Institutionalize KM (phase eight)

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 1. Identifying the Business Problem (phase one)

 Successful implementation of knowledge

management requires a clear identification of
the business problem to be solved and an
alignment of the knowledge management
project with overall business objectives.

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 2. Preparing for change (Phase two)

 Knowledge management is more than just an

application of technology.

 It involves cultural changes in the way

employees perceive the knowledge they develop.

 A successful implementation of knowledge

management also requires endorsement from
corporate management.

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 Management of Complex Change

ACTION
VISION + KSA + INCENTIVES + RESOURCES + PLAN =CHANGE

ACTION
+ KSA + INCENTIVES + RESOURCES + PLAN =CONFUSION

+ ACTION
VISION + + INCENTIVES + RESOURCES PLAN =ANXIETY

ACTION
VISION + KSA + + RESOURCES + PLAN =GRADUAL
CHANGE
ACTION
VISION + KSA + INCENTIVES + + PLAN =FRUSTRA-
TION
VISION KSA INCENTIVES RESOURCES =FALSE
+ + + STARTS

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 3. Advocate and Learn (Creating the Team) (Phase 3)

 A well staffed team with a strong team leader

and “cross departmental” expertise is essential
for successful implementation of knowledge
management.

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 4. Perform the Knowledge Audit (phase four)

 A knowledge audit is the first step in any shift in a

knowledge sharing initiative.

 The knowledge audit is an assessment of an

organization’s knowledge capabilities.

 It identifies the gap between available knowledge and

what is needed based on the organization’s strategic
objectives.

 A knowledge audit should start with strategic planning

to identify current and future priorities, as well as a
SWOT analysis.
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 4. Perform the Knowledge Audit… cont’d
It answers the following questions:
[Link] are your organization’s knowledge needs?
[Link] resources does your organization have, and
how are they managed/stored?
[Link] are the gaps in your organization
knowledge?
[Link] is organization information shared
throughout your organization?
[Link] is preventing knowledge from being shared
across your organization?
 4. Perform the Knowledge Audit… cont’d

 Steps for auditing process:

a) Develop a strategic plan

b) Conduct SWOT analysis

c) Completea knowledge Audit
①Knowledge need analysis
② Knowledge inventory analysis
③ Knowledge flow analysis
④Knowledge mapping
⑤Make recommendations
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 5. Develop Strategy (phase five)
 The overall objective of stage five is to
formulate a KM strategy that fits the
organization’s business model.
 From this KM strategy, business opportunities
can be identified and initialized as pilot
initiatives.
 A task force should then be established to take
charge of these activities on behalf of the
organization.
 At this stage, the organization has reached an
important turning point.

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 6. Design and Launch KM Initiatives (phase six)
 Pilot projects have been identified and designed,
and manpower and financial resources have been
allocated.
 The project is now entering the stage, which
involves the successful launching of pilots and
gathering of initial results.
 The overall objectives of this stage are to
conduct successful pilots, provide tangible
evidence of the business value of the knowledge
management initiative, and capture lessons
learned.

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 7. Expand and support (phase seven)
 Pilots would have been launched and results
gathered, some important lessons would have
been learned and captured, and the further
continuation of the KM journey would have
been already decided.

 The overall objectives of stage 7 are to develop

and market an expansion strategy throughout
the organization and to effectively manage the
growth of the KM system.
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 8. Institutionalize KM (phase eight)

 Convinced that KM must be an integral part of

the business model and that it is a necessary
organizational competency.

 The organization has to redefine its strategies,

review its organizational structure, and revisit
its performance assessments.

 Aligning performance evaluation and reward

system with the KM strategy.
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 Genuinely Committed for your Success!

Describe the major takeaways from

this training that you practice now
onwards.
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Thank you!