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Introduction To Knowledge Management

This document provides an introduction to knowledge management. It explores the history and theory of KM, discusses different perspectives on what KM is, and describes several classic models for understanding the hierarchy of data, information, and knowledge. The document also discusses how early documentalists performed some of the functions of modern knowledge managers and traces the evolution of information professionals taking on knowledge management roles. It addresses both technological and human-centered approaches to KM and the challenges of electronic collaboration.

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9 views

Introduction To Knowledge Management

This document provides an introduction to knowledge management. It explores the history and theory of KM, discusses different perspectives on what KM is, and describes several classic models for understanding the hierarchy of data, information, and knowledge. The document also discusses how early documentalists performed some of the functions of modern knowledge managers and traces the evolution of information professionals taking on knowledge management roles. It addresses both technological and human-centered approaches to KM and the challenges of electronic collaboration.

Uploaded by

Althea may
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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INTRODUCTION

TO KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT
JIM S. JAMERO, MIT
OBJECTIVES FOR THIS SESSION

• To explore the history & theory of Knowledge Management (KM)


• To understand the controversies around KM
• To learn about how KM programs are implemented through different
models
• To discuss the ideas in the readings
WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT?

• What are your ideas?


• What have you read?
• What have you heard?
• What do you imagine?
ONE PERSPECTIVE OF KM

• “KM [Knowledge Management] involves blending a


company’s internal and external information and
turning it into actionable knowledge via a technology
platform.”

Susan DiMattia and Norman Oder in


Library Journal, September 15, 1997.
UNDERSTANDING KM

• Understanding Knowledge
Management requires an
understanding of knowledge and the
knowing process and how that differs
from information and information
management.
CLASSIC DATA TO KNOWLEDGE
HIERARCHY

Wisdom
Knowledge
Information
Data
FROM FACTS TO WISDOM
(HAECKEL & NOLAN, 1993)
ONE EXAMPLE OF THE HIERARCHY

Volume Value
Less is
Completeness More Structure
Objectivity Wisdom Subjectivity

Knowledge

Intelligence

Information
Facts
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
MODELS

• Documentalist

• Technologist

• Learner & Communicator


HISTORY OF INFORMATION
PROFESSIONALS AS KNOWLEDGE
MANAGERS

• Knowledge management is a new business strategy, but its


techniques can be traced to the work of documentalists in the early
part of the twentieth century.
DOCUMENTALISTS AS KNOWLEDGE
MANAGERS

• In Europe and America in the first part of the twentieth century,


documentalists had grand visions of collecting, codifying and
organizing the world’s knowledge for the purpose of world peace.
INFORMATION PROFESSIONALS AS
KNOWLEDGE MANAGERS

• The documentalists were the original multimedia


professionals.
• Paul Otlet – began the International Federation for
Documentation. He wanted libraries to stop being
depositories and to become more dynamic in
information transfer.
• Under the leadership of Otlet the Europeans not only
collected and codified documents, they developed
networks and worked to exchange knowledge among
people.
DOCUMENTALISTS AND SPECIAL
LIBRARIANS

• Suzanne Briet, sometimes called “Madame Documentation” drew the


comparison between American special librarians and European
documentalists after a visit to America in 1954.
BRIET & THE DOCUMENTALISTS
• “In Qu'est-ce que la documentation? Briet
brilliantly defined documents in terms of indexical
signs. In this, she was adopting an
argument that previous documentalists of her time
had suggested and which was present in the
cultural air, as she states, through
‘linguists and philosophers,’ surely in the form of
structural linguistics and semiotics.”
CAUTION

• It would be a mistake, though, to


define Knowledge Management
as solely the domain of
documents and documentalists.
KM AS A TECHNOLOGICAL
SOLUTION
• Is KM

• Big business?
• A competitive advantage?
• Intellectual capital?
• An intranet solution?
• An asset dimension?
• A technological infrastructure?
CONTENTNETS
HAVE A ROLE TO PLAY IN KM

• As knowledge repositories for tacit knowledge that has been made


explicit
• For best practices databases
• For expert “yellow pages”
• Online learning and knowledge sharing
• Knowledge sharing “boards”
PEOPLENETS &
PROCESSNETS
HAVE A ROLE TO PLAY IN KM

• For group learning applications


• To connect individuals with each other for mentoring and knowledge
sharing
• For decision support & decision making
• To sense, share, and respond to the “signals” coming from the
environment
• To capture ideas and turn them into action
CAUTION

• It would be a mistake, though, to


define Knowledge Management
as solely the KM technology
infrastructure.
THE CHALLENGES OF ELECTRONIC
COLLABORATION IN KNOWLEDGE
SHARING

• “Focusing exclusively on the technical issues of


electronic collaboration is a sure way to a very
expensive failure.”
• “A focus on the people issues dramatically increases
the potential for success.”

David Coleman, IBM Manager, San Francisco in Knowledge


Management, a Real Business Guide, London:IBM, nd.
THE LEARNING AND
COMMUNICATION PROCESS MODEL
• Innovation is a way of life
• Flexibility and the ability to
act quickly is necessary in a
changing environment
• New projects can benefit
from alliances and learning
from in-house experts and
creative thinkers.
KM: LEARNING AND COMMUNICATION
PROCESS

• In simple language KM is an effort to capture not only explicit factual


information but also the tacit information and knowledge that exists in an
organization, usually based on the experience and learning of individual
employees, in order to advance the organization's mission. The eventual
goal is to share knowledge among members of the organization.
Na
n vi
it o ga
c
ll e tio
C o n
Value to
Organization

Active Knowledge
Repositories Transfer
Expert Knowledge Base
Best Practices Organizational Contact Links
Reports Learning Expert Assistance as
Needed
Documents
Communities of Practice
Presentation Slides
Index
Tips
Decision Making Tools
Profiles for
Customization
Pushed Reports & on
Co News a t i
dif n ic
ica mu
tio Collaboration Tools
n C om
SO…WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT?
• “Knowledge management (KM) is an effort to increase
useful knowledge within the organization. Ways to do this
include encouraging communication, offering opportunities
to learn, and promoting the sharing of appropriate
knowledge artifacts.”
SOME OTHER KEY IDEAS

• Knowledge as a Social Value

• Knowledge artifacts

• Knowledge as an intellectual activity & the


mind/body connection

• Common knowledge

• Process & things

• KM as a fad
• “Processing data can be performed by
machine, but only the human mind can
process knowledge or even information.”

Jesse Shera in Machlup and Mansfield’s


The Study of Information: Interdisciplinary
Messages. NY: Wiley, 1983.

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