What is knowledge?

Knowledge is facts, information, skills acquired through experience or education and

theoretical and practical concepts of any subject.
What is knowledge management?
Knowledge management (KM) is the process of organizing, creating, using, and sharing
collective knowledge within an organization. When knowledge is not easily accessible within
an organization, it can be incredibly costly to a business as valuable time is spent seeking out
relevant information versus completing outcome-focused tasks. Companies with a knowledge
management strategy achieve business outcomes more quickly as increased organizational
learning and collaboration among team members facilitates faster decision-making across the
business. It also streamlines more organizational processes, such as training and on-boarding,
leading to reports of higher employee satisfaction and retention.

What is knowledge management used for?

•Capturing and organizing knowledge in a knowledge management system to address
specific business tasks and projects.
•Sharing knowledge with others who can benefit from it.
•Improving processes and technology to provide easy access to knowledge.
•Promoting the generation of new knowledge for continual learning.

Types of knowledge
The definition of knowledge management also includes three types of knowledge—
tacit, implicit, and explicit knowledge.

Explicit
Explicit knowledge is information that can be codified and communicated. Explicit
knowledge is codified knowledge, or knowledge that has been documented and is easily
accessible. It’s easy to share this type of knowledge and it can be quickly understood by others.
Given its simple nature, explicit knowledge is much easier to store and retrieve in a knowledge
management system. The challenge is ensuring it's reviewed and updated. Some types of
explicit knowledge are standard operating procedures, employee handbooks, and HR policies.

Tacit
Tacit knowledge is much harder to capture than explicit knowledge. It typically comprises the
skills and experience of your employee that is difficult to explain or share with others. Tacit
knowledge is knowledge that stems from personal experience, context, or practice. This type
of knowledge is stuck in your brain, making it hard to communicate to others. Since tacit
knowledge is based on experience and intuition, like speaking another language, it's a huge
competitive advantage and a huge challenge when implementing knowledge management
[Link]- leadership skills, body language.
 Implicit
Implicit knowledge is very similar to tacit knowledge except that it can more easily be
codified. It’s information that is embedded in the organization’s processes and is currently
not expressed. Implicit knowledge is embedded in process, routines, or organizational
culture. It can exist in a formalized format, like a manual or written guidelines, but the
knowledge itself isn't explicit. Instead, it often lives in the way an organization runs. While
tacit knowledge is difficult to codify, implicit knowledge does not necessarily have this
problem. Instead, implicit information has yet to be documented. It tends to exist within
processes, and it can be referred to as “know-how” knowledge.

•Explicit knowledge (knowledge that is easy to write down and share)

•Tacit knowledge (knowledge gained from personal experience)
•Implicit knowledge (applied knowledge)

Benefits of knowledge management

In addition to reducing business operation costs and increasing employee productivity, knowledge
management provides the following benefits:
•Reduces duplication of existing knowledge. Individual and collective knowledge is now
recorded and stored in one place that's easily accessible to users.

•Improves employee training. New employees can train more quickly and thoroughly by
getting answers to questions that aren't covered in the training material.

•Enhances customer onboarding. As with employee training, new customers can rapidly get
answers to questions that might not be covered in onboarding presentations.

•Provides information at users' fingertips. Users no longer need to ask multiple people for
the same thing in hopes that they might know the answer to their question.

•Reduces mistakes. As users share information, they work out the kinks of various processes,
preventing the same mistake from being made twice.

•Offers standardized processes. A golden record of processes and procedures is stored in a

system for all to access, which can improve employee onboarding and training. This also
preserves information, preventing processes from getting muddled over time.

•Increases collaboration. With users sharing knowledge in a common space, it's more
convenient to work together to improve processes
Challenges of knowledge management
•Resistance to change. Employees are often set in their ways and managers find it difficult to
motivate employees to change their habits and share knowledge in a common workspace.

•Obsolete technology. Technology is constantly changing, making it sometimes difficult to keep

up with the latest updates and tools.

•Security concerns. As with any information in a business system, user permissions and
security levels must be set to ensure the right people are seeing the right information.

•Outdated information. Like technology, information changes rapidly. It's necessary to keep it
fresh and relevant.

•Information overload. With so much information, it can be challenging for users to pinpoint
the exact information they need.

What is the knowledge management process?

Knowledge management includes the following five key processes:
[Link] gathering. This includes entering data, optical character
recognition and scanning, pulling information from various sources and searching for
other information to include.

[Link] assessment. Once data has been discovered and captured, it must be
assessed before it can be truly useful. This means it must be examined for incorrect or
outdated information, redundancy, and gaps and incompleteness.

[Link] storage and organization. This includes cataloging and indexing

content in a knowledge management system and placing links within this content to
provide further related information for users to digest.

[Link] distribution. This provides a way for users to access the information,
including FAQs, training videos, white papers and manuals.

[Link] use. Once information is distributed to users, they must put it into
action.

What is the knowledge management process?

[Link] Creation: Knowledge creation starts with knowledge acquisition. This
knowledge may come from many sources, including employees within an organization or
outside individuals that are brought in for knowledge or expertise on a specific subject
During this step, organizations identify and document any existing or new knowledge that
they want to circulate across the company.
[Link] Storage & Organization: During this stage, an information technology
system is typically used to host organizational knowledge for distribution. Information may
need to be formatted in a particular way to meet the requirements of that repository. The
knowledge must then be structured in a knowledge management system for future use.
This knowledge must not only be organized, but it also needs to include security features
so that knowledge can be accessed by authorized personnel when needed
[Link] Sharing: The knowledge organization process is completed by knowledge
sharing. This knowledge sharing includes everything from knowledge training to
knowledge exchange, where knowledge can be acquired or enhanced through knowledge
discussions with other employees in an organization. In this final stage, processes to share
knowledge are communicated broadly across the organization. The rate in which
information spreads will vary depending on organizational culture. Companies that
encourage and reward this behavior will certainly have a competitive advantage over other
ones in their industry.
Components of Knowledge Management
•People, process, content/IT, and strategy are the four key components of knowledge
management.
•Regardless of your organization’s sector, size, or knowledge requirements, you will still
require people to lead, support, and encourage knowledge sharing. Well-defined process are
required to regulate and measure information flows. It is necessary to have information content
and IT resources that connect the appropriate individuals to the right material at the right time.
You must have a clear Strategy in place for utilising KM to fulfil the most significant and
immediate business demands.

People
People include top management, team leaders who motivate their members, the core
knowledge management team who guide the implementation, and finally, employees who
contribute and use the system.
Knowledge management must be prioritized within the company. The top management needs
to lead by example and encourage and incentivize the sharing of information. Rewarding and
motivating people to regularly use the system to share their insights will go a long way in
ensuring the knowledge management program’s success.

Process

A clear and well-defined process for identifying, storing, and sharing knowledge is a vital
component of every successful knowledge management initiative. The process of knowledge
management includes various steps, such as creating knowledge, structuring it, reviewing and
sharing it before it can be used, and applied by other teams. The goal of knowledge
management is to ensure right knowledge is available to right people at the right time.

The processes you set up should be designed to ensure accuracy in identifying, managing,
sharing information, especially in a secure way. The purpose of knowledge management is
counter-intuitive if the wrong information is shared or if it is shared with the wrong person.

Technology

Technology is a crucial element behind the success of any knowledge management project. The
systems and software should also enable easy and secure access for authorized employees to
relevant information as and when required. Without technology knowledge acquisition, storage
and sharing is not possible. Technology solutions bring together all the components — process,
people, and information — required to build an organization’s knowledge management system.
Technology helps in protecting the data from unauthorized access.

Strategy

A knowledge management strategy is a well-documented source of direction for the company.

Essentially, it is the blueprint of the goals of the organization in terms of identification, storage,
and sharing of existing and new knowledge, which include the business challenges that need to be
solved across departments. The knowledge management strategy should focus on identifying and
addressing a knowledge gap in the organization. For instance, if an insurance firm identifies the
general insurance division as a growth area, the other departments should learn more from this
division to realize organizational goals.