CHAPTER FIVE

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT (KM)

5.1. Introduction to knowledge management

Knowledge is facts about the real-world entities and the relationship between them. It is an
Understanding gained through experience and answer the ‗how ‘question. An understanding of a
specific subject can be through experience (or education). Typically, knowledge is used in terms
of a person ‘s skills or expertise in a given area. Knowledge typically reflects an empirical, rather
than intuitive, understanding. ―Knowing ignorance is strength, ignoring knowledge is sickness‖.

Knowledge is increasingly being recognized as the new strategic imperative of organizations.

The most established paradigm is that knowledge is power. Therefore, one has to hoard it, keep it
to oneself to maintain an advantage. The common attitude of most people is to hold on to one‘s
knowledge since it is what makes him or her asset to the organization. It has been shown that the
organization that shares knowledge among its management and staff grows stronger and
becomes more competitive. This is the core of knowledge management – the sharing of
knowledge.

Understanding Knowledge

We begin with data. What is data? Data is a number or word or letter without any context. For
example, numbers like 5 or 100, without any context, are mere data. Without reference to either
space or time, these numbers or data are meaningless points in space and time. The key phrase
here is out of context. And since it is out of context then it has no meaningful relation to anything
else.

A mere collection of data is not information. This means that if there is no relation between the
pieces of data, then it is not information. What makes a collection of data information is the
understanding of the relationships between the pieces of data or between the collection of data
and other information. In other words, what is essential in making data or a collection of data
information is the context, that is, the relation between the pieces of data.

Let us take an example. If we are given numbers like 1 and 7, they do not mean much.
We may relate to the number 1 as being less than 2 and greater than 0, while 7 is a number
greater than 6 but less than 8. At this level of understanding, these numbers are mere data.
However, if we associate 7 with the number of days in a week, then we create context. With
context, these data become information. And the information given by that context is that there
are 7 days in 1 week. We have established a relationship between the two pieces of data 1 and 7.
We have associated the number 1 with week and the number 7 with days. We have placed the
data within a context thus producing information.

Types of Knowledge

i. Explicit knowledge (already represented/documented) has been codified (documented) in a

form that can be distributed to others or transformed into a process or strategy without requiring
interpersonal interaction. Explicit knowledge is knowledge codified and digitized in books,
documents, reports, memos, etc. Explicit knowledge (or leaky knowledge) deals with objective,
rational, and technical knowledge in Data, Policies, Procedures, Software, Documents, Products,
Strategies, Goals, Mission and Core Competencies The more that knowledge is made explicit,
the more economically it can be transferred.

ii. Tacit knowledge (Embedded in the mind): is usually in the domain of subjective, cognitive,
and experiential learning; it is highly personal and difficult to formalize.

Tacit knowledge is knowledge embedded in the human mind through experience and jobs. It is
also referred to as embedded knowledge since it is usually either localized within the brain of an
individual or embedded in the group interactions within a department or business unit. Up to
95% of information is preserved as tacit knowledge.

Tacit knowledge is the cumulative store of the corporate experiences, Mental maps,
Insights, Expertise, Know-how, Trade secrets, Skill sets, Learning of an organization,
The organizational culture
Tacit knowledge is generally slow and costly to transfer and can be plagued by
ambiguity.

What is Knowledge Management?

Knowledge management (KM) may be defined simply as doing what is needed to get the most
out of knowledge resources. KM is the methodology; tools & techniques to gather integrate &
disseminate knowledge, wherever & whenever it is needed. These can be further classified into
organization & technology components.
The Organization Component consists of strategies, standards and guidelines, policies, and
socio-cultural environment.

The Technology Component consists of tools and techniques to implement effective KM practice
(knowledge creation, knowledge integration, and knowledge sharing and knowledge utilization)
which provides values to its business, employees, customers & partners.
Knowledge Management System
Knowledge Management: is the process of creating, acquiring, organizing, sharing and making
available important knowledge for end users.
Knowledge Lifecycle Management
Knowledge Creation: Knowledge is created as people determine new ways of doing things or
develop know-how. Sometimes external knowledge is brought in. Knowledge is created either as
explicit or tacit knowledge. Knowledge is created by doing research activities, creative processes
in advertising, writing books or articles, making movies, etc.

Knowledge acquisition: finding existing/new knowledge, understanding requirements,

searching among multiple sources and representing in a reasonable way.
Knowledge Storage: Knowledge is stored & organized in a repository so that others in the
organization can access it.
Knowledge Sharing: is the exchange of ideas, solutions, experiences to individuals via
knowledge transfer automated or manual systems; using which people can either search or
navigate to the knowledge items.
 Knowledge must be made available in a useful format to anyone in the
organization who needs it, anywhere and anytime.
Knowledge Utilization: This is end goal of knowledge practice. The KM does not have any
value if knowledge created is not applied, used & reused to its potential.
As knowledge is disseminated & used, individuals develop, create & identify new knowledge
or update old knowledge, which they replenish into the system.
Update Knowledge: The more knowledge is created as knowledge is applied & reused for a
new purpose. Knowledge is a resource that is not consumed when used, though it can age.
 For example, driving a car in 1900 was different from driving one now, but many of the basic
principles still apply.

Forces Driving Knowledge Management

1. Market Forces 2. Human Resource

Increasing Complexity of the Domain  Diminishing Individual Experience
 Many actors are involved, including  High turnover of professionals
 KM helps to build better sensitivity
suppliers, consumers, sellers, etc.
to brain drain.
Accelerating Market Volatility  Now consumer reaches to the level
 The business landscape is changing rapidly of prosumer.

 Intensified Speed of Responsiveness

 Fast response to business opportunities
Effective Knowledge Management

 KM involves people, technology and processes that are overlapping.

 Studies revealed that effective KM depends on:
 80% - Organizational processes and human factors
 20% - Technology
 Knowledge is first created in the people ‘s mind.
 KM practices must first identify ways to encourage and stimulate the ability of
employees to document their knowledge and also develop new knowledge.
Knowledge Management Methodologies and Technologies must enable effective ways to:
Create knowledge Share/Disseminate knowledge
Acquire knowledge Use and reuse knowledge
Represent knowledge Update this knowledge
Organize knowledge
As knowledge is disseminated, individuals develop, create, and identify new knowledge or
update old knowledge, which they reload into the system. KM should not distance itself from the
knowledge owners,
 But instead celebrate and recognize their importance/ position as experts in the
organization.
 This will make them recognize knowledge is power, not just by bill boarding it but also
by sharing it.
Benefits of KM
KM has had a positive impact on business process. The goal is:

To capture the tacit knowledge required by the business process

To encourage knowledge workers to share and communicate knowledge with peers

KM has the intangible return on knowledge sharing rather than knowledge hoarding

Knowledge Engineering (KE)

 KE is the process of building a knowledge base through extracting the knowledge from
the human expert.
 Knowledge engineering is the process of
Extracting the knowledge from the human expert.
Choose knowledge representation formalism
Choose reasoning and problem-solving strategy.
A knowledge engineer is someone who investigates a particular domain, determines what
concepts are important in that domain, and creates a formal representation of the objects and
relations in the domain.
A KE has to decide what objects and relations are worth representing, and which relations hold
among which objects. The two main tasks of KE

 Knowledge acquisition
The knowledge engineer interviews the real human experts to be educated about the
domain and to elicit the required knowledge, in a process called knowledge acquisition
 Knowledge Representation
Techniques such as logic are a powerful tool for KR and reasoning. However, such
techniques consist of only the syntax, semantics and proof theory.
KR techniques do not offer any guidance as to what facts should be expressed, nor what
vocabulary should be used to express them Knowledge base is used to store facts and
rules.

4. Wisdom

Wisdom is the ability to apply knowledge in order to solve a problem. After gaining
knowledge, wisdom is used to meet new situations and hence is the ability to imagine the
consequences of our actions for ourselves and for others.
 It is an asset for good judgment that we acquire through experience.
 It is accumulated knowledge gained through a combination of academic study and Personal
experience
It comes from the ability to synthesize (combine) various streams of knowledge:
 That enables us to make informed judgments about various ideas and propositions that
may lie outside of our own direct areas of expertise.
 Allow you to understand how to apply concepts from one domain to new situations or
problems.
 To make such wise judgment we have to add values, ethics and reasons to knowledge.
Wisdom is also defined as the state of being wise:
 Acting based on broad (not narrow minded) perspective
 Avoiding narrow self-interest and moving towards greater social contribution
 Grounded on the past (experience) and be able to create the future
 Be informed by multiple forms of intelligence such as: Reason. Intuition, Spirit &
Values
Wisdom is the ability to understand the fundamental principles that govern the patterns
representing knowledge. This understanding enables us to know what the knowledge itself is.
 Wisdom deals with the future and it incorporates vision. Based on wisdom it is possible
to create the future rather than grasping the present and the past.
 An individual with wisdom normally has enough experience and perspective to identify
patterns and trends so that various bodies of knowledge can be put in context, combined
and applied appropriately.
 The one who has knowledge may not necessarily have the capacity to process wisdom.
You can find people with advanced degrees who lack wisdom or wise judgment? Our
grandparents may lack knowledge since they are not educated. But they are long on
wisdom. Through long experience they can apply the values, ethics and reasons to make
wise judgment.
Therefore, wisdom combines
 Experience of connecting and reviewing bodies of knowledge, and
 A genuine grasp of human nature and the different ways that exist in the real world, this
allows the proper use of data, information and knowledge to judge between right and
 wrong, good and bad.
In an "information age," technology cannot confer wisdom: wisdom takes more time to
develop and cultivate than even knowledge does.