There has been lot of definitions of Knowledge Management by well known researchers and guru's of KM. Before going into defining KM let us first look at what is knowledge and what does management refers to. Knowledge can be any meaningful information and the simplest way of defining management is planning, organizing, controlling and prioritising. This brings us very close to the definition of KM by Karl Wiig (1997, 1999) and Bhatt G. D. (2000, 2001).
Karl Wiig (1997, 1999) states that
"KM is to understand, focus on, and manage systematic, explicit, and
deliberate knowledge building, renewal, and application – that is, manage
effective knowledge processes (EKP). "
Bhatt G. D. (2000, 2001) states that
Now the question which arises is why to manage it.
Richard E. Combs states that some of the barriers for learning are knowledge transfer, space, time and memory, culture clash , competitive intelligence and managing historical and tacit information. He states that a neutral platform is needed where issues of language don't exist, where space, time and memory are no longer a barrier to interaction or knowledge, which looks at the exterior events and helps management to looks at what lies before it, which can save and store what was said and done and acted upon. (Richard E. Combs)
KMS provides this platform to overcome all the above mentioned barriers. Taking into account all the definitions of KM and reasons why it is required we can define KMS as
"A platform to overcome barriers to knowledge like knowledge transfer, space, time and memory, culture clash , competitive intelligence and managing historical and tacit information for an organisation to get help in decision making and to gain competitive advantage."
Considering the example of my previous employer i.e. Sutherland Global Services, a BPO in relation with KM. We had our individual account in a software system called as Peoplesoft. Using our userid we used to login to the account to mark our attendance. It used to show us our attendance for the month selected, holidays taken, holidays requested and whether approved or not, our shift timings, task for the week etc. The records of our individual account can be seen and managed by our team leader through his account. The shift timings, task for the week and holiday approval was managed by our team leader. And the team leader's account were managed by the Team Manager and it goes up the hierarchy. This system eliminated the culture clash, the space,time and memory issues and provided competitive intelligence and helped in managing information. It provided a platform for overcoming the barriers to knowledge and also helped in decision making and to gain competitive advantage.
Considering our definition the Peoplesoft software can be considered as a KMS. In this case it worked because it succeeded in achieving the functionalities for which it was designed. Like it provided with successful transfer of knowledge between the employees overcoming one of the barriers to knowledge i.e. knowledge transfer. It eliminated the space, time and memory barrier by storing information on a computer eliminating space and memory issue and transfering it as and when required between the employees without wasting much time. It helped in managing the historical information by storing the attendance of the employee, their salary slips, holidays taken etc. It also helped in converting the tacit knowledge (knowledge from the team leader or manager) into explicit knowledge used by the executives for doing their task. As the team leader gets all the holiday request's of his team in his account, it helps him in decision making to approve or reject the holiday request. As the HR manager can see the attendance of all the employees it helps him in allocationg salaries accordingly i.e. again it helps in decision making. The entire system provides a competitive advantage as it provides greater service eleminating all the hassle.
References :
Bhatt, G. D. (2001), ‘Knowledge management in organizations: examining the interaction
between technologies, techniques, and people’, Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 5,
no. 1, pp. 68-75
Wiig, K. M. (1997), ‘Knowledge Management: an introduction and perspective’ Journal of
Knowledge Management, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 6-14
Richard E. Combs, Why Manage Knowledge?
Karl Wiig (1997, 1999) states that
"KM is to understand, focus on, and manage systematic, explicit, and
deliberate knowledge building, renewal, and application – that is, manage
effective knowledge processes (EKP). "
Bhatt G. D. (2000, 2001) states that
"The knowledge management process can be categorized into knowledge
creation, knowledge validation, knowledge presentation, knowledge distribution,
and knowledge application activities."
creation, knowledge validation, knowledge presentation, knowledge distribution,
and knowledge application activities."
Now the question which arises is why to manage it.
Richard E. Combs states that some of the barriers for learning are knowledge transfer, space, time and memory, culture clash , competitive intelligence and managing historical and tacit information. He states that a neutral platform is needed where issues of language don't exist, where space, time and memory are no longer a barrier to interaction or knowledge, which looks at the exterior events and helps management to looks at what lies before it, which can save and store what was said and done and acted upon. (Richard E. Combs)
KMS provides this platform to overcome all the above mentioned barriers. Taking into account all the definitions of KM and reasons why it is required we can define KMS as
"A platform to overcome barriers to knowledge like knowledge transfer, space, time and memory, culture clash , competitive intelligence and managing historical and tacit information for an organisation to get help in decision making and to gain competitive advantage."
Considering the example of my previous employer i.e. Sutherland Global Services, a BPO in relation with KM. We had our individual account in a software system called as Peoplesoft. Using our userid we used to login to the account to mark our attendance. It used to show us our attendance for the month selected, holidays taken, holidays requested and whether approved or not, our shift timings, task for the week etc. The records of our individual account can be seen and managed by our team leader through his account. The shift timings, task for the week and holiday approval was managed by our team leader. And the team leader's account were managed by the Team Manager and it goes up the hierarchy. This system eliminated the culture clash, the space,time and memory issues and provided competitive intelligence and helped in managing information. It provided a platform for overcoming the barriers to knowledge and also helped in decision making and to gain competitive advantage.
Considering our definition the Peoplesoft software can be considered as a KMS. In this case it worked because it succeeded in achieving the functionalities for which it was designed. Like it provided with successful transfer of knowledge between the employees overcoming one of the barriers to knowledge i.e. knowledge transfer. It eliminated the space, time and memory barrier by storing information on a computer eliminating space and memory issue and transfering it as and when required between the employees without wasting much time. It helped in managing the historical information by storing the attendance of the employee, their salary slips, holidays taken etc. It also helped in converting the tacit knowledge (knowledge from the team leader or manager) into explicit knowledge used by the executives for doing their task. As the team leader gets all the holiday request's of his team in his account, it helps him in decision making to approve or reject the holiday request. As the HR manager can see the attendance of all the employees it helps him in allocationg salaries accordingly i.e. again it helps in decision making. The entire system provides a competitive advantage as it provides greater service eleminating all the hassle.
References :
Bhatt, G. D. (2001), ‘Knowledge management in organizations: examining the interaction
between technologies, techniques, and people’, Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 5,
no. 1, pp. 68-75
Wiig, K. M. (1997), ‘Knowledge Management: an introduction and perspective’ Journal of
Knowledge Management, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 6-14
Richard E. Combs, Why Manage Knowledge?
Faran
ReplyDeleteIt seems that you have done a good effort to collect some KM definitions, but dont you think they are isolated from each other with no discussions about (a) how they relate to each other? and (b) how theory can be put into practice (from your own experience?
There are room for improvement?
Aboubakr
From what you tried to explain, i do agree with your own definition. The example which you gave would be the simplest one but definitely works.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the various barriers that you have mentioned in your definition and also the example is very helpful. I would like to add that even explicit knowledge should be addressed and along with decision making and competitive advantage there is room for innovation too.
ReplyDeleteThe connection back to your previous employer is great, but we need the theory you described connected into that experience, both for where it might have worked or failed. That would be fantastic if you could do it.
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