KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Transcription

1 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT G. AMIRTHRAJ MBA-II YEAR MANAKULA VINAYAGAR INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Mobile no ABSTRACT This paper contains topics of interest for those in the Knowledge Management field. Knowledge management is the art of performing knowledge actions such as organizing, blocking, filtering, storing gathering, sharing, disseminating and using knowledge objects such as data, information, experiences, evaluations, insights, wisdom and initiatives. In general terms it is the performance of knowledge actions on knowledge objects. It does keep one abreast of the rapidly unfolding field of Knowledge management. The paper throws a light on knowledge management cycle; history of knowledge management, values and technologies influences the knowledge management, percent and future stages of knowledge management and implementing knowledge management in the organization. Knowledge management is a timely and important topic for workers of employee s satisfaction and to solve the problems in their production. Particularly some recent technologies will support the knowledge management in the industry. Several studies point out those industries production process, management report that they feel employee s knowledge in their work. Through their dealings with knowledge of the present and future state levels of knowledge management in their concern. Keywords: Knowledge Management, organization and Employee Satisfaction, values. Introduction What is knowledge Management? Knowledge Management is one of the hottest topics today in both the industry world and information research world. In our daily life, we deal with huge amount of data and information. Data and information is not knowledge until we know how to dig the value out of it. This is the reason we need knowledge management. Unfortunately, there's no universal definition of knowledge management, just as there's no agreement as to what constitutes knowledge in the first place. We chose the following definition for knowledge management for its simplicity and broad context.

2 Meaning of Knowledge Management Knowledge management is the Process to help organization identify, select, organize, disseminate, transfer information. Knowledge management is the art of performing knowledge actions such as organizing, blocking, filtering, storing gathering, sharing, disseminating and using knowledge objects such as data, information, experiences, evaluations, insights, wisdom and initiatives. In general terms it is the performance of knowledge actions on knowledge objects (Sivan, 2001) as shown in the Figure 1. Knowledge management = Knowledge Actions Knowledge Objects The art of performing knowledge actions knowledge objects on Organizing, storing, gathering, sharing, disseminating, using. Data, information, experience, evaluations, insights, wisdom Simple Definition Knowledge Management refers to a multidisciplined approach to achieving organizational objectives by making the best use of knowledge. Knowledge Management focuses on processes such as acquiring, creating and sharing knowledge and the cultural and technical foundations that support them. Objectives of Knowledge Management systems in practice: 1. Create knowledge repository 2. Improve knowledge assets 3. Enhance the knowledge environment 4. Manage knowledge as an asset Knowledge Management may be viewed in terms of People How do you increase the ability of an individual in the organisation to influence others with their knowledge Processes Its approach varies from organization to organization. There is no limit on the number of processes Technology It needs to be chosen only after all the requirements of a knowledge management initiative have been established. Culture The biggest enabler of successful knowledge-driven organizations is the establishment of a knowledge-focused culture Structure The business processes and organisational structures that facilitate knowledge sharing Technology A crucial enabler rather than the solution. Knowledge Management System Cycle 1. Creates knowledge through new ways of doing things 2. Identifies and captures new knowledge 3. Places knowledge into context so it is usable

3 4. Stores knowledge in repository 5. Reviews for accuracy and relevance 6. Makes knowledge available at all times to anyone Earlier forms of KM Although it can be said that various forms of knowledge management have been around for a very long time, the explicit notion of managing knowledge started as an offspring of rapid developments in information technology. At the same time current knowledge management efforts sometimes resemble older methods such as apprenticeships, which have been around for millennia. The History Of Knowledge Management (different opinion of knowledge management) Recognition of the growing importance of organizational knowledge was accompanied by concern over how to deal with exponential increases in the amount of available knowledge and increasingly complex products and processes. Doug Engelbart s Augment (for "augmenting human intelligence"), which was introduced in 1978, was an early hypertext/groupware application capable of interfacing with other applications and systems. Rob Acksyn s and Don McCracken s Knowledge Management System (KMS), an open distributed hypermedia tool, is another notable example and one that predates the World Wide Web by a decade. The 1980s also saw the development of systems for managing knowledge that relied on work done in artificial intelligence and expert systems, giving us such concepts as "knowledge acquisition," "knowledge engineering," "knowledge-base systems, and computer-based ontologies. The phrase "knowledge management" entered the lexicon in earnest. To provide a technological base for managing knowledge, a consortium of U.S. companies started the Initiative for Managing Knowledge Assets in By the mid-1990s, knowledge management initiatives were flourishing, thanks in part to the Internet. Knowledge management was introduced in the popular press in 1991, when Tom Stewart published "Brainpower" in Fortune magazine. The International Knowledge Management Network (IKMN), begun in Europe in 1989, went online in 1994 and was

4 soon joined by the U.S.-based Knowledge Management Forum and other KM-related groups and publications. The number of knowledge management conferences and seminars is growing as organizations focus on managing and leveraging explicit and tacit knowledge resources to achieve competitive advantage By 1990, a number of management consulting firms had begun in-house knowledge management programs, and several well known U.S., European, and Japanese firms had instituted focused knowledge management programs. Perhaps the most widely read work to date is Ikujiro Nonaka s and Hirotaka Takeuchi s The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation (1995). In 1994 the IKMN published the results of a knowledge management survey conducted among European firms, and the European Community began offering funding for KMrelated projects through the ESPRIT program in The Value Of Knowledge Management Some benefits of Knowledge management correlate directly to bottom line savings, while others are more difficult to quantify. In today's information-driven economy, companies uncover the most opportunities and ultimately derive the most value from intellectual rather than physical assets. To get the most value from a company's intellectual assets, Knowledge management practitioners maintain that knowledge must be shared and serve as the foundation for collaboration. Yet better collaboration is not an end in itself; without an overarching business context, Knowledge management is meaningless at best and harmful at worst. Consequently, an effective Knowledge management program should help a company do one or more of the following: 1. Foster innovation by encouraging the free flow of ideas 2. Improve decision making 3. Improve customer service by streamlining response time 4. Boost revenues by getting products and services to market faster 5. Enhance employee retention rates by recognizing the value of employees' knowledge and rewarding them for it 6. Streamline operations and reduce costs by eliminating redundant or unnecessary processes These are the most prevalent examples. A creative approach to Knowledge management can result in improved efficiency, higher productivity and increased revenues in practically any business function. Knowledge Management Today According to a recent IDC report, knowledge management is in a state of high growth, especially among the business and legal services industries. As the performance metrics of early adopters are documenting the substantial benefits of knowledge management, more organizations are recognizing the value of

5 leveraging organizational knowledge. As a result, knowledge management consulting services and technologies are in high demand, and knowledge management software is rapidly evolving. Generally implementing a knowledge management methodology follows seven steps: 1. Identifying the problem. Corporate knowledge is typically found in isolated systems or knowledge silos. The access and technological barriers protecting this knowledge lead users to perceive that there is lack of knowledge. The knowledge segments should be identified. 2. Preparing for change. This refers to change in terms of business efforts, especially in how the business is operated. 3. Creating the team. Most organizations that have successfully implemented knowledge management have created a corporate level knowledge management team charged with and responsible for implementing a pilot project. Here chief knowledge officer should be appointed to lead the effort. 4. Mapping out the knowledge. Identify what the knowledge is, where it is, who has it, and who needs it. Once the knowledge map is clear, define and prioritize the key feature and identify appropriate technologies that can be used to implement the knowledge management system. 5. Defining the building blocks for a knowledge management system. The base structures of a viable knowledge management system should consist of a knowledge repository, knowledge contribution and collection processes, knowledge retrieval systems, a knowledge directory and content management. 6. Integrating existing information systems to contribute and capture knowledge in an appropriate format. Technologies That Support Knowledge Management The following diagram reflects the main technologies that currently support knowledge management systems. These technologies roughly correlate to four main stages of the Knowledge management life cycle: Knowledge is acquired or captured using intranets, extranets, groupware, web conferencing, and document management systems. An organizational memory is formed by refining, organizing, and storing knowledge using structured repositories such as data warehouses. Knowledge is distributed through education, training programs, automated knowledge based systems, expert networks. Knowledge is applied or leveraged for further learning and innovation via mining of the organizational memory and the application of expert systems such as decision support systems.

6 All of these stages are enhanced by effective workflow and project management. According to Creech (2005), there are seven trends that are influencing how organizations are dealing with knowledge management: 1. Convergence Knowledge concepts and practices for international organizations have emerged out of management approaches into the private sector, innovation in the uses of information and communication technologies, and processes for addressing international development through consultative approaches. 2. Transition from the storage and retrieval of information to active engagement with the knowledge user KM has moved well beyond the systematic collection, archiving and retrieval of information. 3. Shifting emphasis from knowledge to influence Knowledge management practice now includes the creation of internal communities to foster face-to-face and interaction among staff. 4. A new focus on social capital and social networks Organizations are now looking at the tools and training for staff to map their existing social networks and to understand how to build 'social capital' with their colleagues, clients and audiences. 5. Open source/open content: addressing the democratization of knowledge sharing- Again, according to Creech (2005), the open source concept (involves the release among computer programmers of source code for others to work with) is of growing interest to knowledge-based organizations. 6. The adoption of different modalities - There is growing interest in how collaboration among groups of people can be 'governed' rather than 'managed.' An organization creates the space for knowledgesharing through providing leadership and resources, and through clear articulation of roles and expectations, and then lets the emerging community run itself. 7. Adaptive management There is an increasing recognition that for learning to be transformational, there have to be mechanisms

7 for monitoring work, relationships and knowledge exchanges as they progress Knowledge Management Today According to a recent IDC report, knowledge management is in a state of high growth, especially among the business and legal services industries. As the performance metrics of early adopters are documenting the substantial benefits of knowledge management, more organizations are recognizing the value of leveraging organizational knowledge. As a result, knowledge management consulting services and technologies are in high demand, and knowledge Present And Future State Of Knowledge Management Currently communities of practice such as the Knowledge Management Network and the development of standards and best practices are in a mature stage of development. Knowledge management curricula such as certification, corporate training and university graduate certificate programs are on the rise. Techniques such as data mining and text mining that use Knowledge management for competitive intelligence and innovation are in the early stages of development. Finally, organizations are investing heavily in ad hoc Knowledge management software that facilitates organizational knowledge. The chart below estimates the state of their current and future Knowledge management Knowledge management activities. The Future Of Knowledge Management In the next several years ad-hoc software will develop into comprehensive, knowledge aware enterprise management systems. Knowledge management and E- learning will converge into knowledge collaboration portals that will efficiently transfer knowledge in an interdisciplinary and cross functional environment. According to Smallwood (2008), there is a need to control and reduce emissions and waste even in the KM world and it is becoming a trend to reduce hardware and energy requirements by using technologies and methods like virtualization, power optimization and even telecommuting Current Trends In Km 2023 The recent trend study of Pumas Technologies AG answers the question of which knowledge management approaches have a chance to succeed in practice. The authors have examined all practices for their application and distribution by applying a hype cycle approach. Conclusion The hype cycle illustrates the different phases of public attention that an innovation goes through during market introduction. For each method and technology the chart shows whether it is already being used in practice or is still subject to development. In addition to this data, the study shows when the different

8 knowledge management trends will become established. The respondents are all knowledge management practitioners and visionaries, most of them in managing or executive positions in large companies REFERENCE 1. "The knowledge creating company". Harvard Business Review 69 (6): Sanchez, R. (1996). Strategic Learning and Knowledge Management. Chichester: Wiley. 3. "Networks, Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management: NHS Cancer Networks".