KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

1. Knowledge Management: A Working Perspective

2. Introduction
3. Objectives
4. Research Methodology
5. Reviewing the literature
6. Why KM - the importance of knowledge management
7. Conclusion
8. Recommendations
9. References
Knowledge Management: A Working Perspective
‘Knowledge’ is the oil that greases the organizational machine and makes it run easily.
Knowledge is the full utilization of information and data, coupled with the potential of
people's skills, competencies, ideas, intuitions, commitments and motivations. A holistic view
considers knowledge to be present in ideas, judgments, talents, root causes, relationships,
perspectives and concepts. Knowledge Management (KM) is the set of professional practices
which improves the capabilities of the organization’s human resources and enhances their
ability to share what they know. Knowledge management is the name of a concept in which
an enterprise consciously and comprehensively gathers, organizes, shares, and analyzes its
knowledge in terms of resources, documents, and people skills.

INTRODUCTION - KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Knowledge Management is not easy to define. Knowledge is stored in the individual brain or
encoded in organizational processes, documents, products, services, facilities and systems.
Knowledge is the basis for, and the driver of, our post-industrial economy. Knowledge is the
result of learning which provides the only sustainable competitive advantage. Knowledge
Management (KM): This is, as the word implies, the ability to manage "knowledge".
Knowledge engineering reflects delivering the right knowledge to the right persons at the
right time.

This implies that corporate knowledge be made available in forms which are readily
accessible. This could take the form of Knowledge Documents, Processes, and Rules.
Strategic Management theory determines a second category of theory that is motivating
knowledge management. This view regards knowledge as a fundamental resource that
enables organizations to compete more effectively in their markets. For example: IBM's
Lotus Discovery Server. A knowledge management plan involves a survey of corporate goals
and a close examination of the tools, both traditional and technical that is required for
addressing the needs of the company.
1. Gathering: - Data entry, Scanning, Voice input, Pulling information from various
sources, Searching for information to include.
2. Organizing: - Cataloging, Indexing, Filtering, Linking.
3. Refining: - Contextualizing, Collaborating, Compacting/ concise, Projecting, Mining.
4. Disseminating:- Flow, Sharing, Alert, Push.
Objectives
1. To explore, how the growth in business with the help of Knowledge Management.
2. The impact of Knowledge Management.
3. To understand that, Organizational Knowledge: Why Is It Important?

Research Methodology
Hypotheses:-
H-1:- Knowledge Management is positively related with Organizations.
H-1:- Knowledge Management is broader aspect of Information management System.
Instrument:-
Secondary Sources
-Business Magazines
-Newspapers
-Internet

Literature Review
KM emerged as a scientific discipline in the earlier 1990s. Scandia hired Leif Edvinsson of
Sweden as the world’s first Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO). An effective knowledge
manager is likely to be someone who has a versatile skills portfolio and is comfortable with
the concepts of organizational behavior/culture, processes, branding & marketing and
collaborative technology. Core components of KM include People, Processes, Technology
(or) Culture, Structure.

Knowledge Management (KM) comprises a range of strategies and practices used in an

organization to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and
experiences. Many large companies and non-profit organizations have resources dedicated to
internal KM efforts, often as a part of their 'business strategy', 'information technology', or
'human resource management' departments.

Knowledge Management efforts typically focus on organizational objectives such as

improved performance, competitive advantage, innovation, the sharing of lessons learned,
integration and continuous improvement of the organization. In 1999, the term personal
knowledge management was introduced which refers to the management of knowledge at the
individual level. It protects intellectual assets from decay, seeks opportunities to enhance
decisions, services and products through adding intelligence, increasing value and providing
flexibility.

The vital importance of knowledge in business has always been recognised but, up until now,
organisations haven't felt able to manage it because they understood neither the problems and
the opportunities nor the strategies and solutions. This picture is gradually changing as
models, methods, tools and techniques for effective knowledge management are becoming
available and as organisations realise the importance of knowledge and thinking to their
capacity to adapt to the changing world.

These transformations result in cumulated expertise and, when used appropriately, increased
effectiveness. Knowledge must be managed effectively to ensure that the basic objectives for
existence are attained to the greatest extent possible.

Knowledge management in organizations must be considered from three perspectives with

different horizons and purposes:
1. Business Perspective -- focusing on why, where, and to what extent the organization
must invest in or exploit knowledge. Strategies, products and services, alliances,
acquisitions, or divestments should be considered from knowledge-related points of
view.
2. Management Perspective -- focusing on determining, organizing, directing,
facilitating, and monitoring knowledge-related practices and activities required to
achieve the desired business strategies and objectives.
3. Hands-On Operational Perspective -- focusing on applying the expertise to conduct
explicit knowledge-related work and tasks.

Historically, knowledge has always been managed, at least implicitly. However, effective and
active knowledge management requires new perspectives and techniques and touches on
almost all facets of an organization. We need to develop a new discipline and prepare a cadre
of knowledge professionals with a blend of expertise that we have not previously seen. This
is our challenge!" Knowledge management means different things to different people.
Microsoft explains it as a discipline that treats intellectual capital as managed assets. The
primary "tools" applied in the practice of knowledge management is (a) Organizational
Dynamics (b) Process Engineering and (c) Technology.
 Knowledge Life Cycle:-

1. It must be created either within or outside the organization.

Create
2. It can then be stored somewhere, so that it is accessible for
others to find and use. Learn Store

3. Those who need the specific knowledge must then find

out where it is, when they need it, by searching in the right
Use Find
places and / or asking the right people.
4. Once the knowledge source is found, the user will then go Acquire

through the act of actually acquiring it. This will involve gaining personal knowledge
from other humans or documented sources.
5. Once acquired, the knowledge can be put to use towards some productive purpose.
6. Having been used, perhaps repeatedly, the user will learn what worked well and not
so well as a result of applying the knowledge gained.

I believe that:
1. Knowledge is not just Information and not just Data.
2. It should be available from wherever it is needed, to all those authorized to receive it.
(Given mainly Commercial / Intellectual Property Rights)
3. It should only be entered once - and then kept up to date and relevant to the enterprise.
4. The language should be simple and appropriate.
5. The Information should always support the Learning Organisation
6. The customer probably hasn't fully thought through all the aspects of developing a
Knowledge Strategy - Its implications if they do, and Its implications if they don't.

Strategies:
Knowledge Management (for the organization): -- consists of activities focused on the
organization gaining knowledge from its own experience and from the experience of others.
They are primarily involved in assessing, changing and improving human individual skills
and/or behaviour. These activities are executed by marrying technology, organizational
structures, and cognitive based strategies to raise the yield of existing knowledge and produce
new knowledge.
Critical in this endeavor is the enhancement of the cognitive system (organization, human,
computer, or joint human-computer system) in acquiring, storing and utilizing knowledge for
learning, problem solving, and decision making.

According to Schein (1985), cultural values are an important mechanism through which an
organizational culture reveals its presence. They are a reflection of the underlying cultural
assumptions and they correspond to a set of social norms defining social interaction and
communication in a particular context. Therefore, cultural values have an impact on the
behavior and the attitude of the organizational members.

When cultural values have been shared for long enough, culture becomes a product of group
experience (Schein, 2004). Organizational structure - An example of one of these borrowed
theories is the goal-seeking imperative of organizational design. Organizational behavior -
Successful knowledge management focuses on strong organizational behavior.

1. Push Strategy - involves actively managing knowledge and known as the Codification
approach to KM.
2. Pull strategy - involves individuals making knowledge requests of experts associated with
a particular subject on an ad hoc/unplanned basis and commonly known as the
Personalization approach to KM.

Other KM strategies and instruments for companies include:

1. Rewards (as a means of motivating for knowledge sharing)
2. Storytelling (as a means of transferring tacit knowledge)
3. Cross-project learning
4. After action reviews
5. Knowledge mapping (a map of knowledge within a company accessible by all)
6. Expert directories (to enable knowledge seeker to reach to the experts)
7. Knowledge fairs
8. Competence management (systematic evaluation and planning of competences of
individual organization members)
9. Knowledge repositories (databases)
10. Measuring and reporting intellectual capital (a way of making explicit knowledge for
companies)
 11. Knowledge brokers (some organizational members take on responsibility for a
specific "field" and act as first reference on whom to talk about a specific subject)
12. Social software (social bookmarking, blogs, etc.)

Due to globalization of economy, rapid growth in information technology, increase in

knowledge based work and competition pressure the concept of knowledge management has
gained momentum in recent years.
1. Making available increased knowledge content in the development and provision
of products and services.
2. Achieving shorter new product development cycles.
3. Facilitating and managing innovation and organizational learning.
4. Leveraging the expertise of people across the organization.
5. Increasing network connectivity between internal and external individuals.
6. Managing business environments
7. Solving intractable or wicked problems.
8. Managing intellectual capital and intellectual assets in the workforce (such as the
expertise and know-how possessed by key individuals).

Knowledge sharing
Knowledge sharing is a systematic process for creating, acquiring, synthesizing, learning,
sharing and using knowledge and experience to achieve organizational goal. This knowledge
can be inside the employees' minds or stored in paper form in filing cabinets and/or stored in
electronic form. There are many barriers in knowledge sharing implementations such as
organization culture, lack of understanding the power of knowledge management, fear of IT,
immaturity of industry, etc.

Above all knowledge management implementation requires sound strategy. For this it is
important to make knowledge sharing a distributive system rather than a centralized system.
It also requires a platform where the interaction between tacit and explicit knowledge can
take place. An effective knowledge sharing program should help a company do one or more
of the following:
1. Foster innovation by encouraging the free flow of ideas.
2. Help in understanding markets and customers.
3. Development of product and services.
4. Development of vision and strategies.
5. Building competencies.
6. Improve customer service by streamlining response time.
7. Boost revenues by getting products and services to market faster.
8. Enhance employee retention rates by recognizing the value of employee's knowledge
and rewarding them for it.

The biggest challenges is how to change mindset of people and how to convert the culture
from believing that "knowledge is power" to believing that "knowledge sharing is power".
Such change is not very easy to establish and require constant training and development of
human resources of the organizations.
1. Psychological fear of IT.
2. Lack of understanding of Power of Knowledge Management.
3. Inappropriate decision making and operational structure.
4. Lack of simple, easy-to understand-and- implement powerful tools.

Technologies:-
1. Online corporate yellow pages as expertise locators
2. Document management systems
3. E-learning
4. Social computing tools: such as bookmarks, blogs have allowed more unstructured,
self-governing or ecosystem approaches to the transfer, capture and creation of
knowledge, including the development of new forms of communities, networks.
However such tools for the most part are still based on text and code, and thus
represent explicit knowledge transfer.
5. Organizations and business decision makers spend a great deal of resources and make
significant investments in the latest technology, systems and infrastructure to support
knowledge management.
6. It is imperative that these investments are validated properly, made wisely and that the
most appropriate technologies and software tools are selected or combined to
facilitate knowledge management.
7. Knowledge management has also become a cornerstone in emerging business
strategies such as Service Lifecycle Management (SLM) with companies increasingly
 turning to software vendors to enhance their efficiency in industries including, but not
limited to, the aviation industry.

Why KM - the importance of knowledge management

What are the real benefits that can be gained from effective knowledge management for the
individual, the team, the entire organization, the community, the nation, or even the entire
planet Earth?
1. May be you are considering developing your own personal knowledge management
competencies, to become a more effective player in the global knowledge economy,
or becoming a more competitive knowledge leader and knowledge driven
organization.
2. May be you wish to develop and apply knowledge management strategies to
government, military operations, global poverty eradication, international disaster
management and even, now, knowledge management for global climate change.

The list is endless. Knowledge management is applied today across the world, in all industry
sectors, public and private organizations and humanitarian institutions and international
charities. Most importantly, effective knowledge management is now recognized to be 'the
key driver of new knowledge and new ideas' to the innovation process, to new innovative
products, services and solutions.

To serve customers well and remain in business companies must: reduce their cycle times,
operate with minimum fixed assets and overhead (people, inventory and facilities), shorten
product development time, improve customer service, empower employees, innovate and
deliver high quality products, enhance flexibility and adaptation, capture information, create
knowledge, share and learn. None of this is possible without a continual focus on the
creation, updating, availability, quality and use of knowledge by all employees and teams, at
work and in the marketplace.

How can we better achieve objectives with effective knowledge management?

Effective knowledge management using more collective and systematic processes will also
reduce our tendency to ‘repeat the same mistakes’ and improve quality of products and/or
services. Better knowing our stakeholder needs, customer needs, employee needs, and
industry needs has an obvious immediate effect on our relationship management.
 1. Reduce costs
2. Provide potential to expand and grow
3. Increase our value and/or profitability
4. Improve our products and services
5. Respond faster

As organizations, we are learning faster, and that means that individuals are learning faster.
People are developing their competencies and confidence faster in organizations that practice
effective knowledge management. In 21st Century every organization must invest in
developing the best strategy for identifying, developing and applying the knowledge assets it
needs to succeed.

Every organization needs to invest in creating and implementing the best knowledge
networks, processes, methods, tools and technologies. This will enable them to learn, create
new knowledge, and apply the best knowledge much faster. Every individual who wishes to
successfully participate in the rapidly growing global knowledge economy must now
consider the development of their personal knowledge management competencies as an
‘essential life skill’ for the 21st Century.

When thinking about setting up a knowledge-management system, firms often focus on IT,
but this is only a medium for housing and disseminating the knowledge around the firm.
Those setting up the system need to identify the type of knowledge the firm should share to
benefit its business. The knowledge-management system should focus on creating, capturing
and disseminating knowledge and information from the sources that support the firm’s
strategic aims.

Always remember that managing such knowledge may not necessarily mean codifying it onto
a computer system, for example, tacit knowledge (that is, knowledge in people’s heads) is
often best transferred between people directly. In this situation, the knowledge-management
system could facilitate putting people in touch with each other. Also remember that useful
knowledge for the firm’s business is not restricted to technical legal knowledge, but the same
principles can be applied to client knowledge or financial and marketing information to help
the firm achieve the benefits it desires.
 The Knowledge Economy is the next booming economy in a world of recession:-
In a world that is facing economic recession many are starting to ask ‘What is going to be the
next booming economy, what are its characteristics and, how will it help us to grow out of
recession?’ At knowledge-management-online.com we strongly suggest that the next
booming economy is already here. More individuals, teams, organizations and inter-
organizational networks will be restructuring and renewing themselves with the primary
purpose of profitably trading their knowledge to add even higher value, predominantly on the
World Wide Web.

Around the world we hear automobile companies talking far more about their critical and key
knowledge areas of design, knowledge of manufacturing , knowledge of distribution,
knowledge of service and support etc as their ‘crown jewels’ or ‘master recipe’. Based on
applying this key knowledge they then outsource the other business components. We hear the
same from the aerospace industry, the oil and gas industry, the information technology
industry, the food and agricultural industry, the healthcare industry, in fact most, if not all,
industries.

Leaders of economies, industries and organizations will always be very interested in finding
new and better ways to create and apply knowledge. Knowledge Management is becoming a
reality today. It is our belief that the knowledge economy is rapidly becoming the largest and
most successful and sustainable economy in the world. The strategies, methods and tools of
knowledge management will undoubtedly change, but the timeless principles will, of course,
remain unchanged and to survive and succeed in the new knowledge economy, we must
become far more effective and more productive. We must always strive for the best relations
and highest quality.

The successful organizations and individuals will not allow themselves to keep ‘re-inventing
the wheel’ or ‘repeating the same mistakes. This is so costly. Good leaders will simply not
tolerate, nor be able to afford, such cost inefficiencies caused by knowledge gaps and bad
knowledge flows. Finally, those individuals and organizations that can best sense, become
quickly alerted to, find, organize, and apply knowledge, with a much faster response time,
will simply leave the competition far behind. All of this can only be achieved through good
knowledge leadership that understands the unchanging timeless principles for knowledge that
transforms individuals and organizations to become far more responsive and effective players
in a growing knowledge economy.

We are now living in a knowledge economy where the principal economic resource
businesses have to offer their customers is knowledge. Particularly in recessionary times,
when there is likely to be a higher turnover of staff, the firm does not want to lose all the
valuable investment it has made in individuals if it can help it. Most firms have recognised
that the key benefits of knowledge management are increased efficiency and quality.

Knowledge management can also be used as marketing and retention tool for new and
existing clients by showing the behind-the-scenes investment the firm puts into its practice.
Client satisfaction can, therefore, be another important by-product of knowledge
management. Many law firms are moving towards sharing at least part of their knowledge
resources direct with clients, either as an added-value extra to maintain a profitable
relationship or as a new product sold to clients in its own right. For example, Linklaters’s
Blue.

Flag service is an example of know-how resources being sold to clients over the internet.
Innovation arises out of the cross-fertilisation of knowledge so knowledge management can
lead to the creation of new products and services. As one might expect with such a wide
range of potential benefits and an asset as intangible as knowledge, there can be difficulty
showing management the causal link between knowledge management and benefits such as
improved firm performance. The difficulty arises as knowledge management does not stand
alone in relation to realising benefits.

As noted, knowledge management converts efficiency benefits into profitability, but this
depends on other actions such as ensuring the right level of people are carrying out the work
to match the knowledge and setting pricing policies that realise the benefit. Knowledge
management is the management of the organization towards the continuous renewal of the
organizational knowledge base - this means e.g. creation of supportive organizational
structures, facilitation of organizational members, putting IT-instruments with emphasis on
teamwork and diffusion of knowledge (as e.g. groupware) into place.
Conclusion:-
In today's economy, knowledge is people, money, leverage, learning, flexibility, power, and
competitive advantage. Knowledge is more relevant to sustained business than capital, labor
or land. As I am a very practical person I am focused rather more on the practical aspects,
how we can improve the reality. This term came about when people realized that information
is a resource that can and needs to be managed to be useful in an organization. Organizations
are now starting to look at "knowledge" as a resource as well. This means that we need ways
for managing the knowledge in an organization.

We can use techniques and methods that were developed as part of Knowledge Technology
to analyze the knowledge sources in an organization. Using these techniques we can perform
Knowledge Analysis and Knowledge Planning. Knowledge Analysis (KA): In Knowledge
Analysis we model a knowledge source in such a way that we can analyze its usefulness, its
weaknesses and its appropriateness within the organization. Knowledge Analysis is a
necessary step for the ability to manage knowledge. Knowledge Planning (KP): When an
organization has a grip on its knowledge (i.e. has performed Knowledge Analysis), it will be
able to plan for the future.

An organization will now be able to develop a multi-year knowledge plan that defines how
the organization will develop its knowledge resources, either by training its human agents, or
by developing knowledge-based systems to support the human agents, or by other means that
allow the organization to stay competitive. Knowledge Technology (KT): This is, as the word
already implies, the (application of) techniques and methods from the field of AI, or to be
more specific, the field of knowledge-based systems. KT has been around for quite some
time, and most people know about the application of KT in the form of expert systems, and
decision support systems.

Techniques and methods to design these kind of systems are well known; The best known
methodology for building knowledge-based systems is Common KADS (formerly known as
KADS). Computer Supported Work Systems (CSWS): This is a formal and informal (human)
activity system, within an organization where the (human) agents are supported by computer
systems.
The application of Knowledge Technology is very helpful in such work systems, although
definitely not the only important factor in the analysis and design, or in the effectiveness of
the activity system. Knowledge management complements and enhances other organizational
initiatives such as total quality management (TQM), business process re-engineering (BPR)
and organizational learning, providing a new and urgent focus to sustain competitive position.

Recommendations
1. General understanding of the concept of 'knowledge management'.
2. Recognize knowledge as a key resource.
3. Board level representation for KM.
5. KM as an important part of the business strategy.
7. Recording and sharing knowledge is routine in nature.
8. Failure is seen as an opportunity to learn.
9. Change is accepted as part of working life.
10. All employees should have co-operative and helpful when asked for some information or
advice.
11. Knowledge sharing is seen as strength.
12. There should be a senior level on going review of the effectiveness of knowledge
management to the whole company.
13. Good knowledge management behaviour like sharing and reusing knowledge is actively
promoted on a day to day basis.
15. Individuals should be visibly rewarded for knowledge sharing and reuse.
17. There should be a vision for how KM should integrate into the business.
19. There should be defined responsibilities and budget for KM initiatives.
20. The organisation systematically assesses its future knowledge requirements and executes
plans to meet them.
21. Key knowledge assets such as customer knowledge is are identified, preserved and
maintained.
22. Training and development programs in knowledge management behaviour are undertaken
from point of recruitment.
23. In the day-to-day work, it is easy to find the right information.
24. There should be specific roles and responsibilities for knowledge management activities
in the organisation.
25. Internal staff rotation should be actively encouraged to spread best practices and ideas.
References:
1. Awad Kazmi, Hasan hasiri, Knowledge Management, Prentice Hall of India,
New Delhi, 2002 edition.
2. www.kmresource.com
3. www.businessline.in
4. Earl M (2001) Knowledge management strategies: Toward taxonomy. Journal of
Management Information Systems 18(1), 215–233.
5. Earl MJ and Scott IA (1999) Opinion – what is a chief knowledge officer? Sloan
Management Review 40(2), 29–38.
6. Economic Times (NewsPaper)