CHAPTER ELEVEN

Managing
Knowledge
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge
LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After reading this chapter, you will be able to

answer the following questions:
1.What is the role of knowledge management and
knowledge management programs in business?
2.What types of systems are used for enterprise-
wide knowledge management, and how do they
provide value for businesses?
3.What are the major types of knowledge work
systems, and how do they provide value for firms?
4.What are the business benefits of using intelligent
techniques for knowledge management?
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

The Knowledge Management Landscape

KM and collaboration systems are among the fastest growing areas of
corporate and government software investment
Both are closely related
Knowledge that cannot be communicated and shared with others is
nearly useless
Becomes useful and actionable when shared throughout the firm
KM became an important theme at many large business firms as
managers realize that much of their firms value depends on the firms
ability to create and manage knowledge
Substantial part of a firms stock market value is related to its
intangible assets
Largest single segment of the labour force, and growing percentage of
Canadas GDP is generated by the knowledge and information sectors
Impacts of knowledge-based investments are difficult to measure

Copyright 2013 Pearson Canada Inc. 11-3

 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

The Knowledge Management Landscape

Important Dimensions of Knowledge

Data
Flow of events or transactions captured by
organizations systems something you gather
Information
Data organized into categories of understanding
it changes the state of your mind

Knowledge
Patterns, rules, and contexts that provide a framework
for creating, evaluating, and using information.
Can be tacit (undocumented) or explicit
(documented) knowledge
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

The Knowledge Management Landscape

Important Dimensions of Knowledge (continued)

Wisdom
The collective and individual experience of applying
knowledge to the solution of a problem;
Involves knowing when, where, and how to apply
knowledge
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

The Knowledge Management Landscape

Important dimensions of knowledge

Knowledge is a firm asset

Intangible asset
Requires organizational resources
Value increases as more people share it

Knowledge has different forms

Knowledge residing in the minds of employees that has not been
documented is called tacit knowledge, whereas knowledge that has been
documented is called explicit knowledge
Knowing how to follow procedures
Knowing why things happen
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

The Knowledge Management Landscape

Important dimensions of knowledge

Knowledge has a location

Cognitive event I know how to change the battery because I
learned it in school
Both social and individual
We learned by doing and watching others (social)
Sticky (hard to move try to preserve it), situated (enmeshed
in firms culture), contextual (works only in certain situations)

Knowledge is situational
Conditional: Knowing when to apply procedure
Knowing when to brake while driving and how hard to brake
Contextual: Knowing circumstances to use certain tools
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

The Knowledge Management Landscape

The knowledge management value chain

Knowledge Management: the set of business processes developed in an
organization to create, store, transfer, and apply knowledge.
Increases the ability of the organization to learn from its environment
and to incorporate knowledge into its business processes
Each stage adds value to raw data and information as they are transformed
into usable knowledge
Knowledge acquisition
Knowledge storage
Knowledge dissemination
Knowledge application
Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

The Knowledge Management Landscape

Knowledge acquisition
Documenting tacit and explicit knowledge
Storing documents, reports, presentations, best
practices
Unstructured documents (e.g., e-mails)
Developing online expert networks
Creating knowledge
Tracking data from TPS and external sources
TPS: transaction processing systems
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

The Knowledge Management Landscape

Knowledge storage
Creation of a database
Document Management Systems
How to posses a piece of document google when you
search
Role of Management
Support development of planned knowledge storage
systems
Encourage development of corporate-wide schemas for
indexing documents
Indexing documents is very complex, because 1 word
can be understood in multiple ways
Reward employees for taking time to update and store
documents properly
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

The Knowledge Management Landscape

Knowledge dissemination
Portals systems that have different
capabilities ex. Google and yahoo
E-mail reports
Search engines
Collaboration tools enabling to pass
knowledge other one person to another
A deluge of information?
Training programs, informal networks, and shared
management experience help managers focus
attention on important information
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

The Knowledge Management Landscape

Knowledge application
Knowledge that is not shared and applied to the practical
problems facing firms and managers does not add
business value
To provide return on investment, organizational
knowledge must become systematic part of
management decision making and become situated in
decision-support systems
New business practices
New products and services
New markets
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

The Knowledge Management Landscape

Building Organizational and Management Capital: Collaboration,

Communities of Practice, and Office Environments
Managers can help by developing new organizational
roles and responsibilities for the acquisition of
knowledge, including the creation of chief knowledge
officer executive positions, dedicated staff positions
(knowledge managers), and communities of practice
Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO): senior executive who is
responsible for the firms knowledge management system
Sometimes work with chief information officers, but
mostly works under them
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Communities of Practice (COP): informal social networks of

professionals and employees who have similar work-related
activities and interests
Include self- and group education, conferences, online
newsletters, and day-today sharing of experiences and
techniques to solve specific work problems
Make it easier for people to reuse knowledge by pointing
community members to useful documents, creating document
repositories, and filtering information for newcomers
members act as facilitators, encouraging contributions and
discussion
Reduce the learning curve for new employees by providing contacts
with subject matter experts and access to a communitys
established methods and tools
Can act as a spawning ground for new ideas, techniques, and
decision making behavior

Copyright 2013 Pearson Canada Inc. 11-15

 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge
The Knowledge Management Landscape

Types of Knowledge Management Systems

Enterprise-Wide Knowledge Management

Systems
General-purpose firm-wide efforts to collect,
store, distribute, and apply digital content
and knowledge
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge
The Knowledge Management Landscape

Types of Knowledge Management Systems

Knowledge Work Systems (KWS)
Specialized systems built for engineers,
scientists, other knowledge workers
charged with discovering and creating
new knowledge
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge
The Knowledge Management Landscape

Types of Knowledge Management Systems

Intelligent Techniques
Diverse group of techniques such as data
mining used for various goals:
discovering knowledge, distilling
knowledge, discovering optimal
solutions
Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

The Knowledge Management Landscape

 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Enterprise-Wide Knowledge Management Systems

Enterprise Content Management Systems
Help capture, store, retrieve, distribute, preserve
Structured knowledge (formal Documents and formula rules that
organizations derive by observing experts and their decision-making
behaviors)
Something you can define; ex payroll, ID, salary, deductions
Semistructured knowledge (e-mails)
Ex. Sending texts- the situation that the message is sent can mean
different things to 2 different people
Enterprise content management systems: help organizations manage both
types of information
Bring in external sources
News feeds, research
Tools for communication and collaboration
Key problem in managing knowledge is the creation of an appropriate
classification scheme, or taxonomy, to organize information into meaningful
categories so that it can be easily accessed
Each knowledge object need to be tagged, or classified
Digital asset management systems: helps companies classify, store, and
distribute these digital objects
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Enterprise-Wide Knowledge Management Systems

 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Enterprise-Wide Knowledge Management Systems

Knowledge network systems

Knowledge network systems, also known as expertise
location and management systems, address the problem
that arises when the appropriate knowledge is not in the
form of a digital document but instead resides in the
memory of expert individuals in the firm
Provide online directory of corporate experts in
well-defined knowledge domains
Use communication technologies to make it easy
for employees to find appropriate expert in a
company
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Enterprise-Wide Knowledge Management Systems

Collaboration Tools
Enterprise knowledge portals: Access to
external and internal information
Capabilities for e-mail, chat,
videoconferencing, discussion
Use of consumer Web technologies
Blogs
Wikis
Social bookmarking: makes it easier to search
for and share information by allowing users to
save their bookmarks to Web pages on a public
Web site and tag these bookmarks with keywords
(Pinterest)
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Enterprise-Wide Knowledge Management Systems

Learning Management Systems

Provide tools for management, delivery, tracking, and
assessment of various types of employee learning
and training
Support multiple modes of learning
CD-ROM, Web-based classes, online forums, live
instruction, etc.
Automates selection and administration of
courses
Assembles and delivers learning content
Measures learning effectiveness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAsdtwj00Uo
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Window on Organizations: Denver Goes Alfresco

Read the Window on Organizations, and then discuss

the following questions:

1. What types of problems was the consolidated city-

county government of Denver, Colorado,
experiencing with document management before
instituting the Alfresco ECM system?
2. How did the Alfresco ECM system provide a
solution to these problems?

Continued
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Knowledge Work Systems

Knowledge work systems

Systems for knowledge workers to help create new
knowledge and integrate that knowledge into business

Knowledge workers
Researchers, designers, architects, scientists,
engineers who create knowledge for the organization
Three key roles:
Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Knowledge Work Systems

 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Knowledge Work Systems

Examples of knowledge work systems

Computer-Aided Design (CAD):

Automates creation and revision of engineering or architectural
designs, using computers and sophisticated graphics software;
only make a physical prototype at the end of the design process
because it can be easily tested and changed on the computer

Virtual Reality Systems:

Software and special hardware to simulate real-
life environments
E.g. 3-D printing (additive manufacturing)
medical modeling for surgeons
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Knowledge Work Systems

Examples of knowledge work systems

Augmented Reality:
Related technology for enhancing visualization
Ex. Flight simulations

Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML):

Is a set of specifications for interactive, 3-D
modeling on the World Wide Web that can organize
multiple media types, including animation, images,
and audio to put users in Simulated real world
environment.
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Intelligent Techniques

Neural networks and data mining are used for knowledge discovery
Discover underlying patterns, categories, and behaviors in large data sets
that could not be discovered by managers alone or simply through
experience
Genetic algorithms are used for generating solutions to problems that are too
large and complex for human beings to analyze on their own
Intelligent agents can automate routine tasks to help firms search for and filter
information for use in electronic commerce, supply chain management, and
other activities
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology, which consists of computer-based
systems (both hardware and software) that attempt to emulate human
behavior

Copyright 2013 Pearson Canada Inc. 11-30

 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Intelligent Techniques

Capturing knowledge: Expert systems

Expert systems:
An intelligent technique for capturing tacit knowledge in a
very specific and limited domain of human expertise.
Capture the knowledge of skilled employees in the form of a
set of rules in a software system that can be used by others in
the organization.
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Intelligent Techniques

Capturing knowledge: Expert systems

How expert systems work
Model human knowledge as a set of
Knowledge Base rules that collectively are called
knowledge base
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Intelligent Techniques

Capturing knowledge: Expert systems

How expert systems work
Knowledge Base
The strategy used to search through the
Inference Engine knowledge base use to make a
solution
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Intelligent Techniques

Capturing knowledge: Expert systems

How expert systems work
Knowledge Base

Inference Engine
The interface engine begins with the
Forward Chaining
information entered by the user and
searches the rule when a condition is
true
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Intelligent Techniques

Capturing knowledge: Expert systems

How expert systems work
Knowledge Base

Inference Engine

Forward Chaining
Backward Chaining
The strategy for searching rule base
starts with hypothesis and proceeds by
asking the user questions about
selected facts until the hypothesis is
either confirmed or disapproved.
Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Intelligent Techniques
Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Intelligent Techniques
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Intelligent Techniques

Case-based reasoning (CBR)

Descriptions of past experiences of human
specialists (cases) stored in knowledge base

System searches for cases with problem

characteristics similar to new one, finds closest
fit, and applies solutions of old case to new case

Stores organizational intelligence: Knowledge

base is continuously expanded and refined by
users
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Intelligent Techniques

Organizational intelligence: Case-based reasoning

Fuzzy logic systems
Neural networks
Genetic algorithms
Intelligent agents
Hybrid AI systems
Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Intelligent Techniques
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Intelligent Techniques

Fuzzy logic systems

Rule-based technology that represents
imprecision used in linguistic categories (e.g.,
cold, cool) that represent range of values
Describe a particular phenomenon or process
linguistically and then represent that description
in a small number of flexible rules
Provides solutions to problems requiring
expertise that is difficult to represent with IF-
THEN rules
Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Intelligent Techniques
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Intelligent Techniques

Machine learning
Allowing computers to learn by extracting information using
computation and statistical methods
Use it everyday without noticing ex. Google searches
Neural networks
Find patterns and relationships in massive amounts of data
too complicated for humans to analyze and solves them
Learn patterns by searching for relationships, building
models, and correcting over and over again
Humans train network by feeding it data inputs for which
outputs are known, to help neural network learn solution by
example
Developers dont aim to solve specific problems
Seek to put intelligence into the hardware in the form of a
generalized capability to learn
Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Intelligent Techniques
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Intelligent Techniques

Genetic algorithms
Useful for finding optimal solution for specific problems by
examining very large number of possible solutions for that
problem
Conceptually based on process of evolution
Search among solution variables by changing and
reorganizing component parts using processes such as
inheritance, mutation, and selection
Used in optimization problems (minimization of costs, efficient
scheduling, optimal jet engine design) in which hundreds or
thousands of variables exist
Able to evaluate many solution alternatives quickly
Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Intelligent Techniques
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Intelligent Techniques

Intelligent Agents
Software programs that work without direct
human intervention to carry out specific tasks
for an individual user, business process or
software application.

E.g., deleting junk e-mail, scheduling

appointments

Agent-based modeling applications have been

developed to model the behavior of consumers,
stock market, and supply chains
Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Intelligent Techniques
 Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge

Intelligent Techniques

Hybrid AI systems
Genetic algorithms, fuzzy logic, neural networks,
and expert systems integrated into single
application to take advantage of best features of
each these systems are called hybrid AI
systems

E.g., Matsushita neurofuzzy washing machine

that combines fuzzy logic with neural networks