Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 1

Getting information that is locked inside a brain or

disparate computer systems into a central repository or
store is no simple task.
"Ultimately, everyone must feed information in as they
gain experience and expertise, and the information must
be stored and routed so that people can use it. The design
and thinking that go into the process are crucial. Success
does not happen by accident," says Thomas Stewart.
Thomas A. Stewart is the Chief Marketing and Knowledge Officer of Booz & Company, [1] a
global management consulting firm. Prior to joining Booz & Company, he was the editor
and managing director of Harvard Business Review (HBR) from 2002-2008. [1] Prior to
joining HBR, he was editorial director of Business 2.0 and a member of the Board of
Editors of Fortune magazine.

Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 2

Definitions
Do you really need KM?
Do you need a Chief Knowledge Officer
CKO?
What’s the strategy?
Types of knowledge management systems
Organizational changes to expect
KM software tools
Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 3
 Knowledge is intangible, dynamic, and
difficult to measure, but without it no
organization can survive.
Tacit‫مني‬##‫ ض‬:: or unarticulated or unspoken or
unstated knowledge is more personal,
experiential, context specific, and hard to
formalize; is difficult to communicate or share
with others; and is generally in the heads of
individuals and teams.
Explicit:‫ضح‬#‫ وا‬: explicit knowledge can easily
be written down and codified.
Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 4
Process of capturing and making use of a firm’s
collective expertise anywhere in the business
Doing the right thing, NOT doing things right
Viewing company processes as knowledge processes
Knowledge creation, dissemination, upgrade, and
application toward organizational survival
Part science, part art, part luck

1-5
 Knowledge
PEOPLE

ORGANIZATIONAL
PROCESSES

TECHNOLOGY

1-6
 Oral Communication
“Tacit” Knowledge

50-95%

Information Request
“Explicit” Knowledge

Information Feedback Explicit Knowledge Base

5%

1-7
 The middle layer
addresses the KM life cycle
Culture A knowledge organization
Competition derives knowledge from
Collect
Create
customer, product, and
Organize financial knowledge. Also
Techno- Intelligence
logy Maintain Knowledge
from financial practices
Organization Indicators of knowledge:
Refine
thinking actively and ahead,
Disseminate not passively and behind
Knowledge Using technology to
Management
Process Leadership facilitate knowledge sharing
KM Drivers
and innovation

1-8
 Existing methods/
Outside
processes
• New products
Environment
• New markets
• Smarter problem-solving
•Value-added innovation
Learning
•Better quality customer
Conversion service
PEOPLE •More efficient processes
Insights New
ideas •More experienced staff
Knowledge
Creation

Organizational
Knowledge
Benefits
Base

Codified Technology

1-9
 Strategy Measurement Policy Content Process Technology Culture

Knowledge
Internalization
Knowledge Knowledge
People Assets Reuse
Knowledge
Exchange
Knowledge
Capture

Knowledge
People Exchange Knowledge
Reuse People

The ideal knowledge organization allows people to exchange

knowledge across functional areas via technology and established
processes
Knowledge internalized and adopted within the culture of the
organization 1-10
 Organizational Managemen
  personnel t
  Decision
  making
 
 
  KM Life
Cycle
 
. capture
  . gathering
. organizing
. refining
. transfer
    Information
  Culture technology
 
 
 
 
 
  Figure 1-6 The KM cycle and the organization

1-11
 The move from an industrially-based
economy to a knowledge or information-
based one in the 21st Century demands a
top-notch knowledge management system to
secure a competitive edge and a capacity for
learning.
Up to this slide
22 May 2011

Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 12

The new source of wealth is knowledge, and
not labor, land, or financial capital. It is the
intangible, intellectual assets that must be
managed.

The key challenge of the knowledge-based

economy is to foster innovation.

Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 13

 The move from an industrially-based
economy to a knowledge or information-
based one in the 21st Century demands a
top-notch knowledge management system to
secure a competitive edge and a capacity for
learning.

Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 14

The new source of wealth is knowledge, and
not labor, land, or financial capital. It is the
intangible, intellectual assets that must be
managed.

The key challenge of the knowledge-based

economy is to foster or promote innovation.

Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 15

 For several decades the world's best-known
forecasters of societal change have
predicted the emergence of a new economy
in which brainpower, not machine power, is
the critical resource. But the future has
already turned into the present, and the era
of knowledge has arrived.
--"The Learning Organization," Economist Intelligence
Unit
Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 16
 The knowledge economy rests on three
pillars:
The role that knowledge plays in
transactions: it is what is being bought and
sold; both the raw materials and the finished
goods
The concurrent rise in importance of
knowledge assets, which transform and add
value to knowledge products
The emergence of ways to manage these
materials and assets, or KM
Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 17
Designing and installing techniques and
processes to create, protect, and use known
knowledge.
Designing and creating environments and
activities to discover and release knowledge
that is not known, or tacit knowledge.
Articulating the purpose and nature of
managing knowledge as a resource and
embodying it in other initiatives and
programs.
Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 18
Competitive success will be based on how
strategically intellectual capital is managed
Capturing the knowledge residing in the
minds of employees so that it can be easily
shared across the enterprise
Leveraging organizational knowledge is
emerging as the solution to an increasingly
fragmented and globally-dispersed
workplace
Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 19
If your department wants to stop constantly
reengineering and downsizing: talented
people are assets to be developed for a
global 21st Century
If you are interested in the Knowledge Grid
If you understand that reuse of knowledge
saves work, reduces communication costs,
and allows a company to take on more
projects
Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 20
Knowledge can be embedded in processes,
products, systems, and controls
Knowledge can be accessed as it is needed
from sources inside or outside the firm
It is versatile and can be transferred
formally, through training, or informally, by
way of workplace socialization
It is the essence of the competitive edge!
Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 21
Only if your organization is serious about
implementing a knowledge management
program

Economic realities and and competitive

edge factors play a large role

Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 22

 There are two very different knowledge
management strategies:

Codification Strategy

Personalization Strategy

Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 23

Competency Management

Knowledge Sharing

Competitive Knowledge Management

Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 24

 Focus on five tasks:
Generating knowledge
Accessing knowledge
Representing and embedding knowledge
Facilitating knowledge
Transferring knowledge
It is a process of instilling the culture and
helping people find ways to share and utilize
their collective knowledge.
Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 25
Leadership
Knowledge champions, such as CKOs
Culture
Access
Technology
Learning Culture

Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 26

Changing the culture is imperative.
To create a climate in which employees
volunteer their creativity and expertise,
managers need to look beyond the traditional
tools at their disposal: finding ways to build
trust and develop fair process.
That means getting the gatekeepers to
facilitate the flow of information rather than
hoard it.
And offering rewards and incentives. 27
Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21
Generating organizational knowledge
invariably means converting the tacit
knowledge of the individual into explicit
knowledge accessible by all. Information
technology is most effective when it enables
this social process.
Companies must think through their
technological systems.
Technology such as Intranets and
advanced collaborative software have made
Knowledge Management possible.
Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 28
Lines between departments and operating
divisions blur
Knowledge management efforts can
completely collapse boundaries
A knowledge management system cannot
work through hierarchies
Individual and team learning processes must
become the true driver of organizational
learning
Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 29
 Up to this
slide on 24
May 2011

By instituting a learning organization (KM-

intensive), there is an increase in employee
satisfaction due to greater personal
development and empowerment.
Keeps your employees longer and thereby,
reduces the loss of intellectual capital from
people leaving the company.
Saves money by not reinventing the wheel
for each new project.
Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 30
Reduces costs by decreasing and achieving
economies of scale in obtaining information
from external providers.
Increases productivity by making knowledge
available more quickly and easily.
Provides workers with a more democratic
place to work by allowing everyone access to
knowledge.
Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 31
Learning faster with KM
Learning faster to stay competitive
KM software and technological
infrastructures allow for global access to an
organization’s knowledge, at a keystroke

Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 32

Information is widely disseminated throughout
the organization. Wherever it is needed, it is
accessible.
Accessible at a fast rate of speed.
Virtual communities of practice share what is
known in a global fashion, independent of time
zones and other geographic limitations.
Business boundaries are broad, and often
virtual in nature.
Collaboration to support continuous innovation
and new knowledge creation. 33
Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21
No internal learning communities
Lack of psychological safety
Lack of workplace trust
Arrogance of people who believe they
know everything, so why try?
Lack of communication within an
organization made evident by continually
reinventing the same wheel
Negativity and unrealistic expectations
Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 34
Where are we going? What are we here for?
People need awareness of the whole: in
what direction is the organization going?
To have a goal to reach in the future can
provide great incentive for a KM initiative.
Effective leveraging lies within an
organization’s capacity for rethinking and
recreating. Scenario thinking can help us to
see the blind spots, and help to create the
future we want.
Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 35
 There are three fundamental processes
that sustain or contiunue profound changes
such as the introduction of a KM system:
developing networks of committed people
improving business results
enhancing personal results
To achieve sustainability, there must be a
focus on learning, and learning how to
harness the learning capabilities that lead
to innovation.
Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 36
For significant change to lead to
sustainability, hierarchical control must be
put aside.
The emergence and development of
informal networks must be supported so
that people can share their tacit knowledge
and help one another.
Managers need to surrender control.
And mental models need to be examined.
Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 37
Globalserve Imagination
Knowcorp Excalibur
Hyperknowledge Technologies
MicroStrategy Imaging Solutions
The Molloy Group Grapevine
KnowledgeX Inc. Technologies
WebFarming.com Intraspect Software

Softlab Enabling  Milagro: The Power

Tools of Imagination
Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 38
The essence of knowledge management is
understanding and valuing intangible assets
over tangible
Understanding that human and intellectual
capital are the greatest resources
Managing the skills and competencies that
lie within an organization, and allowing them
to blossom
Allowing people to be the best that they can
be; optimizing performance
Dr Adel Al-Alawi MGT446 UOB 2010-2011 12/09/21 39
Four-Process View of KM:
Capturing – data entry, scanning, voice input,
interviewing, brainstorming
Organizing – cataloging, indexing, filtering,
linking, codifying
Refining – contexualizing, collaborating,
contexualizing, collaborating, compacting,
Projecting, mining
Transfer – flow, sharing, alert, push

1-40
Decentralize organization structure to allow
decision making by teamwork
Reduce control-based management and
encourage management by results
Revisit company’s mission statement and ethics
policy to demonstrate its new views about values
Assess and improve employee responsibilities and
accountability
Eliminate unnecessary directives or barriers
Install programs to improve employee
commitment to knowledge sharing

1-41
Literacy + Electronic Infrastructure +
Social Revitalization =

Opportunity for New

Societal Infrastructure

1-42
Strategists needs all three change elements
Literacy and Electronic infrastructures relate to
knowledge distribution
Social revitalization relates to motivation

1-43
Knowledge is productive ONLY when captured in
people’s mind
Shareability requires decentralized intelligence
We need to empower knowledge workers
Top performers can be a problem; they are not the
most humble

1-44
The Knowledge Business has already changed
Are you in the knowledge business?
How will you close your knowledge gap?
Is your mind geared to re-think what you think
you know?

1-45
Chapter 1