Knowledge Management: Definitions and Solutions

Week 2, Class 2 Article Summary & Review
(by MIM-SUMMER Group: Ashwini, Dick, Eleanor, Holger & Kai)

Title: Knowledge Management – Definitions and Solutions

Audience: Students/Academia of Knowledge Management (KM) Studies, Knowledge Project Managers, Management Consultants, Business Managers and CEOs.

Theme: This article focuses on providing an overview of the ‘Knowledge Management’ concepts and practical starter tips to those who are promoting or implementing a KM project in a business organization.

Summary: (220 words)

At the outset, this article describes KM as a process for generating value from the intellectual and knowledge based assets in an organization, leading to a win-win situation for all concerned. Explicit assets are those which can be documented e.g. business plans, customer lists and system manuals, whereas hard to manage tacit assets like technical know-how & company culture are embedded in the minds of people. Shadowing and Joint-problem-solving are two best practices to transfer tacit-knowledge.

KM in an organization can improve efficiency, enhance productivity and increase revenues through contextual sharing / collaboration of knowledge, improved customer service, streamlined operations and cost reductions.

Major challenges include: a) getting employees on board, b) ongoing maintenance of knowledge assets, and c) filtering of information overload.

It is wiser to sell the KM project to its sponsor on the basis of measurable value for individuals instead of enterprise-wide dollar ROI value. Starting small on a pilot basis involving opinion-leaders and the people who are to gain maximum, integrating KM with every-day job performance without increasing workload, clearly defining values to be achieved, establishing metrics to measure success, making a sound business case, are the important components of a KM strategy. ‘Social Network Analysis’ can help in identifying the key knowledge experts and provide a starting point for the KM initiatives in an organization.

Review: (51 words)

The strength of this article lies in its simple, easy to understand business language and the structured, best-practice way to explain the basic KM concepts / tools and salient components of the entire spectrum of a KM program in any organization without using any technical or management jargon or abstract terminology.

Reference:

Levinson, M. (2007). Knowledge Management: Definitions and Solutions, CIO. Retrieved November 21, 2009 from http://www.cio.com/article/40343