Maximizing Knowledge Resources in Today's Organizations

1. What is Knowledge Management? Prof. Elaine Ferneley +Prof. Andrew Basden km@basden.demon.co.uk

2. Objectives • What is Knowledge Management (KM)? • What are the driving forces? • Role of KM in today’s organization • Knowledge • Knowledge Management Systems • Effective Knowledge Management Prof Elaine Ferneley

3. “Knowledge has become the key resource, for a nation’s military strength as well as for its economic strength… is fundamentally different from the traditional key resources of the economist – land, labor, and even capital…we need systematic work on the quality of knowledge and the productivity of knowledge … the performance capacity, if not the survival, of any organization in the knowledge society will come increasingly to depend on those two factors” [Drucker,1994] Knowledge as Key Resource Prof Elaine Ferneley

4. > One week in 2007 A person’s lifetime in 18th century A world of rapidly growing knowledge …. Prof Elaine Ferneley

5. Knowledge management (KM) may be defined simply as doing what is needed to get the most out of knowledge resources. KM focuses on organizing and making available important knowledge, wherever and whenever it is needed. KM is also related to the concept of intellectual capital. What is Knowledge Management? Prof Elaine Ferneley

6. Skryme (1999) Knowledge Management Definition Knowledge Management is the explicit and systematic management of vital knowledge and associated processes of creation, organization, diffusion, use and exploitation • explicit: knowledge is explicitly recognized; • systematic: too important to be left to chance; • vital: focus on what is important; • processes: encourage knowledge creating environment. Prof Elaine Ferneley

7. Why we need Knowledge Management now(http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~alm/kam.html) • Marketplaces are increasingly competitive and the rate of innovation is rising. • Reductions in staffing create a need to replace informal knowledge with formal methods. • Competitive pressures reduce the size of the work force that holds valuable business knowledge. • The amount of time available to experience and acquire knowledge has diminished. • Early retirements and increasing mobility of the work force lead to loss of knowledge. Prof Elaine Ferneley

8. Why we need Knowledge Management now(http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~alm/kam.html) • Most of our work is now information based. • Organizations compete on the basis of knowledge. • Products and services are increasingly complex, endowing them with a significant information component. • The need for life-long learning is an inescapable reality. • In brief, knowledge and information have become the medium in which business problems occur. As a result, managing knowledge represents the primary opportunity for achieving substantial savings, significant improvements in human performance, and competitive advantage. Prof Elaine Ferneley

9. Creating Capturing Sharing Capitalising Knowledge Management Components K n o w l e d g e This course will focus on these Knowledge Management Components

10. People Processes Information Information & Communication Technology Knowledge Management The composite management of: Prof Elaine Ferneley

11. A word from our sponsor… “Most activities or tasks are not onetime events. Our philosophy is fairly simple: Every time we do something again, we should do it better than the last time.” “Anyone in the organisation who is not directly accountable for making a profit should be involved in creating and distributing knowledge that the company can use to make a profit.” Sir John Browne CEO, BP Prof Elaine Ferneley

12. Connecting Capturing Managing Knowledge? “The idea is not to create an encyclopaedia of everything that everybody knows, but to keep track of people who ‘know the recipe’, and nurture the technology and culture that will get them talking”Arian Ward, BP Communications Director Prof Elaine Ferneley

13. EXPLICIT AND TACIT KNOWLEDGE Drucker 2003 Oral Communication “Tacit” Knowledge 85% Explicit Knowledge Base 15 % Information Request Information Feedback “Explicit” Knowledge Prof Elaine Ferneley

14. What are Knowledge Management “Systems” ? • Social/Structural mechanisms(e.g., mentoring and retreats, etc.) for promoting knowledge sharing. • Leading-edge information technologies (e.g., Web-based conferencing) to support KM mechanisms. • Knowledge management systems (KMS): the synergy between social/structural mechanisms and latest technologies. Prof Elaine Ferneley

15. The middle layer addresses the KM life cycle A knowledge organization derives knowledge from customer, product, and financial knowledge. Also from financial practices Indicators of knowledge: thinking actively and ahead, not passively and behind Using technology to facilitate knowledge sharing and innovation THE KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATION Culture Competition Create Collect Organize Knowledge Organization Technology Maintain Intelligence Refine Disseminate Knowledge Management Process Leadership KM Drivers Prof Elaine Ferneley

16. Mechanistic approaches to KM • Mechanistic approaches to knowledge management are characterized by the application of technology and resources to do more of the same better. • The main assumptions of the mechanistic approach include: • Better accessibility to information is a key, including enhanced methods of access and reuse of documents (hypertext linking, databases, full-text search, etc.) • Networking technology in general (especially intranets), and groupware in particular, will be key solutions. • In general, technology and sheer volume of information will make it work. Prof Elaine Ferneley

17. Cultural/behavioristic approaches to KM • Cultural/behavioristic approaches, with substantial roots in process re-engineering and change management, tend to view the "knowledge problem" as a management issue. Technology — though ultimately essential for managing explicit knowledge resources — is not the solution. These approaches tend to focus more on innovation and creativity (the "learning organization") than on leveraging existing explicit resources or making working knowledge explicit. • Assumptions of cultural/behaviouristic approaches often include: • Organizational behaviours and culture need to be changed … dramatically. In our information-intensive environments, organizations become dysfunctional relative to business objectives. • Organizational behaviours and culture can be changed, but traditional technology and methods of attempting to solve the "knowledge problem" have reached their limits of effectiveness. A "holistic" view is required. Theories of behaviour of large-scale systems are often invoked. • It’s the processes that matter, not the technology. • Nothing happens or changes unless a manager makes it happen. Prof Elaine Ferneley

18. Classification of Knowledge Management Systems Knowledge Discovery Systems Knowledge Capture Systems Knowledge Sharing Systems Knowledge Application Systems As this course is an IS course we will focus on these Knowledge Management Technologies Prof Elaine Ferneley