Knowledge Management
The nature of KM
A process model for KM
KM and KE
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What is knowledge management?
Knowledge is seen as a resource
This means for knowledge management taking care that the resource is
delivered at the right time
available at the right place
present in the right shape
satisfying the quality requirements
obtained at the lowest possible costs
to be used in business processes
Why is knowledge management different?
Due to specific properties of knowledge:
intangible and difficult to measure
volatility
embodied in agents with wills
not “consumed” in a process, can increase through use
wide ranging organizational impacts
long lead times
non-rival, can be used by different processes at the same time
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Knowledge assets
Apply your
best knowledge Construct new
knowledge
Value chain
Continuous improvement of
knowledge assets
Distribute Create/change
Consolidate Combine
Application ofKnowledge Assets
Organization and improvement
of care for knowledge
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Modes of Knowledge Management
Strategic:
What are the general changes to the knowledge infrastructure?
Operational:
Organization the actual implementation and usage of the knowledge infrastructure.
Levels in
knowledge management
Knowledge management level
Knowledge object level Knowledge assets organizational roles business processes Organizational goals knowledge as a resource value chain
Knowledge management
actions
Report experiences
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Knowledge management cycle
REFLECT identify improvements
plan changes
ACT implement changes monitor improvements CONCEPTUALIZE
identify knowledge analyze strength/
weaknesses
Knowledge object level
Organization model
OM-2: people & structure Agent model::
AM-1: agent descriptions (software, humans)
agents
knowledge assets
business process participate
in
Organization model:
OM-4: knowledge assets
coarse grained description form, nature, time, location Task model:
TM-2: knowledge bottlenecks Knowledge model:
knowledge specification fine-grained
Organization model OM-2: overall process OM-3: process tasks Task model:
TM-1: task descriptions
possess requires
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Four ambitions
(Source: Wiig on basis of Deming’s work) Resources
Process
Every ambition requires specific actions
Products &
services Innovate
products &
services
1 2 3 4
Task
execution
Task
improvement
Improve system Use the
best
available knowledge
Acquire new
knowledge
Acquire knowledge about
- process - working environment
Acquire knowledge -customers -markets -technology - competition
Conceptualize the knowledge
The Organizational Model is a good starting point for creating a knowledge map.
The Task Model is a good starting point of charting out where the knowledge is used.
The agent model is good for analyzing who owns the knowledge and who uses it.
Knowledge items are central in KM.
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Conceptualize: main activities
Inventarization of knowledge and organizational context
Analysis of strong and weak points: the value of knowledge
Should deliver insights which can be used in the next step for defining of and deciding between
improvements
Reflect: bottleneck / opportunity analysis
Can be done by using knowledge item descriptions, generic bottleneck / opportunity types:
time (only available during a limited period, queuing, delay)
location (not available at the point where needed, delay and communication, “many windows”)
form (difficult to understand, translation processes, reformulation of knowledge)
nature (quality of knowledge, heuristic, standardization)
stability (high rates of change, need to be up dated)
current agents (vulnerability, carrier can/will leave, few agents listed)
use in processes (limited re-use, reinventing the wheel)
proficiency levels (current agents not well skilled, opportunity to “sell” knowledge)
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Act: interventions
Management, human resources and culture
Education and training
Reward system
Recruitment and selection
Management behavior
Jobs & organizational structure
Staff department knowledge and strategy
Department lessons learned
Introduction of a 'buddy' system
Teams with overlapping knowledge areas
Out sourcing
Acquiring and selling organizations
Act: interventions (2)
(Technological) tools
Intranets & internet for knowledge sharing & Lessons learned architectures
Groupware-based applications with ‘knowledge’ databases (best practices)
Decision Support Systems (expert systems, case repositories, simulations)
'who knows what' guide (‘knowledge map’)
Data mining
Employee information system with knowledge profiling
Document retrieval systems with advanced indexing &
retrieval mechanisms
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Knowledge management &
knowledge engineering
Organization analysis feeds into knowledge management (and vice versa)
Knowledge modeling provides techniques for knowledge identification and development
