Friday, January 30, 2009

What is Knowledge Management ?

What is Knowledge Management?


Before we come to know what is Knowledge Management let me tell you what "Knowledge" is from the point of view of different people.


Firstly, according to Karl M. Wiig (1996); Knowledge is a resource that makes you function intelligently, which is the act or outcome of grasping the inward or hidden nature of things, how you understand a particular thing and how you implement the thing that you understood practically (Position Statement by Karl M. Wiig, February 6, 1996 ).


Secondly, according to Denham Grey; Knowledge means using the information and data completely and applying one's own ideas, skills, mental power, physical power (Denham Grey)


Moreover, according to T. D. Wilson(2002); Knowledge is the mixture of an individual's understanding, how much an individual learns from a topic and his own comprehension of the topic that enters his own mind no matter how much he interacts with the outside world (Wilson, T.D. (2002) "The nonsense of 'knowledge management'" Information Research, 8(1)).


As we had a general idea as of what Knowledge is from the point of view of different people, let's see what Knowledge Management is according to them.


Firstly, according to Karl M. Wiig (1996); Knowledge has been transferred to other forms such as books, practices, traditions and more and after the addition of all the successive parts of all these elements and when that is used appropriately, it increased effectiveness and Knowledge has to be managed properly and we have to be sure that the ground level objectives have to be maintained properly in order to obtain greater heights (Position Statement by Karl M. Wiig, February 6, 1996 ).


Moreover, according to Denham Grey; Knowledge Management is to examine the valuable quality that focuses on the sources that are one of a kind and even on the critical functions which makes the knowledge to flow in a direction where it can be used to its maximum level (Denham Grey).

However, according to T. D. Wilson (2002), Knowledge cannot be managed as he says that Knowledge is possessed by an individual according to his mental activities that include learning, understanding and comprehension of the data he receives. He says that data and information can be saved into emails, messages, journals, books or archives and hence data and information can be managed but knowledge cannot be managed as knowledge is possessed by an individual himself and even if he tries to manage it, he can do it imperfectly. He also says that when the individual knower tries to give knowledge to someone, he can only do it in the forms of verbally translating it or in the form of writing it or through gestures. But in this process an individual may not put the whole knowledge into anothers mind as it depends on how the other person receives it or comprehends into his mind and when the knowledge giver and taker donot think alike there is a breach and hence no effective transfer of knowledge takes place (Wilson, T.D. (2002) "The nonsense of 'knowledge management'" Information Research, 8(1)).

Now we will see certain issues based on the definitions we saw earlier.


Issues:

  • CREATION: Knowledge creation is done by an individual himself and varies from one another.So the knowledge one individual gets from the information and data may not be the same as another individual gains as the metabolic activities of both of them may not be the same and the way in which both of them think may not be the same or the way in which both of them comprehend the data and information may not be the same. So, Knowledge creation depends and varies from individual to individual.
  • STORAGE: According to Wiig(1996), Knowledge can be stored in forms of books, archives, documents, journals, etc., However, according to Wilson, Knowledge is ones own pocession and cannot be transfered (Wilson, T.D. (2002) "The nonsense of 'knowledge management'" Information Research, 8(1)). .
  • APPLICATION OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN ORGANISATIONS: According to Wiig (1996), as Knowledge can be stored in forms of books, journals, documents etc., it can be read and passed on to other members where they can know how to apply knowledge in certain areas in their organisation. However, according to Wilson, as Knowledge cannot be passed on from one person to another, it can be applied in an organisation untill the person who posesses knowledge is working with the organisation and when he leaves he takes his knowledge with him. And in this issue I strongly support Wilson as according to him Knowledge is ones own pocession and I feel the same (Wilson, T.D. (2002) "The nonsense of 'knowledge management'" Information Research, 8(1)).

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES:

  • When I was working in a call centre, we were given notes on how to handle irate customers on phones. So, we just had to follow the material and handle the customers. Once, my colleague got a call in which the customer said that he cannot pay his credit card bill as he does not have any money and he was also yelling that the APR was very high and was asking my colleague to lower the APR so that he can pay the credit card bill. In such cases we had to look at the customer information tablet (according to the material we were provided) to find any good schemes to offer that customer, and my colleague did not find any good schemes. And if he tells the customer the same thing that as you were not good with the bank, we donot have any schemes to offer you, he would be more irated and that would result in loosing that customer forever. So, my colleague told the customer to pay the monthly installments on time and avoid any irregularities, so that you will have a good record again with us and then after a month or two we may lessen your APR to much lower rates that you can pay your bill in whole. So, actually this was not in the material we were given, but in order to retain the customer and let him pay the money he lended from the bank my colleague calmed him down using his knowledge to find the best way in which he can satisfy the customer. And guess what, as the customer paid his monthly installments regualrly we lowered his APR uptill 45% of his regular APR and retained the customer. And this was not shared amongst any of the other teams officially and so handling such kind of customers was always a big deal for all of us. If I was the Knowledge management officer, what I would have done was to arrange a group discussion with all the team members at the end of the shift and let them write down one problem they faced that day and how they successfully solved it. And I would check the success rate and then I would officially pass down the information to all the other people. So that there comes a new way in handling such kind of situations.
  • In our own automobile dealership as soon as a new model car was launched into market we would receive some material in the form of books on how to rectify the problems in the car if any. So we traditionally used to pass down the material to our chief mechanics and they used to study it and solve the problems in the cars accordingly. That process was unsuccessful as our mechanics were unable to solve many of the problems and there after we used to send two of our chief mechanics to the company for training purposes and when they come back after their training they had to teach the fellow mechanics what they learnt. There was an issue with a car where its horn was not blowing. So according to their training the mechanics had to firat check the wiring, next the battery and so on. but even though everything was correct the horn was not blowing. So they replaced the entire unit of horn system and installed a new set and checked. Even after such an attempt the horn was not blowing. In such cases we had to send the vehicle to the company and they had to rectify the problem and it would take a minimum of 10 days. But one of our mechanic observed that even though everything is working just fine, when the whole unit is placed in the automobile, the other units were interfering and there was some king of short circuit problem. So he replaced all the wiring even though it was not said in the material he was provided and after that the horn was blowing successfully. And that saved us a lot of money and time. So, knowledge cannot be passed in the forms of any material or classes it can just be attained by oneself as said by Wilson (Wilson, T.D. (2002) "The nonsense of 'knowledge management'" Information Research, 8(1)). .

References:

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