Thursday, April 2, 2009

knowledge cafe

Knowledge Cafe:

Implementing Knowledge Management in organisations:

Knowledge Management after much research was proved to be very much essential for an organisation. Now let’s see how this can be successfully implemented in an organisation taking into account the barriers. Earlier, Knowledge management was pertained to only large organisations. As the time is changing now arises a need for implementation of KM in even small and medium sized enterprises. There are many Critical factors to be taken into account for the successful implementation of KM in organisations. Two factors make an impact on an organisation’s success:

• Internal factors: Infrastructure, creation and sharing culture of knowledge, technology, frequent learning, systematic processes
• External factors: Environmental

Analysis:

It is not compulsory that every organisation should follow all the rules, it depends on an organisation Internal factors on what to consider and what not to take into account. Choosing a factor even though it is not necessary may also lead to a system failure. (Amidon and Skyrme 1997). Many people have done a research on the factors out of which IT remained as a common factor. This explains the importance of IT. People like Norton, Arora, Suen, Kaplan, Ahmed and many more have done much research since a long time. It is not necessary that all the SME’s should have in common all these factors. It may vary from one organisation to another depending on the requirements of the organisation. Many people have done research in this field and have identified different attributes based on their study and it is very complicated to generalise these factors completely. Some of the general factors are:

• Leadership of Management and Support: It plays a very important role and is based on the behaviour of management towards the staff and explains the qualities that should be possessed by a leader like the willingness to move around and share knowledge, search and learn for knowledge. Much of support should be from the higher management and on a regular basis.
• Culture: A good culture should be practiced in an organisation where knowledge can be shared, created and implemented.
• IT: It is very much important to use the right tool which should be easily understood by everyone and should be simple to use while satisfying all the requirements.
• Strategy: A definite and clear strategy on how things have to function should be implemented.
• Measurement: Organisation should measure KM so that they come to know where they fall.
• Processes: Processes like the sharing, creation, implementation of knowledge should be run according to a systematic way and implementing different strategies to successfully complete every process.
• Motivation: What si the use of implementing everything unless the staff is not motivated. It makes a big impact on the productivity. Staff may be motivated by acts like incentives depending on their individual contribution to all the processes in a group.
• Resources: Resources should be checked on a regular basis and ensure that resources are available to the individuals accordingly.
• Training: Training also plays a major role where the staff should be trained with the objectives and goals so that they remain object oriented at all times.
• HRM: HRM should be managed properly in organisations to ensure that the new arrived staff have knowledge so that they donot create a negative impact on the team they are going to join. Staff should also be provided with a chance to grow in the organisation inorder to prevent retention so that the knowledge stays within the organisation.

Conclusion:
In order to implement KM in an Organisation the factors should be considered accordingly depending on the organisation or incase a wrong step is taken at this stage it may create a huge negative impact on the growth of the organisation. It may not be necessary that every aspect should be compulsorily implemented in all the organisations as it may vary from one another.Implementation of KM should be given priority like the implementation of IT in an organisation as it helps an organisation to pertain to their standards and produce high quality goods.

References:

• Wong, K,Y, (2005, “Critical success factors for implementing knowledgemanagement in small and medium enterprises”, Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 105 No. 3, pp. 261-79. Retrieved on March 31, 2009 from: ugr.es.
• Gillingham, H and Roberts, B 2006, “Implementing Knowledge Management: A Practical Approach”, Journal of Knowledge Management Practice, Vol. 7, No. 1, Retrieved on March 31, 2009 from: google scholar.
• Skyrme, D. J. (1998), Measuring the value of knowledge, Business Intelligence: London.
• Hwang, AS 2003, “Training strategies in the management of knowledge”, Journal of knowledge Management, Vol. 7, No. 3; pp156-166. Retrieved on March 31, 2009 from google scholar.
• Michael H. Zack,2001, ‘If managing knowledge is the solution, then what's the problem?', Knowledge management and business model innovation, Idea Group Publishing, Hershey, PA. Retrieved March 31, 2009 from Acm Digital Library.
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Wednesday, April 1, 2009

The Role of IT in KMS:

Knowledge Management has become an integral part of most of the organisations. Every Organisation wants to stop re-inventing the wheel and in this process wants to Mange Knowledge. The definition of Knowledge Management varies and it can be told in general forms as the creation, sharing, acquisition, transfer, application, communication, management of Knowledge.

So, where does IT come into picture in all these different steps? Or is IT that important to manage these several steps? Information Technology does play a major role in Knowledge Management. However, it is not necessary that IT alone drives Knowledge Management System. In short, IT supports Knowledge Management Systems. And traditional methods are also present other than IT to support KMS. Traditional methods are also effective, however depends on many aspects when it comes to comparing which one among the two i.e., traditional methods or IT and coming to a conclusion on which one is the best. Smaller organisations can go with the traditional methods instead of employing IT systems, however it depends on the organisation alone whether it want to employ IT or not.

Analysis:

Most of the organisations use Information Technology to store the knowledge from different individuals and create a database of all the entries so that it will be useful in the future. But use of IT is not limited solely to this application. Many of us have a misconception that IT means the use of computers. But, it is not true. It may be the use of technologies like Video Conferencing which helps in the transfer of an individuals knowledge that is Tacit Knowledge. (Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995). The main role of IT should be to support the organisation by building a hassle free environment within the organisation and to build co-operation within the individuals rather than just to store the explicit knowledge. (Dougherty 1999). The main use of storing the explicit knowledge is to prevent the risk of Knowledge loss when an individual leaves the organisation. By storing the knowledge in the repositories, such kind of loss can be overcome.

So what are the other efficient ways other than IT? The traditional methods such as usage of Telephones, Meetings, Formal training are also effective. Knowledge transfer occurs through Telephones and is also a quicker way. Group meetings lead to Brainstorming sessions that are very efficient. Howevr, IT also plays a major role when it comes to the usage of Internet and Intranet. Both are highly productive and effivient and help in the transfer of both tacit and explicit knowledge fastly. Emails can also be used to share a single piece of information with many other individuals at a single point of time with low cost, much effective and with much faster results not only within the organisation but also outside the organisation like either with the clients or the customers.

Conclusion:

IT does have many disadvantages in terms of security. There is a danger prone every time regarding the safety of information stored or all the secrets of the organisation may be disclosed to the outer world. However, this is a risk associated with every methoad including the traditional methods also. For example, the telephones may be tapped. So, organisationas must follow strict security in order to prevent the organisation's secrets from leaking out. So, IT is not the only way for the development of KMS but it is also a way that supports the developement of KMS. It may not be true that every company using IT has to be successful and the organisation that is not using IT must incur failure. IT supports KMS.

References:

  • Egbu,C.O and Botterill,K 2002, 'Information Technologies for Knowledge Management: their Use and Effectiveness', 'Electronic Journal of Information Technology in Construction',7, Special issue; 'ICT for Knowledge Management in Construction', 125 37. Retrieved March 31, 2009, from: www.itcon.org/2002/8.
  • Alavi,M and Leidner,D 1999, 'Knowledge Management Systems: Emerging Views and Practices from the Field, Communications of the AIS'. Retrieved March 31, 2009, from: google scholar.
  • McDermott,R 1999, 'Why Information Technology Inspired but Cannot Deliver Knowledge Management','California Management Review',Vol41,No.4. Retrieved March 31, 2009 from: google scholar.
  • Malhotra,Y. eds. 2001, 'Knowledge management and business model innovation', Hershey, PA: Idea Group Publishing.
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Web 2.0 in Knowledge Management:

Services or tools provided should have the ability to help people work as a team or a community in order to gain productive results. Web 2.0 full fills this need by helping people get together and share their opinions or ideas. In the modern era, organisations are concentrating on user satisfaction and providing the users with the services they need rather than releasing products without knowing the needs of the customers. Web 2.0 helps the organisations in achieving this goal by providing them with technologies that help in interacting with each other i.e., interaction between individuals inside the organisation and even between the customers and helping in receiving feedback from every individual in order to improve the product.






What's Web 2.0? There is no specific definition, however it can be understood as an upgrade to Web 1.0 where with the use of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasting, RSS establishes a social networking environment where individuals can interact and contribute their tacit knowledge which upon becomes explicit knowledge through which everyone can benefit. Web 2.0 technologies help individuals consume more information which is the explicit knowledge that has been shared by different individuals. The term Folksonomy coined by Thomas Vander Wal in 2005 has evolved in this context which is an act of collective tagging of relative content which may be by an individual, an expert, the creator of the content or even by the consumer of the information. (Vander Wal, 2005).







Knowledge management is very important to gain success and fruitful results. When do we consider that an Organisation is successful? When it delivers a product that meets the requirements of the consumer. According to Wikipedia, in the recent world many Organisations are making use of the Wikis to help interact with other members and discuss regarding the product and get feedback in improving the product and gain Knowledge from the discussion or Brainstorming. (W ikipedia, 2006).




Image: Framework for knowledge work analysis according to Efimova (2004).

Many Universities are also utilizing these technologies to help students in academics. This is done by Podcasting and this helps in enhancing the learnig experience. Using Podcasting, videos of lectures are recorded and transmitted so that the students can view them in their portable media. This is very much useful in the transfer of knowledge and even the implementation of Blogs is also very much useful in the institutions.(Paul Anderson, 2007). We in our university are using Blogging to discuss our course content and in getting feedback from other students and even the lecturers regarding the articles we have posted and this is very much useful to rectify any mistakes and take valuable suggestions from them. In this way there is transfer of Knowledge taking place between us through which many of us have gained Knowledge in some or the other way regarding the information we do not know.


RSS feeds are used to get important updates regarding to the topic we have subscribed for. It indeed contributes to the Knowledge Pool. When any update like suggestions or comments are posted to the topic we have subscribed for, we get the updates in real time and by looking at those updates we can respond immediately in real time and share our knowledge with others which is very much useful for an individual himself or even the community also. Even Social networking websites serve in Knowledge transfer by connecting different people with different backgrounds or ethnicity at a place. All these people can interact and discuss on a topic of their interest and share their knowledge with others. (Paul Anderson, 2007). In Orkut, Facebook and similar sites, there are many communities and one can join any number of communities based on their interest and interact with like minded people and share their knowledge.

Conclusion:

Web 2.0 is very much useful in Knowledge management and improves the way in which people can share knowledge. Not only for the educational institutions but also for organisations. When implemented effectively can acheive fruitful results which is beneficial to each and every one. It also gets together people with similar interests no matter where they are from. And thus uniting ideas from different cultures. Web 2.0 is like a boon to the people who want to share knowledge.

References:



• H, Rollett 2009, The web2.0 way of learning with technologies. Int. J. of Learning Technology. Retrieved March 31, 2009, from: psu.edu.

• O'Reilly, T 2005, 'What is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software'. Retrived March 31 2009, from: http://oreillynet.com/1pt/a/6228.
• P, Anderson 2007, What is Web 2.0? Ideas, technologies and implications for education. Technical report, JISC, Retrieved March 31, 2009, from: Acm digital library.


• Tredinnick, L 2006, Web 2.0 and business: A pointer to the intranets of the future? Business Information Review, 23, 228–234. Retrieved March 31, 2009, from: springerlink

• A, Ankolekar, et al., 2007, The two cultures: Mashing up web 2.0 and the semantic web. In Proceedings of the 16th International World Wide Web Conference, Banff, Alberta, Canada. Retrieved March 31, 2009, from: www.kasm.nii.ac.jp.

• Safran, C et al., 2007, E-Learning practices and Web 2.0. In: International Conference on Interactive Computer Aided Learning. Retrieved March 31, 2009, from: iicm.edu.
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Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Earl's 7 Schools





Earl’s Seven Schools:

Earl after a five year study on strategies of knowledge management categorised knowledge management into seven types which are called as Earl’s Seven Schools. These schools are inturn put into three groups. Now we will see each of these groups and the types that come under these groups as categorised by Earl.

Technocratic:
Earl termed this group technocratic as the schools that come under this group rely on Information Technology to help the knowledge workers. And a total of three schools come under this group:
Systems;
Cartographic; and
Engineering.

Systems: According to the Systems school, we have to store the knowledge of an expert which can inturn be accessed by other experts or qualified individuals who understand that stored knowledge. This is because it saves time and resources for everyone. When a problem arises, the staff instead of searching for the possible solution and wasting huge amount of time and resources can access the stored knowledge in which the solutions of many problems has been stored by the experts or by individuals through experience and assist their customers who have faced a similar problem and assist them (customers) very quickly without wasting much time and this inturn leads to customer satisfaction.

In the organisation I was working, when ever a customer calls up with a problem first we search our data base to find any possible solution stored before hand by the experts or individuals who have successfully solved such kind of issues before and assist our customers in the same way. This saves us a lot of time in thinking what has to be done to solve that customers issue as that issue has already been faced by someone and they have stored the solution of that problem in the database.

Cartographic: The main aim of this school is to be sure that an expert is always available for the staff when required. When a member of staff is unable to find a possible solution in the database an expert should be readily available in order to give advice on how that problem can be solved.

In our organisation there is a supervisor assigned for every 20 people and incase we were unable to find the solution for a customer’s query we would ask the customer to stay online and then consult our supervisor for a possible solution for that problem.
The main advantage of this school is that making an expert available is always helpful incase an individual looses his track in solving an issue.
This school is best explained by Snowden, 2002 who said “we can always know more than we can tell, and we will always tell more than what we can write down” (Snowden, 2002, p.3).

Engineering: This school has two sub categories’ on which the attention has been drawn which are, “more knowledge is present in management than that exists in business process” and “a way to enhance a business process is to provide the staff with knowledge that is suitable to their work”.

In our dealership when a person comes to buy an automobile each of our staff is advised to take each and every document correctly without any mistake to ensure hassle free delivery of the automobile. Such as, when an automobile is to be purchased by a customer under finance we have to take a copy of his driving license, address proof, bank statement for the past six months, etc., One time or the other our staff forgets to take any one of these and after the delivery of the automobile we will be in problems when we apply for the permanent registration of the vehicle as one or the other document is missing. So we printed a checklist of the document to be collected from the customer and check mark what has to be filed in that customers file which was very useful to us and when a customer takes an appointment, our staff used to tell them what all documents they are supposed to bring with them.

Economic: This is the second group classified by Earl which consists of only one school, which is the
Commercial School: This school states that an organisation must concentrate on increasing the revenue by protecting an organisation’s knowledge and also exploiting it incase. The main aim as stated by this school is to increase the revenue of the organisation in what ever way possible and useful for the organisation in simple terms.

Behavioral:
Earl termed this group as Behavioral as according to him technology is not the only force that drives an organisation but also KM.

Organisational School: This school supports the idea of sharing the knowledge when one is unable to find a straight possible solution to a problem. According to a research done by Xerox, much of the knowledge exists in the minds of the employees than in the database that is available for access with the solution to certain problems (Xerox, 2001a).

In our dealership when a problem arises on repairing any automobile and no solution has been given in the servicing book or any other handbook on how to handle such situations, an informal group discussion is held between al the mechanics, so that any one can come up with a possible solution for the problem and this thing yielded fruitful results many times.

Spatial School: This school states that space should not be a problem for workers who want to share knowledge i.e., restricting the staff to meet in only one room or in only one building.

In our organisation, as told before when a solution for a problem is not found and we were supposed to discuss with each other and find a possible solution we were not confined to a discussion room or any other room for discussion. We can even hold the discussion in the smoking area or even by having a stroll in the garden.
Strategic School: According to this school, knowledge should be considered the bigger picture after achieving success.






The Image of the Earl's schools of knowledge management ("Taming enterprise dementia in public sector organizations”, International Journal of Public Sector Management).


References:

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Sunday, February 1, 2009

Organisation, Community Practice, Social Network

WHAT IS ORGANISATION, COMMUNITY PRACTICE, SOCIAL NETWORK AND THEIR DIFFERENCES ?

ORGANISATION: What is meant by "organise" ? It means to arrange by systematic planning and can be attained by united effort. An Organisation is a place where a group of people take the responsibility of acting together with a common purpose to acheive a collective goal.
For an organisation to be successful there are many aspects to be considered and a few of them comprise of having:
  • a good leadership
  • the members must know team work which is a very important thing for an organisation to last long
  • funding should be appropriate or else the organisation may die

Organisations may vary like organisations that work for profits and non-profit organisations.Non profit organisations, abbreviated NPO are also called as not-for-profit organisations donot work for profits. Their main aim is to serve the public and the members of such kind of organisations are generally volunteers (Kate Luckert n.d)

Example: Red cross

Whereas organisations that work for profits include people investing in that organisation for profits and the entire organisation is focused on a particular product, service or program.

COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE: "Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly" (EtienneWenger 1998). It is not a club of friends or a network which connects people but a domain which contain people of same interests. Its not that people should meet regularly on a daily basis they should interact with each other where ever they wanted to in case. These interactions help them to make a community of practice and they can even work alone. In these interactions they come up with experiences or stories that solve certain problems (EtienneWenger 1998) .The members of a community practice must share a common interest and share their opinions on that topic so that it will be useful for the other members in that community and they can grasp something out of all those experiences and opinions shared(E. L. Lesser and J. Storck 2001).

For example: Mechanics discussing at their lunch time casually about their work experience may not know that these discussions help them in solving the problems they may face.

How is a CoP benefit an organisation:

The freshers into the organisation have a way to discuss their problems and solve them quickly while interacting with their seniors or other members in the community who have experience dealing such kind of problems and thus helps in time saving and help the freshers to learn quickly. The freshers can also discuss useful tips about the topic and exchange that information within the community and gain precious knowledge useful for their career growth and also with that knowledge they can assist customers in a best way. This is also useful in cases where an expertise in that particular field is not available all the times so that when ever the expertise is available they can organise a meet so that they can discuss and solve the respective problems easily and find valuable knowledge through which they can assist the customers needs according to their (customer's) requirements.

This also provides a medium where people can express their ideas and share their challanges in meeting a specific goal. This also paves a way to discover new ideas in solving any problem faced as it creates a medium where different people with a similar interests can find space to develop relationships between individuals.

According to me Social Networking is very useful for an organisation in ways to improve customer satisfaction as individuals can discuss various means in which customers can be satisfied according to the requirements and also the cost in traning the freshers can be reduced as they can interact and gain knowledge from experts in that field and so the individuals also get to know the ideas of the experts in solving a particular issue and hence very useful for organisations as it is saving both time and money of the individuals and the organisation.

SOCIAL NETWORK: Social network is where different people of a common interest meet and that can be done anywhere like a college or a company. In simple terms it is nothing but a group formed by you and your friends to share and explore each others hobbies or activities or interests. In order to minimise the geographical barriers, these days the online social networking has become much popular and hence it can also be termed as an online community meant for people with similar interests to interact with each other and is for people who are interested in exploring other peoples activities and interests. And mostly people who are friends or old classmates or people who want to make new friends or people who want to promote their business or promote something for a social cause use it. These days social networking has become a part of everyday life for many of the people. Social networking can also be used for Business purposes, for social good also. In the case of business purposes it is very useful of small businesses where this kind of virtual networking is very cost effective. And in case of using it for the social good users with similar interests can join in the same community and lend their share of help. However, there are some disadvantages of online Social networking where people bluff others by saying that does not really exist. For example a person who is fat and old can tell the other members that they look thin and are young as it is done online and this happens when the members of that social network did not meet each other and thus creating problems in the future when other members expect that individual to be thin and looking young.

Pros of Social Networking:

  • Users can get exposed to a large virtual network where they come to know about diffeent things easily.
  • Very useful for jobseeker to find jobs through communicating with people in communities.
  • Users get new friends virtually who share similar kind of interests.

Cons of Social Networking:

  • All networking sites may not be used in a professional environment.
  • Many employees are more likely to carry inappropriate conversations at work than before.
  • Members may bluff others easily when they did not meet each other.

ISSUES:

1.> LEADERSHIP:

  • Organisation: A good leadership is a must.
  • CoP: A good leadership is necessary but not a must.
  • Social Networking: No leadership necessary.

2.> INTERACTION OF PEOPLE REGULARLY:

  • Organisation: Interaction on a regular basis is compulsory to make the organisation profitable.
  • CoP: Interaction is necesary, but it my or may not be a compulsion.
  • Social Networking: Interaction depends on the mood of the people.

3.> WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE GET TOGETHER:

  • Organisation: group of people take the responsibility of acting together with a common purpose to acheive a collective goal.
  • CoP: People who share similar interests come together and form a CoP.
  • Social Network: People with similar interests who want to explore the interests and activities of other people.

4.> USED FOR:

  • Organisation: Busines purposes (if it is a profit oriented organisation).
  • CoP: Social purposes, Business purposes.
  • Social Network: Making friends, Business purposes.

REFERENCES:

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Knowledge Infomation Data

What is the difference between Data, Information and Knowledge ?

DATA: "Data are the basic building blocks of information"(Josephine chinying lang 2001).
Data is just raw. It may be used or may not be used. It may be in usable form or may not be (Gene Bellinger, Durval Castro, Anthony Mills n.d). "Data is always specified in some conceptual context. The conceptual context is the one that expresses data in a structured format"(Joseph.M.Firestone 2001).
Data provided should contain a minimum of relationship and behaviour (Sujatha Das 2007).

For example:


  • Lecture 2:00PM - 4:59PM R College Building C207 12 Jan 2009 - 3 Apr 2009 Lecture Bakr M. Abdel-Motelab
  • Laboratory 9:30AM - 12:29PM R College Building C117 12 Jan 2009 - 3 Apr 2009 Laboratory Bakr M. Abdel-Motelab
  • Laboratory 9:30AM - 12:29PM F College Building C117 12 Jan 2009 - 3 Apr 2009 Laboratory Bakr M. Abdel-Motelab

After I first saw the above data I was unable to interpret anything and when I asked a class mate of mine he told me how to understand that data so that I can get some Information out of that. And after that I came to know how that data is important to me.

INFORMATION: Information means giving meaning to the provided data or explaining the data that we have been provided with (Sujatha Das 2007). The meaning may be useful to us but it is not a compulsion that the Information we got from the data is useful (Gene Bellinger, Durval Castro, Anthony Mills n.d).

For Example: We are considering the same data provided in the example field where the meaning of "Data" has been told. So from that data we can get the information as:

There is a Lecture from 2:00PM untill 4:59PM on every Thursday in the college building and the classroom in which this lecture is being held is C207 and the date range of this lecture is from Jan 12 2009 to 3 April 2009 and the section type is Lecture and the Instructors of this lecture are Mr. Bakr M. Abdel Motelab and Mr. Mark Woodman. And there are Laboratory's from 9:30AM untill 12:29PM on thursday and Friday in the college building and the laboratory room is C117 and the date range of this Laboratory is from Jan 12 2009 to April 03 2009 and the section type is laboratory and the Instructors for this Laboratory are Mr. Bakr M. Abdel Motelab and Mr. Mark Woodman.

After I interpreted the data and collected the information of my time-table for the module BIS 4410 Knowledge management strategies I thought of using this information to grasp what ever knowledge I can get.

KNOWLEDGE: Knowledge is collecting the Information appropriately from the information we got from the provided data but not memorising the information (Gene Bellinger, Durval Castro, Anthony Mills n.d). The quality of Knowledge depends on following the rules and regulations are validated and how far we can improve an organisation using this knowledge (Sujatha Das 2007).

For Example: Classes for the module BIS 4410 Knowledge Management Strategies are starting from 12 Jan 2009 in the college building which include both Lectures and Laboratories on the days thursday and friday, however the laboratory on friday is for those who were unable to get a place in the thursday batch and we have to attend these lectures and laboratories regularly so that we will not miss the valuable lectures which are very much useful to understand the module and will not be told twice if we miss any class and on time or the Instructors will not give attendance for the whole lecture or lab for whatever we showed up late and we have to work hard inorder to pass in this module. And as we have lectures and laboratories on these days and the specified timings we have to plan our journey such that we reach on time for the classes and shift the timings of our part time jobs if any accordingly.

So this was the knowledge I acquired from the data provided intially, through which I got some information and by carefully interpreting that information. This knowledge I acquired may not be the same between all my classmates and may differ from one class mate to another as they comprehend the data and information in their own perspective and may gain more knowledge than me.

So, according to my view Data, Information and Knowledge are interlinked and all of them play a major role as without data we donot get Information and without both of them we donot acquire Knowledge. So inorder to acquire knowledge we need to have proper data i.e., data which is meaningful through which information can be drawn out. However, when extracting knowledge from the provided data and the acquired information I think it depends on an individual as of what knowledge he can gain as knowledge depends upon one's understanding and comprehension and changes from one individual to another as said by Wilson T.D (2002).

The above provided example gives a brief description as of how we can distinguish between data, information and knowledge. The example provided is the schedule for our class timings which can be interpreted in different ways and the detailed explanation provided under the Knowledge field is the knowledge that I acquired from the information I got by looking at the provided data.

REFERENCE

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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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