Knowledge Management Definitions:
Everyone keeps on saying that the concept of knowledge management is like a pool. The more you go inside it the vaster it is to understand it. Below I provide a brief insight of what I think about knowledge management derived from reading various literatures.
Knowledge is an organizational asset used by organizations to create a competitive advantage in a highly competitive market ( Alavi, Leidner, 1999). Therefore KMS can be said to be a tool used by organizations for their progress. Knowledge management is thought of as a set of four activities viz: develop, distribute, combine and consolidate (Wiig et al,1997). This thought quite excites me when we think of managing knowledge. Knowledge is an immeasurable asset and cannot be measured. So we are talking about managing something which cannot be measured. This puts a lot of confusion as to what exactly we need to manage. The more we think about knowledge management the more we are likely to get confused. According to me, if we are looking at different organizations the term can be altered accordingly. Managing a set of information for one organization might not be needed at all by another organization. For example, consider a IT services provider company. The need to manage the latest developments in technology and spread it in the organization is mandatory for that company; while the company who provides business to such companies (clients) need not have such knowledge spread in all their departments.
Definitions are at plenty and it would be best if we limit it to our use in the organization. Some organizations need the spread of knowledge in all departments while others may not promote the spread of certain “tacit” knowledge in all departments. Therefore, I feel it is best to limit the definitions to specific organizations.
PS: Correct me if I am wrong!! Comments are welcome!
References:
1: Maryam Alavi, Dorothy E. Leidner, 1999- KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS: ISSUES, CHALLENGES, and BENEFITS.
2: Karl Wiig, Robert Hoog, Rob Van Der Spek,1997- Supporting Knowledge Management: a selection of methods and techniques.
Milind. I find many interesting thoughts. However, I would like to see how can you make sense of what people said about KM from your own experience. Your own definition based on your reflections from practice? Interesting
ReplyDeleteLet me know how you make sense of this in practice
Aboubakr
hi Milind, i liked your post. I agree with the part that knowledge cannot be measured therefore it makes knowledge management a difficult task. As far as your closing comments are concerned I think that organizations might use knowledge manamgement in more than just one way. You can visit my blog and see my views and thoughts on KM
ReplyDeleteThanks for all your valuable comments..To summarize my thoughts on KM, I would say that KM is a "tool" that is used to gain strategic advantage over competitors. As far as applying it to real world is concerned, i would like to ask you whether what i wrote on the online company example is not a good example of KM??
ReplyDeleteI think you did not specify if the company is online in your example, anyway if you mean the IT services company example I think that was a view on how KM can be used in different organizations according to their needs and not an example of how KM is used. I feel what is important is to understand is how KM can be used according to a company's/firm's/organization's/etc needs. Thats why KM models (like the 7 schools syste by Earl) were developed. I will be posting an article on my blog on KM models soon.
ReplyDeletehi milind I liked your definiton and example.
ReplyDelete