Knowledge Management Flashcards
Define knowledge management
The processes necessary to generate, capture, codify, integrate and transfer knowledge across an organisation to achieve competitive advantages.
What is the role of KM in organisations?
Its role is to take advantage of and improve certain intangible assets in an organisation, with well executed-knowledge projects bringing substantial value and substantial ROI. Value forms include…
What form of value can KM systems include? (7 forms)
Managing overload, sharing best practices, insuring against downsizing, sustaining competitive advantage, embedded knowledge in products, globalisation, rapid change
What are those 3 broad dimensions of KM?
1) Data, Information, Knowledge Wisdom
2) Explicit & Tacit
3) Important dimensions: KM is a firm asset, KM has different forms, KM has a location, KM is situational
Briefly explain the different elements of the 1st dimension of knowledge (data, info, knowledge wisdom).
1) Data - simple observations about the state of the world
2) Information - data endowed with relevance and purpose
3) Knowledge - Information from the human mind (reflections, synthesis, context)
4) Wisdom - The collective and individual experience of applying knowledge to the solution of problems
What are the main differences between explicit and tacit knowledge?
Tacit knowledge (TK) is intangible, whilst explicit knowledge (EK) is tangible.
TK is invisible, EK is visible (documented, undocumented)
TK is private, it is 1st person, embodied mental processes. EK is public, can be be shared by 1st person and then belong to others once shared - accessible.
TK is hard to acquire, EK is easy.
TK is know-how, EK is know-what
Briefly explain the 4 elements of the 3rd dimension of knowledge (a firm asset, situational, etc.)
1) Firm asset: Intangible asset, creation of knowledge from data/info is off firms resources
2) Different forms: explicit (know-how: skill, craft, strategy) vs tacit (know-what: manual, specification, blueprint). Knowing causality as well.
3) Has a location: cognitive event that’s both individual and/or social. Knowledge is “sticky” (hard to move), situated (embedded in a firms culture), and contextual (works only in certain situations).
4) Is situational: Conditional (knowing when to apply a procedure) & Contextual (knowing circumstances in which to use a certain tool)
What are the 6 elements of KM Strategy?
1) Strategic Alignment
2) Leadership & Governance
3) People and Culture
4) Process & Organization
5) Content & Context
6) Technology
Briefly explain Strategic Alignment
Success relies upon KM initiatives that support organization strategy and goals.
Briefly explain Leadership & Governance
Governance structure with clearly set out roles and responsibilities is necessary for defining, driving, controlling, and overseeing the implementation of KM systems.
When we bring up People & Culture we are talking about… (3 things)
Knowledge workers, roles and responsibilities, and Communities of Practice (COP).
Define a knowledge worker and explain some characteristics they might have.
Some who brings value by processing existing information to create new information that could be used to define and solve problems. They most often use intellect (intellectual capital) to generate ideas and concepts, rather than conducting manual work.
What are some roles of knowledge workers
CIO, CKO (Chief Knowledge Officer), knowledge manager, etc.
What are communities of practice and why do they exist?
They are informed social networks of professionals inside or outside of firms, who share similar work activities and/or interests.
These COP involve education, online newsletters, sharing of expertise and techniques, as well as facilitate the reuse of knowledge/discussion for the betterment of the professions, also reducing the learning curb of new employees.
When we talk about people and organization, we also talk about….. What does this concept do?
The KM value chain.
The value chain adds value to raw data and information as it is transformed into usable knowledge.
Briefly explain people and organization.
Processes provide a structure for the consistency and standardization of the capture, organization, maintenance, and dissemination of knowledge.
What are the 4 main phases of the value chain?
1) Knowledge acquisition
2) Knowledge storage
3) Knowledge dissemination
4) Knowledge application
Briefly explain content and context
Focuses on the identification, capture, and management of core knowledge assets to gain better access to and exploit intellectual capital.
What are the 2 dimensions regarding content and context, as well as the points about contextualized knowledge?
1) Explicit (documented, structured) vs tacit knowledge (unstructured).
2) Proprietary (undiffused) vs widespread (diffused)
Contextualized: Provenance (where it originates), and tagging/folkonomies.
What are the 3 types of KMS types?
1) Enterprise wide
2) Knowledge work systems (KWS)
3) Intelligent techniques
Describe and give examples of enterprise wide KMS.
General purpose, firm wide efforts to capture, store, disseminate, and apply content and knowledge.
Things like KMS, collaborative/social tools.
Describe and give examples of knowledge work systems (KWS).
Specialized systems for engineers, scientists, and other knowledge workers charged with discovering and creating new knowledge.
Things like CAD (Computer Aided Design)
Describe and give examples of intelligent techniques.
Diverse range of techniques, such as data mining, used for a variety of purposes: discovery/distilling of knowledge, discovering optimal solutions.
Neural networks, data mining, expert systems, fuzzy logic, genetic algorithms.
Explain the key differences between expert systems and neural networks.
1) Expert Systems (ES) emulate human decision making Neural Networks (NN) learn human thought processes and reasoning patterns.
2) ES use rules and frameworks to make decisions (i.e. decision trees)
NN adjust to inputs and outputs
3) ES provide explanations for their decisions
NN cannot explain their decisions
4) ES require human input to update information databases
NN expand their own bases of information
