Chapter One
Introduction To Knowledge Management
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What is knowledge
The ability to use information, Understanding, awareness, or familiarity
acquired through education or experience. Anything that has been
learned, perceived, discovered, inferred, or understood.
•Knowledge is part of the hierarchy made up of data, information and
knowledge. Data are raw facts. Information is data with context and
perspective. Knowledge is information with guidance for action based
upon insight and experience.
Data is a number or word or letter without any context. When data is
further processed, it becomes information When information is further
processed, it has the potential for becoming knowledge
Wisdom is the ability to make sensible decisions and judgments based
on personal knowledge and experience.
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Conceptual Progression from Data to Knowledge
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Type of knowledge
• In general, there are two types of knowledge namely:
 tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge.
 tacit knowledge: is the knowledge that people carry in their heads. It is much
less concrete than explicit knowledge. It is more of an “unspoken understanding”
about something, knowledge that is more difficult to write down in a document or
a database. An example might be, knowing how to ride a bicycle – you know how
to do it, you can do it again and again, but could you write down instructions for
someone to learn to ride a bicycle? Tacit knowledge can be difficult to access, as it
is often not known to others.
 Tacit knowledge is considered more valuable because it provides context for
people, places, ideas and experiences. It generally requires extensive personal
contact and trust to share effectively.
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stored in the brain of a person.
essential requirement for making good decisions.
It is highly individualized
It is domain of subjective, cognitive, and experiential learning.
It is hard to formalized
they need to generate new knowledge through personal and group
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interactions within the organization.
Type of knowledge
 Explicit knowledge is knowledge that can be captured and written
down in documents or databases. Examples of explicit knowledge
include instruction manuals, written procedures, best practices,
lessons learned and research findings.
 Explicit knowledge can be categorized as either structured or
unstructured. Documents, databases, and spreadsheets are examples
of structured knowledge, because the data or information in them is
organized in a particular way for future retrieval. In contrast, e-mails,
images, training courses, and audio and video selections are
examples of unstructured knowledge because the information they
contain is not referenced for retrieval.
 It is knowledge that can be readily made available to others and
transmitted or shared in the form of systematic and formal
languages.
 it can be codified, documented and archived.
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Characteristics of Knowledge
– It is huge in nature and requires proper structuring.
– It may be incomplete and imprecise.
– It may keep on changing (dynamic).
Mode of knowledge
There are four modes of knowledge creation
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Socialization
Externalization
Internalization
Combination
 Socialization
– is a process of creating common tacit knowledge through
shared experiences. individuals share experiences and
space at the same time. Through this process common
unarticulated beliefs and embodied skills are created and developed
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Mode of knowledge
 Externalization is a process of articulating tacit knowledge into
such explicit knowledge as concepts and/or diagrams. the process
often uses metaphors, analogies, and/or sketches. A good
example of externalization is the process of creating a new
product concept or developing a new production process.
 Internalization is a process of embodying explicit knowledge into
tacit knowledge or an individual’s know-how or operational
knowledge. An excellent example of this is “learning by doing or
using.” Explicit knowledge that is available as text, sound, or video
facilitates the internalization process.
 Combination is a process of assembling new and existing explicit
knowledge into a systemic knowledge. the best example is a
researcher can assemble an array of previously existing explicit
knowledge in order to prepare a new set of specifications for a
prototype of a new product. Or an engineer can combine available
drawings and design specifications to produce a new process
design or equipment.
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How is Knowledge represented?
• Construct Knowledge based by telling the agent what it needs to know
–add one by one the sentences that represent the domain
knowledge using Knowledge based language.
• Knowledge is basically represented as “symbol structures”
(essentially, complex data structures) representing bits of knowledge
(objects, concepts, facts, rules, strategies...)Example:
“red”
represents color red.“mycar” represents my car. red(mycar) represents the fact that
my car is red.
Knowledge modeling methods
 Automatic knowledge modeling methods
 Manual knowledge modeling methods
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Knowledge modeling methods
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Automatic knowledge modeling methods
• An automatic knowledge acquisition method that
involves using computer software to automatically
discover knowledge from a set of data.
• The process of using computers to extract knowledge
from data is called knowledge discovery
– Two reasons for the use of automated knowledge
acquisition:
• Good knowledge engineers are highly paid and difficult to
find
• Domain experts are usually busy and sometimes
uncooperative
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Knowledge modeling methods
 Manual knowledge modeling methods
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Interview analysis : An explicit, face-to-face knowledge
acquisition technique that involves a direct dialog between the
expert and the knowledge engineer.
Walk-through : In knowledge engineering, a process whereby
the expert walks (or talks) the knowledge engineer through the
solution to a problem.
Unstructured (informal) interview : An informal interview that
acquaints a knowledge engineer with an expert’s problemsolving domain.
Process tracking : The process of an expert system’s tracing the
reasoning process in order to reach a conclusion
Protocol analysis :A set of instructions governing the format
and control of data in moving from one medium to another
Observations: a remark or comment on something that
has been noticed.
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Knowledge Management
Definition of Knowledge Management .
 Knowledge management is essentially about facilitating the processes by which
knowledge is created, shared and used in organizations.
 Knowledge management is a collection of activities, processes and policies,
which enable organizations to apply knowledge to improve effectiveness,
innovation and quality. It is not about setting up a new department or
getting in a new computer system. It is about making small changes to the
way everyone in the organization works.
 Knowledge management is a process that emphasises generating, capturing
and sharing information and integrating these into business practices and
decision making for greater organizational benefit. Knowledge management is
the explicit and systematic management of vital knowledge and its associated
processes of creating, gathering, organizing, diffusion, use and exploitation. It
requires turning personal knowledge into corporate knowledge that can be
widely shared throughout an organization and appropriately applied.
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Knowledge Management
• Knowledge management is the leveraging of collective wisdom to
increase responsiveness and innovation. Knowledge is connected.
It exists in a collection (collective wisdom) of multiple experiences
and perspectives. Knowledge management is a catalyst. It is an
action – leveraging. Knowledge is always relevant to
environmental conditions, and stimulates action in response to
these conditions. Knowledge is applicable in un encountered
environments. Information becomes knowledge when it is used to
address novel situations for which no direct precedent exists.
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Knowledge Management initiative
Knowledge management initiatives have one of
three aims:
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To make knowledge visible, mainly through maps,
yellow pages, and hypertext
 To develop a knowledge-intensive culture
 To build a knowledge infrastructure
The aim of knowledge management is not necessarily to
manage all knowledge, just the knowledge that is
most important to the organization. It is about
ensuring that people have the knowledge they need,
where they need it, when they need it – the right
knowledge, in the right place, at the right time.
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what does knowledge management involve?
• Knowledge management is essentially about facilitating the
processes by which knowledge is created, shared and used in
organizations. It is not about setting up a new department or
getting in a new computer system. It is about making small
changes to the way everyone in the organization works. There are
many ways of looking at knowledge management and different
organizations will take different approaches. Generally speaking,
creating a knowledge environment usually requires changing
organizational values and culture, changing people’s behaviors and
work patterns, and providing people with easy access to each
other and to relevant information resources.
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Aspects of Knowledge Management
• knowledge management involves the identification and
mapping of intellectual assets within an organization.
There are two main aspects of knowledge management,
namely, information management and people
management.
information management
• Most entrepreneurs and managers are familiar with the
term information management. This term is associated
with the management of knowledge related to objects
that are identified and handled by information systems.
• the concepts of IM is to analysis information , planning”
developing , and providing additional tools for
practitioners.
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Aspects of Knowledge Management
 people management :The second aspect of knowledge people
management . this involves the management of tacit knowledge
that resides inside the heads of people.
• In order to effectively manage the people that possess the desired
tacit knowledge, it is essential to take into consideration their
cultural and social values, attitudes and aspirations, and likes and
dislikes. If this can be done successfully, it can lead to the creation
of new knowledge that otherwise cannot be accomplished by
information management alone. Both aspects of knowledge
management embody two immediate concerns:
 to make organizational knowledge more productive; and
 to produce benefits that are significantly greater than those
envisioned.
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most important pillar of knowledge management
In order to more fully define and understand
knowledge management, it is useful to consider
knowledge management as having three pillars.
These pillars are:
 management and organization
infrastructure
people and culture
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most important pillar of knowledge management
 management and organization
• The first and most important pillar of knowledge management
is the commitment at the highest levels of management.
• This commitment is absolutely essential to the success of any
knowledge management initiative.
• It is also essential that managers promote appropriate
behaviors among employees by setting the example.
• The commitment from top management can come in two ways.
Firstly, the managers at the highest levels should serve as role
models by sharing and using knowledge themselves.
• Secondly, a structure to support knowledge management
should be implemented, including financial, technological and
human resources. One way is to create a knowledge
management department and designate a Chief Knowledge
Officer (CKO). This department should be given the clear
responsibility for the promotion and implementation of
knowledge management, led by the CKO.
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most important pillar of knowledge management
• Another aspect of the knowledge management-organization pillar is
the management of the value chain, which is a critical enabler for
knowledge management. The concept of value chain arises from
the fact that organizations do not exist in isolation. They form links
joined together in value chains. In these value chains every
organization has customers while at the same time being a
customer of other organizations. Every organization has to manage
the organizational knowledge relating to its customers and
suppliers. Such knowledge is generally referred to as customer
knowledge, which must be generated, organized, shared and
applied – in other words, managed. The main enabling practice with
regard to this type of knowledge is customer relationship
management. The management of customer relationship has two
main objectives: to acquire customers and to keep customers.
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most important pillar of knowledge management
Infrastructure: All knowledge management
systems require a certain level of technology and
infrastructure support to be effective. infrastructure
is needed in order to better create, organize, share
and apply knowledge. In this sense, ICTs are relevant
enablers. ICTs Knowledge management solutions
that manage both explicit and tacit knowledge must
be enabled by a basic communications.
• In order to organize content, information and
communication technology tools are essential.
• The first step in organizing content is the preparation
of the taxonomy or knowledge mapping.
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most important pillar of knowledge management
People and culture: People are the bearers of tacit
knowledge. And the sharing of tacit knowledge is crucial
to the success of knowledge management. For this
reason, perturbations in the composition of the
workforce can have significant impact on the
organization’s performance. Accordingly, the knowledge
management process within an organization must take
into account not only the processes and material
resources but, more importantly, the people by whom
knowledge is generated. This is what is known as the
“people and culture” enabler in knowledge
management.
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most important pillar of knowledge management
• People and culture as an enabler of knowledge
management requires three important elements.
 the redefinition of organizational structure,
 the corresponding human resource practices, and
 a reliability of organizational culture.
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Roles of People in Knowledge Management
• KMS developers
– The team members who actually develop the
system
• KMS staff
– Enterprise wide KMS require a full-time staff to
catalog and manage the knowledge
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Roles of People in Knowledge Management
• Leader (or coordinator)r recognized in the organisation
at large as the speaker for this community; organises and
co-ordinates the community’s interactions and activities;
• Facilitator(s)Facilitates the interactions within the
community, e.g. in face-to-face meetings, and steers the
agenda of online interactions;
• knowledge manager manages the explicit knowledge
resources of the community.
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What is Knowledge management systems (KMS)
• A system that facilitates knowledge management by
ensuring knowledge flow from the person(s) who know to
the person(s) who need to know throughout the
organization; knowledge evolves and grows during the
process. A Knowledge Management system is one that
provides the user with the explicit information required, in
exactly the form required, at precisely the time the user
needs it.” Or: “A Knowledge Management system is one
that connects to all sources of knowledge.”
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What features do you need in a KM system?
Now we are talking technical, in an application sense at
least. Basically, any KM system should be a superset of
an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system, able
to capture, index and retrieve objects of any type (e.g.,
images, drawings, voice mail, video, emails). In order to
do all the things you are going to ask of it, it must have
an array of “standard” features; those features that
should be common to any modern ECM application
solution. For example:
 metadata searches
 full text searches
 the ability to search across other repositories and
sources of knowledge as well as its own database
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 the ability to capture electronic documents and emails
The end
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