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Instructions
1. All students are advised to use A4 page size.
2. All students are advised to use computer for the assignments.
3. If two assignments are found related/matching, both will be
cancelled.
4. All the assignments should be neat and clean.
5. In one group there might be maximum three students
6. Total Marks: 20
Assignment for
Knowledge Management
1. Write the definitions, key benefits, process and features of Knowledge Management.
2. A case study on Knowledge Management System of a multi-national organization
SL
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Name
Masfr Mobark Al-ghtani
ID
391009584
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Muhmmed Farouk ali
411006473
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Abdullah mulfi Alrashidi
411008202
Department of Management Information System, College of Business
Administration, University of Tabuk
Department of Management Information System, College of Business Administration, University of Tabuk
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Knowledge Management
Knowledge Management has become one of the most crucial parts of any
growing business. To be able to best understand how to incorporate Knowledge
Management into a business organization, one must first understand some of the
core competencies related to Knowledge Management. Knowledge Management
includes creating processes for knowledge sharing, the action of disseminating the
knowledge through the organization, storing the knowledge in the best place
possible, and also retrieving the knowledge when needed
This can be applied in multiple contexts. To name a few: from an employee
starting at a company on the first day of work and making sure they are given all
the information necessary to
succeed, to a multinational company that is past their “growth” stage yet still
finding ways to collaborate to innovate, to teams within the same company but in
different industries and specialties creating ways to communicate with one another.
In understanding how Knowledge Management can be applied to a company,
this thesis has broken down Knowledge Management into four categories:
● Creating the Knowledge Management System (the system used to house
documents) .
● Creating the Enterprise Social Network (the tool used to communicate with
others) .
● Creating network initiatives and a culture of sharing (the group of people
willing to share and learn knowledge)
● Creating and maintaining innovation in companies (the best practices for
inspiring creativity) .
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Through isolation in each of these different areas, and highlighting case studies
from companies who have implemented these processes, this thesis seeks to create
a better understanding for individuals to leverage Knowledge Management into
their own company and to learn what are the best practices for them to adopt.
The Knowledge Hierarchy and Why It Matters The knowledge pyramid is the
core concept on how to obtain knowledge. It is one of the most common figures
used when trying to highlight how to educate and teach others. To understand how
to best empower employees to be able to gain knowledge, we can use the
knowledge pyramid to understand how information is best broken down.
Figure 1.1 is a hierarchical system when looking
at Knowledge Management in companies.
Department of Management Information System, College of Business Administration, University of Tabuk
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Figure 1.1 highlights the four layers of the knowledge pyramid. To be able to
best empower employees to learn, it helps to best understand how knowledge is
progressed. We will break down the pyramid through the four layers, and include
examples of how each layer can be presented to the employee.
The ultimate goal in understanding the knowledge hierarchical system is to
make sure that whatever system and process is in place is that employees are able
to leverage data and information to reach knowledge and wisdom levels.
Data: The base layer is data. This includes any forms of data that can be found
through the company’s system, including payment data, any forms of monetary
transactions, human resource inflows and analytics from hiring funnels to
offboarding, and different forms of financial data, including P&L statements,
accounting books, and bank statements. Understanding of the numerical facts can
sometimes allow for a more comprehensive view of the information. In concept,
when unaltered, the base data layer is important because it takes away any form of
opinion and allows for knowledge to be in its core format.
Think of data as binary (E.g., 0 1 0 1 0 1 1). Examples of data can be seen as
raw numbers, facts, or (as seen in the example) bits. Please note: It should be
mentioned that data, while seemingly unbiased, can be skewed in that it only
presents a partial view of the data or has been massaged in a way that leans
towards one view. When using data to evaluate the base layer of the knowledge
pyramid, it is best to proceed with caution and understand where the data is coming
from, how it has been interpreted, and if there are other viewpoints or lenses from
which to understand the data from.
When using and sourcing data, especially as the foundation in the quest of your
own Knowledge Management, be careful of what data you are using, understand
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that not all data is impartial, and question the sources of where it comes from.
Information: Moving past this, there enters the middle form of the process which is
“information”.
This is where the data is then digested to become meaningful to the user. Ways
that data can become useful is that the data can be selected, categorized, or
presented to extract information, to show trends, or to be turned into statements.
This format can then be communicated to third party viewers who weren’t the ones
creating or generating the data. This type of information can be viewed in
pamphlets, reports (including sales, KPIs, monthly revenue meetings) and different
forms of statements (including sales increases, monthly targets, and budgets).2 The
information part is the “meat” of the pyramid where most of the documentation is
already created but hasn’t been transformed yet.
Information is when data is met with connotation, when the data that is given
has context, relevance, and meaning explained behind it. For instance, in learning
of the above example given (0 1 0 1 0 1 1), the “informational component'' of it
would be explaining that this is the outcome of a coin toss, where 1 is for tails and
0 is for heads. Information includes given subcontext to raw data and forming it
into an understandable and digestible story. Knowledge: The second to the top of
the pyramid is “knowledge”3 . This is where information and data transcend to
“usefulness”. A great way to think of this is just because an employee has access to
onboarding documents and the data of how many people interviewed to get the job,
it does not mean the employee is adequately ready for their new position.4 The top
of the pyramid is used to describe when all of the information collected has been
placed and structured in a way that the employee is able to use it and understand it.
Knowledge is taking the data and information given, and being able to make
decisions and actions based off of the two given. Knowledge should be used to be
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both decision and action driven, and be used to be able to create systems. An
example of knowledge from the previous scenario of (0 1 0 1 0 1 1) representing
sides of a coin toss is that now doing it a large amount of times (100+ times) to
observe if there is a pattern. From those data points, we can be able to draw
conclusions (e.g., whether a coin really is “equal” in probability or if a coin has a
certain bias).
Wisdom: The top of the pyramid is “wisdom”. It is important to note that not all
versions of the DIKW model have “wisdom” at the top6 : it wasn’t until the 1990’s
that the International Society of General Systems Research7 started to include
“wisdom” in the model. Wisdom is at the top of this model because it is “the use of
knowledge when it is applied in action”8 . Frankly speaking, it is the ability to put
the knowledge learned and use critical thinking to apply it to the job learned.
Figure 1.2 Categorically Understanding Wisdom: Process from Data
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Using Knowledge Pyramid in Business
Wisdom is bringing together the connected ability and understanding together
to connect the concepts learned, and formulate an understanding of it. Let’s take an
example from each part of categories, and see how it can be applied to a business
setting.
A Strategy Manager is working at UberEats and thinking of the next large
promotion and investment UberEats should make. It is January 2021.
 Data: Taking a fact as is without any context or notion.
○ For example- Super Bowl ‘20 attracted 102.1M viewers9 .
The Government of Massachusetts because of COVID-19 has created a 40%
cap on seating capacity10 .
 Information: Taking the fact, and using context to build more
understanding of what is happening
For example- Many people watch the SuperBowl in the United States, but most
won’t be watching it at bars or restaurants in February 2021 because of capacity
restaurants and social distancing.
 Knowledge: Taking in and understanding patterns to be able to make
decisions and actions based on what is given.
○ For example- If people are not watching at bars or restaurants, they will most
likely be wanting to watch the Super Bowl at home. Especially in colder climates,
there may be less incentive to cook or pick up food. People will want to use food
delivery.
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 Wisdom: Taking in all parts of knowledge, understanding the patterns and
the causal relationships on why things happen, and then taking it further to deeply
comprehend the principals and make further predictions.
This strategy was actually implemented in real life and successful. UberEats
created a promotion during the Super Bowl to offer free delivery. This promotion
turned successful in that of the food delivery companies in the US, UberEats
performed the best and had 27.3% of food deliveries on Sunday. (Up 16.6% last
year).
This example shows how each level of the pyramid is important to developing
knowledge for employees and that if used and communicated properly, can give
employees the ability to make smart decisions that can positively impact the
business. It shows that Knowledge Management is the foundation for employees to
be able to gather the right information so that they can be empowered to make
thoughtful decisions on the business.
And when taking it a step further, “how can knowledge reach a level of
wisdom”? The key to growth in an organization isn’t just focusing on how
employees can learn and do the job that they have, but in how employees can be
able to leverage the knowledge they have learned to turn it into wisdom, and create
innovative new products and solutions for their company.
Now that we have a firm level of what each of these concepts are, we can be
able to move forward to understand how we can leverage each piece of this
information to move organizations into reaching “knowledge” and “wisdom”
levels faster.
Department of Management Information System, College of Business Administration, University of Tabuk
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How Can Knowledge Management Be Useful to Organizations
Knowledge Management is embedded into the main foundation of an
organization. It can vary how you will see Knowledge Management organized or
permeated in an organization. The duty of Knowledge Management can be
distributed across teams, job positions and responsibilities, or even in what types of
system and IT tools are used.
Organizations and companies often won’t have explicit “knowledge manager”
roles or organization / business units dedicated to it, but often companies will have
Knowledge Management tasks embedded into certain types of roles within the
company. A few examples of where one can find “informal knowledge managers”
are within a PMO (Project Management Office) Team, an Internal Strategy and
Operations Team, Chief of Staff, or Systems and Process Team.
Culture: Taking in Knowledge Management and embedding it into an
organization can create better ability to manage change, implement new products,
and achieve a level of closeness between coworkers when there is transparency in
the organization .
Strategy: One of the most important intangible assets in an organization is
both their intellectual capital (from their human capital) and their organizational
performance14 . Being able to drive thoughtful strategy in an organization is what
will separate a company apart from their competitors.
● Systems and Technology: Using Knowledge Management and having
robust processes in place so that the right information is able to get to the right
person quickly is incredibly important in an organization . We will explore
different use cases (from online forums, to knowledge repositories, to mentor
pairings).
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● Organizational learning: Organizational learning is the process where
coworkers (both on the same level or connecting senior employees with junior
ones for mentoring) to form knowledge sharing . It fosters exploration of
information, and promotes ability for innovation .
Informational Interviews
In addition to a few case studies, this thesis features 8 interviews I had with
current or former employees at companies. These interviews came from
connections at various companies, and were held between October 2020 and
March 2021. They were conducted through video chat or a phone call. Often, the
questions asked were quite open-ended with questions ranging from “Tell me
about the time you worked at X company?” to “What were ways or tools you used
to gather information at your job?” to “How did you feel about using X tool?”
The purpose of these interviews was to bring case studies to life, and gather
more information and opinion about some of the companies I was studying. Out of
respect for these individuals, I have chosen to keep their identity anonymous. A
few areas I have included direct quotes from them, and others I have included their
opinion and thoughts. These interviews were eye-opening to the world of
Knowledge Management, and allowed me to gain an inside look into how some of
the tactics and best practices .
● there needs to be a system in place to hold repositories and documents
(Knowledge Management System)
● there needs to tools in place that allow employees to quickly reach out and
chat with one another (Enterprise Social Network)
● there needs to be initiatives for Users to connect with one another
(Networking Initiatives)
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● there needs to be ability for innovation to be leverage in some sort of open
innovation, even if it is just between business units (Open Innovation) The level
and degree of intricacy, depth within the company, and how widespread it should
be will vary. Having the right Knowledge Management in place can allow
employees to feel empowered to make decisions that better further their
organization. By giving Users access to information, companies can see dramatic
improvement in
● organization culture: Users can be able to have access with each other to not
gain information but foster better relationships .
● innovation: creativity is spawned from allowing others to get together and
communicate with one another. From wisdom of crowds to crowdsourcing, there is
value in getting multiple opinions
● efficiency: it goes without being said that one of the fundamental parts of
studying Knowledge Management is understanding all the different aspects that go
in place and which tools can be used to help Users communicate with one another
better .
Through this thesis, investment in Knowledge Management is incredibly vital
to a organization’s success and we can begin to understand the different levers that
can be pulled in order to build the best form of Knowledge Management.
Knowledge is the most powerful tool a company can have; using it to its fullest can
unlock unlimited potential.
Department of Management Information System, College of Business Administration, University of Tabuk