KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT- AN
EMERGING
DISCIPLINE
B.V.L.NARAYANA
Sr Professor (T M )
RSC/BRC
INTRODUCTION
 THOUGHTS ON KNOWLEDGE
– Have roots in philosophy, religion– thought at
abstract level
– In work place settings—action and thought
– At intellectual level– intellectual capital–
action-thought-dynamism linked to
performance—more explicitisation of efforts
– Increasing use of technology, research
History
 Knowledge management –old issue
– Philosophical roots and industrial
– Implicit and unsystematic, not integrated
 Presently oriented towards commercial success
 Present emphasis due to realization that
– Consider the whole person to manage knowledge—
integrate motivation, attitudes, cognition
– Evolution towards personal and intellectual freedom and
rise of importance of knowledge workers—social
movements started 200 years ago
– Industrial revolution , increased pace of economic
growth
– Evolved to KM and emphasis on explicitisation
Kinds of KM
 Three levels
– Strategic –application, distribution of knowledge for
business enterprise viability
– Tactical- IM and IT focus, intellectual asset focustechnology driven
– Operational –people focus, emphasize utilization to
improve performance
 Should be seen as the systematic and explicit
management of knowledge related activities,
practices, programmes, and policies within the
enterprise to ensure enterprise viability
Effectiveness of KM
 An effective KM initiative is indicated by
–
–
–
–
Does not lead to more work
Leads to less work, more efficiency
Are part of pre-existing and ongoing efforts
Removes fear of sharing knowledge; increases
status of experts
– Promotes increased individual learning
– Defines terms crisply
– Leverages existing knowledge for enterprise
effectiveness
Driving forces of KM
 External forces
– Rapid Advances in technologies
– Globalization of business
• Increased opportunities and competition
– Sophistication of customers- increasing
demands, and changing preferences
– Sophisticated competitors
– Sophisticated suppliers
Driving forces of KM
 Internal forces
– Bottle necks to enterprise effectiveness
– Increased technological capabilities
– Need to understand human cognitive functions
 Ongoing forces
–
–
–
–
–
–
Economics of ideas—innovation
ICT and information management
Understandings in cognitive sciences
Shifts in bottle necks
Customization requirements
globalization
Impact of KM in organizations
 New perspectives and activities
 Market value is now equated to management of
intellectual capital
 Need to manage IC
 Explicit, deliberate and systematic efforts at KM
 Efforts integrate theoretical and abstract
perspectives
– Linkage to how people reason, think and take
decisions, learning theory
Future of KM
 Insights into personal and intimate knowledge
 Future practices will be purposeful, explicit, systematic and
driven by technology
 Spread of experiences of KM implementation
 Facilitating management practices towards KM
 Embedding of KM perspectives in regular activities
 Introduction of complimentary work teams and virtual
organizations
 Increasing explicitisation of personal knowledge
 KM practices will become norms
 Matching of expert systems and networks to learning styles
 Increasing role of artificial intelligence
Impact on work practices
 Firm level- expertise on managing IC
 Middle management level- importance of
managing local investments in and coordination
and application of knowledge assets to meet
operational objectives
 KM level –enterprise level coordination and
facilitation
 KM operational level –hands on capabilities to
obtain, organize, store, retrieve and use
knowledge
 Enterprise level –new ways of working
Anticipated changes at work place
Relative
frequency of
work
Target for
intelligent
automation
Targets for
intelligent
automation
Routine work
made simpler(
simple
repetitive and
well
understood)
potentials for
delivering work
requiring greater
knowledge 1
Unchanged work
Logical or
less common
variations-Transformati
ons of
routine
situations
Complex
but
expected
extensions
of known
routines
integrated
with
external
factors
Potential for
delivering
work requiring
greater
knowledge2
Unexpected
challenges but
with a mix of
routines and
external
factors
Potential for
delivering work
due to
knowledge3
Totally
unexpected
situations and
non routine
challenges
yet within
larger job
scope
Potential for
knowledge
based work
Unusal
challenges
outside job
scope
Increasing
complexity
of
knowledge
intensive
and other
work
Final thoughts
 KM must
– Justify its existence—financially
– Be Performance related
– Have a strategic perspective
– Improve efficiency
– Reduce and ease methods of working
ATTITUDES
habits
ACTIONS
skills
Knowledge
Data and information
ANY
QUESTIONS