CONCEPTS AND
DEFINITIONS IN KM
B.V.L.Narayana
Senior professor (T M ) , RSC/BRC
Basic building blocks (Sanchez
2001)
 Data
– is defined as representation of events that
people notice and bring to attention of other
people in organization. This is a selective
representation of events and is determined by
individuals interpretive framework
 Information
– is meaning imparted to data by using an
interpretive framework by comparing with
other data
Building blocks
 Knowledge
– is defined as a set of beliefs about causal relationships
in world and organizations. Knowledge resides in the
mind of individuals and organizational knowledge is
what exists when individuals share the same set of
beliefs that enable them to combine and achieve doing
something
– knowledge is the content created by the process of
learning
– Know how, know why and Know what
Building blocks
 Learning
– is the process that results in change of knowledge and
so changes the interpretive framework
– Learning is the process of creating knowledge
– Learning is acquiring new knowledge, behaviors, skills,
values, preferences or understanding, and may involve
synthesizing different types of information. Progress
over time tends to follow learning curves.Learning is
also defined as semi-permanent change in behavior
(Wikipedia)
– Is self limiting due to convergence of beliefs—
decreases future adaptability
Building blocks
 Utility is what value it has for an individual.
Interest is a function of utility. To learn a
thing and convert it to capability, one needs
access to the item.
 A piece of knowledge or data comes to
attention either by active search or through
serendipity.
 What is the utility value of any piece of
knowledge/ data?
Building blocks
 Sense making is the process of processing
events and forming expectations about
significance of such events
 An interpretive framework is an existing set
of beliefs about causal relationships against
which we compare current events
Building blocks
 Skills are abilities by which an individual does
things.
 Competency is a set of skills that an individual can
use in doing a given task.
 Capabilities are repetitive pattern of actions that an
organization uses to get things done.
 organizational routines are multi-actor,
interlocking, reciprocally triggered series of
actions-facilitate coordinated repetitive actions
and flow from procedural memory
– Routinisation removes the cognitive focus from the
activities and goes on without appraisal- instrument
becomes the purpose itself.
Building blocks
 Organizational knowledge is an effort to
understand and conceptualize the knowledge that
is contained within organizations (Easterby smith
and Lyles 2003)
 Knowledge management is about creating ways of
disseminating and leveraging knowledge in order
to enhance organizational performance (Easterby
smith and Lyles 2003)
Building blocks
 Organizational learning is the study of
learning processes of and within an
organization (Tsang 1997)
 Learning organization is an entity , an ideal
type of an organization which has the
capacity to learn effectively (Tsang 1997)
Know why
PLANNING -STRATEGY
SKILLS
HIGH
Socialisation
Codification
Internalisation
Communication
Explicitisation
TACITNESS
IMPLEMENTATION -ACTION
KNOWLEDGE
Attention
Action process
LOW
Routinisation
Feed back correction
Know how
Cognition
LOW
Motor action
UTILITY VALUE
HIGH
Building blocks
 Michael Polanyi (1966) divided knowledge into
explicit and tacit. He defined explicit knowledge
as which could be codified and transmitted in a
formal and systematic language; tacit knowledge
which was personal, difficult to convey, and did
not easily express itself in the formality.
 Tacit === explicit :
– Role of language, context,
– linked to actions, technical
Building blocks
 community of practice (Lave and Wenger 1991)
,
– define as ‘a system of relationships between people,
activities, and the world; developing with time, and in
relation to other tangential and overlapping
communities of practice’
– is an intrinsic condition of the existence of
knowledge.
– focuses on the social interactive dimensions of
situated learning,
– meaning is negotiated through a process of
participation and reification
– reification is the process of giving form to experience
by producing objects(Wenger 1998)
– communities of practice are important places of
negotiation, learning, meaning, and identity.
Building blocks
 Social capital is referred to as
– ‘the sum of the actual and potential resources
embedded within, available through, and derived
from the network of relationships possessed by an
individual or social unit’ (Nahapiet and Ghoshal,
1998,)
– goodwill available to individuals or groups.
– Its source lies in the structure and content of the
actor’s social relations.
– Its effects flow from the information, influence, and
solidarity that it makes available to the actor
– Consists of shared language , narratives; network ties,
structure; relations in form of trust, norms, identity
Building blocks (Argyris1995)
 Single loop –
– Detection and correction of errors to ensure
performance. Requires some behavior change.
Reactionary, for routine, repetitive jobs--habits
 Double loop
– happens through change in master programme or
habits; higher level learning, change assumptions or
interpretive frame works—active learning
 Duetero learning
– How to do single and double loop learning; proactive
process of learning, reflect on past contexts of learning
Key concepts
 Cognitive architecture of knowledge (Amin
and Cohendet 2004)
– The way knowledge is produced , stored,
exchanged, transmitted and retrieved influences
organization learning
Memory and absorptive capacity
 At organizational level
– absorptive capacity refers not only to the
acquisition or assimilation of information by
an organization but also the organization’s
ability to exploit it.(Cohen and Levinthal
1990)—depends on structure of
communication and distribution of
expertise
– Memory is the capacity to store
knowledge– in form of procedures,
memory of staffers, in embedded systems,
in codes, manuals etc