What is the purpose of KM in the Corporation. It is to improve profits, and/or to reduce cost ( which improves profit) Where do we tie knowledge to improved performance and how does this happen. I submit the following model ( part of essay on the topic) for review and comment Please not the graphic is a PDF file. Saving Changes...
I really like the performance criteria in the knowledge management model. I would define knowledge, however, as a body of information relative to related world models. I see no benefit to asserting it to be distinctly human. Performance feedback can differentiate between elaborate nonsense and useful information models. It serves to elevate KM to a Science.
KM is all about knowlege sharing. In organization employees not feel comfortable in sharing knowledge,because they have a fear of jobloss..
Two types of knowledge: Explicit n Implicit
Explicit is the basic knowledge, how to perform certain task.
Implicits is tht knowledge which help to complete the task which is only known to the person who is doing the task.
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Anonymous
I agree with Jim. IMHO the problem with many Knowledge Management models is that they often omit the application and/or process component. Perhaps I am old school and more Deming oriented, but Knowledge Management seems to be a bit of an invented term and vendor/consultant fad. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that knowledge is not important. It is just that so many Knowledge Management implementations tend to be informational portals and somewhat offline to the application or process. When knowledge is integrated into the process, it works quite well. But so often, that is not how Knowledge Management is sold or implemented. Saving Changes...
Bipin Lekshmanan PMPProject Manager| Wipro TechnologiesEdison, Nj, United States
Agree that KM has more value in consultancy or vendor/software services companies where quick ramp up of knowledge is necessary for new teams. Saving Changes...
In my world, KM is the formality of the process. Process before tools always.
knowledge will become stale if its not part of your active processes, the longer you have your processes in place the more valuable the knowledge and management of it becomes.
Even subject matter experts need process to tag and expire information so it can be reviewed, renewed, revised or archived.
If its fresh, and current, it will get used, and this builds confidence in its use. This in terms builds use..
The other part of managing the knowledge is using metrics to show its relative value to the organization.
ANR
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Bipin Lekshmanan PMPProject Manager| Wipro TechnologiesEdison, Nj, United States
Yes, indeed! Knowledge becomes stale if not accessed and used in a timely fashion to provide value. Saving Changes...
Robert Rose-CoutréDigitial Marketer/Project Manager/CMS Expert| Trellist, Inc.Wilmington, De, United States
Another important part of KM, which is often omitted from discussion (and implementation), is aligning tasks with knowledge, given the organization's current set of employees. This is often omitted because it means managers have to work together to allow their employees to take on some tasks from other departments, and possibly from politically sensitive vertical areas in the hierarchy of the organization. It means managers have to truly learn what real knowledge their current employees possess, and be willing to redistribute or share responsibilities accordingly. Often one employee has great depth of knowledge in a type of task that is not in their job description. So KM is not always about knowledge sharing or knowledge-dumping so the "politically-appropriate people" can do the work. KM, done well, often includes some redistribution of responsibilities so the "knowledge-appropriate people" can do the work. Managers (with wide buy-in and cooperation) must first be committed to learning how/what knowledge is distributed currently among employees. Saving Changes...
Aditya ChinniSr Project Manager| JELDWENKlamath Falls, Or, United States
Knowledge Management is more than sharing the knowledge,
as Jerry said in first place of this discussion,
it is absolute performance improvement. Especially in modern days
Corporations are imposing it as a mandatory step in the process.
(if some one is not doing it, better they should start doing it)
There are 2 reasons to it,
1. As Jerry specified Performance improvement. Next time the same
employee can do similar task in much faster way or in a global team some one
sitting in Singapore can do similar task with out wasting company’s time to
google it out (figuring it on google) .
2.Companies need to step out of employee dependencies. Company as a
whole should have the knowledge instead of particular employee. Company
is paying the money for the employee to research and figure out the solution.
Apart from the solution the steps to achieve the solution is also company’s
property and it should be documented so that company can profitable by
repeating those steps.
Now the real task for the implementing managers is to make knowledge
base not to stale. We need to take precautions on what kind of data need to
be collected and which IT software can support it and who to index those
solutions.
John ReilingSeeking new opportunities | AcroVision Business Systems, Inc.Mendham, Nj, United States
I think that KM, in simple terms, is providing individuals or groups within an organization access to collective knowledge such that problems can be solved as rapidly as possible. Saving Changes...
