Knowledge Management by Moses Isaac

In recent years there has been significant increas of interest in knowledge management. More companies have appointed Chief Knowledge Officers. How ever, attention often focusses upon particulars stages of the creation, capture,deployment,sharing,use,development and valuation of the knowledge cycle rather than the whole process. Knowledge entrepreneurs need to confront the reality of the situation within many organizations, namely certain aspects have been largely overlooked,

In many companies there are issues to address. For a start, colleagues may not agree on a definition of what knowledge management is or should be. Given a diversity of assumptions, appoaches and interpretation it is important to retain an overview of the situation and be sensitive to vested interests when discussing the allocation of roles and responsibilities.

Knowledge can exist and be be expressed in many forms, for example : policies, priorities, rules, cases, approaches, models, tools, methodologies, risks and probabilities. Diverse combination of these are possible. Responses and initiatives in a particular situation and context may require the assembly and deployment of various types of knowledge.

Many different formats are also possible. Data, visual image and sound can all be expressed and captured in physical and electronic forms. The various categories of knowledge needed for a particular purpose may exist in different formats and be located in a multiplicity of sources. They may also be accesible through alternative services and various people, in a number of ways and places, and at varying times.

The greatest contribution that many knowledge entrepreneurs within the companies can make is to work with particular groups and teams to identify the information knowledge to identify the information, knowledge skills and tools they need to 'do a better job' and become more effective. The challenge is to select what is most relevant and represents best practice and package this in the form of job support tools that assist comrehension and increase individual productivity in areas such as winning business and building more intimate customer relationships that are the keys to success factors for managing change, competing and winning.

Particular communities of knowldge workers may vary in their perceptions of what constitutes or represents 'knowledge'. Thus professionals tend to value practical know - how that can be used in ckient relationships and stress the sesitivity, awareness and familiarity that often come from experience. Academics on the other hand may focus upon theoretical understanding and value acceptable addition to what a peer group regards as being known about a particular topic.

Within some subject areas, different shcools of thought may offer conflicting interpretations, categorizations or definitions of knowledge. Much might be made of boundaries between categories, such as the distinction between 'pure' and 'applied' research that can appear distinctly fuzzy to 'outsiders'. Very often, crucial areas of the knowledge that people may actually need to work upon priority tasks is found to 'fall between cracks' at the interface of two or more 'neighbouring' discipline or occupational groups.

For many professionals information and knowledge are instrumental. Thy are a means to an end. However, for an IT specialists, maintaining particular data stores and flows may become ends in themselves, just as managing a repository of knowledge is for a librarian. Custodians of data and information have a particular perspective, but they also need to be sensitive to the requirements of users.

Some source of knowledge may be, or might appear to be, more reliable or authoritative than others. People may disagree on which is best. The cost of information can relect factor such as reputation, exclusivity and supply and demand. The time taken to respond may also vary. Choices and trade-offs need to be made.

Aknowledge map can provide an overview of the relationships between different areas and tyoes of knowledge. Overlays can be used for particular purposes, for example to distingish between internal and external sources or indicate the ownership of intellectual property or restrictions on access. A holistic perspective might enable gaps in knowledge and areas of relative deficiently to be identified.

Moses Isaac
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