What is the role of knowledge management and knowledge management programs in business?
- Knowledge management is a set of processes to create, store, transfer, and apply knowledge in the organization. Businesses need knowledge management programs because knowledge has become a central productive and strategic asset in today’s information economy and a potential source of competitive advantage. Much of a firm’s value depends on its ability to create and manage knowledge. Knowledge management promotes organizational learning by increasing the ability of the organization to learn from its environment and to incorporate knowledge into its business processes.
a. Define knowledge management and explain its value to businesses.
- Knowledge management is a set of processes to create, store, transfer, and apply knowledge in the organization. Businesses need knowledge management programs because knowledge has become a central productive and strategic asset in today’s information economy and a potential source of competitive advantage. Much of a firm’s value depends on its ability to create and manage knowledge. Knowledge management promotes organizational learning by increasing the ability of the organization to learn from its environment and to incorporate knowledge into its business processes. Effective knowledge management systems require organizational and management capital to promote a knowledge culture and programs for knowledge management, including the creation of a chief knowledge officer. There are three major types of knowledge management systems: enterprise wide knowledge management systems, knowledge work systems, and intelligent techniques.
b. Describe the important dimensions of knowledge.
- The most important dimensions of knowledge are:
- Knowledge is a firm asset: Knowledge is an intangible asset requiring organizational resources and whose value increases as it is shared.
- Knowledge has different forms: Knowledge includes craft, skills, procedures, and understanding of causality
- Knowledge has a location: Knowledge resides with individuals, social groups, is difficult to transfer or extract
- Knowledge is situational: Knowledge may be applicable only in certain contexts or situations
c. Distinguish between data, knowledge, and wisdom and between tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge.
- Data by itself has no meaning but is the first step in the creation of knowledge.
- Knowledge includes concepts, experience, and insight that provide a framework for creating, evaluating, and using information.
- Wisdom is the collective and individual experience of applying knowledge to the solution of problems.
- Explicit knowledge is knowledge that has been documented.
- Tacit knowledge is the expertise and experience of organizational members that has not been formally documented.
d. Describe the stages in the knowledge management value chain
- Knowledge Inventory
- Using strategic objectives, an organization determines what specific knowledge is required to achieve these objectives. A distinction is made between available knowledge and knowledge that needs to be developed. What (technical) skills are needed and what attitude (culture) should be present in the organization? The needed knowledge is then compared with the available knowledge so that the ‘knowledge gap’ is made clear.
- Knowledge development
- The knowledge gap is used to identify what knowledge development is needed in the organization. This could be done in different ways: from training staff to purchasing knowledge from a third party.
- Knowledge sharing
- After knowledge has been developed, it needs to be shared within the organization so that everyone can benefit from this and that a superb knowledge value is created. The most ideal situation would be one in which knowledge becomes an integral part of an organization’s strategy and culture.
- Applying knowledge
- By applying knowledge, it will be integrated in the organization. A mere implementation of knowledge does not suffice. People should familiarize themselves with the available information, experiences and skills. Only then it will be possible to share knowledge within an organization.
- Evaluating knowledge
- Evaluation is a continuous process and begins in the first stage. This enables knowledge development and possible adjustments.
- Knowledge Management Value Chain model: most effective
- This model is most effective when the model is used at an organizational level. Of course, it is possible to use the model at department level and/or operational level. However, it is important that the strategic objectives of the organization are always observed. This is how the knowledge management value chain can make a valuable contribution to the achievement of strategic objectives and as a result will the investment be recouped.
What types of systems are used for enterprise-wide knowledge management and how do they provide value for businesses?
- Enterprise-wide knowledge management systems are firm wide efforts to collect, store, distribute, and apply digital content and knowledge. Structured knowledge systems provide databases and tools for organizing and storing structured documents, whereas semi structured knowledge systems provide databases and tools for organizing and storing semi structured knowledge, such as e-mail or rich media. Knowledge network systems provide directories and tools for locating firm employees with special expertise who are important sources of tacit knowledge. Often these systems include group collaboration tools, portals to simplify information access, search tools, and tools for classifying information based on a taxonomy that is appropriate for the organization. Enterprise-wide knowledge management systems can provide considerable value if they are well designed and enable employees to locate, share, and use knowledge more efficiently.
a. Define and describe the various types of enterprise-wide knowledge management systems and explain how they provide value for businesses.
- Enterprise-wide knowledge management systems are firm wide efforts to collect, store, distribute, and apply digital content and knowledge. Structured knowledge systems provide databases and tools for organizing and storing structured documents, whereas semi structured knowledge systems provide databases and tools for organizing and storing semi structured knowledge, such as e-mail or rich media. Knowledge network systems provide directories and tools for locating firm employees with special expertise who are important sources of tacit knowledge. Often these systems include group collaboration tools, portals to simplify information access, search tools, and tools for classifying information based on a taxonomy that is appropriate for the organization. Enterprise-wide knowledge management systems can provide considerable value if they are well designed and enable employees to locate, share, and use knowledge more efficiently.
b. Describe the role of the following in facilitating knowledge management: portals, wikis, social bookmarking, and learning management systems.
- Portals provide access to external sources of information like news feeds and research, as well as to internal knowledge resources along with capabilities for email, chat/instant messaging, discussion groups, and videoconferencing.
- Wikis provide a central repository for all types of corporate data that can be displayed in a Web browser, including electronic pages of documents, spreadsheets, and electronic slides. They can embed e-mail and instant messages. Even if wikis are changed, the software tracks the changes and provides tools for reverting to earlier versions.
- Social bookmarking lets users save bookmarks to Web pages on a public Web site and tag these bookmarks with keywords. The bookmarks can be shared with co-workers, managers, customers, suppliers, and business partners.
- Learning management systems provide tools for the management, delivery, tracking, and assessment of various types of employee learning. These systems provide value to the business by reducing the time and cost to acquire and utilize knowledge and by providing knowledge for higher- quality decisions
What are the major types of knowledge work systems and how do they provide value for firms?
- Knowledge work systems (KWS) support the creation of new knowledge and its integration into the organization. KWS require easy access to an external knowledge base; powerful computer hardware that can support software with intensive graphics, analysis, document management, and communications capabilities; and a user-friendly interface. These capabilities can increase the productivity of highly paid knowledge workers. KWSs often run on workstations that are customized for the work they must perform. Computer aided design (CAD) systems and virtual reality systems, which create interactive simulations that behave like the real world, require graphics and powerful modeling capabilities. KWS for financial professionals provide access to external databases and the ability to analyze massive amounts of financial data very quickly.
a. Define knowledge work systems and describe the generic requirements of knowledge work systems.
- Knowledge work systems are specialized systems for engineers, scientists, and other knowledge workers that are designed to promote the creation of knowledge and to ensure that new knowledge and technical expertise are properly integrated into the business.
b. Describe how the following systems support knowledge work: CAD, virtual reality, augmented reality, and investment workstations.
- CAD systems automate the creation and revision of designs using computers and sophisticated graphics software.
- Virtual reality systems have visualization, rendering, and simulation capabilities. Virtual reality systems use interactive graphics software to create computer-generated simulations that are so close to reality that users believe they are participating in a real world.
- Investment workstations are computer systems that access and manipulate massive amounts of financial data to manage financial trades and portfolio management.
What are the business benefits of using intelligent techniques for knowledge management?
- Artificial intelligence lacks the flexibility, breadth, and generality of human intelligence, but it can be used to capture, codify, and extend organizational knowledge. Businesses can use artificial intelligence to help them capture and preserve tacit knowledge; for knowledge discovery; to generate solutions to specific problems that are too massive and complex to be analyzed by human beings on their own; and to help firms search for and filter information.
a. Define an expert system, describe how it works, and explain its value to business.
- Expert systems capture tacit knowledge from a limited domain of human expertise and express that knowledge in the form of rules. The strategy to search through the knowledge base, called the inference engine, can use either forward or backward chaining. Expert systems are most useful for problems of classification or diagnosis.
b. Define case-based reasoning and explain how it differs from an expert system.
- Case-based reasoning represents organizational knowledge as a database of cases that can be continually expanded and refined. When the user encounters a new case, the system searches for similar cases, finds the closest fit, and applies the solutions of the old case to the new case. The new case is stored with successful solutions in the case database.
c. Define machine learning and give some examples.
- Machine Learning (ML) is coming into its own, with a growing recognition that ML can play a key role in a wide range of critical applications, such as data mining, natural language processing, image recognition, and expert systems. ML provides potential solutions in all these domains and more, and is set to be a pillar of our future civilization.
d. Define a neural network, and describe how it works and how it benefits businesses.
- Neural networks consist of hardware and software that attempt to mimic the thought processes of the human brain. Neural networks are notable for their ability to learn without programming and to recognize patterns that cannot be easily described by humans. They are being used in science, medicine, and business primarily to discriminate patterns in massive amounts of data.
e. Define and describe fuzzy logic, genetic algorithms, and intelligent agents. Explain how each works and the kinds of problems for which each is suited.
- Fuzzy logic is a software technology for expressing knowledge in the form of rules that use approximate or subjective values. Fuzzy logic has been used for controlling physical devices and is starting to be used for limited decision-making applications.
