Definition of KM

There are many definitions for Knowledge Management, or KM for short. It has been described as an "umbrella" term for many domains - see 51 pieces of the knowledge management puzzle.

The wikipedia explanation:

"Knowledge Management ('KM') comprises a range of practices used by organisations to identify, create, represent, and distribute knowledge for reuse, awareness and learning".

Definition from Foundations of Knowledge Management (Lecture 5, Slide 12):
"Processes, within an appropriate organisational culture, that capture, organise, target, transfer and maintain knowledge".

My definition in terms of the scope of this dissertation (Extacit Blog Post, 19th June 2007):

"There are many definitions for Knowledge Management (KM). Many of these focus on the capturing, organising and storing knowledge and experiences of individuals and groups and making this information available (sharing) to others in the organisation.

For me, the most important aspect of this is the sharing of information. Communication, collaboration and accessibility of the information are key to successful KM. I believe that the “freeing” of information, be it explicit (in documents, folders, intranets etc) or tacit (experts, experiences), to make it visible and accessible to all, allows an organisation to make best use of its intellectual capital.

Enterprise Search, Wiki’s, Document Management Systems, Web 2.0 Intranets, & Communities of Practice are some of the buzzwords associated with KM. All of these contribute towards the “learning organisation”, one which can learn from past success and failures to better its’ future performance. We have seen many examples of these implementations in the case studies during this module and throughout previous modules.

There is also KM at a personal level (PKM), organising ones’ own knowledge. For example, I intend to store documents, papers and conversations with my supervisor on a personal Wiki to enable me to chart my thoughts and progress during my KM dissertation. This will also allow me to implement my 3 key factors above – communication, collaboration and sharing of information."

Organisational Issues for Knowledge Management

Here is a list of Organisational Issues which knowledge management helps to overcome:

Issue: Organisations don't know what they already know. Consequences: Time spent on rediscovery of knowledge is increased. Failure to apply existing knowledge. Waste of effort and money The Problem: Knowledge within the organisation is not visible or easily accessible.	Issue: Employees don't know what their colleagues know. Consequences: Inconsistent performance across the organisation Expertise loacalisation Repeated failures. Inability to apply what is known. Competitors innovate at a faster rate. The Problem: Knowledge is not shared rapidly within the organisation.
Issue: Knowledgable employees leave the organisation or retire. Consequences: Critical expertise built up over years is lost overnight. Expertise may move to competitors without being captured and retained within the organisation. Key customer relationships may be affected. Overall organisational knowledge is reduced. The Problem: Tacit knowledge leaves the organisation.	Issue: Employees closely guard their individual knowledge. Consequences: Knowledge is not visible. Knowledge is not shared. A belief that knowledge is "owned" by the individual and not the organisation. Opportunities for in-depth collaborations are minimised. The Problem: Knowledge-hoarding by employees.
Issue: Organisational knowledge is unreliable or out of date. Consequences: Old practices, methods and processes continue to be inappropriately applied. Existing knowledge is not re-validated. Inability to "Un-Learn". The Problem: The governance for keeping knowledge up to date is not in place.	Issue: Organisational functional barriers prevent the rapid innovation of new products & services. Consequences: Product development progresses in isolated circumstances without an understanding of critical factors. Complications arive because of incorrect assumptions. Rework of designs. Effort and money is wasted. The Problem: A collaborative culture is not in place.
Issue: The organisation is slow to respond to changes in the market. Consequences: "Caught on the hop" - Organisation looks bad. Loss of business. Loss of customer confidence. Competitors take advantage. The Problem: Unable to utilise organisational knowledge to predict market trands.