Chapter 4

Knowledge Management
(Knowledge-Based Systems; R Akerkar, P Sajja)
What Drives Knowledge Management
Following are the reasons; why knowledge management is
important.
Size and dispersion of an organization
Reducing risk and uncertainty
Improving the quality of decisions
Improving customer relationships
Techno centric support
Intellectual asset management and prevention of
knowledge loss
Future use of knowledge
Enhance an organization’s brand image
Shorter product cycle
Restricted access and added security
Evolution of Knowledge Management
The typical evolution of knowledge management in an
organization.
Ad-hoc Knowledge
There is no formal procedure of knowledge management
Sophisticated Knowledge Management
The organization might have formal KM (Knowledge
Management) process but uses only certain phases of it.
Embedded Knowledge Management
Organizations may have critical processes and
knowledgeable expert who has a high degree of knowledge
regarding the organization’s business and its knowledge
assets
Evolution of Knowledge Management
The typical evolution of knowledge management in an
organization.
Integrated Knowledge Management
All of the tasks, major operations and systems of an
organization are contained in a knowledge management
system and knowledge is shared through a common
integrated environment.
Elements of Knowledge Management
Leadership

People

Structure
Measures

Strategy

Process
Knowledge
repository

Knowledge management

Culture Technology

Communication

Figure 4.1 Elements of knowledge management

Elements of Knowledge Management
People and Skills
Skilled work force and their expertise facilitate
knowledge use.
Procedures
Standard procedures and basic operations generates
knowledge
Strategy and Policy
During the KM, the promises to customer , product quality and
policies should be kept into consideration. They improve
customer relationship
Technology
Technology plays a variety of role in providing sharing and
documenting knowledge.
 Knowledge Management Process

Knowledge management process encompasses the

phases of Knowledge discovery, knowledge
documentation, knowledge sharing and
knowledge use.
 Knowledge Management Process
Management,
employees, and other
users

Explicit Tacit
knowledge knowledge
Documents and Strategy, policies, and
observation skills

Development methodology, tools, and KM team

Standards

Requirements
Discovery

Sharing KM Documentation
Cycle
Use

Organization-wide
knowledge repository

Figure 4.2: Conceptual process of knowledge management

 Knowledge Management Process
Knowledge Discovery and Innovation:
Knowledge discovery encompasses activities regarding the
identification and acquisition of knowledge. Creation of
new knowledge is considered as Innovation. Tacit
knowledge is extracted from the people and policies and
explicit knowledge is obtained from processes,
documentation, and reports.
Knowledge Documentation
The discovered knowledge should be stored according to its
application and nature. There should be meta knowledge.
Sorting, classification, classification strategies are used.
Knowledge Management Process
Knowledge Use
Use and reuse of knowledge is part of work process. It may be used to
solve the problems, support business related decisions and train the
work force within the an organization

Knowledge Sharing
The knowledge repository should be available centrally so
that all authorized users can handle and contribute to it. When
the content of the repository is sent to the required people it is
called as the “information push”. When the repository is utilizes
as needed and the content is fetched to solve a specific problem,
it is called as “information pull”
 KM Tools and Technologies
1.Tools for Discovering Knowledge
2. Tools for Documenting knowledge
3. Tools for sharing and using knowledge
4. Technologies for knowledge Management
 KM Tools and Technologies
1. Tools for Discovering Knowledge
 Creative abstraction
 Simulation
 interactive sessions Identification and innovation
 Meetings
 Morphological Analysis

Presentations
Information audit Interactive dialogues
Knowledge
discovery tools
Profiling Meetings

Conceptual mapping Intelligent

agents

Figure 4.4: Knowledge discovery tools

 KM Tools and Technologies
2.Tools for Documenting knowledge
Need: in the absence of high quality
documentation, an organization may face
difficulties.it incorporates authoring, testing,
editing and correcting errors.
 Design Specifications
 Metadata Tools
 Algorithms
 Knowledge Tree
 Authoring Tools
Tools for Documenting knowledge

Design
specifications

Metadata tools Product data

management
Knowledge
documentation
tools
Algorithms Thesaurus

Knowledge tree Authoring tools

Figure 4.5: Knowledge documentation tools

 KM Tools and Technologies
Tools for sharing and using knowledge
 E-marketing
 Special groups
 Office Design
 Portal
 Network
E-marketing

Special groups Portal

Tools to share and
use knowledge
Office design Network

Knowledge centers

Figure 4.6: Tools for sharing and using knowledge

 KM Tools and Technologies
Technologies for knowledge Management
 Managing Knowledge
 Preserving and Applying human expertize.
 Using History as knowledge
 Case-Based Reasoning; use of historical data; provides

different methods for using knowledge in past cases.

 Discovering New Knowledge
 Case-Based Reasoning Cycle
In case-based reasoning cycle, the knowledge
documented in following manner:

 Take the problem and convert it into target case

 The target case is combined with appropriate source.
 The combined target case and source case is called adapted target case
 The adapted target case is then revised using domain knowledge and
converted into revised target case.
 The revised target case is considered as learned case and stored in the
knowledge-base.

Prepared By: Ashique Rasool

Case-Based Reasoning Cycle
 KM Roles and Responsibilities
Chief Knowledge Officer(CKO)
 Leader of KM team
 Responsible for development and uses of KM system
Knowledge Engineer
 Developer and administrator of organizational
knowledge repository
 Problem solver, Trouble Shooter
Knowledge Facilitator
 Facilitating knowledge usage at multiple sites
 Understand the detailed logic of the business cycle,
principles, processes, tools and technologies
 KM Roles and Responsibilities
Knowledge Worker
 Use, reuse and apply the documented knowledge
 Carry out the business procedures by using minimum
use of resources to achieve the goal

Knowledge Consultant
 Contribute to the development of strategy, vision and
risk analysis
 Audit the plans for KM activities
 Support development of KM objectives and policies
 Knowledge Management Models
Transaction Model
 Focuses on routine work done at individual level
 Highly reliant on formal procedures and dependent on
individual workers
Examples: Call centre knowledge management system,
Consultancy-providing systems

Cognitive Model
 Emphasize on conceptual strength, reuse and
standardization
 Knowledge Management Models
Network Model
 Focuses on connections and relationships among
elements of the KM system
 Considers how knowledge is acquired, shared and
transferred

Community Model
 Used for collaborative and interactive type of KM
systems
 Recognizes the relationships between organizations
 Checks the need for continuous exchange among
knowledge roles
Benefits of Knowledge Management
Organizational and Administrative
Benefits
 Improved customer service, customer
relationship, and brand image of the
organization in the most flexible way
 Reducing cost and increasing
productivity and performance
simultaneously
 Reducing process/product cycle time
and faster problem solving
 Ease of administration and control
 Supporting best practices
Individual
Individual Benefits
Benefits
•• High-quality decision within a given time frame
•• Job security and personal development
•• Rewards and recognition
Knowledge-Related Benefits
• Documentation and safekeeping of
knowledge
• High degree of availability and access
to the latest organization-wide
knowledge
• Reduces knowledge loss
• Provides background of innovation
and new knowledge creation
• Controlled redundancy of stored
knowledge
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Challenges of Knowledge Management
 Many organizations overlook factors like work environment, interpersonal
relationships, employee initiatives, and the overall attitude of the
employees.
 A knowledge management system should consider an individual’s
knowledge, provide methods to reward it, and hence establish a culture that
recognizes tacit knowledge and encourages employees.
 Since knowledge can get old quickly, the content in a KM program should be
constantly updated, amended, and, if necessary, deleted. KM is a forever-
evolving business practice.
 With efforts required to develop KMSs and to manage the abstract nature of
knowledge, the challenge of organizing the knowledge resources of an
organization to generate a viable advantage becomes more critical due to the
following:
 The marketplace is gradually more competitive and the rate of innovation is growing, so
knowledge must evolve and be incorporated at a rapid pace.
 Competitive pressures are reducing the size of the workforce that holds this knowledge.
 Employees are starting to retire earlier and are becoming increasingly mobile, leading to
loss of knowledge.