CHAPTER 6

MANAGING
ORGANISATIONAL
KNOWLEDGE

Prepared by: Kenny Fo Chee Ming LL.B (UWE), MBA (ARU)

INTRODUCTION
 The collective knowledge that your employees have about things like
your organization’s customers, products, and business processes has
the potential to be one of your company’s most valuable assets.

This knowledge is usually documented somewhere.

In fact, in many cases this knowledge is scattered in multiple locations.

CONT.
 Whatever the case, to be able to make the most of this knowledge, you need
to do more than just document it.

It’s also important that this knowledge can be easily found by whoever needs
it - whether that’s your customers, employees, or both.

This is where a knowledge base comes into play.

CONT.
 A knowledge base improves your company’s ability to create, organize,
manage, and share its knowledge and put it to good use will increase
exponentially.
CONT.
 A knowledge base is a self-serve digital portal that is easily accessible to any
user that is looking to get more information to any questions or problems
that they may have.

Example No.1 Vacasa delivers on-demand, self-driven customer support with its knowledge
base

Example No. 2 Apptegy uses its internal knowledge base to streamline employee
onboarding processes

Example No. 3 Valant’s knowledge base helps improve internal processes and deliver
valuable content to their customers
CONT.
 A knowledge base can contain various types of content such as:

1 User documentation and video walk-throughs to help users better understand how to use
a particular product

2 Training manual for employees to better understand a company's products and services
as well as its internal processes and procedures

3 Internal documentation such as standard operating procedures (SOPs), software

documentation, process documentation, business requirement documentation, and any
other documents that can help employees with a particular business task
CONT.
4 Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

5 HR related documents such as an employee handbook, employee evaluation forms,

training templates, etc.

 Knowledge bases help facilitate knowledge sharing and knowledge

transfer by making it easy to collect, organize, and communicate
information to a specific audience.
TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE BASES
 Knowledge bases are created for use by a company’s customers, internal
team members, or sometimes both.

 While the content of specific knowledge bases varies based on numerous

factors, most typically include information regarding how to get started
using specific products, get more use out of advanced features, and
overcome common problems or issues.

 Essentially, the purpose of any knowledge base is to help end-users find a

solution to their problem without having to rely on someone else.
CONT.
External Knowledge Base Internal Knowledge Base

An external knowledge base (also known An internal knowledge base, on the other
as a self-service library or customer service hand, is typically utilized as a way to allow
knowledge base) is where customers can go employees to collaborate and share all
to learn anything they’d ever need to know company knowledge and information
about a company’s products or services, internally.
organization, and industry.
BENEFITS OF KNOWLEDGE BASE
External Knowledge Base Internal Knowledge Base
Benefits for Customers

Improved Customer Satisfaction Improve Business Productivity

Improved Customer Experience Improve Knowledge Sharing
and Knowledge Transfer

Improved Customer Support Abilities Bolster Your Knowledge

Management Capabilities

Improve Business Efficiency

EXAMPLES
GAINING A COMPETITIVE EDGE
 When employees pool their organizational knowledge, it gives your company
a significant competitive advantage.

 Organizations implementing a knowledge base see significant increases in

productivity, engagement, and collaboration.

 And those benefits have their own far-reaching effects because when
employees are empowered to do their best work, your organization’s
customers and partners benefit as well.
LEARNING ORGANISATION
 Peter Senge, renowned management thought leader, faculty member at MIT
Sloan School of Management, and author of The Fifth Discipline: The Art and
Practice of the Learning Organisation, popularised this term.
CONT.
 He defined a learning organisation as: “a place where people continually
expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire; new and
expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured; collective aspiration is set
free, and people are continually learning to see the whole (reality)
together.”
CONT.

According to Senge, a learning

organisation depends on
prioritising and implementing
these five factors into your
business.
CONT.
It requires a constant
reworking and learning from
the stream of data all around
you. It’s an iterative process
where there is no end goal,
but must rather be seen as
an ongoing process of
reframing and pivoting 。
BENEFITS BEING A LEARNING
ORGANIZATION
 Maintaining levels of innovation and remaining competitive
 Having the knowledge to better link resources to customer needs
 Improving quality of outputs at all levels
 Improving corporate image by becoming more people oriented
 Increasing the pace of change within the organization
 Strengthening sense of community in the organization
 Improving long term decision making
 Improving knowledge sharing
BARRIERS TO A LEARNING
ORGANIZATION
 Silo mentality
- It occurs when several departments or groups within an organisation don’t
want to share information or knowledge with other individuals in the same
organisation.

 Continuous improvement requires a commitment to learning

HOW TO CREATE A LEARNING
ORGANIZATION