Working Smarter,

Not Harder
Introduction to Knowledge
Management

Chapter 1
Manjunath VS
Assistant Professor
Acharya Institute of Technology
 Learning objectives

 What is Knowledge Management?

 Why Knowledge Management
 Evolution of Knowledge Management
 Approaches in organizations
 Strategies and functions
 Understanding knowledge
 Learning organization

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Learning objectives

 Components of learning organization

 Knowledge sources
 Documentation

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“Knowing ignorance is strength;
ignoring knowledge is sickness”
-Lao Tsu

 The knowledge race is on

 Britain - “ambition is to turn Britain into
the leading knowledge-based economy
of the world.” Prime MinisterTony Blair, November 16, 1998

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Economic reliance on
knowledge workers is
increasing
 Knowledge gap
 Customers and businesses want a
more integrated approach
 Best to say you are in the knowledge
business

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Three primary causes of
change
 Global literacy
 Invention of electronic infrastructures
 Social revitalization

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“A knowledge society requires literacy -
because of the vastly expanding corpus
of knowledge we will also be required to
learn how to learn.”
Peter Drucker, Managing For the Future, 1992,

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Literacy - Knowledge
Business Jargon
 “Community of Practice”
 The Learning Organization
 Corporate University
 Chief Learning Officer (CLO)
 Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO)
 Dean of Corporate Education

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Electronic infrastructures
 1990 - Toffler’s Powershift - five features of
electronic infrastructure
 Interactivity

 Mobility

 Convertibility

 Connectivity

 Globalization

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Electronic Infrastructures -
Knowledge Business Jargon
"Knowledge management] embodies
organizational processes that seek
synergistic combination of data and
information-processing capacity of
information technologies, and the creative
and innovative capacity of human beings."

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 Social Revitalization

 Literacyand technology skills cannot

replace physical human interaction
 People want more meaningful
connections both professionally and
personally

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“Concern for personal well-being:
 Augmentation of intellect education,
entertainment, information
 Health - physical and mental
 Security - personal safety and financial
 Personal services - customization
 Spiritual well-being - spiritualism,
religion and ethnic affiliation”

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The message is Hurry Up
and Learn

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Working Smarter, Not Harder
 Overlapping
Human/Organizational/
Technological factors in KM:
 People (workforce)
 Organizational Processes

 Technology (IT infrastructure)

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OVERLAPPING FACTORS
OF KM

PEOPLE
 Knowledge
ORGANIZATIONAL
PROCESSES

TECHNOLOGY

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What is knowledge?
 Knowledge is understanding gained
through experience or study.
 Knowledge is the full utilization of
information and data, coupled with the
potential of people’s skills,
competencies, ideas, institutions,
commitments, and motivators-Grey

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What is knowledge?
 Knowledge is more relevant to
sustained business than capital, labour
and land.
 Knowledge provides ability to respond
in novel situations.
 Knowledge encompasses ideas,
judgments, talents, root causes,
relationships, and concepts.

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What is knowledge?
 Knowledge is stored in the individual
brain or encoded in the organizational
processes, documents, products,
services, facilities and systems.
 Knowledge is the result of learning,
which provides only sustainable
competitive advantage.

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What is knowledge?
 Itmay be accumulation of facts,
procedural rules, or heuristics.
A fact is a statement or some element of
truth about a subject matter or a domain.
 A procedural rule is a rule that describes a
sequence of relations relative to the main.
 A heuristic is a rule of thumb based on
years of experience.

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Basic terminologies
 Intelligence- It refers to capacity to acquire
and apply knowledge.
 Memory- The ability to store and retrieve
relevant experience or information at will. It is
the part of intelligence.
 Learning- It is knowledge or skill that is
acquired through instruction, study and
experience.

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Basic terminologies
 Experience- It relates to what we have done
and what historically happened in a specific
area of work.
 Data- Data are unorganized and unprocessed
facts. It is a set of discrete facts about events.
 Information- It is an aggregation of data that
makes decision making easier. It is the set of
facts and figures based on reformatted or
processed data.

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Types of knowledge
 Shallow and deep knowledge
 Shallow knowledge or surface
knowledge refers to minimum
understanding of the problem area.
 Deep knowledge is knowledge acquired
through years of experience and
needed to solve complex issues and
problems related to tasks.

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Types of knowledge
 Procedural and episodic knowledge
 Procedural knowledge is understanding
of how to do a Task or carry out a
procedure.
 Episodic knowledge is knowledge
based on experiential information or
episodes.

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Types of knowledge
 Explicit and tacit knowledge
 Tacit knowledge is the knowledge embedded
in the human mind through experience and
jobs. It includes intuitions, values, and beliefs
that stem from years of experience.
 Explicit knowledge is knowledge codified and
digitized in books, documents, reports, white
papers, spreadsheets, memos, training
course etc.
 Explicit knowledge can be retrieved and
transmitted easily than tacit knowledge.

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EXPLICIT AND TACIT
KNOWLEDGE
Oral Communication
“Tacit” Knowledge

50-95%

Information Request
“Explicit” Knowledge

Information Feedback Explicit Knowledge Base

5%

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Types of knowledge
 Culturallybased knowledge
 Dictionary knowledge-Commonly used
descriptions-What?
 Directory knowledge-How?
 Recipe knowledge-Prescriptions-Should
 Axiomatic knowledge-Reasons and
explanations-Why?

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WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT?
 Process of capturing and making use of a firm’s
collective expertise anywhere in the business
 Doing the right thing, NOT doing things right
 Viewing company processes as knowledge
processes
 Knowledge creation, dissemination, upgrade,
and application toward organizational survival

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WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT?
 Knowledge management involves
gathering, structuring, storing, and
accessing information to build
knowledge.
 Knowledge management involves
knowledge sharing.

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KM
 KM contains
 Using accessible knowledge from outside sources
 Embedding and storing knowledge in business
processes, products and services
 Representing knowledge in databases and
documents
 Promoting knowledge growth through
organization’s culture and incentives
 Transferring and sharing of knowledge through out
the organization
 Assessing the value of knowledge assets and its
impacts on regular basis.

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Activities of KM
 Developing databases about customers,
common problems, and prior solutions.
 Identifying internal experts, clarifying what
they know, and developing yellow pages that
describe these key internal resources and
how to identify them.
 Eliciting and capturing knowledge from these
experts to disseminate to others.
 Designing knowledge structures that help
organize information in a way that is
accessible and readily applicable.

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Activities of KM
 Creating forums for people to share their
experiences and ideas.
 Utilizing groupware to allow multiple people,
in different locations, to work on problems
together.
 Taking action to identify, track and retain
talented people who possess knowledge
required in key core business areas.
 Implementing reward, recognition, and
promotional practices, that encourage
information sharing.

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Activities of KM
 Building job aids, and performance
support tools that allow people to
access and apply knowledge when
needed.
 Measuring intellectual capital in an
attempt to better manage knowledge

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 THE KNOWLEDGE
ORGANIZATION

Culture
Competition
Collect
Create
Organize
Techno- Intelligence
logy Maintain Knowledge
Organization

Refine
Disseminate
Knowledge
Management
Leadership
Process
KM Drivers

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THE KNOWLEDGE
ORGANIZATION
 The middle layer addresses the KM life cycle
 A knowledge organization derives knowledge
from customer, product, and financial
knowledge. Also from financial practices
 Indicators of knowledge: thinking actively and
ahead, not passively and behind
 Using technology to facilitate knowledge
sharing and innovation

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 IDEAL KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT
Existing methods/
Outside
processes
• New products
Environment
• New markets
• Smarter problem-solving
•Value-added innovation
Learning
•Better quality customer
Conversion service
PEOPLE •More efficient processes
Insights New
ideas •More experienced staff
Knowledge
Creation

Organizational
Knowledge
Benefits
Base

Codified Technology

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IDEAL KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT
Strategy Measurement Policy Content Process Technology Culture

Knowledge
Internalization
Knowledge Knowledge
People Assets Reuse
Knowledge
Exchange
Knowledge
Capture

Knowledge
People Exchange Knowledge
Reuse People

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IDEAL KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT
 The ideal knowledge organization
allows people to exchange knowledge
across functional areas via technology
and established processes
 Knowledge internalized and adopted
within the culture of the organization

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 THE KM CYCLE AND THE
ORGANIZATION
Organizational Managemen
  personnel t
  Decision
  making
 
 
  KM Life
Cycle
 
. capture
  . gathering
. organizing
. refining
. transfer
    Information
  Culture technology
 
 
 
 
 
 

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WHY KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT?
 Sharing knowledge, a company creates
exponential benefits from the knowledge as
people learn from it
 Building better sensitivity to “brain drain”
 Reacting instantly to new business opportunities
 Ensuring successful partnering and core
competencies with suppliers, vendors, customers,
and other constituents
 Shortens the learning curve

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KM System Justification
 Is current knowledge going to be lost?
 Is proposed system needed in several
locations?
 Are experts available/willing?
 Can experts articulate how problem will
be solved?
 Is there a champion in the house?

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FACTORS TRIGGERING
INTEREST IN KM
 Innovation as core competency
 Globalization and geographic disperson changed
the organization’s scope
 Downsizing and reengineering resulted in staff
attrition and knowledge drain
 Networking and data communications made it easier
and faster to share knowledge
 Increasing dominance of knowledge as a basis for
improving efficiency and effectiveness triggered the
need for utilizing knowledge gained from previous
experiences

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KM LIFE CYCLE
Four-Process View of KM:
 Capturing – data entry, scanning, voice input,
interviewing, brainstorming
 Organizing – cataloging, indexing, filtering,
linking, codifying
 Refining – contextualizing, collaborating,
compacting, Projecting, mining
 Transfer – flow, sharing, alert, push

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Conclusion
Literacy + Electronic Infrastructure +
Social Revitalization =

Opportunity for New

Societal Infrastructure

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 Strategists needs all three change
elements
 Literacy and Electronic infrastructures
relate to knowledge distribution
 Social revitalization relates to motivation

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Learning Organization
A critical element of for successful
knowledge management is to transform
individual learning into organizational
learning.
 A learning organization is an
organization that has enhanced
capacity to learn, adapt and change-
Gepahart.

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Learning Organization
 A learning organization is an organization that
purposefully designs and constructs its
structure, culture, and strategy so as to
enhance and maximize the potential for
organizational learning to take place.
 It is an organization in which learning
processes are analyzed, monitored,
developed, managed and aligned with
improvement and innovative goals.

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Peter Senge
 Peter M Senge wrote the famous book The
fifth Discipline- The art and science of the
learning organization.
 Fortune magazine has called Peter Senge as
“The intellectual and spiritual champion” of
learning organization.
 Senge says that business should pay more
attention to conditions that motivate people to
do great things for themselves and their
companies.

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Fifth Discipline
 The organizations that will truly excel in
the future will be the organizations that
discover how to tap people’s
commitment and capacity to learn at all
levels in the organization.
 Senge holds humanistic view of
organizational change.

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Fifth Discipline
 According to Senge “If a learning
organization were an engineering
innovation, such as an airplane or a
computer, the components are called
technologies. For an innovation in
human behavior, the components need
to be seen as disciplines”.

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Fifth Discipline
 To follow his organizational learning path, he
proposes a lifelong study and practice of five
interrelated disciplines, which he describes
more like artistic disciplines than traditional
management disciplines.
 Each of learning discipline differs from more
familiar management disciplines in that they
are personal disciplines. Each has to do with
how we think, what we truly want, and how
we interact and learn with one another.

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Fifth Discipline
 Senge says “ By discipline, I don’t mean an
enforced order or a means of punishment, but
a body of theory and technique that must be
studied and mastered to be put into practiced.
 A discipline is a developmental path for
acquiring skills or competencies.
 Senge says as in any discipline from playing
the piano to electrical engineering, proficiency
is possible through practice.

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Fifth Discipline
 In contrast to a business process like
accounting, which he says good for keeping
scores, the five disciplines are aimed at the
subtler task of enhancing organization’s
creative capabilities.
 Senge also points that practicing the five
disciplines is not just about achieving the
business performance results but also
concerns having a personal stake in shaping
a company’s character.

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Five disciplines
 Personal Mastery
 Mental Models
 Building shared vision
 Team learning
 Systems thinking

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1. Personal mastery
 Itis ability to clarify what one must
desire in life and work and then
consciously apply the principles and
values most important to achieve those
goals.
 Building self-awareness and sensitivity
to one’s own strength’s and
weaknesses is critical to the process.

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1. Personal mastery
 Personal mastery is the discipline of
continually clarifying and deepening our
personal vision, of focusing our energies, of
developing patience, and seeing reality
objectively.
 It is an essential cornerstone of a learning
organization-An organization’s commitment to
the capacity for learning can be no longer
greater than of its members.

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1. Personal mastery
 Organizations learn only through individuals
who learn. Individual learning does not
guarantee organizational learning, but without
it no organization learns. It has to be
reciprocal learning.
 Total development of people is essential to
achieving our goal of corporate excellence.

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1. Personal mastery
 Personal vision
 Holding creative tension-Gap between
goal aspired and current abilities-source
of creative energy.

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2. Mental models
 These are unarticulated and unrecognized
assumptions that shape one’s view of the
world.
 They are judgmental and the perceptions
from the past experiences that influence what
one hears and says and how one reacts to
others.
 It is not easy to bring mental models to the
surface, because most people blinded by
confirmation bias that resist change.

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2. Mental models
A confirmation bias is a tendency to
seek evidence and advocate positions
consistent with prior belief.
 They cause people draw conclusion
before examining all the facts or hearing
all the points of view.

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2. Mental models
 Developing an organization’s capacity to work
with mental models involves both learning
new skills and implementing institutional
innovations that help bring these skills into
regular practice.
 If managers believe that their world views are
facts rather than set of assumptions they will
not open to challenging those world views.

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2. Mental models
 Disciplineof mental models-Surfacing,
testing, and improving our internal
pictures of how the world works- It
promises to be a major breakthrough for
building learning organizations.

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3. Building shared vision
 Whether vision is created by an entire
company or by a team of two, it is the
collective capability to realize the vision is
more powerful than any individuals.
 The practice of shared vision involves the
skills of unearthing shared picture for future
that foster genuine commitment and
enrollment rather than compliance.

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3. Building shared vision
 Shared vision is vital for a learning
organization because it provides the
focus and energy for learning.
 Personal vision to shared vision.

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4. Team learning
 It is widely accepted that people who work
well together can learn more and accomplish
more than they can by themselves.
 According to Senge when teams are learning
not only they are producing extraordinary
results but the individual members are
growing more rapidly than could have
occurred otherwise.

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4. Team learning
 Team learning is vital because teams, not
individuals, are the fundamental learning unit
in modern organizations.
 The disciplines of building shared vision,
practicing personal mastery and bringing
mental models to the surface are all critical to
the team communication that leads to
productive learning and action.

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4. Team learning
 Effective
team learning involves,
dialogue and discussion, listening to
others without confirmation bias,
exposing new ideas through
constructive disagreement and being
comfortable not knowing the answer to
every question.

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5. Systems thinking
 It is the discipline that integrates all other
disciplines , fusing them into a coherent body
of theory and practice.
 This is a conceptual framework that defines a
system as a set of interrelated parts.
 To understand the system requires an
understanding of how all the parts connect
and interact.

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5. Systems thinking
 Thus systems integrates the discipline of building
shared vision, mental models, team learning, and
personal mastery to realize potential.
 Shared vision-commitment
 Mental models-openness
 Team learning-Larger picture beyond individual
perspective.
 Personal mastery- self motivation to learn continually.
 Systems thinking- Integrates all disciplines to make a
learning organization

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Working Smarter,
Not Harder

Chapter 1
Manjunath VS
Assistant Professor
Acharya Institute of Technology