What is Knowledge Management?

Knowledge Management is a new buzzword in today’s ever-changing environment. Knowledge Management refers to new and innovative ways to capture employee’s knowledge, best practices, current procedures and how to do certain things while still holding a specific position. Organizations fear that they will lose its competitive advantage through turnovers of key employees and retraining a new hire to perform at a peak is not only costly but also time-consuming. What if there was a possibility to speed up this process, take on a challenging position and perform at a high level with the help of a Knowledge Management System?

Well, first, there are two different types of knowledge – tactic and explicit. Tactic knowledge is developed through people interaction and trust. It is also believed to be complex to identify and manage, while explicit knowledge is “easily identified and managed through information and communication technology.” Process driven organizations can easily support employees’ knowledge needs through information systems but organization that are heavily project driven may experience some challenges because of dependency on information and communication technology. Organizations can approach the management of their knowledge transfer mechanisms by one of two distinct approaches; codified and personalized. A Codified approach is technology driven to support and manage knowledge, while a Personalized approach is team driven by developing knowledge flow charts and maps. Depending on the organizational complexity, prioritizing knowledge management is often difficult because everything seems to matter. Therefore, an organization should consider looking at knowledge management strategy from the outcome perspective (short and long-term benefits, advantages, gains, etc.) instead of technology.

I think because organizations are facing market challenges and growing pressures to generate high returns on investment (ROI) and bottom-line profits, many organizations will turn around and look to Knowledge Management systems to address these challenges. Knowledge Management system will help them not only capture knowledge but also increase productivity and reduce training cost.

In the years ahead of us as we try to get out of the economic crisis it will be critical for any organization to encourage more dialogue and better interaction between internal staff and clients to bridge the gabs and become more profitable. But you can’t become profitable if you don’t posses product or process knowledge. So, is Knowledge Management System a viable solution? Perhaps because I think that cost-effective opportunities exist to capture knowledge and one possibility is through the use of Virtual Teams. Virtual Teams usually consist of cross-functional experts and those experts might be able to find out where a particular item of information or knowledge within the firm is or who knows what I need to know in order to complete the project most effectively and efficiently. However, there are many questions around Knowledge Management including:

1. How do you determine the best strategy to capture knowledge?
2. What is Knowledge Management and why is knowledge important?
3. How does a Knowledge Management System work?
4. How effective are Knowledge Management Systems?
5. Are Knowledge Management Systems the same as Learning Management Systems?
6. Who uses Knowledge Management Systems and why?

What is your opinion on this? Your thoughts and ideas are welcome!