Knowledge Management in Practise

Well just for a start I guess, I would rather begin with something that I have been working on since past some time... It's just a human perspective of knowledge management system!

Knowledge can be defined as organized or contextualized information, which can be used to produce new meanings and generate new ideas. Defining where “information” ends and “knowledge” begins is not simple. Knowledge is created and consumed across a wide range of activities: individuals talking to each other, searches of information repositories, just-in-time learning and continuous education, and highly focused “knowledge repositories.” Effective knowledge management fosters and supports each of these activities.

Capturing tacit knowledge

Every individual and organization manages knowledge in one form or another. An expert mentoring a junior employee, two employees trading their experiences at the water cooler, an intranet repository of best practices, and a continuous learning program are all examples of knowledge management. The critical difference between knowledge management in disparate organizations is how effectively each expands knowledge creation and dissemination beyond a select few to everyone who needs it.

Tools for Knowledge Management

Before we move on to determination of the ways to determine knowledge management system for a particular organization, it is necessary to explore various information systems for the support of knowledge management within an organization.

Examples of such systems are:

Intranet Infrastructures	Document and Content Management Systems	Business Intelligence tools
Workflow management Systems	Artificial Intelligence	Visualization Tools
Groupware	E-learning Systems

Problems faced during usage

• The concepts and solutions concentrate explicit knowledge leaving the fluid tacit knowledge of humans and the human carriers outside of the system.
• Knowledge is considered without the context within which it was created. This limits its reusability to employees having background knowledge about the context.
• The meaning of the terms used as part of structured or unstructured information is not explicitly stored in the system. Lack of proper glossary of metadata to keep information in context.

Factors for successful implementation of KM Strategy

There are three fundamental elements that must be addressed in any knowledge management program; these have been summarized under the following points:

• People and Culture
• Business Processes
• Systems and Technology

The success of the initiative is ultimately determined by sufficient combination of these elements and their incorporation within the organization. Successful implementation requires not only that knowledge is collected and distributed, but also, more importantly, that knowledge within the organization is easy to use in daily processes, that it is accurate and up-to-date, and that people can quickly contact subject matter experts for feedback and questions.

People and Culture

(1) A Culture of pervasive knowledge sharing needs to be nurtured enabled within and aligned with organizational objectives. The underlying concern is employees do not want to share information, probably due to the lack of time or project pressure or fear of criticism. Usually successful organizations empower employees to want to share and contribute intellectual information, by rewarding them for such actions. And, with organizational leaders role models of information sharing and interface regularly with staff, teams and stakeholders in review sessions and openly talk about successes and failures.

Business Processes

(2) KM Organization: The first important variable is leadership with a vision, strategy and ability to promote change to incorporate knowledge management practices within the business processes of the company. Followed by

(3) Effective& Systematic Processes creating a “knowledge environment” with processes to capture the knowledge assets of the organization is important. Thus, the need for

Systems and Technology

(4) Strategy, Systems & Infrastructure establishes a clear definition of all required KM elements and an overall system approach and integration.

Business Processes

(5) Finally the Measures to evaluate the success of knowledge management, which can be considered
against pragmatic milestones, such as the creation of products, the development of new clients and an
increase in sales revenue