Last Week

Knowledge Management (KM)

We watched a lecture by Gordon Jones considering Knowledge Managamenet (KM). An important question considering KM is, how can KM make organizations better.

Important topics considering KM includes:
What is Knowledge?
Can Knowledge be Managed?
How does organizations know things?
Who knows what you need to know?

Knowledge starts with the people and what they consider as knowledge.

Knowledge is:
- Messy
- Self-organizing
- Seeks communication
- Communicated through language
- Obeys no one master
- Reacts to how you use it
- Doesn't behave within restrictive rules
- Resist single solutions (silver bullets)
- Wants to get out

As the knowledgde wants to get out, the managers must know how to manage that knowledge. Further, knowledge changes through time. An example is how people communicate. Today people communicate throught the web, social networks, virtual teams and so on.

Managers and strategic planners hope to know what the knowledge is. If the data and the information are turned into the "right" knowledge, the future of the organization lays in the hands ofhow the organization knows and understand things.

Important for managers: How do you know who knows? How is the knowledge transmitted? One must understand WHY the knowledge is important to see the purpose of it.
For an organization to "win" today, one must KNOW what product to sell, how much it will cost and when and where to sell it.

Jones talked about Explicit vs. Tacit Knowledge.
Explicit Knowledge is contained in tangible and storable artifacts while tacit Knowledge is personell, context and specific. It is hard to formulate and communicate. It is important knowledge.

What is consistent today is that everything changes.