information management part 2

sticky

tends to stay in people’s heads; often difficult and slow to transfer knowledge from person to person, since those who have knowledge may not be conscious of what they know or how significant it is

extraordinary leverage and increasing returns

can grow in value as they become a standard on which others can build; unlike traditional company assets that decline in value people use them.

fragmentation, leakage and the need for refreshment

knowledge assets can grow more and more valuable, others like expiring patents or former trade secrets can become less valuable as they are widely shared

constantly changing

new knowledge is created every day; decays and gets old and obsolete; it is hard to find and pinpoint knowledge.

uncertain value

results may not come up to the expectations; conversely, they may lead to extraordinary knowledge development.

new is context-specific

what aspect of it can be transferred? would suggest that concepts such as ‘best practice’ are of limited use

explicit knowledge

consists of anything that can be documented, archived and codified, often with the help of IT; easily written down or codified

tacit knowledge

we carry in our heads (or the know-how contained in people’s heads) about how to do things, who to call and the lessons learned through experience; very difficult to describe or express

expandable

unlike other resources that are managed because of their scarcity value, the more it is used the more it is generated

compressible

can be summarized for easier handling and can be packed into small physical formats

substitutable

many situations it can replace physical and other forms of resource; telecommunications reduces the need for physical transport

transportable

can move from place to place, quickly and easily, ready for collecting when the recipient chooses

diffusive

tends to leak; as technology improves, it become ever more difficult to stop reproduction and transmission.

shareable

if it is given to another person, the person does not lose it.

key elements of knowledge management

people ← technology, strategy, processes, cultural context

cross-disciplinary

knowledge management consists of a set of _ organizational process that seek the ongoing and continuous creation of new knowledge by leveraging the synergy of combining information technologies, and the creative and innovative capacity of human beings

COST model

forces practitioners to think about the links between the working functions of an organization; also puts the technological perspective in its proper place, i.e. it is only an enabler to organize and disseminate information

customer

what are the known _ problems and solutions, what are the frequently asked questions (faqs) and what were the answers, what can we learn from our _ , how can we learn from our _ , how can we be more effective in learning from our _

organization

what are the key skills needed to make the business a success, who has these skills, how are these skills harnessed and shared, how are we doing compared with other _

suppliers

how are our _ links, does the organization obtain an optimum quality, cost and delivery service from the _, does the organization conduct _ quality programmes, how are our links with our joint venture and other business partners

technology

how many computer terminals (which are hooked up for information transfer) are available per employee, are these links being used effectively within the customer – organization – supplier value chain, is _ enabling information to be transferred and made available when and whenever the user needs

connection

involves linking people who need to know with those who know, and so developing new capabilities for nurturing knowledge and acting knowledgeably

human capital

competencies of individuals and teams (tacit knowledge)

structural capital

intelligence in databases, tools, products and processes

financial capital

cash, net receivables and investments

customer captial

relationships with and solutions for _

physical capital

inventory and fixed assets

innovation capital

new tools, products, processes, solutions, & customers

socialization

where individuals acquire knowledge directly from others through observation and dialogue (tacit-to-tacit)

externalization

the articulation of knowledge into tangible form through discussion and documentation (tacit-to-explicit)

combination

combining different forms of explicit knowledge such as that in documents or databases (explicit-to-explicit)

internalization

learning by doing, where individuals internalize knowledge from documents into their own body of experience (explicit-to-tacit)

challenges of knowledge management

getting employees on board, allowing technology to dictate, not having specific business goal, not static, not all information is knowledge