Knowledge management

Knowledge Management is the process of gathering, categorizing (indexing, tagging), organizing, using and development of knowledge assets of a given organization. The goal of Knowledge Management is to give access to experience and expertise, which should:

• Protects organization from "reinventing the wheel" issue, when knowledge developed by an organization is not used or is forgotten, and a problem is solved once more, absorbing time (project takes longer than it should) and assets (human resources or financial assets)
• Enable a boost of innovativeness in the organization by giving access to large, valuable and easily researchable knowledge base and facilitating knowledge sharing, knowledge development and group work.

Knowledge management is the conduct of activities focused on the identification, collection and dissemination of knowledge resulting from managers own experience, and experience of all other employees of the organization. The organization then uses this knowledge to achieve its strategic objectives Proper knowledge management system to avoid long-term steps to seek solutions to recurring problems by using solution stored in knowledge base

Practices of knowledge management

Knowledge Management focuses not only on the knowledge assets such as written documentation of finished projects, but also on developing and spreading tacit knowledge, which is the expertise or experience of members of an organization. The basics of best practices for Knowledge Management can be summarized as follows:

Best practices:

• Corporate Culture
• Openness to sharing knowledge
• Rewards to employees for knowledge sharing.

Paths to avoid:

• Locked doors
• Hierarchy
• Formalization, ideas flowing only in top-down direction
• High turnover

IT systems in knowledge management

Best practices:

• Integration, personalization
• User-friendly, intuitive
• Fast access to information
• Helpdesk

Paths to avoid:

• Large variety of different applications
• Sudden changes
• Lack of sufficient trainings

Knowledge management strategy

Best practices:

• Focus on HR
• Engagement in daily activities

Paths to avoid:

• Focus on IT

See also:

• Community of practice
• Knowledge gap strategy
• Functional strategy
• Experience curve

Knowledge management — recommended articles

Innovation culture — Brainstorming — Community of practice — Innovation platform — Innovativeness — Change management model — Change agent roles — Advantages of teamwork — Communities of practice

References

• Davenport, T. H., De Long, D. W., & Beers, M. C. (1998). Successful knowledge management projects. MIT Sloan Management Review, 39(2), 43.

Author: Anna Morawiec