Knowledge management Presented by Joanne Roberts APM PMO SIG conference 19 October 2017

1. Knowledge Management for the
Modern World
Professor Joanne Roberts

2. Researching Knowledge in the
Economy and Organizations

3. An Overview
• What is Knowledge Management?
• Why is it important?
• How can knowledge be managed?
– Types of knowledge
– Matching management to knowledge type
• Acquisition, retention, and transfer
• Managing knowledge for creativity
• Knowledge as a barrier: learning to value
ignorance and forgetting
• The future of knowledge management

4. What is Knowledge Management?
• ‘Any process or practice
of creating, acquiring,
capturing, sharing and
using knowledge,
wherever it resides, to
enhance learning and
performance in
organizations.’
(Scarbrough, Swan, and
Preston, 1999: 1)

5. Why is knowledge management
important?
• Knowledge is a key source of economic
competitiveness for firms and nations.

6. The Evolution of the Economic System
Information Economy
Knowledge-based
Economy
Creative
Economy
Industrial Economy
Productive Efficiency Creative intensity

7. How can Knowledge be Managed?
What is
Knowledge?

8. Knowledge
• According to the Oxford
Dictionary of English
(2003, p. 967) knowledge
may be defined as ‘facts,
information, and skills
acquired through
experience or education;
the theoretical or practical
understanding of a subject
… the sum of what is
known’.

9. What is Knowledge?
• In Western philosophical
tradition, knowledge is
defined as ‘justified true
belief’.
• So to have knowledge it is
not sufficient to believe
the knowledge to be true.
• We must also be justified
in holding that belief
because the knowledge
can be supported as truly
so by evidence.

10. What is Knowledge?
• Truth depends on a
given perspective or
system of belief.
• Hence, it is
necessary to
recognize that
knowledge is socially
constructed.

11. A linear process of knowledge
formation and its limits
1 7 5 9 6 4 2 7 0 3 9 8 5 4
17, 5, 9, 6, 4, 27, 0, 39, 8, 54

12. Codified Knowledge
• Knowledge can be
codified if it can be
recorded or transmitted
in the form of symbols
(e.g. writing or
drawings) or embodied
in a tangible form (e.g.
machinery or tools).
Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics

13. Tacit knowledge
• Tacit knowledge is non-
codified knowledge that
is acquired via the
informal take-up of
learning behaviour and
procedures; it is often
referred to as know-
how.
Knowing how to ride a bicycle?

14. Knowing
• Knowing is something
we do in practice.
• Knowledge becomes
embedded in our
individual and social
practices and routines.
• Such knowing is tacitly
understood.
• ‘We know more than
we can tell.’
Michael Polanyi
(1891-1976)

15. Types of Knowledge
Explicit knowledge Tacit knowledge
Codified Implicit / non-codified /
Non-codifiable
Knowledge Knowing
An object A practice or a process
Know-what and know-why Know-how and know who

16. Managing Explicit Knowledge:
Databases and Information Technologies

18. Managing Tacit Knowledge:
Communities of Practice

19. • A leading global professional services company assisting companies
in strategy, consulting, digitization, technology, and operations.
• 394,000 employees and 13 focused groups that serve clients across
40 industries in more than 120 countries.
• Accenture brands its KM program using
the term “social learning.”
• The focus is on promoting and
embedding employee behaviors,
attitudes, and approaches that cultivate
a culture of habitual collaboration and
knowledge sharing.

20. Sophisticated communications
technologies allow the integration of
databases and communities

21. Acquisition, Retention, and Transfer
• Costs of acquiring
knowledge
• Acquisition and learning
• Challenges of retaining
knowledge
– Intellectual Property Rights
– Staff retention
• Implications for knowledge
transfer

22. Managing knowledge for creativity

23. Knowledge Creation In Organizations
Tacit
Knowledge To
Explicit
Knowledge
Tacit
Knowledge
From
Socialization Externalization
Explicit
Knowledge
Internalization Combination
Sources: Adapted from Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995, pp. 62 & 71).

24. Knowledge as a barrier: learning to
value ignorance and forgetting
• Knowledge can stand in the
way of change
• Outsiders can ask questions
from a position of ignorance
• Searching for the unknown is
a driver of innovation
• Sometimes it is necessary to
forget existing knowledge in
order to embrace new
knowledge

25. The future of knowledge management
• Knowledge is central to
the economy
• Efficient use of existing
knowledge
• Developing new
knowledge through
creativity and innovation
• Importance of technology
and culture
• Managing the unknowns

26. Thank You

27. This presentation was delivered
at an APM event
To find out more about
upcoming events please visit our
website www.apm.org.uk/events