This document discusses knowledge management and knowledge management systems. It defines knowledge management as business processes for creating, storing, transferring, and applying organizational knowledge. It also describes the challenges of information overload and dirty data. Knowledge management systems are tools that help acquire, store, disseminate, and apply knowledge to support knowledge workers and create competitive advantages.

1. BTM 311 611
Managing Knowledge

2. Outline
• Information Overload
• Problems with Data
• Organizational Knowledge
• Knowledge Management
• Knowledge Workers
• Knowledge Management
Systems

3. Information Overload
• Employees, managers, and
executives all face information
overload
• Digital universe is doubling in size
every two years (IDC)
• Data is growing at the rate of 40
percent a year
• Information growth occurs inside and
outside of organizations
• The challenge is to find the
appropriate data and incorporate it
into the decision-making processes

4. Problems with Data
• Raw data usually unsuitable for
sophisticated reporting or data
mining
• Dirty data
• Missing values
• Inconsistent data, especially in data
collected over time
• Data not integrated
• From different sources
• From incompatible sources
• Granularity
• Fine data – data that expresses precise
detail (e.g. clickstream data)
• Course data – highly summarized (e.g.
Google Analytics)

5. Organizational Knowledge
• Remember the Business Processes
lecture: Types of information
• This leads to three major types of
knowledge in an organization:
• Structured documents
• Reports, presentations
• Formal rules
• Semi-structured documents
• E-mails, videos
• Unstructured, tacit knowledge
• 80% of an organization’s business
content is semi-structured or
unstructured

6. Dimensions of Knowledge
• Knowing how to do things effectively
and efficiently in ways others cannot
duplicate is a prime source of profit
and competitive advantage
• e.g. having a unique build-to-order
production system
• Knowledge-based core competencies
• Key organizational assets
• Organizational learning
• Process in which organizations gain
experience through collection of data,
measurement, trial and error, and
feedback

7. Knowledge Management
• Set of business processes
developed in an
organization to create,
store, transfer, and apply
knowledge
• Knowledge management
value chain
• Each stage adds value to
raw data and information
as they are transformed
into usable knowledge

8. Knowledge Acquisition and Storage
• Knowledge acquisition
• Documenting tacit and explicit
knowledge
• Storing documents, reports,
presentations, best practices
• Unstructured documents (e.g., e-mails)
• Developing online expert networks
• Creating knowledge
• Tracking data from transaction
processing system (TPS) and external
sources
• Knowledge storage
• Databases
• Document management systems
• Role of management

9. Knowledge Dissemination and Application
• Knowledge dissemination
• How is knowledge shared within an
organization?
• Portals, wikis
• E-mail, instant messaging
• Search engines, collaboration tools
• Sometimes as a “deluge” of information
• Training programs, informal networks, and
shared management experience help
managers focus attention on important
information
• Knowledge application
• Emphasizes the need to see and evaluate
knowledge in terms of organizational
capital and return on investment
• New business practices
• New products and services
• New markets

10. What is content?
• Content – something of value,
which can be considered an asset
• Can be stored as data, documents,
spreadsheets, presentations,
websites, text from blogs, Twitter, or
discussion boards, graphics, video
files and video logs, audio files, etc
• Related to intellectual property
• Form of creative endeavour that can
be protected through a trademark,
patent, copyright, industrial design, or
integrated circuit topography

11. Content Management
• Indexing, cataloguing, processing,
storing “bytes”
• Presentation of content
• Distributing to the right person, right
format
• Usually handled by a content
management system (CMS)
• Employee loads raw content to CMS, it
gets reviewed/edited/art created, as
needed, then published
• No longer relegated to input only – now
CMS systems can seek relevant
documents across the organization and
manage the content automatically, as
well as archive
• e.g. OpenText, in Waterloo, Ontario

12. Knowledge Governance
• Many organizations are developing
new organizational roles and
responsibilities for the acquisition
of knowledge
• Chief Knowledge Officer –
dedicated staff / knowledge
managers
• Communities of practice (COPs)
• Informal social networks of
professionals and employees
• Activities include education, online
newsletters, sharing knowledge
• Reduce learning curves of new
employees

13. Knowledge Workers
• Peter Drucker defined knowledge workers
as “high-level workers who apply
theoretical and analytical knowledge,
acquired through formal training, to
develop products and services”
• The Landmarks of Tomorrow (1959), Drucker
• He noted that knowledge workers would
be the most valuable assets of a 21st-
century organization because of their
high level of productivity and creativity
• Includes professionals in information
technology
• programmers, web designers, system analysts,
technical writers, researchers, etc
• And business fields:
• public accountants, engineers, architects,
lawyers, physicians, scientists, financial
analysts, etc

14. Investing in Knowledge Management
• Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) are
among fastest growing areas of software
investment
• Information economy
• production and distribution of information and
knowledge are a major source of wealth and
prosperity
• Substantial part of an organizations value is
related to intangible assets
• knowledge, brands, reputations, and unique
business processes
• Requires investing in systems for knowledge
workers to help create new knowledge and
integrate that knowledge into business
• Well-executed knowledge-based projects can
produce extraordinary return on investment
(ROI)

15. Types of Knowledge Management Systems

16. Requirements of
Knowledge Management Systems
• Sufficient computing power for
graphics, complex calculations
• Communications and document
management
• Access to external databases
• User-friendly interfaces
• Optimized for tasks to be
performed
• e.g. design engineering, financial
analysis

17. Locating Experts and Sharing Information
• Search tools enable employees to
find appropriate experts within an
organization
• Many provide online directories of
experts in well-defined knowledge
domains
• E.g. Ualberta Faculty of Science
• Many social networking and social
business tools are used for finding
knowledge outside the
organization
• Saving
• Tagging
• Sharing web pages

18. Enterprise Knowledge Management Systems
• Help capture, store, retrieve, distribute,
preserve structured and semi-structured
knowledge
• Can integrate external information sources:
• e.g. social media, news feeds, research
• Provides tools for communication and
collaboration:
• e.g. blogs, wikis, conferencing tools,
• Key problem: developing a taxonomy
• Defining categories which are meaningful to
users, then knowledge objects must be assigned
a classification (“tagged”) so that it can be
retrieved
• Some knowledge management systems
specialize in managing, storing and classifying
digital media
• e.g. publishers, advertisers, law firms,
broadcasters, entertainment producers

19. Learning Management Systems (LMS)
• Provide tools for management, delivery,
tracking, and assessment of employee
learning and training
• Support multiple modes of learning
• web-based classes, online forums, and so
on
• Automates selection and administration
of courses
• Assembles and delivers learning content
• Measures learning effectiveness
• Massively open online courses (MOOCs)
• Web course open to large numbers of
participants

20. Other Examples of Knowledge Work Systems
• CAD (computer-aided design)
• Creation of engineering or
architectural designs
• 3D printing
• Virtual reality systems
• Simulate real-life environments
• Augmented reality (AR) systems
• Enhance visualization by
overlaying digital data and images
onto physical real-world
environment

21. Unlearn Before You Learn
• Often as more knowledge is
accumulated and assimilated in the
organization, it means changing the
way the organization “thinks”
• Saying “we do it this way because
we always have” does not work
when you are able to see
information from perspectives that
tell a different story than what
you’re used to
• Some people don’t want know an
answer if it means proving other
things they have done were poor
choices

22. Summary
• Data and information are the
foundation of an organizations’
knowledge
• Knowledge management is
about gaining knowledge and
wisdom from information
• Information systems collect and
organize important data