This document provides an introduction to knowledge management. It discusses that knowledge management is not just a technology issue and should involve cultural and process aspects. It also differentiates between data, information, and knowledge. Effective knowledge management requires leadership, trust, collaboration, and the right culture. Technology can help manage knowledge content and enable knowledge sharing, but should not be the primary focus. The needs and roles of both knowledge workers and end users must be considered.

1. Introduction to Knowledge Management
Getting a
taste for
the
product…

2. SO…
Exploiting knowledge is NOT a
technology issue…
If you spend more than one
third of your budget on
technology then it’s a
technology project...
Knowledge implies a knower;
the rest is information...

3. We need to avoid KM
Mumbo-Jumbo…for
example...
"We need to use a knowledge ecology paradigm to
synergistically decouple the informatic elements in the
emerging strange attractors in your company's marketplace
by deconstructing the knowledge worker and empowering
them to become an adaptive learner in a virtual workplace
within a chaotic and non-deterministic universe of data
derived economic value."

4. Information Management
1. Policies, guidelines,
authoritative sources
2. Policies for physical data stores
3. Improved information access
Knowledge Management
4. Intellectual assets linked to strategic direction
5. Knowledge management culture
6. Identify experts
7. Capture tacit knowledge and insight
8. Collaborative environment and culture
9. Extend KM to partners and customers

5. The Changing Organisational Environment
20th Century
 Functional departments in
single locations
 9 to 5, Monday to Friday
working
 Hierarchical management
structures with fixed roles
 Emphasis on intra-
organisational working
 Organisationally structured
training and development
21st Century
 Geographically distributed
individuals with remote and
mobile working
 24/7 society
 Flatter management
structures, matrix
management, multi-tasking
and project team based
 Greater emphasis on
partnership and alliances
 Personally tailored training
and development

6. What is an Organisation?
“And if you really think deeply about it, you discover
that every organisation and every institution, without
exception, has no reality save in your mind. It’s not
in buildings. Those are manifestations of it. It’s not
its name, it’s not its logo, and it’s not some fictional
piece of paper called a stock certificate. It’s not
money. It is a mental concept around which people
and resources gather in pursuit of common
purpose”.
Dee Hock: Founder & Former CEO of Visa International

7. Managing knowledge…
is not a new problem!!!
“An immense and ever-increasing wealth of knowledge
is scattered about the world today; knowledge that
would probably suffice to solve all the mighty difficulties
of our age, but it is dispersed and unorganised. We
need a sort of mental clearing house for the mind: a
depot where knowledge and ideas are received, sorted,
summarised, digested, clarified and compared.”
H.G. Wells:
The Brain: Organisation of the Modern World: 1940

8. Here is the Third Wave view!
“It’s not about an encyclopaedia that
captures everything that anybody ever
knew. Rather, it’s about keeping track of
those who know the recipe and nurturing
the culture and the technology that will get
them talking.”
Ward, Adrian:
Workers Frontier International

9. Differentiating between
Data, Information
& Knowledge
 Data is facts, pictures or numbers
presented without a context
 Information is organised data presented
in context
 Knowledge is information in context
together with an understanding of how to
use it

10. Defining Knowledge & Knowledge
Management: The KPMG Model
 Knowledge: The information contained
within the organisation about customers,
products and services which is contained
within people’s minds or filed in analogue or
digital format.
 Knowledge Management: A systematic
attempt to use knowledge within an
organisation to improve overall performance.
 Are these definitions valid?

11. Explicit & Tacit Knowledge
Data
Knowledge
Information
1, 2, 1, 4
Name # # # # #
Smith, J. 1 2 1 4 0
XXXXXX X X X X 0
XXXXXX X X X X 0
KNOW
HOW
SKILLS
EXPERIENCE
TRAINING
EDUCATION
ETC
Tacit
Tacit
Explicit
Explicit
The Knowledge in Knowledge Management - http://home.att.net/~nickols/Knowledge_in_KM.htm

12. Davenport & Prusak’s
33% KM Rule
 Resource management
 Organisational culture
 Information technology
 What about the missing 1%?
INNOVATION
INNOVERSITY

13. How should organisations approach KM?
Questions an organisation must ask
itself...
 How should an organisation new to KM get started?
 How do you create a culture favourable to KM?
 How do you measure and reward progress?
 How do you manage knowledge content
systematically?
 How do you create a KM architecture which
encourages the flow of knowledge?
 What level of human resources do you need to invest
in KM?
 How do you sustain impetus in KM?

14. Knowledge Management:
Critical Success Factors
• Leadership
• Trust
• Collaboration
• Information & Communication
Technologies
• Human Resource Management
• Organisational Culture

15. Semiology
The theory of signs and symbols
“What is important in a text is not what it
means but what it does and incites to do. What
it does: the charge or affect it contains and
transmits. What it incites to do: the
metamorphoses of this potential energy into
other things.”
Jean-Francois Lyotard

16. The Signification Process
SIGN
SIGNIFIED
SIGNIFIER
DENOTATION
CONNOTATION
Blackboard
Virtual
Space
Issue-based
On-line
Discussion
Content
Creating a Symbol
DiscussionDialogue
Discourse

17. STRATEGIC
MANAGEMENT
KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT
ICT
MANAGEMENT
PROCESS
Knowledge
Information
SkillsPeople
possible
required
User
Training
Hardware
Strategy
Systems
Management
User
Training
Software
Strategy
Systems
Development
User
Support
Business
Objectives
Critical
Success
Factors
Knowledge
Needs
Core
Process
Knowledge
Strategy
determinedetermine
generate
generate define
TheSKIModelTheSKIModel

18. THE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT BURGER
Strategic Management
Meeting core
business objectives
ICT Management
Users define
technologies rather
than technology
defining the user
Knowledge Management
Learning to trust people’s
‘know-how’
Beer
&
Burgers?
It’s for Everyone
Organisational Culture as
“Snakes & Ladders”

19. In conclusion...
KM is NOT a definitive theory OR a
universal paradigm...
It offers a way of developing and
understanding:-
community; meaning; learning and identity
which improves:-
knowledge creation, sharing, storage and
transfer within an organisation

20. It started as a...
It may have started as a fad
but it is attempting to become
rigorous, however, it may be nonsense:-
The Nonsense of Knowledge Management
http://informationr.net/ir/8-1/paper144.html

21. Essential Reading
Brooking, Annie F. (1999) Corporate Memory: Strategies for
Knowledge Management London: Thomson
Collison, C. & Parcell, G. (2001) Learning to Fly: Practical
Lessons from One of the World's Leading Knowledge
Companies Oxford: Capstone
Davenport, Thomas H.& Prusak, Laurence (1998) Working
Knowledge: How Organisations Manage What They Know
Harvard: Business School Press
Wenger, E. et al (2002) Cultivating Communities of Practice: A
Guide to Managing Knowledge Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business
School
http://www.knowledgeboard.com

22. 
geoffrey.walker@unn.ac.uk

http://www.geoffwalker.net
Communities of Practice, Networks & Technologies: The Dynamics of Knowledge
Flows within Community-based Organisations in North East England.