Omar
Alcantara
CIS4398:
Independent Study
Summer 2002
The
Challenge of Knowledge Management:
A Look
into Trends and Applications
The
Challenge of Knowledge Management:
A Look
into Trends and Applications
Knowledge
Management: An Overview
Knowledge Management is a current hot topic in the world of
IT and business in general. Currently, this is a very misunderstood subject,
and I will try to make sense of it all. First
of all let me clear up a misconception about what knowledge is. It is not merely information such as stats
and figures, it is wisdom you can glean from that information. Also, let me try to define what Knowledge
Management is because depending on whom you talk to you will get a different
answer. Knowledge Management is often mistaken
for a new type of technology or hardware (Deveau). It is, rather, a strategy to help organize
and contain a company’s knowledge and disseminate it to whoever needs it. One good definition of KM is given this way:
“The practice of creating, capturing, transferring, and accessing the right
knowledge and information when needed to make better decisions, take actions,
and deliver results in support of the underlying business strategy” (Horwitch
and Armacost). Knowledge Management is
basically the idea that you make sure your company and all its components
“knows what it knows”. Knowledge
Management keeps members of an organization from “reinventing the wheel”. Say someone has come across a problem that a
fellow employee has already solved.
Instead of taking the time to figure out the problem themselves, it
would be much easier for that person to ask that person who has already solved
the problem for help. Or the person
could go into a very well organized database where employees go to find answers
to problems. This is the job of
knowledge management: to connect people,
to give easy access to the knowledge they need when they need it, and to
contain and store knowledge for future use.
I
believe that several trends have come about that makes knowledge management
necessary. First of all, Knowledge
Management has been created in response to the vast amounts of information that
companies have at their disposal.
Organizations have found out that they need a way to make this data
useful for their employees or it is useless.
Secondly, there is an increasing need to create a competitive advantage
over competitors because organizations who manage their knowledge better are
faster and more efficient. Finally, KM
has developed because of ubiquitous computing.
Ubiquitous computing has made it possible for people to be in constant
contact and for knowledge to be transferred at never before seen costs and
speeds.
Interest
in Knowledge Management is booming. A
recent study revealed that 80 percent of companies are developing Knowledge
Management systems at the moment and spending on KM projects will grow to $12
billion dollars by next year (Horwitch and Armacost). Some experts are going further, and saying
knowledge management may be the most important element to an organizations
success or failure, more important than raw material, and money (Stewart).
Knowledge
Management is vital to an organization to stop duplication of effort and to
reduce the time it takes to find answers to questions that need to be
answered. A recent study found that
engineers spend 60 percent of their time searching for proper information
(Schick). A large portion was spent
re-creating what they couldn’t find and only a quarter was spent on their doing
engineer work (Schick). This situation
is commonplace for knowledge workers, and is the main reason why KM is so
important. In the ever increasing
competitive world of business, time is now more than ever, equal to money. A common current problem with many organizations
is that companies lose a lot of intellectual capital when employees retire or
leave the organization. For example, Los
Alamos National Laboratory is facing losing their half of its top designers
within the next couple of years due to retirement (Silver). If it fails to retain their intellectual
capital, they will not have enough people that know how the nations 6000 plus
warheads work (Silver). Knowledge
Management tries to keep this from happening by containing that knowledge for
future use.
Although
the term Knowledge Management is relatively new, the concept of sharing
knowledge is not. Successful companies
have always made good of information (Mudge).
Companies have been exchanging data and collaborating on design projects
using technology as basic as E-mail since the 1980’s (Whiting). Before that companies would share their
knowledge with regular face to face or group meetings, informal discussions,
telephone calls, periodicals and even letters.
With the advent of technology such as networks there is now a great
opportunity to share knowledge amongst workers at never before seen speeds and
costs. Knowledge management lets
employees access the best problem solving resource they have: each other (Zetlin).
Difficulties
of Knowledge Management
Although Knowledge Management has gone from being
considered a passing trend to now being a major part of how organizations
conduct business, it is not without its problems. Currently, the biggest issue in knowledge
management is that it is difficult to implement successfully. No one doubts that KM is potentially very
valuable to an organization, but the problem is that it seems few organizations
have been able to implement it successfully.
There
are several problems when trying to implement a Knowledge Management strategy
into an organization. The first problem
is that files of information may be in multiple forms. Many times the information an organization uses
is in “anecdotal and heuristic form” and is not easily codified and organized into
computer databases (Schick). For
example, if an organization tries to organize their files by indexing them with
key words then some files that are in video or sound will be overlooked. When files cannot be easily organized, it
makes it hard for an employee to find the information they need to make a
decision. And if too much time is wasted
looking for that information then the whole point of Knowledge Management is
missed.
The
second problem is getting employees to share the knowledge they have and put it
in the systems a company has to distribute it.
Employees see sharing their knowledge as added work to their already
busy schedules (MacInnis). They don’t
see an immediate benefit from doing this extra work and are reluctant to
participate. One solution is to use
software to extract information from outbound e-mail and update information
databases (Whiting). This software
creates profiles automatically from the e-mail and creates high speed connections
between employees. Some companies have
now begun incentive programs for employees to take the time to put some of
their knowledge into database systems and fill out employee profiles so that
others may ask them questions on whatever their expertise may be. Organizations have gone so far at to offer
frequent flyer miles and other incentives to employees for filling out profiles
and making themselves available for questions.
If organizations don’t do this, employees will just see sharing their
knowledge as extra work on their already busy schedules.
Sometimes,
it is nearly impossible to for employees to put their knowledge into an
information system. This type of
knowledge is called tacit knowledge or simply put: knowledge inside people’s
head (Marwick). Tacit knowledge is
obtained by workers through their experience, training and general know
how. Tacit knowledge, by its nature, is
usually hard to communicate, difficult to replicate and is a source of
competitive advantage (Horwitch and Armacost).
Explicit knowledge is more definable.
Explicit knowledge is generally facts and figures, and is easier to
enter into a Knowledge Management System (Marwick). Putting tacit knowledge into information
databases is one of the many challenges knowledge management strategies face
today. The best way to handle this
situation, so far, is to make those with tacit knowledge available for inquiry
to fellow employees through internets or intranets.
The fourth problem is choosing the right technology to
implement a knowledge management strategy (Deveau). There are currently a vast number of
knowledge management products out on the market and the number is growing. New products are appearing almost daily and
the choices can be overwhelming (Silver).
There is currently no single Knowledge Management product that fills all
the KM needs of a single company. There
are many products that handle things like expertise location, knowledge sharing
and peer- to-peer collaboration. Companies
must decide which one or combination of software is the right fit for their organization. Organizations must keep up with the latest
technologies through daily news, industry reports, conferences and talking with
industry experts and colleagues (Silver).
The
fifth problem with Knowledge Management is the issue of security. In knowledge management the big idea is to
share information and thoughts. This is in
sharp contrast to information security, where you try to make sure certain
information does not get distributed into the wrong hands. Deciding who gets what information is an area
that shouldn’t be overlooked. Some
information may be sensitive in nature and cannot be on display for everyone to
see. Precautions should be taken to
limit users’ access to such information.
How to go about taking these precautions is currently up for
discussion.
Another
problem with Knowledge Management is that because of its nature it is difficult
to measure the return on investment of implementing a strategy. A recent survey revealed that 65 percent of
respondents said they do not have the ability to measure their Knowledge
Management initiatives success (Schick).
Because it is hard to measure, management has a hard time justifying the
high cost of implementing a very expensive KM strategy. The idea of Knowledge Management is still only
around ten years old and some still see it as a fad and just a current buzz
word in business. Critics unjustly think
that Knowledge Management is just a ploy invented by consultants and software
producers to make an extra buck.
Knowledge
Management Trends
Now that Knowledge Management is becoming more and more accepted, there are a few trends emerging as organizations try to figure out what is the best way to implement a knowledge strategy. There are a number of current trends for the use of Knowledge Management today. I have defined two types of trends. The first type are strategy trends, the second are technology trends. Let me begin by explaining some current trends in Knowledge Management strategy.
Knowledge Management Strategy Trends
One trend I have identified is that companies have
begun appointing CKO’s in an effort to take care of an organization’s Knowledge
Management needs. More and more
companies are now appointing CKO’s which stands for Chief Knowledge Officer. CKO’s may also have different titles such as
director of intellectual capital or vice president of organizational learning
or more commonly Chief Learning Officer (Greco). Companies who are now utilizing a CKO are
usually larger companies who have the resources to appoint such a
position. A CKO’s duties are currently
evolving since the job is so new.
Currently, CKO’s have somewhat vague job specifications. CKO’s are many times designers. They design knowledge directories, knowledge
exchange events, and knowledge based systems (Earl and Scott). Generally, a CKO’s primary task is to
articulate a knowledge management program (Earl and Scott). This means that CKO’s many times have to sell
the concept of knowledge management to senior executives (Earl and Scott). They also have to be technologists meaning
that they have to understand with technologies are best for their
organization. They must keep up with the
latest technological developments and be well informed on new knowledge
products. CKO’s many times must also be
a meeting organizer (Earl and Scott).
This means that they must organize meetings such as summits, leaning
centers, and retreats, so that workers can share their tacit knowledge. These face to face meetings and video
conferences, where workers can speak to each other in real time, have been
found to be a great way for tacit knowledge sharing.
Another current trend in knowledge management
strategy is what is described as “Hollywood Management” (Trendspotter—What is
hot in KM?). Hollywood Management is a
different take on Knowledge Management.
It is the idea that knowledge work should follow the “studio model” of
making a movie. When making a movie, you
develop a script, you hire the best director, and you cast all the parts based
on who is best to fill the roles. When
the movie is completed the cast and crew break up to pursue other
projects. The idea is to follow this
model. Start with a strategy, hire someone
to oversee the project and then get the workers with the right knowledge for
the project. When the project is over
break up the group and begin anew. The
idea is that by doing this you get the right people with the right knowledge
for a particular project. Also, while
they are together on a project they will share their knowledge and they will
learn from each other. Then when you
start another project you get the right people for that one and the learning
continues.
Another current trend in knowledge management is
called attention management. A common
problem in many organizations is that employees do not have the time to share
their knowledge and put their attention to it because of their main job (Trendspotter—What
is hot in KM?). This involves allowing
employees to have time set aside and allowing them to focus only on sharing their
knowledge without having to be interrupted by their primary job.
There are a number of trends
occurring in Knowledge Management technology also. They are portals, emerging standards, products
that combine a service with a Knowledge Management service, and service
providers (Silver). Currently there is
no single software that will cover all an organizations needs. Portals with the help of the internet or a
company intranet provide a single connection to the different sources of
knowledge available to an organization (Silver). Portals can be connections to expertise
location systems, knowledge databases and fellow workers. Some companies who provide portal software
are Autonomy, Brio, Epicentric, IBM/Lotus, Plumtree, Verity, and Viador.
A very important trend in knowledge management
technology is emerging standards such as XML.
Standards are needed to make it easier for interoperability between
knowledge management sources. XML, which
stands for extensible markup language, is emerging as a good standard to use
for many types of knowledge management applications. XML sets the rules for “defining data
structures to make it possible for key elements in a document to be categorized
according to its meaning” (Silver).
Another trend is the emergence of Knowledge Management
products. These are products that
already exist in other forms but have a Knowledge Management twist to
them. For example, Tacit Knowledge
Systems has created its own e-mail service called KnowledgeMail. This is e-mail system extracts knowledge
from employees e-mails and creates high speed connections between employees to
share knowledge. Another knowledge product
is Intraspect Software’s Knowledge Server.
This product monitors an organization’s information that it uses and
makes the information available for sharing and reuse (Silver).
Another current trend is the rise of the Knowledge Management
service providers. There are now
companies who provider consulting such as assessing, evaluating, and planning,
implementation, operations management, training, and support (Silver). Outsourcing for knowledge management is supposed
to save an organization from the cost of designing a Knowledge Management
system with ready made services.
Knowledge Management Applications
There are a vast number of uses for
Knowledge Management. Organizations are
using knowledge management to whatever they see fit to use it for. Knowledge Management is most useful for
knowledge workers that use experience and know how. They are very useful for experts. Knowledge Management applications usually
fall under three types: peer-to-peer
collaboration, expertise location, and knowledge sharing.
Let me start by giving an example of how
Hewlett Packard uses knowledge Management in its organization. Hewlett Packard has a variety of knowledge
management strategies in place so that it makes it a good example of different
knowledge management applications being used today in business.
ESP
Hewlett Packard uses a variety of web based knowledge
management systems. Hewlett Packard uses
Lotus Notes for discussion-oriented applications and the internet for written
text such as papers and documents (Davenport and Prusak, 1998). One of their Knowledge Management systems is
called ESP, which stands for Electronic Sales Partner. Electronic Sales Partner is a web-based
application used primarily to assist sales people sell to customers (Davenport
and Prusak, 1998). This is a
peer-to-peer collaboration or knowledge sharing application. On ESP, Hewlett Packard has a large amount of
sales presentations, guidelines and other documents that help sales people
achieve their sales goals. Anyone that
works for Hewlett Packard can submit a document to be included on ESP, and the
submissions are screened by reviewers to ensure that they are related to
selling (Davenport and Prusak, 1998).
This system has been hugely successful with one manager saying that it
has been the “most successful implementation of software” that they have seen
in twenty years (Davenport and Prusak, 1998).
The only problem they have experienced is the difficulty in navigating
through the vast amounts of information on ESP.
This is a common problem in many Knowledge Management systems. One of the key issues in KM is to find a way
to give people the right information, when they want it.
Connex
The second web-based knowledge management system Hewlett
Packard uses is a system called Connex to help find experts in whatever field
an employee needs help in (Davenport and Prusak). Connex is an expertise location
application. Connex was developed by the
HP Labs Research Library Information Technology team and has been used since
1997 (Carrozza). Connex was developed
because Hewlett Packard has over 90,000 employees who work around the world
(Carrozza). Many times employees
encounter a problem in which many others have already solved. Connex puts them in touch with these employees
so that they don’t have to go about “reinventing the wheel”. This system is essentially a “Yellow Pages”
of experts. It is a database where you
can find help to a specific question that only an expert can answer and get in
touch with that expert.
Connex
allows an employee to offer or obtain knowledge when the need arises. Connex has a feature called “nagging” which
is designed to keep profiles current.
This feature reminds submitters to update their profiles every so often. Submitters are given a list of 102 technical
and 62 non-technical areas of knowledge and are asked to which their knowledge
applies to (Carrozza). The submitter may
then describe their “expertise” in more detail in a text box provided. Creating a profile may take from
There are three different ways to locate knowledge in the
Connex system. One may do a full-text
search, a field search, or browse the system.
A full-text search looks for a word or group of words to occur anywhere
on a submitter’s profile. The results
are then returned in relevance rank order.
The field search is for more specific searches. Field searches are for finding matches in
specific profile fields, such as language, or what country you are looking for
an “expert” in (Carrozza). Lastly, a
user can browse the system to find an “expert”.
There are three forms of browsing that can be done on Connex. You may browse by knowledge areas, country
and name.
Since
its inception, over 7,100 users in more than 340 different areas have signed on
to the system (Carrozza). This is a good
number for a company the size of Hewlett Packard because too many profiles
would clutter the system. Connex is the
most used of over fifty services that you can get from Hewlett Packard labs Research
Library (Carrozza). Connex has been the
most successful service of Hewlett Packard’s knowledge strategy, but it does
have some problems. Not everyone in HP
knows that it exists and it should be promoted better. Also, some profiles are badly done and do not
give a good idea as to what a person’s knowledge is.
Trainers’ Trading Post
Hewlett Packard uses Lotus Notes to for a system called
“Trainers’ Trading Post” which is a knowledge system to help its 2000 plus
educators or trainers in HP (
The Future of Knowledge Management
Laurence Prusak is a
pioneer of Knowledge Management and helped organize the first conference about
KM in 1993. In his 2001 article “Where did Knowledge Management Come From?”, he
argued that Knowledge Management will probably take one of two future paths
(Prusak). The first is the direction
taken by the quality movement. What he
means by this is that KM will become invisible and ubiquitous. There is not much talk, he says, about
quality today in management because it is such an integral part of how business
works. Knowledge Management, Prusak
hopes, will also become just a regular part of everyday business. The second likely path would be like that of
re-engineering. Re-engineering, he argues, was hijacked by those out to make
money and became another word for downsizing and left no permanent value to
businesses (Prusak).
Personally, I agree that KM will
become just a regular part of everyday business. In reality, I believe Knowledge Management
has been going on since business began in one form or another. The only difference I see is that we now have
the technology to span great distances and very little cost when it comes to
communicating your knowledge with someone else.
Conclusion
This paper was intended
to give the applications of Knowledge Management, current trends, and a look
into where KM is headed. Knowledge Management
is a strategy and not just about technology, although technology is vital for
knowledge to be dispersed. It is meant
for knowledge workers who have peers that can help them from “reinventing the
wheel” and duplicating previous work. Knowledge
Management is also used to retain the intellectual capital of employees who
retire or otherwise leave an organization.
Organizations use knowledge management for whatever they see fit. Current trends include the strategy trends
such as the increase of Chief Knowledge Officers, “Hollywood Management”, and “Attention
Management”. Technology trends include portals, emerging
standards, products that combine a service with a Knowledge Management service,
and service providers. Applications
range from peer to peer collaboration, expertise location and knowledge
sharing. Knowledge Management seems to
be on the path to following the quality movement, in which it will become
“invisible” and a regular everyday part of how organizations do business.
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