Knowledge Management Issues

Major Issues in Knowledge Management C.VIJAY KUMAR International School of Information Management University of Mysore MYSORE - 006

9th December,2008

KM strategy in organizations “KM is a concept in which an enterprise gathers, organizes, shares, and analyzes the knowledge of individuals and groups across the organization in ways that directly affect performance” - Robert S. Seiner

sources of Knowledge Internal information resources: • • • •

People — Correspondence — Data Records — Graphic materials —

Oral communication Mail, memoranda Files on activities, Operations, Personnel, etc. Maps, Charts, Diagrams, etc.

External information resources: • • • • •

People outside the organization Internal information resources of other organization Published information — books, journals, reports, etc Mass media — News Electronic databases and data banks

Major issues in KM • • • • • • • •

Social Networking Analysis Security Version control Information Overload Communities of Practice Psychological aspects KM practices Culture etc.

Challenges • • • •

What knowledge required to do jobs ? If so, at what cost? If not what’s cost ? who should get what knowledge-priority? Methods of acquisition, storage, organization and delivery processes • What system would be best? – cost factor • Alternatives • Balance between manual and computer systems

Three issues of KM • Information Overload • Security • Culture

Information Overload • ‘Information value chain’ from handling information and data to converting pre-processed information into knowledge and action • Examining the generic relationship between information and the actual or potential user of that information • Directly related to the development of technologies for collecting, organizing and distributing information and interpersonal communication

Factors • • • • • • •

Volume Comprehension Integration Location Access Relevance Verification

Examples • • • • • • • •

Document management Work flow Intranet & Internet Database integration Group ware and collaboration tools Project management Communication tracking Knowledge creation and representation tools

Recommendations • Skills-based approaches • Technologies • Corporate Information Policy • Portals & Intranet • Search engines and directories • Knowledge Management Products

Security • Access control • Trust management and Negotiation • securing a knowledge management system • Validity of the data • Right information-Right person-right time

Recommendations • • • •

Secure Tools for knowledge sharing Security policy based framework Role Based access control Secure knowledge management architecture • Trust rules for collaboration

Cultural Issues… • • • • •

Different Levels of the Socio-Cultural Context Globalization vs. Localization Conflict of motives Individual and social barriers Core cultures: • • • •

Control Core Culture Competence Core Culture Collaboration Core Culture Cultivation Core Culture

Recommendations • Create shared need – share knowledge • Reward key contributors • Design & roll out of various KM modules • Developing culture of virtual environments • cultural awareness and cultural diversity as an important and necessary skill • Adopt the sense-making approach in human resource practices

•

Balance the values and the conflicts of cultural diversity

• value cultural diversity knowledge-intellectual capital

References: Reuters Ltd. (1996). Dying for information?. An investigation into the effects of information overload in Singapore andworldwide(1996).London. Entin, E.E., Freeman, J., Serfaty, D, & Cohen, M. (1997). Information management: Understanding and coping with information overload. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 41st Annual Meeting, pp. 565-68 R. Sandhu, E. Coyne, H. Feinstein, and C. Youman, “Role-based access control models,” Computer, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 38–47, Feb. 1996. Walsham, G. (2001). Making a world of difference: IT in a global context. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Son Ltd. • • • •

http://www.yahoo.com http://www.google.com http://www.pdfzone.com/products/software/tool_DocFather.html http://cais.isworld/articles/1-7/article

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