Knowledge Management Cycle

Knowledge Management Cycle

Week Two

1330-54I KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Outline

• What is knowledge management cycle?• What are major KM approaches to KM cycle?– Meyer and Zack– Bukowitz and Williams– McElroy – Wiig

• What are the benefits/implications of KM cycle?

Knowledge Management Cycle refers to the ways that an organization handles knowledge at various stages of its life in an organization.• The organization needs to:– acquire and capture knowledge,– organize and store it,– retrieve it as needed,– distribute it as needed, and–maintain its currency, relevance, and value.

Knowledge Management Cycle

Acquire

OrganizeMaintain

RetrieveDistribute

When know-how is transferred to an organizational knowledge repository it becomes part of the corporate memory.

Knowledge cycle can be envisaged as the route that information follows in order to become transformed into a valuable strategic asset for the organization.

Knowledge cycle describes the process by which knowledge passes through different stages in an organization as it is identified, captured, shared and used.

Approaches to Describe the Steps in the KM Cycle

• There seems to be a lack of consensus with regard to the terms used to describe the major steps involved in KM cycle.

• The following models highlight the major phases included in the cycle:Wiig (1993)Zaqck (1996)McElroy (1999)Bukowitz & Williams (2003)

The Zack KM Cycle• This model proposes that research and

development about he design of physical information products can be extended into the intellectual realm to serve as the basis for a KM cycle.

• This approach suggest the following as main steps: – A product platform (knowledge repository)– The information process platform (knowledge

refinery)

This model suggests that the KM cycle consists primarily of creating a higher value-added knowledge product at each stage of knowledge processing – R&D about the design of physical information products can inform the design of a KM cycle.

Main Components of the Zack Model• KM cycle processes are composed of

technologies, facilities, and processes for products and services– Information products are best viewed as

repository comprising information content and structure• Information content is the data held in

the repository structure• Structure facilitates the storage,

manipulation, and retrieval of contentInformation products focus on document management systems while KM system can easily identify, extract, and manage a number of different knowledge items (sometimes referred to as a learning object or a knowledge object).

• Meyer and Zack analyzed the major stages of a knowledge repository and mapped them onto a KM cycle. These include the following: – Acquisition– Refinement– Storage/Retrieval–Distribution– Presentation

Institutional repositories form the first kernel of an organizational memory or corporate memory for the organization.

They considered refinery a primary source of value added (physical or logical ) element helping in creating more readily usable knowledge objects and by storing the contents more flexibly for future use.

• The repository and the refinery together enable the management of valuable knowledge of a firm – they need to be supported by:– the firm’s core capabilities in information

technology– internal knowledge about its business– external knowledge about current and emerging

environment

There is also a notion of having to continually renew the repository and the refinery in order to avoid obsolescence.

The Bukowitz and Williams KM Cycle• This model outlines how

organizations generate, maintain and deploy a strategically correct stock of knowledge to create value.

• Knowledge consists of:– Repositories– Relationships– Technologies– Communication infrastructure– Functional skill sets– Process know –how– Environmental responsiveness– Organizational intelligence– External sources

This model highlights that challenge today is not so much in finding information but in dealing effectively with the enormous volume of information that can be obtained.

This model highlights (with its component of get) an important distinction in IM & KM – ‘getting’ of content encompasses not only traditional explicit content (e.g. a physical or electronic document) but also tacit knowledge – the cycle suggests that information users need to be connected not only to content but also to content experts (people, where most of the valuable tacit knowledge resides. • The ‘learn’ stages of this model refer to the

formal process of learning from experiences as a means of creating competitive advantage – learning should focus on both best practices (successes) and lessons learned (failures)Learning is absolutely essential after the ‘getting’ and ‘using’ of content; otherwise content is simply warehoused and does not make a difference how things are done in the organization.

Significance of Other Stages • Contribute stage deals with getting employees to

post what they have learned to the repository:– Sharing of best practices and lessons learned (so

that others do not repeat the same mistakes)– A good system must be in place to maintain the

results of organizational learning (corporate memory system)

– Rewards for contribution should also be introduced (notifying about popular contribution – analogous to citation index for scholarly publications)

It is important to identify new forms of capital such as: Human Capital (competencies); Customer Capital (relationships); Organizational Capital (knowledge bases): and Intellectual Capital (the relationship between human, customer, and organizational capital).

• Build and sustain step in the KM cycle ensures that the future intellectual capital will keep the organization competitive.– Resources must be allocated to the growth

and maintenance of knowledge– Efforts should be made to create new

knowledge and reinforce existing knowledge

Inability to locate and apply knowledge results in a lost opportunity and coming up short on the right knowledge may result in loss of competitiveness and ultimately organizational viability.

• Divest is an interesting concept in Buckowitz model – the organization should not hold on to intellectual assets if they are no longer creating value. – Obtain patents, spin off companies

outsource work, terminate programs, replace technologies, and end partnerships and alliances

– Redeploy knowledge within or outside the organization to convert into value

This KM cycle model introduces two new critical phases: the learning of knowledge content and the decision to divest knowledge that is drain on resources and is not creating value.

The McElroy KM Cycle• This model describes a knowledge life

cycle that consists of the processes of knowledge production and knowledge integration with a series of feedback loops.

• In knowledge production, the key processes are:– Individual and group learning– Knowledge claim formulation– Information acquisition– Codified knowledge claim– Knowledge claim evaluation

Knowledge claims are evaluated to determine their veracity and value – greater value than existing knowledge.

• New knowledge claims are introduced in the operating environment with knowledge integration (focusing on knowledge transmission)including: – Searching– Teaching– Sharing– broadcasting

Validation of knowledge is a step that distinguish knowledge management from document management – km cycle does more than address the storage and subsequent management of documents.

The KM cycle focuses on processes to identify knowledge content that is of value to the organization and its employees.

The Wiig KM Cycle• This model focuses on the three

conditions that need to be present for an organization to conduct its business successfully:– A business (products/services) and

customers– Resources (people, capital, and facilities)– The ability to act

Knowledge is the principal force that determines and drives the ability to act intelligently – the major purpose of KM is to make the enterprise intelligent-acting by facilitating the creation and application of quality knowledge.

• Wiig’s KM cycle addresses how knowledge is built and used as individuals and organizations – there are four major steps in this cycle: – Building knowledge: learning from personal

experience, formal education and training, intelligence, peers, etc.

– Holding knowledge: in people and in tangible forms (e.g., books)

– Pooling knowledge: using KM systems (intranets, databases) and groups of people(brainstorming)

– Using knowledge: using in work context and embedding in processes

Working intelligently involves making use of all the best knowledge available – approaching our task with greater expertise.

Example of Activities at Different Stages of Wiig’s Model

• Building knowledge may involve activities ranging from market research to focus groups, surveys, competitive intelligence, and data mining applications

• Holding Knowledge consist of remembering, accumulating knowledge in repositories, embedding knowledge in processes, and archiving

• Knowledge Pooling consists of coordinating, assembling, and accessing and retrieving knowledge

• There are innumerable ways to apply knowledge: using established knowledge to perform a routine task – when knowledge applied to work objects routine tasks are approached in a different way

An Integrated KM Cycle• Review of the various approaches

to KM cycle help distill an integrated model with three major stages:– Knowledge capture and/or creation– Knowledge sharing and dissemination– Knowledge acquisition and application

In the transition from capture to sharing, contents are assessed and contextualized in order to be understood (acquisition) and used (application). This stage feeds back into the first stage in order to update the knowledge content.

An Integrated KM Cycle

Knowledge Capture and/or

Creation

Knowledge Acquisition and

Application

Knowledge Sharing and

Dissemination

Assess

Update

Contextualize

Implications/Benefit of the KM Cycle

• Knowledge represents the decisive basis for intelligent, competent behavior at the individual, group and organization level– a conscious and organized reflection of

lessons learned and best practices discovered will allow companies to leverage their hard-won knowledge assets.

Understanding the different stages of managing knowledge throughout the KM cycle is important from a practical perspective:

managing knowledge requires organizing principles (framework) that helps classify the different types of activities and functions need to deal with all knowledge-related work within and between organizations.

Reading

• Dalkir, Kimiz. (2005). Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice. New York: Elsevier. Chapters 2 – The Knowledge Management Cycle.