Knowledge management concepts

What is knowledge management

Knowledge management (English: knowledge management, abbreviated as KM) includes a series of strategies and strategies for defining, creating, disseminating, and adopting new knowledge and experience within an enterprise. practice. This knowledge and experience includes perceptions, which may be personal knowledge, as well as business processes or practices within the organization.

Knowledge management is an academic and business application topic that began to rise around the world in the mid-1990s. It is aimed at the identification, creation, mastery and use of explicit and tacit knowledge owned by individuals and communities. , sharing and dissemination for active and effective management. The inherent theoretical and applied aspects it mainly covers include learning organizations, corporate culture, information technology applications, and personnel management. Since the concept of knowledge management is usually related to various improvement visions of enterprises, the practice of knowledge management in today's enterprises has received more and more attention, which has brought many business opportunities to consultants and technology companies. Knowledge management is also widely used in non-commercial applications, among which *** is often cited as one of the most successful knowledge management systems on the Internet.

According to the 1991 list of academic rules (see Nonaka 1991), knowledge management is applied in fields such as business management, information systems, management and libraries, and information science (Alavi & Leidner 1999). More recently, other fields have begun to apply knowledge management, including information and media, computer science, public health, and public policy.

Many large enterprises have internal knowledge management vouchers as part of their strategic management, information technology, human resources management and other departments. (Addicott, McGivern & Ferlie 2006) Many consulting companies also have suggestions on knowledge management.

Knowledge management generally focuses on improving effectiveness, competitive advantage, innovation, sharing knowledge and learning, integrating knowledge and continuous improvement as corporate goals. Knowledge management is similar to organizational learning, but there are differences. It focuses more on the management of knowledge as a strategic resource and encourages the sharing of knowledge, which is a good way for enterprises to learn.

What is the meaning of knowledge management?

The meaning of knowledge management

From the perspective of business operations, the following definition may be given: Knowledge management refers to the development and effective use of enterprise knowledge resources to improve the efficiency of the enterprise. Management activities that improve the company's ability to create value by innovating.

According to this definition, the ultimate purpose of knowledge management is the same as the ultimate purpose of other management, which is to improve the enterprise's ability to create value. However, the direct purpose of knowledge management is to improve the innovation capabilities of enterprises. This is also the direct driving force for the inevitable emergence and widespread rise of knowledge management in the new economic period.

In the process of transforming from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy, in the era of knowledge economy, enterprise innovation is the basic way for enterprises to win competitive advantages in the market and improve their competitiveness levels, and knowledge resources play an important role in improving enterprise productivity. and their increasingly irreplaceable role in wealth growth as the main source of corporate innovation.

The main task of knowledge management is to comprehensively and fully develop and effectively utilize the enterprise's knowledge resources. This is also a major aspect that distinguishes knowledge management from other management. In the past, no matter whether its objects were people or things, knowledge, the fundamental force of enterprise innovation, was not regarded as a relatively independent resource system of the enterprise and managed comprehensively and comprehensively.

Knowledge management is different from information management. Information management mainly focuses on establishing and maintaining a smooth and efficient information network. Engaged in the collection, retrieval, selection, classification, storage, transmission and analysis of information, etc. Although in the advanced stage of information management, information managers also participate in some strategic analysis of business competition, there are no special requirements in information management for how to use information to carry out corporate innovation, and often the information managers and information managers of enterprises There is not enough communication between users. Knowledge management is to implement comprehensive management of all knowledge of the enterprise, including information. It must coordinate the enterprise's knowledge resources and combine them with other resources to commit to the innovation activities of the enterprise. Therefore, compared with knowledge management, information management is only a part of knowledge management.

The meaning of knowledge management

From the perspective of business operations, the meaning of knowledge management may be given the following definition: Knowledge management refers to the development and effective use of enterprise knowledge resources Management activities used to improve an enterprise's innovation capabilities and thus its ability to create value.

According to this definition, the ultimate purpose of knowledge management is the same as the ultimate purpose of other management, which is to improve the enterprise's ability to create value. However, the direct purpose of knowledge management is to improve the innovation capabilities of enterprises. This is also the direct driving force for the inevitable emergence and widespread rise of knowledge management in the new economic period.

In the process of transforming from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy, in the era of knowledge economy, enterprise innovation is the basic way for enterprises to win competitive advantages in the market and improve their competitiveness levels, and knowledge resources play an important role in improving enterprise productivity. and their increasingly irreplaceable role in wealth growth as the main source of corporate innovation. The main task of knowledge management is to comprehensively and fully develop and effectively utilize the enterprise's knowledge resources. This is also a major aspect that distinguishes knowledge management from other management.

In the past, no matter whether the objects were people or things, management did not regard knowledge, the fundamental force of enterprise innovation, as a relatively independent resource system of the enterprise and conduct comprehensive and comprehensive management. Knowledge management is different from information management.

Information management mainly focuses on establishing and maintaining a smooth and efficient information network. Engaged in the collection, retrieval, selection, classification, storage, transmission and analysis of information, etc.

Although in the advanced stage of information management, information managers also participate in some strategic analysis of business competition, there are no special requirements in information management for how to use information for corporate innovation, and often There is insufficient communication between enterprise information managers and information users. Knowledge management is to implement comprehensive management of all knowledge of the enterprise, including information. It must coordinate the enterprise's knowledge resources and combine them with other resources to commit to the innovation activities of the enterprise.

Therefore, compared with knowledge management, information management is only a part of knowledge management.

What is knowledge management?

Discover what knowledge management is and how it can help your company win in the competition 1. Introduction to knowledge management Unfortunately, there is currently no widely accepted definition of knowledge management, just like the original definition of knowledge management. There is no consensus on what it consists of.

For this reason, knowledge management is best understood in its broadest sense. In simple terms, knowledge management is the process of using organizational intelligence or knowledge assets to create value.

Most commonly, the value of knowledge is created and shared among a company's employees, departments, and even other companies as they work together to design the best solution. It is worth noting that this definition does not mention technology. Although knowledge management often requires the help of IT technology, knowledge management itself is not a technology.

The golf caddy can be seen as a simple example of a knowledge worker. A good caddy should not just carry the club and pick up the ball. When the golfer consults, a good caddy will provide him with some advice, such as "The ninth hole is 15 yards longer than it is due to the presence of wind." ".

At the end of the day, accurate advice could result in a bigger tip for the caddy. On the other hand, golfers who benefit from caddy advice are more likely to play there again next time.

If a good caddy is willing to share what he knows with other caddies, they will end up getting more tips. How does knowledge management work to make this happen? Caddy owners may decide to reward them with popular merchandise credits for sharing their tips.

Once the best suggestions are gathered, the course manager compiles the information in a notebook and distributes it to all caddies. The end result of a well-designed knowledge management program is that everyone wins.

In this example, caddies receive more tips and can buy more merchandise; golfers play better because of the skills they gain from the collective experience of caddies; and course owners also Make a profit because better scores lead to more repeat customers. 2. The composition of intelligence or knowledge assets Not all information is valuable.

Therefore, it is up to the companies themselves to decide what information counts as intellectual and knowledge assets. Generally speaking, however, intellectual and knowledge assets can be divided into two categories: explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge.

Examples of explicit knowledge include patents, trademarks, business plans, market research, and customer lists. According to practical experience, explicit knowledge can be organized, archived and stored through computers.

What is more difficult to understand is the concept of tacit knowledge. Know how is stored in people's brains. Challenges inherent in tacit knowledge reflect how to identify, generate, share and manage it.

While some IT technologies such as email, software packages, instant messaging and related technologies can help spread tacit knowledge, identifying tacit knowledge is a major obstacle for most companies. 3. Benefits of knowledge management to companies Some benefits of knowledge management are directly related to the knowledge a company possesses, but other benefits are more difficult to quantify.

In today's information-driven economy, companies seize the most advantageous opportunities and ultimately derive the greatest benefit from intellectual assets rather than physical assets. In order for a company to gain maximum benefit from its knowledge assets, knowledge management practitioners believe that knowledge must be shared and serve as a basis for collaboration.

However, better cooperation is not complete in itself. Without a good business environment, knowledge management is meaningless at best, and may be harmful at worst. Therefore, an effective knowledge management program should help a company do one or more of the following: Encourage freedom of thought and foster a spirit of innovation.

Improve customer service by reducing reaction times. Provide revenue by delivering *** products and services to market quickly.

Improve employee retention by recognizing the value of employee knowledge and rewarding them accordingly. Adopting assembly line operations and reducing costs by reducing redundant or unnecessary links are the most common examples.

A creative knowledge management can improve efficiency and productivity and increase revenue in any real business operation. 4. Challenges of knowledge management 1. Keep employees up to date with the times. Some problems in knowledge management usually occur because companies ignore humanistic culture.

In an environment where individual knowledge is valued and rewarded, it is critical to establish a culture that recognizes tacit knowledge and encourages employees to share it. The need for companies to ingrain the concept of knowledge management into the minds of their employees cannot be underestimated.

After all, in many cases employees are asked to contribute their knowledge and experience, and it is this that makes their personal value reflected. Companies encourage employees to participate in knowledge management by establishing incentive mechanisms.

However, there is a danger here that employees participate in knowledge management only to gain benefits, without considering the quality and relevance of the information they contribute. The best knowledge management should be as transparent as possible to employees.

Ideally, employees will voluntarily participate in knowledge management based on their own interests. If knowledge management cannot improve employees' living standards, then knowledge management has failed.

2. Technology dominates knowledge management. Knowledge management is not a technical concept. Don't be fooled by software vendors who claim that their software covers all knowledge management solutions.

Companies that wish to establish a knowledge management program using centralized database systems, electronic information boards, networks, or other assistance tools are often wasting their time and money. While technology can support knowledge management, it is not the starting point for a knowledge management program.

Knowledge management solutions are based on who (people), what (knowledge) and why (business goals), with the method (technology) last. 3. Without a specific business goal, a knowledge management solution should not be divorced from business goals.

Although sharing the best solution is a laudable idea, there must be an underlying reason for them to do so. Without a single, fixed business case, knowledge management is an ineffective practice.

4. Knowledge management is not static. Like many tangible assets, the value of knowledge will depreciate over time. Because knowledge quickly becomes obsolete, content in a knowledge management program must be updated, modified, and deleted at any time.

More importantly, any time relevant knowledge changes, employee skills must also change accordingly. Can.