Knowledge Management

Strategies
Most organizations have develop their strategy around a well-organizes business model. The reason
why we need to logically map out the knowledge management issues to a recognized business model.
KM should be seen as a set of concepts that could be tailored to meet business needs (Dilip Bhatt 2000).

The question therefore is:

1. How can organizations leverage past experiences to be able to cope with today’s dynamic
business environment?
2. How can firms develop the competences needed to compete successfully in the future?
3. How can business strategy be driven by knowledge that can enhance the quality of products
and services and accelerate the time to market thus giving the organization a competitive edge.
What we need is a sort of mental clearing house where knowledge and ideas are received,
sorted, summarized, digested, clarified and compared.

A strategic knowledge gap analysis helps to identify knowledge and competence gaps to be closed.
In developing a knowledge-oriented strategy firms should take into account the following guiding
principles which we have identified based on an analysis of knowledge management initiatives:
Total Knowledge Management, This involves integration of knowledge management in all the
business processes.
Value-based knowledge management, Value-based knowledge management can be considered
similar to value-based management. From the viewpoint of knowledge management projects, this
means concentrating on few definite objectives.
Personal interaction and codification, It is necessary to select the suitable mix of personal interaction
to share and learn and codification. Knowledge management initiatives often debate whether
knowledge should be documented in databases or exchanged personally. Experience shows that both
options complement each other. It is advisable to document knowledge that can be standardized, needs
less explanation, is reusable and has a long period of validity. Individual, specific and complex solutions
that are also based on personal relations or experiences should be transferred personally.
Knowledge has a market value, If knowledge is a valuable resource, it is bound to build a market for
itself. There are knowledge sellers and knowledge buyers who operate through market balancing
mechanisms under certain conditions. In a traditional hierarchical company or a bureaucratic
organization, it is often decided as to who knows what and who is responsible for a certain task.
The strategic objective of knowledge management is to convert knowledge into competitive advantages
that can be measured as business success. Considering the content of the objectives, we can express
them as normative, strategic and operative knowledge objectives that vary in significance in different
phases of business development.
Normative knowledge objectives (know-why) refer to the desired values and behavior that are
relevant for a long-term and lasting competitiveness.
Strategic knowledge objectives (know-what) shape the manner in which we can convert our existing
knowledge into success of the business and help identify knowledge required for producing new
strategic options in order to get the desired growth.
Operative knowledge objectives (know-how) refer to «daily business», i.e. control over processes and
project. Mobilizing operative knowledge to create value and satisfy customers.
Implementing knowledge management firstly means making oneself aware of the importance of
knowledge as a competitive resource. In order to develop a knowledge management strategy the
following five questions can provide guidance:

Question1: Are our stakeholders (especially management, employees and investors) sensitive to the
importance of knowledge as resource for our business success?

Question 2: Which strategies do we want to support by mobilizing knowledge?

Question 3: Which knowledge do we have today and which knowledge do we need in the future to
sustain competitiveness?

Question 4: How do we handle our knowledge resources, which factors promote creation and use of
knowledge and what are the barriers to it?

Question 5: How should we organize and develop our knowledge to cope with present and future
knowledge competition?
TWO MOST COMMONLY ENCOUNTERED OBJECTIVES OF KM

1. INNOVATION is closely linked to the generation of new knowledge or new linkages between existing
knowledge.

2. RE-USE forms the basis for organizational learning and should be viewed more as a dissemination of
innovation.

THREE CATEGORIES OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF KM INITIATIVES

1. External structure initiatives (e.g., gain knowledge from customers, offer customers additional
knowledge)
2. Internal structure initiatives (e.g., build a knowledge-sharing culture, create new revenues from
existing knowledge, capture individuals’ tacit knowledge, store it, spread it, and reuse it, and
measure knowledge-creating processes and intangible assets produced)
3. Competence initiatives (e.g., create careers based on KM, create microenvironments for
knowledge transfer and learn from simulations and pilot projects)

DEVELOPING A KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

A KM strategy helps address the following questions:

1. WhichKMapproach,orsetofKMapproaches,willbringthemostvaluetotheorganization?
2. How can the organization prioritize alternatives when any one or several of the alternatives are
appealing and resources are limited?

Once the KM strategy is defined, the organization will have a road map that can be used to identify and
prioritize KM initiatives, tools, and approaches in such a way as to support long-term business objectives.
The strategy is used to define a plan of action by undertaking a gap analysis. The gap analysis involves
establishing the current and desired states of knowledge resources and KM levers. Specific projects are
then defined in order to address specific gaps that were identified and agreed upon as being high-
priority areas.

A good KM strategy is comprised of the following components:

1. An articulated business strategy and objectives

2. A description of knowledge-based business issues
1. Needforcollaboration
2. Needtolevelperformancevariance
3. Needforinnovation
4. Needtoaddressinformationoverload

3. An inventory of available knowledge resources

4. An above-identified knowledge and knowledge artifacts and that lists KM projects that can be
undertaken with the intent to maximize ROI and business value, for example
analysis of recommended knowledge leverage points that describes what can be done with the

1. Collectartifactsandexploitthem(e.g.,bestpracticesdatabase,lessonslearneddatabase)
2. Storeforfutureuse(e.g.,datawarehouses,intelligencegatheringforspecificissue/problem, data
mining, text mining)
3. Focusonconnecting;connectknowerstoeachotherandtoaproblemthroughcommunities of
practice or expertise location systems; hypothesize to carry out scenario planning and informal
cross-pollination to produce new insights and breakthrough thinking

THE KM STRATEGY ROAD MAP

The final recommended strategy would typically cover a three- to five-year period, outlining the key
priorities for each year. The road map addresses questions such as:

1. Howwilltheorganizationmanageitsknowledgebetterforthebenefitofthebusiness?
2. Content (management of explicit knowledge) and communities (management of tacit
knowledge) priorities
3. Identification of processes, people, products, services, organizational memory, relationships,
and knowledge assets as high-priority knowledge levers to focus on
4. What is the clear or direct link between KM levers and business objectives?
5. What are some quick wins (i.e., early, relatively inexpensive KM successes)?
6. How will KM capability be sustained over the long term (e.g., defined KM roles)?

A typical KM strategy document will contain the results of the audit, an inventory of what exists, what KM
initiatives were implemented or tried out, what types of knowledge exists, who uses this knowledge and
how, and whether or not knowledge is being shared and disseminated throughout the organization.

All of the pieces of the audit can then be integrated to provide a snapshot of the organization at this
point in time and a high-level diagnostic: for example, the level of organizational readiness for KM
(based on KM maturity models), whether or not they have an intranet or other means to ensure that
everyone can connect with everyone else and access existing knowledge, as well as some of the
potential obstacles that may cause some issues with future KM implementations.

The prioritized “wish list” developed in the next phase serves to show where the organization would like
to be in the short term (one to three years) and long term (three to five years). The gaps are thus the
differences (measured by the width of the gap) between what is and what should be and the strategy
recommendations outline how the company should close these gaps.
POINT OF DISCUSSION:

1. In your own opinion, what do you think are the major steps in developing a KM strategy?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

2. What are the information needed in order to come up with a KM strategy to an organization?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
 Knowledge Management
Team
In this chapter, we will going to
discuss the different professionals in the
fields and their role in the organization.

MAJOR CATEGORIES OF ROLES IN KM

1. Strategic roles. It includes the chief

human capital officer and human capital
retention manager.

2. Senior and middle management

roles. It includes the CEO, COO, CFO,
CTO and etc.

They are responsible for: KM strategy, KM operations, influencing change in the organizations

3. Knowledge leaders. They are responsible for promoting KM within the organization, also referred
to as KM champions.

4. Knowledge managers. They are responsible for the acquisition and management of internal and
external knowledge.

5. Knowledge navigators. They are the one responsible for knowing where knowledge can be located,
also called knowledge brokers.

6. Knowledge synthesizers. They are responsible for facilitating the recording of significant knowledge
to organizational memory, also called knowledge stewards.

7. Content editors. Their responsible for codifying and structuring content, also called content
managers; roles involving capturing and documenting knowledge—researchers, writers, editors.

8. Web Developers. Their role is to develop and manage the website.

9. Learning oriented roles. Their role includes developing information and knowledge skills.

10. Human resource roles. Their role is developing programs and processes that encourage
knowledge-oriented cultures and behaviors.

11. Knowledge publishers. They are responsible for internal publishing functions, usually on an
intranet, also called Webmasters, knowledge architects, or knowledge editors
12. Coaches and mentors. They are responsible for assisting individuals throughout the business unit
or practice to develop and learn KM activities and disciplines

13. Help des activities. delivery of KM and information related to training, also called KSO (knowledge
support office)

KM Roles and Responsibilities within Organizations

The main types of KM roles observed in a wide range of private and public sector organizations
can be summarized as follows:

1. Designing information systems (designing, evaluating, or choosing information content, database

structures, indexing and knowledge representation, interfaces, networking, and technology)

2. Managing information systems (maintaining the integrity, quality, currency of the data, updating,
modifying, improving the system, and operating the system)

3. Information resources management (managing organizational information resources to support

organizational missions and for competitive advantage)

4. Training (coaching, mentoring, CoP start-up and lifecycle training support, and feeding back lessons
learned and best practices into training content)

5. Information agencies (acting as information consultants or guides for clients: advising, training,
guiding on information, information sources, information use; acting as an agent on behalf of the client:
gathering, evaluating, analyzing, synthesizing, summarizing information for clients)

6. Competitive intelligence (gathering and analyzing intelligence to inform decision making)

7. Customer relations for information systems/technology (acting as intermediaries between clients and
information system designers, translating client needs into functional specifications and sales)

8. Designing and producing information services and products publications (databases, information
systems, multimedia products, and stories from storytelling workshops)

9. Knowledge journalist (gathering organizational stories and coding tacit knowledge)

10. Organizational information & KM policy analysts (designing access to corporate organizational
information and KM policies, quality control, maintaining proprietary information and KM, and mapping
corporate intellectual assets)

11. Government KM policy analysts (formulating government policies at all levels regarding such issues
as the KM infrastructure, access to and use of government information, intellectual property, privacy and
public/ private roles in knowledge creation, dissemination and use, government acquisition of
information, and information technology)
KM JOB TITLES

Knowledge harvester—a person who has the skills to elicit tacit knowledge from experts and to codify
it into a form that is more readily shared

Knowledge analyst—typically a person who links the needs of users with that of knowledge provision;
they translate user needs into knowledge requirements and interpret new knowledge into the business
context

Knowledge editor—a person who refines explicit knowledge, converting it into language and formats
that are user-oriented; they also synthesize the essence and nuggets from the vast amounts of
unstructured information in emails, discussion forums, and other unstructured sources

Knowledge navigator—someone who knows their way around the various knowledge repositories
within your organization, whether they are in databases or pockets of expertise

Knowledge broker—someone who connects people who need knowledge with those who have it; they
usually have a good network of knowledgeable contacts

Knowledge gatekeeper—a person who keeps tab on external sources of knowledge and directs it to
where it might be useful; more proactive than the [knowledge] broker, who handles specific user
requests

Knowledge steward—a custodian of knowledge resources; they ensure that knowledge is properly
managed and kept up to date

Knowledge facilitator—a person who is active in encouraging sharing of knowledge, whether it be

through structured conversation, workshop sessions, or creating other mechanisms for people to
interact
POINT OF DISCUSSION:
1. What are some of the major types of KM roles or jobs that exist in organizations today? Describe
the types of tasks that each would be expected to carry out.

______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________

2. What types of competencies should be present in a good KM team?

______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________

3. What core skills will KM professionals need in the next five years? Why do you feel these will be
important in the future?

______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
Activity 1:
1.Draft a sample code of ethics for KM professionals.

2.Explain/justify each element in your proposed code.

3. What would be the best way of publicizing this?

4. How would you make sure that KM professionals practice KM in an ethical fashion?