Digital Age: Intellectual Capital: Knowledge Management

Knowledge Management

• Overview:  Knowledge management is expensive (but so is stupidity!). Many companies are beginning to feel that the knowledge of their employees is their most valuable asset. They may be right, but few firms have actually begun to actively manage their knowledge assets on a broad scale.
  
  Knowledge management has thus far been addressed at either a philosophical or a technological level, with little pragmatic discussion on how knowledge can be managed and used more effectively on a daily basis. Some firms have begun to help their managers and employees engage in knowledge. However, sharing and using knowledge are often unnatural acts (if my knowledge is a valuable resource, why should I share it)?
  
  Effective management of knowledge requires hybrid solutions of people and technology. Reading recent headlines on the subject may create a deja-vu experience for managers and professionals, who have been hearing about machine-based knowledge since the 1950s. But the fact is that firms wishing to effectively manage knowledge today need a heavy dose of human labor. Humans are very good at certain types of activities, computers at others.
  
  The rapid change in knowledge environments means that firms should not take considerable time in mapping or modeling a particular knowledge environment. Instead, descriptions of knowledge environments should be "quick and dirty," and only as extensive as usage warrants. Its primary content should be knowledge about the product generation process; the knowledge may come from a variety of different functional perspectives, including marketing, R&D, engineering, and manufacturing.
  
  Knowledge managers may feel that if they could only get their organization's knowledge under control, their work would be done. However, the tasks of knowledge management are never-ending. Like human resource management or financial management, there is never a time when knowledge has been fully managed. New technologies, management approaches, regulatory issues, and customer concerns are always emerging.

More...............................  Some Principles of Knowledge Management