Decision support and BI systems ch11

Knowledge Management Activities Knowledge sharing  Knowledge sharing is the willful explication of one person’s ideas, insights, experiences to another individual either via an interm

Decision Support and Business

Intelligence Systems (9th Ed., Prentice Hall)

Chapter 11:

Knowledge Management

 Describe the knowledge management cycle

 Describe the technologies that can be used in

a knowledge management system

 Describe the different ways of evaluating

intellectual capital in an organization

 Describe how KMS are implemented

Opening Vignette:

MITRE’s View to the KM Process

ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES FOR KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Expert Systems

Data Mining

Search Engine Web 2.0

Intranet Extranet

Knowledge representation Measurements

Machine Learning

Artificial Intelligence

Introduction to Knowledge Management

 Knowledge management concepts and definitions

Introduction to Knowledge Management

In a knowledge management system,

Introduction to Knowledge Management

Processed Relevant and Actionable

Relevant and actionable processed-data

DEPT 4 DEPT 3 DEPT 2 DEPT 1

PHASE 4 PHASE 3 PHASE 2 PHASE 1

Introduction to Knowledge Management

 Characteristics of knowledge

 Extraordinary leverage and increasing returns

 Fragmentation, leakage and the need to refresh

Introduction to Knowledge Management

 Explicit and tacit knowledge

 Explicit (leaky) knowledge

Knowledge that deals with objective, rational, and technical material (data, policies, procedures, software, documents, etc.)

 Easily documented, transferred, taught and learned

 Examples…

Introduction to Knowledge Management

 Explicit and tacit knowledge

 Tacit (embedded) knowledge

Knowledge that is usually in the domain of subjective, cognitive, and experiential

learning

 It is highly personal and hard to formalize

 Hard to document, transfer, teach and learn

 Involves a lot of human interpretation

 Examples…

Introduction to Knowledge Management

 Knowledge management systems (KMS)

A system that facilitates knowledge management by ensuring knowledge flow from the person(s) who know to the person(s) who need to know

throughout the organization;

knowledge evolves and grows during the process

Organizational Learning and Transformation

 Organizational memory

Repository of what the organization

“knows”

Organizational Learning and Transformation

 Organizational learning

 Development of new knowledge and insights that have the potential to

influence organization’s behavior

 The process of capturing knowledge and making it available enterprise-wide

 Need to establish corporate memory

 Modern IT helps…

 People issues are the most important!

Organizational Learning and Transformation

 Organizational culture

The aggregate attitudes in an organization concerning a certain issue (e.g., technology, computers, DSS)

 How do people learn the “culture”?

 Is it explicit or implicit?

 Can culture be changed? How?

 Give some examples of corporate culture:

Microsoft, Google, Apple, HP, GM, …

Organizational Learning and Transformation

 Lack of time to share knowledge and time to

identify colleagues in need of specific knowledge

 Fear that sharing may jeopardize one’s job

security

 Low awareness and realization of the value and

benefit of the knowledge others possess

 Dominance in sharing explicit over tacit knowledge

 Use of a strong hierarchy, position-based status,

and formal power

 Insufficient capture, evaluation, feedback,

communication, and tolerance of past mistakes

Organizational Learning and Transformation

 Differences in experience and education levels

 Lack of contact time and interaction between

knowledge sources and recipients

 Poor verbal/written communication and

interpersonal skills

 Age, gender, cultural and ethical defenses

 Lack of a social network

 Ownership of intellectual property

 Lack of trust in people because they may misuse

knowledge or take unjust credit for it

 Perceived lack of accuracy/credibility of knowledge

Knowledge Management Activities

 Knowledge management initiatives and

activities

 Most knowledge management initiatives

have one of three aims:

3 To build a knowledge infrastructure

Knowledge Management Activities

of new insights, ideas, or routines

 Four modes of knowledge creation:

Knowledge Management Activities

 Knowledge sharing

 Knowledge sharing is the willful

explication of one person’s ideas, insights, experiences to another individual either via an intermediary or directly

 In many organizations, information and

knowledge are not considered organizational resources to be shared but

individual competitive weapons to be kept private

 Knowledge seeking

 Knowledge seeking (knowledge sourcing)

is the search for and use of internal organizational knowledge

 Lack of time or lack of reward may

hinder the sharing of knowledge or knowledge seeking

Knowledge Management Activities

Approaches to Knowledge Management

attempts to codify organizational knowledge through formalized controls, processes and technologies

 Focuses on explicit knowledge and IT

social environments or communities of practice necessary to facilitate the sharing of tacit understanding

 Focuses on tacit knowledge and socialization

Approaches to Knowledge Management

management

 The practice approach is used so that a repository stores only explicit knowledge that is relatively easy to document

 Tacit knowledge initially stored in the repository is contact information about experts and their areas of expertise

 Increasing the amount of tacit knowledge over time eventually leads to the

attainment of a true process approach

Hybrid

at 80/20

to

50/50

Approaches to Knowledge Management

In an organization, the best methods for solving problems These are often stored in the knowledge repository of a knowledge management system

storage location of knowledge in a knowledge management system Similar in nature to a database, but generally text-

oriented

Approaches to Knowledge Management

K NOWLEDGE M ANAGEMENT P LATFORM (KMP)

(Knowledge / Information / Data Nuggets)

Web Crawler Data/Text Mining Tools ManualEntries

DIVERSE INFORMATION / DATA SOURCES

(Weather / Medical Info / Finance / Agriculture / Industrial)

Ad hoc Search

JUN 1 5

Approaches to Knowledge Management

 Developing a knowledge repository

 Knowledge repositories are developed using several different storage mechanisms

Information Technology (IT) in Knowledge Management

Capture Knowledge

Refine Knowledge

Store Knowledge

Manage Knowledge

Disseminate Knowledge

Create Knowledge

Information Technology (IT) in Knowledge Management

The Cyclic Model

of Knowledge

Management

Information Technology (IT) in Knowledge Management

Information Technology (IT) in Knowledge Management

 Artificial intelligence

 AI methods used in KMS:

 Assist in and enhance searching knowledge

 Help for knowledge representation (e.g., ES)

 Help establish knowledge profiles of individuals and groups

 Help determine the relative importance of knowledge when it is contributed to and accessed from the knowledge repository

Information Technology (IT) in Knowledge Management

 AI methods used in KMS:

 Scan e-mail, documents, and databases to perform knowledge discovery, determine meaningful relationships and rules

 Identify patterns in data (usually through neural networks and other data mining techniques)

 Forecast future results by using data/knowledge

 Provide advice directly from knowledge by using neural networks or expert systems

driven user interface for a KMS

Information Technology (IT) in Knowledge Management

 Intelligent agents

 Intelligent agents are software systems that learn how users work and provide

assistance in their daily tasks

 They are used to elicit and identify knowledge

 See ibm.com, gentia.com for examples

 Combined with enterprise knowledge portal

to proactively disseminate knowledge

Information Technology (IT) in Knowledge Management

 Knowledge discovery in databases (KDD)

A machine learning process that performs rule induction, or a related procedure to establish (or create)

knowledge from large databases

 a.k.a Data Mining (and/or Text Mining)

Information Technology (IT) in Knowledge Management

 Model marts

Small, generally departmental repositories of knowledge created by employing knowledge-discovery techniques on past decision

instances Similar to data marts

 Model warehouses

Large, generally enterprise-wide repositories

of knowledge created by employing knowledge-discovery techniques Similar to data warehouses

Information Technology (IT) in Knowledge Management

 Extensible Markup Language (XML)

 XML enables standardized representations of data structures so that data can be

processed appropriately by heterogeneous information systems without case-by-case programming or human intervention

 Web 2.0

 The evolution of the Web from statically disseminating information to collaboratively creating and sharing information

An electronic doorway into a knowledge management system…

KM System Implementation

 Software development companies / vendors

 Electronic document management (EDM)

A method for processing documents electronically, including capture, storage, retrieval, manipulation, and presentation

 Content management systems (CMS)

An electronic document management system that produces dynamic versions of documents, and automatically maintains the current set for use at the enterprise level

KM System Implementation

 Software development tools

 Knowledge harvesting tools

 Search engines

 Knowledge management suites

 Knowledge management consulting firms

 Knowledge management ASPs

Roles of People in Knowledge Management

 Chief knowledge officer (CKO)

The person in charge of a knowledge management effort in an organization

 Sets KM strategic priorities

 Establishes a repository of best practices

 Teaches information seekers how to better elicit it

 Creates a process for managing intellectual assets

 Obtain customer satisfaction information

Roles of People in Knowledge Management

 Skills required of a CKO include:

 Interpersonal communication skills

Roles of People in Knowledge Management

 The CEO, other chief officers, and managers

 The CEO is responsible for championing a knowledge management effort

 The officers make available the resources needed

to get the job done

management practices into their daily work processes

 Managers also support the KM efforts by providing access to sources of knowledge

Roles of People in Knowledge Management

 Community of practice (CoP)

A group of people in an organization with a common professional interest, often self-organized for managing

knowledge in a knowledge management system

 See Application Case 11.7 as an example of how Xerox successfully improved practices and cost savings through CoP

Roles of People in Knowledge Management

Ensuring the Success of Knowledge Management Efforts

 Success stories of knowledge management

 loss of intellectual capital

 costs by decreasing the number of times the company must repeatedly solve the same problem

 redundancy of knowledge-based activities

 productivity

 employee satisfaction

Ensuring the Success of Knowledge Management Efforts

“Annually identifying the best practitioners of KM”

Ensuring the Success of Knowledge Management Efforts

“Annually identifying the best practitioners of KM”

Ensuring the Success of Knowledge Management Efforts

 Useful applications of KMS

 Finding experts electronically and using expert location systems

Interactive computerized systems that help employees find and connect with colleagues who have expertise required for specific

problems—whether they are across the county

or across the room—in order to solve specific, critical business problems in seconds

Ensuring the Success of Knowledge Management Efforts

 Knowledge management valuation

 Financial metrics for knowledge management valuation

specific business problems that can be easily quantified

 When the problems are solved, the value and benefits of the system become apparent

Ensuring the Success of Knowledge Management Efforts

 Knowledge management valuation

 Nonfinancial metrics for knowledge management valuation—new ways to view capital when evaluating intangibles:

Ensuring the Success of Knowledge Management Efforts

 The effort mainly relies on technology and does not address whether the proposed system will meet the needs and objectives of the organization and its individuals

 Lack of emphasis on human aspects

 Lack of commitment

 Failure to provide reasonable incentive for people to use the system…

Ensuring the Success of Knowledge Management Efforts

 Factors that lead to knowledge management success

 A link to a firm’s economic value, to demonstrate financial viability and maintain executive sponsorship

 A technical and organizational infrastructure on which to build

 A standard, flexible knowledge structure to match the way the organization performs work and uses knowledge

Ensuring the Success of Knowledge Management Efforts

 Factors that lead to knowledge management success

 A knowledge-friendly culture that leads directly to user support

 A clear purpose and language, to encourage users to buy into the system

 A change in motivational practices, to create a culture of sharing

 Multiple channels for knowledge transfer

Ensuring the Success of Knowledge Management Efforts

 Factors that lead to knowledge management success

 A significant process orientation and valuation to make a knowledge

management effort worthwhile

 Nontrivial motivational methods to encourage users to contribute and use knowledge

 Senior management support

Last words on KM

 Knowledge is an intellectual asset

 IT is “just” an important enabler

 Proper management of knowledge is a necessary ingredient for success

 Key issues:

 Organizational culture

 Executive sponsorship

 Measurement of success

End of the Chapter

 Questions / comments…

All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher Printed in the United States of America.

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc

Publishing as Prentice Hall