Managing Business Knowledge

The superior capabilities of knowledge management systems provide an opportunity for the business to engage the most effective components and recognize the importance of communication to make informed, accurate decisions (McGrath, 2001). This system can organize the company’s knowledge resources, knowledge obtaining, organizing, and applying to make a sound routine the will enforce effectiveness (Niu, 2008). The dynamic function of knowledge management to create, capture, and apply knowledge to achieve an organization’s objective will allow them to be more profitable and successful (Zucker, 1986). In addition to increasing profits, the system can be also used to reduce costs and enhance research and development (DeTienne & Jackson, 2001). With all of these advantages, it would be wasteful for a company to not employ knowledge management. As seen in the Discovery Communications, Inc. example, the company can attribute their new productivity levels and increase in ease of securing documents to the knowledge management system that put into place by Carefree Technology. Like Discovery Communications, Inc., knowledge management is so popular today because companies can collect, process and share knowledge to ignite employees ' creativity which in turn will make the business grow. Wenhong and Jianhua (2009) explained the core of knowledge management is to convert company’s knowledge resources into an increased company

While Knowledge Management (KM) is important in any business however, there is no real agreed upon definition. KM is a concept that includes the

Knowledge Management: First of all we will define Knowledge, Knowledge is the combination of data information and data, to which is added experience, skills and expert opinion, to result in a valuable asset which can be used to aid decision making. Knowledge may be explicit and or tacit individual and or collective.

Knowledge can refer to a theoretical or practical understanding of a subject. It can be tacit (as with practical skill or expertise) or explicit (as with the theoretical understanding of a subject); it can be more or less formal or systematic. Botha et al (2008) pointed out that tacit and explicit knowledge should be seen as a spectrum rather than as definitive points. Therefore, in practice, all knowledge is a mixture of tacit and explicit elements rather than being one or the other. The most important distinction within KM is between explicit and tacit knowledge. The overload of data is making knowledge management increasingly more important as it facilitates decision-making capabilities; builds learning organizations by making learning routine, and stimulates cultural change and innovation.

Knowledge management is defined by Sallis and Jones (2002), as “a systemic method for managing individual, group and organisational knowledge using the appropriate means and technology”. In short, it involves various fields of expertise in achieving organisational objectives by making the best use of knowledge at the same time.

Knowledge management often involves isolating and planning intellectual assets within an organization, producing new knowledge for competitive advantages within the organization, making vast amounts of corporate information accessible. Knowledge management can be hard to interpret or explain. How would a nurse or doctor define “health care” succinctly? How would a CEO explain “management”? Each of these areas is very complex, with many sub-areas of specialization. This in turn leads to the question “What is Knowledge Management Strategy & Metrics”?

Knowledge management is a topic of current interest today in both the industry and research world. Knowledge management is applied throughout the world in all industrial sectors, public sector, private organization and international charities too. With the increasing number of knowledge assets available with an organization, efficient management of these assets has become a critical issue and the knowledge management has proved a key for solve the all issues. In our daily life, we deal with huge amount of data and information. Data and information is not knowledge until we know how to get the value out of it. This is the reason which we need knowledge management. Knowledge has become a crown jewel of every business organization. It is a theoretical and practical understanding of a subject and it forms the core essence of an organization’s assets. Knowledge Management is essentially about getting the right knowledge to the right person at the right time. This in itself may not seem so complex, but it implies a strong tie to corporate strategy, understanding of where and in what forms knowledge exists, creating processes that span over organizational functions, and ensuring that initiatives are accepted and supported by organizational members. Knowledge Management may also include new knowledge creation

Knowledge management (KM) is a relatively new concept that emerged 15 or 20 years ago and which presents knowledge as a process, rather as something that people have. Blacker (1995) himself talks of “knowing as a process”, thus something far more complex and ambiguous than the classical and cognitive views that we could have of knowledge. Moreover, this assumption implies, as we shall see, that management is not neutral or objective but that it is intertwined in power relations and social processes that help to achieve the KM’s goals

World was moving from industrial to knowledge-based economy. Organizations have changed their focus from process re-engineering to achieve results into encouraging employees to implement their knowledge and expertise in achieving efficiency of business. In a rapidly changing technology landscape, knowledge sharing presents a unique challenge for businesses and enterprises. Few factors defining today’s knowledge industry:

To define what is Knowledge Management(KM), one should know what is knowledge first. Knowledge is different data and information. A data gives a specific fact; information is a collection of data that has been organized. Knowledge connects the information that has been given and create the context. For instance, “the third day of a week called Tuesday”, this is a data; “Tuesday is one of the weekdays” and “most people work on weekdays” are the information; Knowledge based on the the information, would suggests that “most people work on Tuesday.”

Using accessible knowledge from outside sources Embedding and storing knowledge in business processes, products and services Representing knowledge in databases and documents Promoting knowledge growth through the organization’s culture and incentives Transferring and sharing knowledge throughout the organization Assessing the value of knowledge assets and impact on a regular basis

The concept of Knowledge Management (KM) had introduced since 1990 (Koenig, 2012). The most quote definition about KM is Davenport (1994)’s definition, “Knowledge management is the process of capturing, distributing and effectively using knowledge”. More specifically, Duhon (1998) defined KM as “a discipline that promotes an integrated approach to identifying, capturing, evaluating, retrieving, and sharing all of an enterprise’s information assets. These assets may include databases, documents, policies, procedures, and previously un-captured expertise and experience in individual workers.”

Knowledge management defines the current use of the terms and identifies the core concept of managing knowledge in an organization (Atwood, 2009). The goal of Knowledge Management (KM) initiative is to improve the collective intelligence, or collective mind of the organizations and the resulting systematic coordination of knowledge ensures that the organization meets the customers’ needs (Quinn 1992, as cited in Maier 2004). According to the case study Langley Files, the company analyzed is the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The

for large companies. To serve customers well and remain in business companies must: decrease their cycle times, operate with minimum fixed assets and overhead (people, inventory and facilities), decrease product improvement time, improve customer service, allow employees decision making, innovate and distribute high quality products, boost flexibility and implementation, capture information, create knowledge, share and learn. None of this is possible without a recurrent focus on the formation, updating accessibility, quality and use of information by all workers and teams, at work and in the marketplace.

Knowledge management systems are an incredible asset to an organization, because they are not just a data collection repository. This unique system is multi- faceted and involves more than just technology as it is a multi-disciplinary field that encompasses theories in sociology, healthcare, and economics (Morrissey & Schoemaker, 2005). A KMS combines these theories in order to create a cohesive community within an organization in order to facilitate knowledge and address solutions to practical problems. This system increases collaboration and knowledge sharing among all staff members. Knowledge management can be applied to various fields, but there are four essential components that it contains. These components are creation of a