Jul 20, 2009
Definition of Knowledge Management
Definition of Knowledge Management
“The collective knowledge of a company is almost immeasurable and certainly priceless” (DeTienne and Jackson, 2001: 1)
Organisational knowledge is rare and unique, hard to appropriate, difficult to imitate and valuable – thus the ability of the organisation to learn and create must be considered a key strategic resource in the fostering of competitive advantage (Bonache and Brewster 2001; Cabrera and Cabrera, 2002; Matusik and Hill, 1998; Nonaka, 1991; Osterloh and Frey, 2000; Prahalad and Hamel, 1990).
The importance of knowledge management (KM) is widely recognised in the literature (Basadur and Gelade, 2006; Bonache and Brewster, 2001; Brown and Duguid, 2001; Cabrera, and Cabrera, 2002; Chong et al., 2000; Darroch and McNaughton, 2003; Davenport and Prusak, 2005; DeTienne and Jackson, 2001, Gurteen, 1998; Hansen et al., 1999; Hedlund, 1994; Liebowitz, 2001; Matusik and Hill, 1998; Michaels et al., 2006; Nguyen, 2002; Nonaka, 1991, 1994; Nonaka and Konno, 1998; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Nonaka and Toyama, 2005; Osterloh and Frey, 2000; Prahalad and Hamel, 1990; Spender, 1996; Tsoukas, 1996).
Chong et al. (2000) find a majority of managers are aware of the strategic importance of knowledge management and Liebowitz (2001) notes that a high percentage of managers (at a major pharmaceutical company, studied in 1999) understand the value of their employees, the knowledge they possess, and feel that their knowledge workers are the key contributors to organisational success. Further, they appear to believe that to be truly successful in the future it will be necessary to see the world from a ‘knowledge perspective’. Even so, managers may have trouble identifying or generating benefits from KM (DeTienne and Jackson, 2001).
While there is not yet a universal vocabulary for knowledge management (Liebowitz, 2001), Chong et al (2000) define it as the ability to identify, utilise, share, foster, facilitate, transform and manage the knowledge based competencies and assets of the organisation – the execution of which is seen as critical for generating long term corporate benefits (Darroch and McNaughton, 2003). Essentially, it is the “process of creating value from an organization’s intangible assets” which focuses on the creation, transformation and sharing of knowledge for benefit (Liebowitz, 2001: 1). Gurteen (199 defines KM as:
“an emerging set of organizational design and operational principles, processes, organizational structures, applications and technologies that helps knowledge workers dramatically leverage their creativity and ability to deliver business value” (Gurteen, 1998: 6).
While KM is partly an evolution of information and document management, it is more than a technological infrastructure, it is also deeply rooted in people and culture and, as such, the balancing of both facets is needed. Without the correct technological infrastructure KM efforts may be wasted, but if the organisational culture does not support knowledge sharing then the technology will be rendered useless (Liebowitz, 2001).
References:
Basadur, M. and Gelade, G.A. (2006). The role of knowledge management in the innovation process. Creativity and Innovation Management, 15(1), 45-62.
Bonache, J. and Brewster, C. (2001). Knowledge transfer and the management of expatriation. Thunderbird International Business Review, 41(3), 145-168.
Brown, J.S. and Duguid, P. (2001). Knowledge and organization: a social practice perspective. Organization Science, 12(2), 198-213
Cabrera, A. and Cabrera, E.F. (2002). Knowledge sharing dilemmas. Organization Studies, 23(5), 687-710.
Chong, C.W., Holden, T., Wilhelmij, P. and Schmidt, R.A. (2000). Where does knowledge management add value? Journal of Intellectual Capital, 1(4), 366-
Darroch, J. and McNaughton, R. (2003). Beyond market orientation: knowledge management and the innovativeness of New Zealand firms. European Journal of Marketing, 37(3/4), 572-593.
Davenport, T.H. and Prusak, L. (2005). What do we talk about when we talk about knowledge? In I. Nonaka (ed.) Knowledge management: critical perspectives on business and management, 301-321. New York: Routledge.
DeTienne, K.B. and Jackson, L.A. (2001). Knowledge management: understanding theory and developing strategy. Competitiveness Review, 11(1), 1-11.
Gurteen, D. (1998). Knowledge, creativity and innovation. Journal of Knowledge Management, 2(1), 5-13.
Hansen, M.T., Nohria, N. and Tierney, T. (1999). What’s your strategy for managing knowledge? Harvard Business Review, 77(2), 106-116
Hedlund, G. (1994). A model of knowledge management and the N-form corporation. Strategic Management Journal, 15, 73-90
Liebowitz, J. (2001). Knowledge management and its link to artificial intelligence. Expert Systems with Applications, 20, 1-6.
Matusik S.F. and Hill, C.W.L. (199 The utilization of contingent work, knowledge creation, and competitive advantage. The Academy of Management Review, 23(4), 680-697.
Michaels, S., Goucher, N.P. and McCarthy, D. (2006). Considering knowledge uptake within a cycle of transforming data, information and knowledge. Review of Policy Research, 23(1), 267-279.
Nguyen, T.V. (2002). Knowledge management: literature review and findings about perceptions of knowledge transfer in collaborative and process-oriented teams. Pepperdine University. Doctor of Education in Organizational Leadership Dissertation: 227 pages.
Nonaka, I. (1991). The knowledge-creating company. Harvard Business Review, 69(6), 96-104.
Nonaka, I. (1994). A dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation. Organization Science, 5(1), 14-37
Nonaka, I. and Konno, N. (1998). The concept of “Ba”: building a foundation for knowledge creation. California Management Review, 40(3), 40-54.
Nonaka, I. and Takeuchi, H. (1995). The knowledge creating company. New York: Oxford University Press.
Nonaka, I. and Toyama, R. (2005). The theory of the knowledge creating firm: subjectivity, objectivity and synthesis. Industrial and Corporate Change, 14(3), 419-436
Osterloh, M. and Frey, B.S. (2000). Motivation, knowledge transfer, and organizational forms. Organization Science, 11(5), 538-550.
Prahalad, C.K. and Hamel, G. (1990). The core competence of the corporation. Harvard Business Review, 68(3), 79-91.
Spender, J.C. (1996). Organizational knowledge, learning and memory: three concepts in search of a theory. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 9(1), 63-78.
Tsoukas, H. (1996). The firm as a distributed knowledge system: a constructionist approach. Strategic Management Journal, 17(Winter Special Issue), 11-25.
