Who is chief knowledge officer? What the primary role? A senior executive in an organization responsible for ensuring that firm fully utilizes the value it gets through knowledge- which is the most important firm asset. Developing overall framework that guides knowledge management Two kinds of knowledge involved in knowledge management Explicit knowledge which is the knowledge that is sharable or can be written down Tacit knowledge which is personal knowledge that is hard to put down in writing and share as it is more of experience What are my objectives as the knowledge management offer? To Ensure maximum returns in investment in knowledge, processes and intellectual capital in my firm. To exploit firm intangible assets; know-how, patents, and customer relations To avoid any knowledge loss or leakage after firms' restructuring. strategic alignment of KM. Effective knowledge management needs maximum support from the Information technology for there to be effective project. System KM need the firm to invest in extensive IT system to share and codify knowledge Interpersonal relationship is encouraged to share tacit knowledge across the firm. Knowledge management Articulating nature of managing firms' most valuable asset; knowledge as a resource Designing techniques, models, and processes to create and use knowledge in an organization set up Drawing techniques that ensure centrality of knowledge and ensuring accessibility of most relevant information to everybody in the firm What are my responsibilities as knowledge management officer? Ensuring the overall management realize the value of knowledge management and need for managing it as an intangible and valuable resource Ensuring that the firm fully realize the potential of knowledge they have Ensuring that firm takes knowledge as a competitive resource that need fully utilization organization's Knowledge Management strategies Customer knowledge which focuses on maintaining good customer relationship through improving knowledge delivery Operational excellence which focus on improving internal operations of the firm; efficiency and effectiveness Innovation strategy that focuses on creation of new knowledge to fit in the dynamic world. Growth and change strategy which involves improving of what already is in existence. Designing successful KM strategy Majority of this knowledge is internal; developing and improving practices that improve general operations Operational excellence and customer knowledge strategy that I apply What are my responsibilities as knowledge management officer? Ensuring the overall management realize the value of knowledge management and need for managing it as an intangible and valuable resource Ensuring that the firm fully realize the potential of knowledge they have Ensuring that firm takes knowledge as a competitive resource that need fully utilization Resources and support that chief knowledge officer need Total and maximum resources need without delay to be at KMO disposal Top level support is imperative Quality of resources provided need to be emphasized as oppose to quantity. Typical chief knowledge attributes Broad mindset that is up to date Good record of achievement and success in past duties Capability to try new ventures and different approach to issues. have total familiarity of the organization and the relevant industry. always have a mission to achieve. Knowledge valuation Internal environmental factors (strengths and weakness) External factors (threats and opportunities) Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice Kimiz Dalkir Elsevier KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN THEORY AND PRACTICE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN THEORY AND PRACTICE Kimiz Dalkir McGill University AMSTERDAM BOSTON HEIDELBERG LONDON NEW YORK OXFORD PARIS SAN DIEGO SAN FRANCISCO SINGAPORE SYDNEY TOKYO Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann 30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington, MA 01803, USA Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP, UK Copyright 2005, Elsevier Inc. 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. Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier's Science & Technology Rights Department in Oxford, UK: phone: (+44) 1865 843830, fax: (+44) 1865 853333, e-mail: permissions@elsevier.co.uk. You may also complete your request on-line via the Elsevier homepage (http://elsevier.com), by selecting \"Customer Support\" and then \"Obtaining Permissions.\" Recognizing the importance of preserving what has been written, Elsevier prints its books on acid-free paper whenever possible. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Application submitted British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 0-7506-7864-X For information on all Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann publications visit our Web site at www.books.elsevier.com Printed in the United States of America 05 06 07 08 09 10 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Working together to grow libraries in developing countries www.elsevier.com | www.bookaid.org | www.sabre.org This book is dedicated to my sons, Kemal and Kazmir, who are beginning their journey of discovery. CONTENTS Foreword Acknowledgements 1 INTRODUCTION TO KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN THEORY AND PRACTICE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Learning Objectives Introduction What Is Knowledge Management? Multidisciplinary Nature of KM The Two Major Types of Knowledge The Concept Analysis Technique History of Knowledge Management From Physical Assets to Knowledge Assets Organizational Perspectives on Knowledge Management Why Is KM Important Today? KM for Individuals, Communities, and Organizations Key Points Discussion Points References 2 THE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT CYCLE . . . . . . . . . Learning Objectives Introduction Major Approaches to the KM Cycle The Zack KM Cycle The Bukowitz and Williams KM Cycle The McElroy KM Cycle The Wiig KM Cycle An Integrated KM Cycle Strategic Implications of the KM Cycle Practical Considerations for Managing Knowledge xiii xv 1 1 2 4 6 8 9 12 16 17 18 20 21 21 22 25 25 26 26 26 32 35 38 43 45 45 vii Key Points Discussion Points References 3 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT MODELS . . . . . . . . . . . Learning Objectives Introduction Major Theoretical KM Models The von Krogh and Roos Model of Organizational Epistemology The Nonaka and Takeuchi Knowledge Spiral Model The Knowledge Creation Process Knowledge Conversion Knowledge Spiral The Choo Sense-making KM Model The Wiig Model for Building and Using Knowledge The Boisot I-Space KM Model Complex Adaptive System Models of KM Strategic Implications of KM Models Practical Implications of KM Models Key Points Discussion Points References 46 46 46 47 47 48 49 50 52 52 53 56 58 61 66 67 72 72 73 73 74 4 KNOWLEDGE CAPTURE AND CODIFICATION . . . . . . . 77 Learning Objectives Introduction Tacit Knowledge Capture Tacit Knowledge Capture at Individual and Group Levels Interviewing Experts Structured Interviewing Stories Learning by Being Told Learning by Observation Other Methods of Tacit Knowledge Capture Tacit Knowledge Capture at the Organizational Level Explicit Knowledge Codification Cognitive Maps Decision Trees Knowledge Taxonomics Strategic Implications of Knowledge Capture and Codification Practical Implications of Knowledge Capture and Codification Key Points Discussion Points Note References 77 78 80 82 83 84 86 89 90 90 94 96 97 98 99 102 103 104 105 105 105 viii K N OW L E D G E M A N AG E M E N T I N T H E O RY A N D P R AC T I C E 5 KNOWLEDGE SHARING AND COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Learning Objectives Introduction The Social Nature of Knowledge Sociograms and Social Network Analysis Community Yellow Pages Knowledge-Sharing Communities Types of Communities Roles and Responsibilities in CoPs Knowledge Sharing in Virtual CoPs Obstacles to Knowledge Sharing The Undernet Organizational Learning and Social Capital Measuring the Value of Social Capital Strategic Implications of Knowledge Sharing Practical Implications of Knowledge Sharing Key Points Discussion Points Notes References 109 110 114 116 119 122 123 126 129 132 133 134 135 137 138 139 140 140 140 6 KNOWLEDGE APPLICATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Learning Objectives Introduction Knowledge Application at the Individual Level Characteristics of Individual Knowledge Workers Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Objectives Task Analysis and Modeling EPSS Knowledge Application at Group and Organizational Levels Knowledge Reuse Knowledge Repositories Strategic Implications of Knowledge Application Practical Implications of Knowledge Application Key Points Discussion Points Notes References 7 THE ROLE OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE . . . . . . . . Learning Objectives Introduction Different Types of Cultures Organizational Culture Analysis 145 145 146 148 148 152 159 160 166 169 172 172 173 174 174 175 175 177 177 178 181 182 CONTENTS ix Culture at the Foundation of KM The Effects of Culture on Individuals Cultural Transformation to a Knowledge-Sharing Culture Organizational Maturity Models KM Maturity Models CoP Maturity Models Strategic Implications of Organizational Culture Practical Implications of Organizational Culture Key Points Discussion Points Notes References 8 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT TOOLS . . . . . . . . . . . . Learning Objectives Introduction Knowledge Capture and Creation Tools Content Creation Tools Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery Blogs Content Management Tools Knowledge Sharing and Dissemination Tools Groupware and Collaboration Tools Wikis Networking Technologies Knowledge Acquisition and Application Tools Intelligent Filtering Tools Adaptive Technologies Strategic Implications of KM Tools and Techniques Practical Implications of KM Tools and Techniques Key Points Discussion Points Notes References 185 187 190 201 204 207 209 209 213 213 214 214 217 217 218 218 218 219 222 224 225 225 231 232 236 237 241 241 242 243 243 244 244 9 KM STRATEGY AND METRICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 Learning Objectives Introduction Knowledge Management Strategy Knowledge Audit Gap Analysis The KM Strategy Road Map The Management of Organizational Memory Balancing Innovation and Organizational Structure Historical Overview of Metrics in KM KM Metrics The Benchmarking Method x K N OW L E D G E M A N AG E M E N T I N T H E O RY A N D P R AC T I C E 247 248 251 253 256 257 260 263 266 268 272 10 11 The Balanced Scorecard Method The House of Quality Method Key Points Discussion Points Notes References 275 277 279 279 280 280 THE KM TEAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 Learning Objectives Introduction Major Categories of KM Roles Senior Management Roles KM Roles and Responsibilities within Organizations The KM Profession The Ethics of KM Key Points Discussion Points Note References 283 284 287 290 294 296 297 300 301 301 301 FUTURE CHALLENGES FOR KM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303 Learning Objectives Introduction Political Issues Regarding Access The Politics of Organizational Context and Culture How to Provide Incentives for Knowledge Sharing Shift to Knowledge-Based Assets Future Challenges for KM KM Research Issues A Postmodern KM? Concluding Thoughts Key Points Discussion Points References 303 304 305 307 309 313 318 319 322 323 324 325 326 Glossary Index 329 345 CONTENTS xi FOREWORD Knowledge management as an organizational innovation has been with us for more than a decade. As a discipline, it has reached a state of maturity where we can now discern the principles, practices, and tools that make it unique. As a discourse, it has engendered new concepts and categories for us to make sense of the many important ways that organizations use knowledge to create value. Given the richness of ideas and innovations that have emerged under the rubric of knowledge management, and given the tremendous interest in schools and organizations to learn about the subject, it is something of a mystery that there are so few textbooks available. Perhaps it is because the field draws upon a wide range of subject areas, or perhaps it is because many different perspectives complicate the discussion of issues that engage knowledge management. Despite these difficulties, or perhaps because of them, there is a pressing need for a textbook that presents a thoughtful, systematic view of knowledge management as a coherent body of management theory and practice. The book in our hands answers this call. What then is knowledge management? The first chapter of the book gives a well-argued answer, but for our purposes here, we may define knowledge management as a framework for designing an organization's goals, structures, and processes so that the organization can use what it knows to learn and to create value for its customers and community. Thus, there is no single, universal recipe for managing knowledgeeach organization has to think through and design its own approach. This design process will have to encompass four sets of organizational enablers posed by these questions: What is the organizational vision or strategy driving the need to manage knowledge? What roles and structures ought to be in place? How to develop processes and practices that promote knowledge sharing and use? Which tools and platforms can support these efforts? For each of these enablers, research and practice in knowledge management has identified principles, exemplars, and lessons that can help to plan and execute an effective strategy. Considering these enablers also highlights the special strengths of this textbook. First and foremost there is the question of vision and strategywhy try to manage knowledge? The book makes clear in its early pages how the creation and application of knowledge can be the engine of organizational performance and growth. In their attempts to pursue this vision, many organizations quickly xiii discover that their most daunting task is to cultivate the norms of trust, cooperation, and mutual respect that nourish the creation and sharing of knowledge. The book recognizes this challenge, and devotes an entire chapter to examining in detail the impact of organizational culture. Consider next the issue of roles and structures. Departments in organizations are naturally territorial and guarded about losing control of where their information goes to, and how it might be used. The book highlights the importance of leaders such as the Chief Knowledge Officer or the Chief Information Officer who champion the collective benefit of sharing information, and who remove the barriers that prevent cooperation between departments. At the same time, knowledge sharing cannot simply be mandated through formal authority. Some of the most valuable knowledge sharing occurs in communities of practice that are self-organized around informal roles and relationships. A fine chapter in the book discusses communities of practice in the context of knowledge sharing. The process and practice of knowledge management is a central focus of the book. After a survey of major theoretical approaches in the literature, the book develops a new synthesis that views knowledge management as a continuous cycle of three processes: (1) knowledge creation and capture, (2) knowledge sharing and dissemination, (3) knowledge acquisition and application. This \"KM Cycle\" model forms the organizational principle of much of the book, and is carefully considered in the first six chapters. The balance between process and practice is a delicate one. A process that is regulated strictly by rules and policies can stifle creativity and experimentation. On the other hand, relying only on informal practices may mean that new learning is dispersed and unavailable to others in the organization. An alluring aspect of knowledge management is the range of tools and platforms that hold out the promise of transforming the ways we work with information and knowledge. Thus, there are tools that capture and represent content so that it can be accessed efficiently; tools that discover and extract knowledge; tools that facilitate social networking and community building; and tools that support communication and collaboration in groups. While the discussion of tools and techniques takes place throughout the book, a systematic analysis is presented in a well-structured chapter that covers many recent technological developments. A textbook is a pedagogical apparatus, and this book has incorporated a number of features that will enhance student learning and student-teacher interaction. Each chapter contains learning objectives, side-boxes of short cases, summaries of main messages, and questions for discussion. Beyond these features, the most engaging quality of the book is the combination of experience and enthusiasm that the author brings to the subject: the insights, the resonant examples, the lively language, and the occasional touch of humor. The book is an invitation to students to embark on an exciting and rewarding learning adventure. Chun Wei Choo Faculty of Information Studies University of Toronto xiv K N OW L E D G E M A N AG E M E N T I N T H E O RY A N D P R AC T I C E 1 INTRODUCTION TO KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN THEORY AND PRACTICE A light bulb in the socket is worth two in the pocket. Bill Wolf (1950-2001) This chapter provides an introduction to the study of knowledge management (KM). A brief history of knowledge management concepts is outlined, noting that much of KM existed before the actual term came into popular use. The lack of consensus over what constitutes a good definition of KM is addressed, and the concept analysis technique is described as a means of clarifying the conceptual confusion that persists over precisely what KM is. The multidisciplinary roots of KM are enumerated, together with their contributions to the discipline. The two major forms of knowledge, tacit and explicit, are compared and contrasted. The importance of KM today for individuals, for communities of practice, and for organizations are described, together with the emerging KM roles and responsibilities needed to ensure successful KM implementations. LEARNING OBJECTIVES 1. Use a framework and a clear language for knowledge management concepts. 2. Define key knowledge management concepts such as intellectual capital, organizational learning and memory, knowledge taxonomy, and communities of practice using concept analysis. 3. Provide an overview of the history of knowledge management and identify key milestones. 4. Describe the key roles and responsibilities required for knowledge management applications. 1 INTRODUCTION The ability to manage knowledge is becoming increasingly more crucial in today's knowledge economy. The creation and diffusion of knowledge have become ever more important factors in competitiveness. More and more, knowledge is being regarded as a valuable commodity that is embedded in products (especially high-technology products) and in the tacit knowledge of highly mobile employees. Although knowledge is increasingly being viewed as a commodity or an intellectual asset, it possesses some paradoxical characteristics that are radically different from those of other valuable commodities. These knowledge characteristics include the following: Use of knowledge does not consume it. Transferral of knowledge does not result in losing it. Knowledge is abundant, but the ability to use it is scarce. Much of an organization's valuable knowledge walks out the door at the end of the day. The advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web have made unlimited sources of knowledge available to us all. Pundits are heralding the dawn of the Knowledge Age supplanting the Industrial Era. Forty years ago, nearly half of all workers in industrialized countries were making or helping to make things; today that proportion is down to 20% (Drucker, 1994; Bart, 2000). Laborintensive manufacturing with a large pool of relatively cheap, relatively homogeneous labor and hierarchical management has given way to knowledge-based organizations. There are fewer people doing more work. Organizational hierarchies are being put aside as knowledge work calls for more collaboration. The only sustainable advance a firm has comes from what it collectively knows, how efficiently it uses what it knows, and how quickly it acquires and uses new knowledge (Davenport and Prusak, 1998). An organization in the Knowledge Age is one that learns, remembers, and acts based on the best available information, knowledge, and know-how. All of these developments have created a strong need for a deliberate and systematic approach to cultivating and sharing a company's knowledge base one populated with valid and valuable lessons learned and best practices. In other words, in order to be successful in today's challenging organizational environment, companies need to learn from their past errors and not reinvent the wheel again and again. Organizational knowledge is not intended to replace individual knowledge but to complement it by making it stronger, more coherent, and more broadly applicative. Knowledge management represents a deliberate and systematic approach to ensure the full utilization of the organization's knowledge base, coupled with the potential of individual skills, competencies, thoughts, innovations, and ideas to create a more efficient and effective organization. The Iaccoca Institute found that \"CEOs, when asked how much of the knowledge that is available to the organization is actually used, responded 'only about 20%.' Yet if this figure represented average utilization of production capacity, it would only be acceptable to the most foolhardy CEOs\" 2 K N OW L E D G E M A N AG E M E N T I N T H E O RY A N D P R AC T I C E (Agile People Enterprise Development Group Newsletter, Iacocca Institute, Pennsylvania, November 1996). Knowledge management (KM) was initially defined as the process of applying a systematic approach to the capture, structure, management, and dissemination of knowledge throughout an organization in order to work faster, reuse best practices, and reduce costly rework from project to project (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Pasternack and Viscio, 1998; Pfeiffer and Sutton, 1999; Ruggles and Holtshouse, 1999). KM is often characterized by a \"pack rat\" approach to content: \"save it, it may prove useful sometime in the future.\" Many documents tend to be warehoused, sophisticated search engines are then used to try to retrieve some of this content, and fairly large-scale and costly KM systems are built. Knowledge management solutions have proven to be most successful in the capture, storage, and subsequent dissemination of knowledge that has been rendered explicitparticularly lessons learned and best practices. The focus of intellectual capital management (ICM), on the other hand, is on those pieces of knowledge that are of business value to the organization referred to as intellectual capital or assets (Bontis and Nikitopoulos, 2001). Although some of these are more visible (e.g., patents, intellectual property), the majority consist of know-how, know-why, experience, and expertise that tend to reside within the head of one or a few employees (Klein, 1998; Stewart, 1997). ICM is characterized by less contentbecause content is filtered and judged, and only the best are inventoried (the \"top ten,\" for example). ICM content tends to be more representative of a person's real thinking (contextual information, opinions, stories) owing to its emphasis on actionable knowledge and know-how. As a result, endeavors are less costly and the focus shifts to learning (at the individual, community, and organizational level) rather than to the building of systems. A good definition of knowledge management incorporates both the capturing and storing of the knowledge perspective, together with the valuing of intellectual assets. For example: Knowledge management is the deliberate and systematic coordination of an organization's people, technology, processes, and organizational structure in order to add value through reuse and innovation. This coordination is achieved through creating, sharing, and applying knowledge as well as through feeding the valuable lessons learned and best practices into corporate memory in order to foster continued organizational learning. When asked, most executives often state that their greatest asset is the knowledge held by their employees. They also invariably add that they have no idea how to manage this knowledge! It is essential to identify that knowledge that is of value and is also at risk of being lost to the organization, through retirement, turnover, and competition using the intellectual capital or asset approach. In addition, the selective or value-based knowledge management approach should be a three-tiered one. That is, it should also be applied to three organizational levels: the individual, the group or community, and the organization itself. The best way to retain valuable knowledge is to identify INTRODUCTION TO KM IN THEORY AND PRACTICE 3 intellectual assets and then to ensure that legacy materials are produced and subsequently stored in such a way as to make their future retrieval and reuse as easy as possible (Stewart, 2000). These tangible by-products need to flow from individual to individual, between members of a community of practice, and, of course, back to the organization itself, in the form of lessons learned, best practices, and corporate memory. Many knowledge management (KM) efforts have been largely concerned with capturing, codifying, and sharing the knowledge held by people in organizations. Although there is still a lack of consensus over what constitutes a good definition of KM (see the next section), there is widespread agreement as to the goals of an organization that undertakes KM. Nickols (2000) summarizes these goals as follows: \"the basic aim of knowledge management is to leverage knowledge to the organization's advantage.\" Some of management's motives are obvious: the loss of skilled people through turnover, pressures to avoid reinventing the wheel, pressures for organization-wide innovations in processes as well as products, management of risk, and the accelerating rate at which new knowledge is being created. Some typical knowledge management objectives are to: Facilitate a smooth transition from those retiring to their successors who are recruited to fill their positions. Minimize loss of corporate memory due to attrition and retirement. Identify critical resources and critical areas of knowledge so that the corporation \"knows what it knows and does it welland why.\" Build up a toolkit of methods that can be used with individuals, with groups, and with the organization to stem the potential loss of intellectual capital. WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT? An informal survey conducted by the author identified over 100 published definitions of knowledge management, and of these, at least 72 could be considered very good! Clearly, KM is a multidisciplinary field of study that covers a lot of ground. This finding should not be surprising, for applying knowledge to work is integral to most business activities. However, the field of KM does suffer from the \"Three Blind Men and an Elephant\" syndrome. In fact, there are likely more than three distinct perspectives on KM, and each leads to a different extrapolation and a different definition. From the business perspective: Knowledge management is a business activity with two primary aspects: [T]reating the knowledge component of business activities as an explicit concern of business reflected in strategy, policy, and practice at all levels of the organization; and, making a direct connection between an organization's intellectual assetsboth explicit (recorded) and tacit (personal know-how)and positive business results. (Barclay and Murray, 1997) 4 K N OW L E D G E M A N AG E M E N T I N T H E O RY A N D P R AC T I C E Knowledge management is a collaborative and integrated approach to the creation, capture, organization, access and use of an enterprise's intellectual assets. (Grey, 1996) From the cognitive science or knowledge science perspective: Knowledgethe insights, understandings, and practical know-how that we all possessis the fundamental resource that allows us to function intelligently. Over time, considerable knowledge is also transformed to other manifestationssuch as books, technology, practices, and traditionswithin organizations of all kinds and in society in general. These transformations result in cumulated [sic] expertise and, when used appropriately, increased effectiveness. Knowledge is one, if not THE, principal factor that makes personal, organizational, and societal intelligent behavior possible. (Wiig, 1993, pp. 38-39) And, from the process/technology perspective: Knowledge management is the concept under which information is turned into actionable knowledge and made available effortlessly in a usable form to the people who can apply it. (Information Week, Sept. 1, 2003) Leveraging collective wisdom to increase responsiveness and innovation. (Carl Frappaolo, Delphi Group, Boston, posted at http://www.destinationkm.com/ articles/default.asp?ArticleID=949) A systematic approach to manage the use of information in order to provide a continuous flow of Knowledge to the right people at the right time enabling efficient and effective decision making in their everyday business. (Steve Ward, Northrop Grumman, posted at http://www.destinationkm.com/articles/default. asp?ArticleID=949) A knowledge management system is a virtual repository for relevant information which is critical to tasks performed daily by organizational knowledge workers. (What Is KM?, posted at http://www.knowledgeshop.com) Wiig (1993) also emphasizes that given the importance of knowledge in virtually all areas of daily and commercial life, two knowledge-related aspects are crucial for viability and success at any level. These are knowledge assets that must be applied, nurtured, preserved, and used to the largest extent possible by both individuals and organizations; and knowledge-related processes to create, build, compile, organize, transform, transfer, pool, apply, and safeguard knowledge that must be carefully and explicitly managed in all affected areas. Historically, knowledge has always been managed, at least implicitly. However, effective and active knowledge management requires new perspectives and techniques and touches on almost all facets of an organization. We need to develop a new discipline and prepare a cadre of knowledge professionals with a blend of expertise that we have not previously seen. This is our challenge! (Wiig, in Grey, 1996) INTRODUCTION TO KM IN THEORY AND PRACTICE 5 Knowledge management is a surprising mix of strategies, tools, and techniquessome of which are nothing new under the sun. Storytelling, peer-topeer mentoring, and learning from mistakes, for example, all have precedents in education, training, and artificial intelligence practices. Knowledge management makes use of a mixture of techniques from knowledge-based system design, such as structured knowledge acquisition strategies from subject matter experts (McGraw and Harrison-Briggs, 1989) and educational technology (e.g., task and job analysis to design and develop task support systems; see Gery, 1991). This makes it both easy and difficult to define what KM is. At one extreme, KM encompasses everything to do with knowledge. At the other extreme, it is narrowly defined as an information technology system that dispenses organizational know-how. KM is in fact both of these and many more. One of the few areas of consensus in the field is that KM is a highly multidisciplinary field. Multidisciplinary Nature of KM Knowledge management draws upon a vast number of diverse fields such as: Organizational science. Cognitive science. Linguistics and computational linguistics. Information technologies such as knowledge-based systems, document and information management, electronic performance support systems, and database technologies. Information and library science. Technical writing and journalism. Anthropology and sociology. Education and training. Storytelling and communication studies. Collaborative technologies such as Computer Supported Collaborative Work and groupware, as well as intranets, extranets, portals, and other web technologies. This list is by no means exhaustive, but it serves to show the extremely varied roots that gave life to KM and continues to be its basis today. Figure 1-1 illustrates some of the diverse disciplines that have contributed to KM. The multidisciplinary nature of KM represents a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it is an advantage because almost anyone can find a familiar foundation on which to base their understanding and even practice of KM. Someone with a background in journalism, for example, can quickly adapt his or her skill set to the capture of knowledge from experts and reformulate them as organizational stories to be stored in corporate memory. Someone coming from a more technical database background can easily extrapolate his or her skill set to design and implement knowledge repositories that will serve as the 6 K N OW L E D G E M A N AG E M E N T I N T H E O RY A N D P R AC T I C E FIGURE 1-1 THE INTERDISCIPLINARY NATURE OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT Database Technologies Collaborative Technologies Help Desk Systems Organizational Science Cognitive Science Technical Writing Artificial Intelligence KM Disciplines Electronic Performance Support Systems Document and Information Management Web Technologies Decision Support Systems Library and Information Sciences corporate memory for that organization. However, the diversity of KM also presents some challenges with respect to boundaries. Skeptics argue that KM is not and cannot be said to be a separate discipline with a unique body of knowledge. This attitude is typically represented by phrases such as \"KM is just IM (Information Management)\" or \"KM is nonsensicalit is just good business practices.\" It becomes very important to be able to list and describe what set of attributes are necessary and are in themselves sufficient to constitute knowledge management both as a discipline and as a field of practice that can be distinguished from others. One of the major attributes of KM relates to the fact that it deals with knowledge as well as information. Knowledge is a more subjective way of knowing and is typically based on experiential or individual values, perceptions, and experience. Popular examples to distinguish data from information and from knowledge include the following: Data: Content that is directly observable or verifiable; a factfor example, listings of the times and locations of all movies being shown today I download the listings. Information: Content that represents analyzed datafor example, \"I can't leave before 5 so I will go to the 7:00 P.M. show at the cinema near my office.\" Knowledge: At that time of day, it will be impossible to find parking. I remember the last time I took the car I was so frustrated and stressed because I thought I would miss the opening credits. I'll therefore take the commuter train. But first I'll check with Al. I usually love all the movies he hates so I want to make sure it's worth seeing! Another distinguishing characteristic of KM as opposed to other information management fields is the ability of KM to address knowledge in all of its forms, notably, tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge. INTRODUCTION TO KM IN THEORY AND PRACTICE 7 The Two Major Types of Knowledge \"We know more than we can tell\" Polanyi, 1966 Tacit knowledge is difficult to articulate and also difficult to put into words, text, or drawings. In contrast, explicit knowledge represents content that has been captured in some tangible form such as words, audio recordings, or images. Moreover, tacit knowledge tends to reside \"within the heads of knowers,\" whereas explicit knowledge is usually contained within tangible or concrete media. However, it should be noted that this is a rather simplistic dichotomy. In fact, \"tacitness\" is a property of the knower: what is easily articulated by one person may be very difficult to externalize by another. That is, the same content may be explicit for one person and tacit for another. Somewhat of a paradox is at play here. On the one hand, highly skilled, experienced, and expert individuals may find it harder to articulate their know-how. Novices, on the other hand, are more apt to easily verbalize what they are attempting to do because they are typically following a manual or how-to process. Table 1-1 summarizes some of the major properties of tacit and explicit knowledge. Typically, the more tacit knowledge is, the more valuable it tends to be. The paradox lies in the fact that the more difficult it is to articulate a concept such as \"story,\" the more valuable that knowledge may be. This is often evidenced when people make reference to knowledge versus know-how, or to knowledge of something versus knowledge of how to do something. Valuable tacit knowledge often results in some observable action when individuals understand and subsequently make use of knowledge. Another perspective is that explicit knowledge tends to represent the final end product, whereas tacit knowledge is the know-how or all of the processes that were required in order to produce that final product. TABLE 1-1 COMPARISON OF PROPERTIES OF TACIT VS. EXPLICIT KNOWLEDGE Properties of Tacit Knowledge Properties of Explicit Knowledge Ability to adapt, to deal with new and exceptional situations Ability to disseminate, to reproduce, to access, and to reapply throughout the organization Ability to teach, to train Expertise, know-how, know-why, and care-why Ability to collaborate, to share a vision, to transmit a culture Coaching and mentoring to transfer experiential knowledge on a one-to-one, face-to-face basis 8 Ability to organize, to systematize; to translate a vision into a mission statement, into operational guidelines Transfer of knowledge via products, services, and documented processes K N OW L E D G E M A N AG E M E N T I N T H E O RY A N D P R AC T I C E We have a habit of writing articles published in scientific journals to make the work as finished as possible, to cover up all the tracks, to not worry about the blind alleys or how you had the wrong idea at first, and so on. So there isn't any place to publish, in a dignified manner, what you actually did in order to do the work (Richard Feynman, Nobel Lecture, 1966). A popular misconception is that KM focuses on rendering whatever is tacit into more explicit or tangible forms, and then storing or archiving these forms somewhere, usually in some form of intranet or knowledge portal. This approach is typified by the \"build it and they will come\" expectation where organizations take an exhaustive inventory of tangible knowledge (i.e., documents, digital records) and make them accessible to all employees. Senior management is then mystified as to why employees are not using this wonderful new resource. In fact, knowledge management is broader and includes leveraging the value of the organizational knowledge and know-how that accumulates over time. This approach is much more holistic and user-centered and begins not with an audit of existing documents but with a needs analysis to better understand how improved knowledge sharing may benefit specific individuals, groups, and the organization as a whole. Successful knowledge-sharing examples are gathered and documented in the form of lessons learned and best practices, and these then form the kernel of organizational stories. A number of other attributes combine to make up a set of what KM should be all about. Using the concept analysis technique is a good way to identify these attributes. The Concept Analysis Technique Concept analysis is an established technique used in the social sciences, such as philosophy and education, in order to derive a \"formula\" that in turn can be used to generate definitions and descriptive phrases for highly complex terms. We still lack a consensus on knowledge management-related terms, even though these terms do appear to be complex enough to merit the concept analysis approach. Much of the reason of this lack of consensus lies in the fact that a word such as \"knowledge\" is necessarily subjective, not to mention valueladen in interpretation. The concept analysis approach rests on obtaining consensus on three major dimensions of a given concept (as shown in Figure 1-2): 1. A list of key attributes that must be present in the definition, vision, or mission statement. 2. A list of illustrative examples. 3. A list of illustrative nonexamples. This approach is particularly useful in tackling multidisciplinary domains such as intellectual capital, for clear criteria can be developed to enable sorting into categories such as knowledge versus information, document management versus knowledge management, and tangible versus intangible assets. In INTRODUCTION TO KM IN THEORY AND PRACTICE 9 FIGURE 1-2 ILLUSTRATION OF THE CONCEPT ANALYSIS TECHNIQUE Concept Name Key Attributes Examples Nonexamples 1. ___________ 2. ___________ 3. ___________ 4. ___________ 5. ___________ 6. ___________ 7. ___________ 1. ___________ 2. ___________ 3. ___________ 4. ___________ 5. ___________ 6. ___________ 7. ___________ 1. ___________ 2. ___________ 3. ___________ 4. ___________ 5. ___________ 6. ___________ 7. ___________ addition, valuable contributions to the organization's intellectual capital are derived through production of ontologies (semantic maps of key concepts), identification of core competencies, and identification of knowledge, knowhow, and know-why at risk of being lost through human capital attrition. Concept analysis can be used to visually map out conceptual information in the process of defining a word (Novak, 1990, 1991). This technique is derived from the fields of philosophy and science education (Bareholz and Tamir, 1992; Lawson, 1994) and is typically used in clearly defining complex, value-laden terms such as democracy or religion. It is a graphical approach to help develop a rich, in-depth understanding of a concept. Figure 1-2 outlines the major components of this approach. Davenport and Prusak (1998, p. 5) decry the inability to provide a definitive account of knowledge management since \"epistemologists have spent their lives trying to understand what it means to know something.\" Owing to this ongoing lack of clarity and lack of consensus on a definition, knowledge management presents itself as a good candidate for this approach. In visioning workshops, this is the first activity that participants are asked to undertake. The objective is to agree upon a list of key attributes that are both necessary and sufficient in order for a definition of knowledge management to be acceptable. This task is completed by a list of examples and nonexamples, with justifications as to why a particular item was included on the example or nonexample list. Semantic mapping (Jonassen, Beissner, and Yacci, 1993; Fisher, 1990) is the visual technique used to extend the definition by displaying words related to it. Popular terms to distinguish clearly from knowledge management include document management, content management, portal, and knowledge repository. Together, the concept and semantic maps visually depict a model-based definition of knowledge management and its closely related terms. 10 K N OW L E D G E M A N AG E M E N T I N T H E O RY A N D P R AC T I C E In some cases, participants are given lists of definitions of knowledge management from a variety of sources so that they can \"try out\" their concept map of knowledge management by analyzing these existing definitions. Definitions are typically drawn both from the knowledge management literature and, internally, from their own organization. The use of concept definition through concept and semantic mapping techniques can help participants rapidly reach a consensus on a \"formulaic\" definition of knowledge managementthat is, one that focuses less on the actual text or words used and more on which key concepts need to be present, what comprises a necessary and sufficient (complete) set of concepts, and rules of thumb to use in discerning what constitutes an illustrative example of knowledge management. Ruggles and Holtshouse (1999) identified the following key attributes of knowledge management: Generating new knowledge. Accessing valuable knowledge from outside sources. Using accessible knowledge in decision making. Embedding knowledge in processes, products, and/or services. Representing knowledge in documents, databases, and software. Facilitating knowledge growth through culture and incentives. Transferring existing knowledge into other parts of the organization. Measuring the value of knowledge assets and/or impact of knowledge management. Some key knowledge management attributes that continue to recur include the following. Both tacit and explicit knowledge forms are addressed; tacit knowledge (Polanyi, 1966) is knowledge that often resides only within individuals; and knowledge that is difficult to articulate such as expertise, know-how, and tricks of the trade. There is a notion of added value (the \"so what?\" of KM). There is the notion of application or use of the knowledge that has been captured, codified, and disseminated (the impact of KM). A \"good enough\" or satisficing definition of knowledge has been shown to be effective (i.e., settling for \"good enough\" as opposed to optimizing; when 80% is done because the incremental cost of completing the remaining 20% is disproportionately expensive and/or time-consuming in relation to the expected additional benefits). Norman (1988, pp. 50-74) noted that knowledge may reside in two places: in the heads of people and in the world. It is easy to show the faulty nature of human knowledge and memory. For example, when typists were given caps for typewriter keys, they could not arrange them in proper configuration yet they all could type rapidly and accurately. Why the apparent discrepancy between the precision of behavior and the imprecision of knowledge? The answer is that not all of the knowledge required for precise behavior has to be in the head. It can be distributed partly in the head, partly in the world, and partly in the constraints of the world. Precise behavior can INTRODUCTION TO KM IN THEORY AND PRACTICE 11 emerge from imprecise knowledge (Ambur, 1999). For this reason once a satisfactory working or operational definition of knowledge management has been formulated, then knowledge management strategy can be confidently tackled. It is highly recommended that each organization undertake the concept analysis exercise to clarify its understanding of what KM means in its own organization's context. The best way to do so would be to work as a group, enabling them to achieve a shared understanding at the same time that they develop a clearer conceptualization of the KM concept. Each participant can take a turn contributing one good example of what KM is and another example of what KM is not. The entire group can then discuss this example- nonexample pair in order to identify one (or several) key KM attributes. Once the group members feel they have covered as much ground as they are likely to, the key attributes can be summarized in the form of a KM concept \"formula\" such as: \"In our organization, knowledge management must include the following: both tacit and explicit knowledge; a framework to measure the value of knowledge assets; a process for managing knowledge assets. . . .\" HISTORY OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT Although the phrase \"knowledge management\" entered popular usage in the late 1980s (e.g., conferences in KM began appearing, books on KM were published, and the term began to be seen in business-oriented journals), KM has been around for many decades. Librarians, philosophers, teachers, and writers have long been making use of many of the same techniques. However, it could also be argued that knowledge management has been around far longer than the actual term has been in use. Denning (2000) relates how from \"time immemorial, the elder, the traditional healer and the midwife in the village have been the living repositories of distilled experience in the life of the community\" (available from his website at: http://www.stevedenning.com/history_ knowledge_management.html). Some form of narrative repository has been in existence for a long time, and people have found a variety of ways of sharing knowledge in order to build on earlier experience, eliminate costly redundancies, and avoid making at least the same mistakes again. For example, knowledge sharing often took the form of town meetings, workshops, seminars, and mentoring sessions. The primary \"technology\" used to transfer knowledge consisted of the people themselves. Indeed, much of our cultural legacy stems from the migration of different peoples across continents. H.G. Wells (1938), though never using the actual term knowledge management, described his vision of the \"World Brain,\" which would allow the intellectual organization of the sum total of our collective knowledge. The World Brain would represent \"a universal organization and clarification of knowledge and ideas\" (p. xvi). Wells anticipated the World Wide Web, albeit in a utopic idealized manner, when he spoke of \"this wide gap between . . . at present unassembled and unexploited best thought and knowledge in the world. . . . We live in a world of unused and misapplied knowledge and skill\" 12 K N OW L E D G E M A N AG E M E N T I N T H E O RY A N D P R AC T I C E (p. 10). The World Brain encapsulates many of the desirable features of the intellectual capital approach to KM: selected, well-organized, and widely vetted content that is maintained, kept up to date, and, above all, put to use to generate value to users, the users' community, and their organization. What Wells envisaged for the entire world can easily be applied within an organization in the form of an intranet. What is new and is termed knowledge management is that we are now able to simulate rich, interactive, face-to-face knowledge encounters virtually through the use of new communication technologies. Information technologies such as an intranet and the Internet enable us to knit together the intellectual assets of an organization and organize and manage this content through the lenses of common interest, common language, and conscious cooperation. We are able to extend the depth and breadth or reach of knowledge capture, sharing, and dissemination activities, as we had not been able to do before, and we find ourselves one step closer to Wells' (1939) \"perpetual digest . . . and a system of publication and distribution\" (pp. 70-71) \"to an intellectual unification . . . of human memory\" (pp. 86-87). In the early 1960s, Drucker was the first to coin the term knowledge worker (Drucker, 1964). Senge (1990) focused on the \"learning organization\" as one that can learn from past experiences stored in corporate memory systems. Barton-Leonard (1995) documented the case of Chapparal Steel as a knowledge management success story. Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) studied how knowledge is produced, used, and diffused within organizations and how such knowledge contributed to the diffusion of innovation. A number of people, perceiving the value of measuring intellectual assets, recognized the growing importance of organizational knowledge as a competitive asset (Sveiby, 1996; Norton and Kaplan, 1996; APQC, 1996; and Edvinsson and Malone, 1997). A cross-industry benchmarking study was led by APQC's president Carla O'Dell and completed in 1996. It focused on the following KM needs: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Knowledge management as a business strategy. Transfer of knowledge and best practices. Customer-focused knowledge. Personal responsibility for knowledge. Intellectual asset management. Innovation and knowledge creation. (APQC, 1996) The Entovation timeline (available at http://www.entovation.com/timeline/ timeline.htm) identifies the variety of disciplines and domains that have blended together to emerge as knowledge management. Management theorists who have contributed significantly to the evolution of KM include Peter Drucker, Peter Senge, Ikujiro Nonaka, Hirotaka Takeuchi, and Thomas Stewart. An extract of this timeline is given in Figure 1-3. Milestones in the development of modern technology offer another perspective on the history of KM: industralization beginning in 1800, transportation technologies in 1850, communications in 1900, computerization in the 1950s, virtualization in the early 1980s, and the early efforts at personal- INTRODUCTION TO KM IN THEORY AND PRACTICE 13 FIGURE 1-3 A SUMMARY TIMELINE OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT Knowledge Creating Company HBR Nonaka Organizational Learning Sloan Mgmt. ArpaNet 1969 1985 Your Company's Most Valuable Asset: Intellectual Certification of Community Capital Knowledge Stewart of Practice Innovation Brown Standards Measurement of Intellectual Assets Fifth Discipline P. Senge First CKO Edvinsson 1997 1994 1991 1988 Proliferation of Information Technology Emergence of Virtual Organizations 2000+ The Balanced Scorecard Kaplan & Norton Knowledge Management Foundations Wiig First KM Programs in Universities APQC Benchmarking FIGURE 1-4 DEVELOPMENTAL PHASES IN KM HISTORY Personalization 2000 ++ Virtualization Computerization Communications Transportation 1980 1950* 1900 1850 Industrialization 1800 * Birth of the Internet, 1969 ization and profiling technologies in 2000 (Deloitte, Touche, and Tohmatsu, 1999). Figure 1-4 summarizes these developmental phases. With the advent of the information or computer age, KM has come to mean the systematic, deliberate leveraging of knowledge assets. Technologies enable valuable knowledge to be \"remembered\" via organizational learning and corporate memory, and they also enable valuable knowledge to be \"published\" that is, to be widely disseminated to all stakeholders. The evolution of knowledge management has occurred in parallel with a shift from a retail model based on a catalog (here one should recall Ford's famous quote that you can have a car in any color you likeas long as it is black) to an auction model 14 K N OW L E D G E M A N AG E M E N T I N T H E O RY A N D P R AC T I C E (as exemplified by eBay) to a personalization model where real-time matching of user needs and services occurs in a win-win exchange model. In 1969, the launch of ARPANET allowed scientists and researchers to communicate more easily with one another in addition to being able to exchange their large data sets. They came up with a network protocol or language that would allow disparate computers and operating systems to network together across communication lines. Next, a messaging system was added to this data file transfer network. In 1991, the nodes were transferred to the Internet and World Wide Web. At the end of 1969, only four computers and about a dozen workers were connected!! Simultaneously, many key developments were occurring in information technologies devoted to knowledge-based systems: expert systems that sought to capture \"experts on a diskette,\" intelligent tutoring systems aimed at capturing \"teachers on a diskette,\" and artificial intelligence approaches that gave rise to knowledge engineering in which someone was tasked with acquiring knowledge from subject matter experts, conceptually modeling this content, and then translating it into machine-executable code (McGraw and HarrisonBriggs, 1989). McGraw and Harrison-Briggs describe knowledge engineering as \"involving information gathering, domain familiarization, analysis and design efforts. In addition, accumulated knowledge must be translated into code, tested and refined\" (p. 5). A knowledge engineer is \"the individual responsible for structuring and/or constructing an expert system\" (p. 5). The design and development of such knowledge-based systems have much to offer knowledge management, which also aims at the capture, validation, and subsequent technology-mediated dissemination of valuable knowledge from experts. Books on knowledge management began to appear by the early 1990s, and the field picked up momentum in the mid-1990s with the development of a number of large, international KM conferences and consortia. In 1999, Boisot summarized some of these milestones (see Table 1-2 for an updated summary). At the 24th World Congress on Intellectual Capital Management in January 2003, a number of KM gurus united in sending out a request to academia to TABLE 1-2 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT MILESTONES Year Entity Event 1980 1986 1989 1991 1993 1994 Mid-1990s Late 1990s 2000-2003 DEC, CMU Dr. K. Wiig Consulting firms HBR article Dr. K. Wiig KM Network Consulting firms Key vertical industries Academia XCON Expert System Coined KM concept at UN Start internal KM projects Nonaka & Takeuchi First KM book published First KM conference Start offering KM services Implement KM and start seeing benefits KM courses/programs in universities with KM texts INTRODUCTION TO KM IN THEORY AND PRACTICE 15 \"pick up the KM torch.\" Among those attending the conference were Karl Sveiby, Leif Edvinsson, Debra Amidon, Hubert Saint-Onge, and Verna Allee. They made a strong case that KM had up until now been led by practitioners \"problem-solving by the seat of their pants\" and that it was now time to focus on transforming KM into an academic discipline, promoting doctoral research in the discipline, and providing a more formalized training for our future practitioners. Today, over 100 universities around the world offer courses in KM, and many business and library schools offer degree programs in KM (Petrides and Nodine, 2003). From Physical Assets to Knowledge Assets Knowledge has become increasingly more valuable than the more traditional physical or tangible assets. For example, traditionally, an airline organization's assets included the physical inventory of airplanes. Today, the airlines' greatest asset is the SABRE reservation system, software that enables the airline not only to manage the logistics of its passenger reservations but also to implement a seat \"yield management system.\" The yield management system refers to an optimization program that is used to ensure that maximum revenue is generated from each seat soldeven if each and every seat carries a distinct price. Similarly, in the manufacturing sector, the value of nonphysical assets such as just-in-time (JIT) inventory systems is rapidly providing more value. These are examples of intellectual assets, which generally refer to an organization's recorded information, and human talent where such information is typically either inefficiently warehoused or simply lost, especially in large, physically dispersed organizations (Stewart, 1991). This has led to a change in focus to the useful lifespan of a valuable piece of knowledge. When is some knowledge of no use? What about knowledge that never loses its value? The notion of knowledge obsolescence and archiving needs to be approached with a fresh eye. It is no longer advisable to simply discard items that are \"past their due date.\" Instead, content analysis and a cost-benefit analysis are needed to manage each piece of valuable knowledge in the best possible way. Intellectual capital is often made visible by the difference between the book value and the market value of an organization (often referred to as goodwill). Intellectual assets are represented by the sum total of what employees of the organization know and what they know how to do. The value of these knowledge assets is at least equal to the cost of re-creating this knowledge. The accounting profession still has considerable difficulty in accommodating itself to these new forms of assets. Some progress has been made (e.g., Skandia was the first organization to report intellectual capital as part of its yearly financial report), but much more work remains to be done in this area. As shown in Figure 1-5, intellectual assets may be found at the strategic, tactical, and operational levels of an organization. Some examples of intellectual capital include: 1. Competencethe skills necessary to achieve a certain (high) level of performance. 16 K N OW L E D G E M A N AG E M E N T I N T H E O RY A N D P R AC T I C E FIGURE 1-5 THREE LEVELS OF INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL Intellectual Capital Increasing complexity Strategic Political negotiation Mainly subjective Tactical Operational Technical integration Mainly objective 2. Capabilitystrategic skills necessary to integrate and apply competencies. 3. Technologiestools and methods required to produce certain physical results. Core competencies, found at a tactical level, are the things that an organization knows how to do well and that provide a competitive advantage. Some examples would be a process, a specialized type of knowledge, or a particular kind of expertise that is rare or unique to the organization. Capabilities, found at a more strategic level, are those things that an individual knows how to do well, which, under appropriate conditions, may be aggregated to organizational competencies. Capabilities are potential core competencies, and sound KM practices are required in order for that potential to be realized. A number of business management texts discuss these concepts in greater detail (e.g., Hamel and Prahalad, 1990). It should be noted that the more valuable a capability is and the less it is shared among many employees, then the more vulnerable the organization becomes should those employees leave. Organizational Perspectives on Knowledge Management Wiig (1993) considers knowledge management in organizations from three perspectives, each with different horizons and purposes: 1. Business Perspectivefocusing on why, where, and to what extent the organization must invest in or exploit knowledge. Strategies, products and services, alliances, acquisitions, or divestments should be considered from knowledge-related points of view. 2. Management Perspectivefocusing on determining, organizing, directing, facilitating, and monitoring knowledge-related practices and activities required to achieve the desired business strategies and objectives. INTRODUCTION TO KM IN THEORY AND PRACTICE 17 3. Hands-on Perspectivefocusing on applying the expertise to conduct explicit knowledge-related work and tasks. The business perspective easily maps onto the strategic nature of knowledge management, the management perspective is parallel to the tactical layer, and the hands-on perspective may be equated with the operational level. WHY IS KM IMPORTANT TODAY? The major business drivers behind today's increased interest in and application of KM lie in four key areas: 1. Globalization of business. Organizations today are more global multisite, multilingual, and multicultural in nature. 2. Leaner organizations. We are doing more and we are doing it faster, but we also need to work smarter as knowledge workers, adopting an increased pace and workload. 3. \"Corporate amnesia.\" We are more mobile as a workforce, which creates problems of knowledge continuity for the organization and places continuous learning demands on the knowledge worker. We no longer expect to spend our entire work life with the same organization. 4. Technological advances. We are more connected. Advances in information technology not only have made connectivity ubiquitous but have radically changed expectations. We are expected to be \"on\" at all times, and the turnaround time in responding is now measured in minutes, not weeks. Today's work environment is more complex because we now need to attend daily to the increase in the number of subjective knowledge items. Filtering over 200 e-mails, faxes, and voicemail messages on a daily basis should be done according to good time management practices and filtering rules, but more often than not, workers tend to exhibit a \"Pavlovian reflex\" when they note the beeps announcing the arrival of new mail or the ringing of the phone that demands immediate attention. Knowledge workers are increasingly being asked to \"think on their feet,\" with little time to digest and analyze incoming data and information, let alone retrieve, access, and apply relevant experiential knowledge. This is due both to the sheer volume of tasks to address and to the greatly diminished turnaround time. Today's expectation is that everyone is \"on\" all the timeas evidenced by the various messages expressing annoyance when voicemails are not responded to promptly or e-mails are not acknowledged. Knowledge management represents one response to the challenge of trying to manage this complex, information-overloaded work environment. As such, KM is perhaps best categorized as a science of complexity. One of the largest contributors to the complexity is that information overload represents only the tip of the ic