Is the term Knowledge “Management” misleading?
Posted by Arjun ThomasThe term “Knowledge Management” can be misleading at times. When i first got into this field ( seems like a lifetime ago ) i was a little wary of what i was supposed to accomplish. The very idea of Managing Knowledge was something i just couldn’t wrap my head around.
Today, after having practiced KM in the real world and studied it, i’ve come to understand that true KM is more environment management than actual managing of knowledge.
So what is environment management? Well, simply put, it’s creating an environment that fosters knowledge sharing. Attempting to actually manage knowledge is an extremely difficult task. This is because the very nature of KM frowns upon the use of strict guidelines and processes that most other functions require.
I’ve seen and heard the way KM is practiced in a large number of organizations, from both the private and public sectors, small, medium and large companies and the one principle that has ensured the success of KM is the fact that its been driven by a change in the cultural and perception of its employees.
Another common mistake that a surprisingly large number of corporates make is “re-defining” their existing information management processes by calling them Knowledge Management processes. While content management and information management do constitute part of the KM initiative they do not define it. This only serves to further confuse end users to the meaning of knowledge management.
The situation has gotten so bad in some instances that employees associate KM with the process of uploading a couple of documents every year to fulfill their “KM” contribution quota. It is practices like these that give Knowledge Management a bad name.
In a previous post i’ve tried to address the issue of why knowledge sharing is so different in the corporate world. However, there have been many instances where these hurdles have been overcome. This is only when there is solid support from the management and when the initiative is viewed as a means to improve the way employees work and not just a way of increasing margins.
Tying all of this together is a framework that includes a rewards and recognition program, branding and a very robust communication strategy. Communication is a large part of knowledge management and i have a few thoughts on this subject.
So, for the rest of you out there…… Does the term Knowledge Management acurately convey what you actually accomplish?
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Nick Milton says:
It’s no more misleading than the term Risk Management, or Safety Management
see here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3qlftUB_Yg
for a discussion of what Knowledge Management might mean
Alan O'Neill says:
Or the Intelligence Service
Alan O'Neill says:
Or Best Practice
Alan O'Neill says:
Firstly, apologies if my comments above appeared flippant, but there also is an element of truth within them, particularly when you look at the two examples given by Nick.
In essence they are Snappy Titles, Buzz Words to describe the process of what they set out to achieve.
You couldn’t possibly hope to eradicate all risks, or indeed make any process or action 100% safe. Risk Management and Safety Management are titles that describe the process ‘that any reasonable person’ would do to minimise the chance of an event occurring (risk) or taking reasonable steps to prevent an accident or injury (safety).
In my opinion, Knowledge Management can be likened to this, in that it should be about the steps a reasonable person would take to prevent Knowledge being lost from their company/organisation. Again there should not be an expectation to capture all of the knowledge within a company; there is no real need to capture everything, focus on the business critical knowledge.
Any process or action that enables this can be described under the Knowledge Management banner. I also believe that Learning from Experience is a key element of Knowledge Management. There are also elements within the KM Fraternity who believe that the Innovation level of KM, Real Time Knowledge Sharing; Blogs, Chat Rooms, Virtual Meetings is where organisations should focus. Others that believe that legacy Knowledge, is most important………in my view they all play a key role in KM.
But to call it Knowledge, Information, Innovation, Learning from Experience Management doesn’t work, it loses its impact, and as Knowledge is a key element in all of the above areas, any process or action that contributes to support the ‘Management’ of ‘Knowledge’ should be labelled Knowledge Management.
The name Intelligence Service is viewed as an oxymoron, however, after giving consideration to how they operate, it is clear that they should be practising Knowledge Management and sharing Knowledge between the various intelligence agencies; indeed the US Federal Government is supporting the development of Knowledge Management partly on the basis of lessons learnt from the US Intelligence (see http://wiki.nasa.gov/cm/wiki/?id=6002) and is an excellent source of information.
I believe that the starting point needs to be the identification of what knowledge it is that the organisation wants to capture. The message I give to my clients is “Do you have knowledge critical to the business that resides in the brains of an individual?” If the answer is yes, then I ask “What would you do if they walked out of the door and never came back?”, and use this as the starting point.
This then leads on to the technology argument which has also been discussed at length here, and on other forums, and this needs to be decided on the basis of what is best for the organisation.
In terms of Best Practice, what is Best Practice?, If it really is best then it suggests that there is no room for improvement…..which I find hard to accept, I actually prefer good practice, and Knowledge Management supports the sharing and creation of good practice.
To sum it up I think that Knowledge Management as a title best describes a series of practices that supports the management of knowledge. I don’t actually think that the title Knowledge Management is the biggest problem, I think it is the minority of so called KM experts who focus solely on the tool element of KM.
Arjun Thomas says:
Alan,
Appreciate the comments and i do agree with what you’ve said, the idea behind using this heading for the post was to start a discussion around this very line of thought.
The reason i put this post up is because while what you’ve said is true, the term Knowledge Management has been misused so much that the average employee is left confused to what KM within his organization is actually meant to achieve.
Nick Milton says:
I agree completely with what Alan has written. I don’t think the title is misleading at all; what is misleading is the way people apply the title “Knowledge Management” to what is patently Information Management, or even Records Management.
My favourite definition of KM is “Managing with due attention to the value of Knowledge”, or “Managing as if knowledge matters”
see here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3qlftUB_Yg
and here
http://www.nickmilton.com/2009/01/managing-as-if-knowledge-mattered.html
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