Knowledge management

INDEX
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1. Introduction
2. Objective
3. Research & methodology
4. Analysis
5. Conclusion & suggestion
 Annexure
 Bibliography

CHAPTER-1
INTRODUCTION OF
KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT
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INTRODUCTION OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT:
Knowledge management (KM) is a newly emerging interdisciplinary business model
that has knowledge within the frame work of an organization as its focus. It is rooted in
many disciplines including business economics psychology and information
management. It is the ultimate competitive advantage for today firm, Knowledge
management involves people, technology and processes in overlapping parts.
In some ways KM is about survival in a new business world a world of competition that
increases in complexity and uncertainly each day. It is a world that challenges the
traditional ways of doing things the focus is not only on finding the right answers, but
also on asking the right questions what worked yesterday may or may not work
tomorrow.
The focus is on “doing the right thing” rather than “doing things right” so that core
competencies do not become core rigidities in the future.
KM is the process of capturing and making use of a firms collective expertise anywhere
in the business-on paper in documents in databases or in people heads(called Tacit
knowledge)That up to 95 percent of information is preserved as tacit knowledge .
Definition of Knowledge Management:
Knowledge is “a state of being with respect to somebody of information. These states
include ignorance, awareness familiarity, understanding facility and so on”.
As per Ron Young, CEO/CKO Knowledge Associates International
“Knowledge management is the discipline of enabling individuals, teams and entire
organization to collectively and systematically create, share and apply knowledge, to
better achieve their objectives”
As per west Midlands Regional Observatory, UK
“Knowledge management will deliver understanding collaboration and partnership
working. It will ensure the region maximize the value of information and the
knowledge assets and it will help its citizens to use their creativity and skills better,
leading to improved effectiveness and greater innovation “.
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We define knowledge management as a business activity with two primary aspects;
 Treating the knowledge component of business activities as an explicit concern of
business reflected in strategy, policy and practice at all levels of the organization.
 Making a direct connection between an organization intellectual assets – both
explicit and tacit (personal Know –how) – and positive business results.
HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM:
As the Human Resources of the organization, become critical from competitive
advantage, a variety of information on the people need to be made available so that
effective decisions are taken for their proper placement and optimum utilization.
Towards this end, a computerized HR Management Information System (HRMIS) has
been designed and being operated. The following are the main modules of the system:
 Personnel Information system
 Separations Management
 Training
 Promotions
 Discipline Information
 Information storage on Appraisals, Medical History and other related
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subjects of PG.
 Statistical data on manpower under various parameters
The package is provided with a number of Queries and Statistical Reports, which would
provide data on the human resources on quantitative and qualitative parameters. This
would assist in HR related decision making.
Taking advantage of the latest technology, HRMIS packages are networked which
allows smooth flow of information across all the decision and transaction points of
Personnel Group. For the package. PCs have been provided in all the Divisional
Personnel Cells inside the factory and as well as at Corporate PG.
To ensure accountability of the data stored in the package, three types of accessibility
have been provided, with passwords. At the first level is the data entry and verification.
At the second level is the data approval. For the top management data browsing facility
is provided. Every alteration which can be done by only authorized personnel is
captured through a Transaction Log which shows the details of the person who has
altered the data.

MIS relation with knowledge management:
Information systems (IS) and management of knowledge are often discussed either as
separate entities or alternatively as analogies. But what is the gap between information
processed with IS and human Information or knowledge?
Is the gap insurmountable, or can the subspecies be analyzed and selected, so that section
of these two sets will be found or so that the union of information and knowledge complete
each other?
IS and users share information, which is why it is in this context more important than data, as
the basis for systems, but human knowledge is the final aim. As a background there is a
philosophical classification of knowledge. Positivism, post-positivism and critical theory is
briefly presented. This presentation is assuming constructivism as the most appropriate
viewpoint to knowledge.
There are various species of information, which are analyzed more deeply. ICT consists of
information processing and communication technologies. From philosophy, there can be the
same main streams found. Information theory gives us quantitative classes based on
probability. Semantics leads us to qualitative information categories.
Information and communication theory live along with systems theory. Systems analysis is
an engineering discipline based on this theory of the nature of systems. This analysis
framework for studying and modifying the world is used for the examples about engineering
that are mainly from a project WISE - Web-enabled Information Services for Engineering.
WISE is concerned with knowledge management (KM) in participatory design processes of
complex products, putting the engineer in the centre of the overall picture. Main objective of
the project is not on developing new specific KM tools and methods but rather to integrate
and exploit existing state-of-the art approaches oriented towards the needs of industrial
users.
These research projects will prototype a meta-system for different kinds of information
sources. In this context, WISE can be an example to show what findings are observed from
engineering knowledge.
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INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE:
Most definitions of KM share the perspective of collection and dissemination of knowledge to
benefit organization and its individuals. Typically knowledge is defined like ‘informa tion that is
relevant, actionable, and based at least partially on experience’. We must take a look at
paradigms of philosophy and species of information to find out what is meaningful for KM.
Paradigms from Philosophy
The paradigms from philosophy can be distinguished by ontology, which (in philosophy)
concerns beliefs about the form and nature of reality, and epistemology, which concerns the
nature of knowledge and the relationship between those who know and knowing. Four main
paradigms are
1) Positivism,
2) Post-positivism,
3) Critical theory with
a) Postmodernism and
b) Post-structuralism and
4) Constructivism.
Positivistic ontology the reality can be apprehended, and there are observer independent
data as facts. The positivistic epistemology is based on objectivity, a possibility to find
universal truths. Positivism is a simple belief in science in Western industrial history. The
results are mechanistic science extended to behaviorisms in psychology and naïve systemic
thinking.
Post-positivistic ontology finds an objective reality that is apprehended imperfectly and
probabilistically. The epistemology is confessing that only an approximate image of reality is
possible. As an "engineering view" the observers can have their own perspective that can
influence the way they see things.
Observers have consciousness that (in extension to simple behaviorisms)
is seen to be a set of engineering processes converting information acquired as observation
from "outside" into information implemented. People can be better or worse at this
engineering process, and at least fuzzy optimization becomes relevant. Mind is biased
machine; reality is actually out there, and knowledge is objective.
Critical theory is based on the ontology that reality is virtual. Social, political, economic,
ethnic and other factors shape reality. The epistemology is subjectivist. Findings are value
laden with respect to the worldview of an inquirer. Inquiry is value determined in both
postmodernism and post structuralism.
This presentation is on the level of constructivism, according to which there exists both
local and specifically constructed realities. Ontology says that reality is relative phenomenon,

and Epistemological knowledge is created in interaction between inquirers and its
participants in a situation. Subjectivist epistemology relates to created findings.
Information Species based on Probability:
As the data, information and knowledge are separated, the middle layer remains crucial. The
probability interpretation of information is giving us three categories of physical, syntactic
and semantic information.
Physical information is the orientation degree of systems, opposite to entropy. It is the
common denominator that can bring matter, energy and time into a single, unified framework
of analysis. All matter-energy transformations are change of state information. Animate and
inanimate objects - information condensations of matter-energy,
e.g. DNA, atom, galaxy - are including the more information the more complicated they are.
Actually, it’s impossible to say confidently of anything that it could not be information.
Physical information can further be classified as natural and manmade artifacts.
Syntactic information is attached to communication in any channel where messages are
sent and received using some notation system. The amount of information is depending from
the rarity of each notation string. The theory of syntax is very close to the statistical-mathematical
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information theory.
However, when someone is creating or utilizing syntactic information, there is always
interpretation – even with completely automatic IS.
Semantics is the branch of semiotics, the philosophy of signs that deals with meaning. The
other two branches are syntax and pragmatics. It’s basically the study of the relationship
between what an object is representing, and the object itself.
Semantic information is attached to declarative sentences about states of affairs that have
a linguistic meaning. Information is therefore eliminating ambivalence. The probability of a
sentence is inversely proportional to its information. That is because information is the
amount of ambivalence, which disappears when we get to know that the sentence is true.
Pragmatic information, however, belong to qualitative interpretation.

Information Species based on Qualitative Interpretation:
Qualitative interpretation consists of
1) Communication,
2) Presentation and
3) Information processing interpretations that are giving us species of pragmatic (expressive
and knowledge-related) epistemic, doxastic, modal, data-derived and Meta information.
All propositional knowledge is derived from causal connections. Causalities are retrospective
(there has been this causality before) or prospective (this causality can be seen coming).
Linked with truth values there is a justification condition.
Pragmatic information is build into proposition and justification. It is related to the significance
of information to the person receiving it in a particular situation. For communication it is the
most important category. When converting it to an IS, it must be noted that pragmatic
information is including together with the actual sentence the constructivist state of the
surrounding world excluded from the sentence.
For IS, another aspect of pragmatic information emerges above others: novelty or newness.
It is a crucial component when measuring value of information. Three kinds of novelty can be
listed:
1) The amount of how meaningful or surprising the information is for the recipient,
2) The utility value of information, and
3) The exchange value for information sharing, i.e. how much others (co-workers) respect
that information. Most of the characteristics of pragmatic information are describing the
value.
e.g. relevancy, accuracy, reliability, validity, readability and topicality
Expressive information is covering assumptions, intuitions, beliefs, moods and non-linguistic
expressions, like sounds, pictures and artifacts. Belief is regarded as a way of reducing
doubt and uncertainty. Expressive information is obvious for engineering: ‘this working
method is good’, or ‘you must do this next’.
Also questions, exclamations, advice, requests or orders that have not got any truth-value
are belonging to expressive information. But knowledge-related expressive information has
always got a truth-value.
An expression can be a communicated as verbal, aural, visual, based on sense of touch, or
based on artifacts. Presentation is also important for IS. Common knowledge and scientific
information are both platonic (epistemic) information. It has got a truth-value, but knowing the
value is not a required.
Beliefs, suppositions and hypotheses, have not necessarily got a truth-value. This kind of
expressive information is named as modal information. In the modal information category
there are absolute values or norms, commands, questions etc.
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9
DISCUSSION:
ISs and KM are mainly based on other than constructivist philosophy. Tightly rationalistic KM
is Epistemologically impoverished, seemingly oblivious to the thousands years of vigorous
and not Concluded debate about the nature of human knowledge. Awareness of this is
especially important when discussing about ISs for KM.
The syntactic, pragmatic and data-derived information species are useful for conceptual
clarification of ICT. Information species based on probability are considered wrongly more
crucial, although human interpretation is always needed for knowledge. ISs are representing
something, and probabilities will be misleading without proper interpretation.
A categorization of information is a presupposition for working IS. Usually KM systems are
suffering from the information overload lacking the utility value. Best practices and lessons
learned are working only with knowing the interpretation based on information species. It is
often experienced error to deliver irrelevant data as a repetition.
The dynamic nature of new information is a big challenge for ISs. Human knowledge and
information needs are dynamic. They are changing when new information is found.
Moreover, knowledge is attached to person, it requires commitment, and is difficult to detach
from the person.
Knowledge is constructed both individually and socially. Processes, like search and retrieval
are working only in well-defined situations. Search engines are depending from the context
or otherwise the results are mostly irrelevant. Information overload is not an absolute
phenomenon.
Knowledge-base expert systems and information filtering are good examples in engineering,
but even there we need user profiles for different users and their roles. Also other
organizational processes like knowledge acquisition, retention and maintenance should be
viewed through information species and context.
Discussion about ISs and KM continually follows the rationalistic paradigm. Human thinking
with Practical and strategic skills and the ability to learn are far from the knowledge model of
ISs.
KM Systems are efficient and effective only when used right. IS content shall not be
perceived as a Substitute for human knowledge. Knowledge and information should not be
managed in similar manners.

A Brief history of knowledge management:
A number of management theorists have contributed to the evolution of knowledge
management, among them such notables as Peter Drunker, Paul Stresemann, and
Peter Senge in the United States.
Ducker and Stresemann have stressed the growing importance of information and
explicit knowledge as organizational resources, and Senge has focused on the “learning
organization “; a cultural dimension of Managing knowledge.
ChirsiArgyris, Christoper Bartlett, and Dorothy Leonard-Barton of Harvard Business
School have examined various facets of managing knowledge. In fact Leonard –Barton’s
well-known case study of chaparral steel a company which has had an effective
knowledge management strategy in place since the mid-1970s inspired the research
documented in her wellsprings of knowledge-building and sustaining sources of
innovation
Everest Rogers work at Stanford in the diffusion of innovation and Thomas Allen’s
research at MIT in information and technology transfer both of which date from the late
1970s, have also contributed to our understanding of how knowledge is produced used
and diffused within organizations.
By the mid-1980 the importance of knowledge (and its expression in professional
competence) as a competitive asset was apparent even though classical economic
theory ignores (the valve of) knowledge as an asset and most organization still lack
strategies and methods for managing it.
Recognition of the growing importance of organizational knowledge was accompanied
by concern over how to deal with exponential increases in the amount of available
knowledge and increasingly complex products and processes.
The computer technology that contributed so heavily to superabundance of information
started to become part of the solution , in a variety of domains .Doug Engelbart/s
Augment (for “augmenting human intelligence”), which was introduced in 1978, was an
early hypertext/groupware application capable of interfacing with other applications and
systems.
Rob Acksyn’s and Don McCracken, Knowledge Management System (KMS).an open
distributed hypermedia tool, is another notable example and one that predates the World
Wide Web by a decade.
The 1980 also saw the development of systems for managing knowledge that relied on
work done in artificial intelligence and expert systems, giving us such concepts as
“knowledge acquisition’, ‘knowledge engineering’, ‘knowledge-base systems, and
computer-based ontologies.
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The phrase “knowledge management’ entered the lexicon in earnest. To provide a
technological base for managing knowledge a consortium of U.S.companies
Started the initiative for managing knowledge Assets in 1989. Knowledge management-related
articles began appearing in journals like Sloan management Review,
Organizational Science Harvard Business Review and others and the first books on
organizational learning and knowledge management were published (for
example,Senge’s The fifth Discipline and Sakaiya ‘s The knowledge valve revolution)
By 1990, a number of management consulting firms had begun in-house knowledge
management programs and several well known U.S...European and Japanese firms had
instituted focused knowledge management programs.
Knowledge management was introduced in the popular press in 1991, when Tom
Stewart published “Brainpower” in fortune magazine. Perhaps the most widely read work
to date is lkujiro Nonaka’s and Hirotaka Takeuchi’s the knowledge –creating company
How Japanese companies create the Dynamics of innovation (1995)
By the mid-1990’s knowledge management initiatives were flourishing thanks in part to
the internet. The International Knowledge Management Network begun in Europe in
1989, went online in 1994 and was soon joined by the us– abased knowledge
Management Forum and other KM-related groups and publications.
The number of knowledge management conferences and seminars is growing as
organizations focus on managing and leveraging explicit and tacit knowledge resources
to achieve competitive advantage in 1994 the IKMN published the results of a
knowledge management survey conducted among European Firms and the European
community began offering funding for KM-related projects through the ESPRIT
program in 1995.
Knowledge Management which appears to offer a highly desirable alternative to failed
TQM and business process re-engineering initiatives has become big business for such
major international consulting firms as Ernst and Young Arthur Anderson and Booz –
Allen and Hamilton In addition a number of professional organization interested in such
related areas as bench marking best practices risk management and change
management are exploring the relationship of knowledge management to their areas of
special expertise and ASIS(American Society for Information Science)
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Need of knowledge management:
We need to manage knowledge that identifies some of the specific business factors
including:
 Marketplaces are increasingly competitive and the rate of innovation is rising.
 Reductions in staffing create a need to replace informal knowledge with formal methods
 Competitive pressures reduce the size of the work force that holds valuable business
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knowledge.
 The amount of time available to experience and acquire knowledge has diminished
 Early retirements and increasing mobility of the work force lead to loss of knowledge.
 There is a need to manage increasing complexity as small operating companies are
trans-national sourcing operations.
 Changes in strategic direction may result in the loss of knowledge in a specific area.
Knowledge and information have become the medium in which business problems occur. As
a result managing knowledge represents the primary opportunity for achieving substantial
savings, significant improvements in human performance and competitive advantage.
Small companies need formal approaches to knowledge management even more because
they don’t have the market leverage inertia and resources that big companies do. They have
to be much more flexible more responsive and more “right” because even small mistakes
can be fatal to them.
Categorization of knowledge management approaches:
The term “knowledge management” is now in widespread use having appeared in the
titles of many new books about knowledge management as a business strategy as well as in
articles in many business publications, including the wall street journal there are of course
many ways to slice up the multi-faceted world of knowledge management. However it’s often
useful to categorize them.
In a posting to the knowledge management Forum Karl Erik Shelby identified two “tracks” of
knowledge management:
 Management of information. To researchers in this track, according to Shelby,”
Knowledge objects that can be identified and handled in information systems”.
 Management of people. For researchers and practitioners in this field knowledge
consists of processes a complex set of dynamic skills know-how, etc that is constantly
changing.

APPROACHES TO KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT:
Approaches to organizational knowledge management we have adopted a three part
categorization:
 Mechanistic approaches
 Cultural/behaviorist approaches
 Systematic approaches to knowledge management
Mechanistic approaches to knowledge management:
Mechanistic approaches to knowledge management are characterized by the application
of technology and resources to do more of the same better, the main assumptions of the
mechanistic approaches include:
 Better accessibility to information is a key including enhanced methods of access
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and reuse of documents.
 Networking technology in general and groupware in particular will be key solutions
 In general technology and sheer volume of information will make it work
Assessment:
such approaches are relatively easy to implement for corporate “political”
reasons because the technological and techniques although sometime advanced in
particular areas are familiar and easily understood there is a modicum of good sense
here because enhances access to corporate intellectual assets is vital But it simply
not clear whether access itself will have a substantial impact on business performance
especially as mountain of new information are placed online Unless the knowledge
management approach incorporate methods of leveraging cumulative experience.
The net result may not be positive and the impact of implementation may be no more
measurable than in traditional paper models.
Cultural/behavioristic approaches to knowledge management:
Cultural/behavioristic approaches, with substantial roots in process re-engineering and
change management, tend to view the “knowledge problem” as a management issue.
Technology through ultimately essential for managing explicit knowledge resources is not

the solution. These approaches tend to focus more on innovation and creativity than on
leveraging existing explicit resources or making working knowledge explicit.
Assumptions of cultural/behavioristic approaches often include:
 Organizational behavior and culture need to be changed dramatically. In our
information intensive environments, organizations become dysfunctional
relative to business objectives.
 It’s the processes that matter, not the technology.
 Nothing happens or changes unless a manager makes it happen.
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Assessment:
The cultural factors affecting organizational change have almost certain
been undervalued, and cultural/behavioristic implementations have shown some
benefits. But the cause effect relationship between cultural strategy and business
benefit is not clear, because the “Hawthorne effect” may come into play and
because we still can’t make dependable predictions about systems as complex as
knowledge based business organizations.
Systematic approaches to knowledge management:
Systematic approaches to knowledge management retain the tradition fath in rational
analysis of the knowledge problem: the problem can be solved, but new thinking of
many kinds is required.
Some basic assumptions:
 Its sustainable results that matter, not the processes or technology or your
definition of “knowledge”.
 A resource cannot be managed unless it is modeled, and many aspects of the
organization’s knowledge can be modeled as an explicit resource.
 Solutions can be found in a variety of declines and technologies, and traditional
methods of analysis can be used to re-examine the nature of knowledge work
and to solve the knowledge problem.
 Cultural issues are important, but they too must be evaluated systematically.
Employees may or may not to be “changed”, but policies and work practices
must certainly be changed, and technology can applied successfully to
business knowledge problems themselves.
Assessment:
unrepentant rationalists in the business world are taking a systematic
approach to solving the “knowledge problem”. Systematic approaches show the most
promise for positive cumulative impact, measurability and sustainability.

Chapter – 2
Objective of
Research
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OBJECTIVES OF RESEARCH:
The main objectives of the research are:
1. To know how helpful is knowledge management in the organization.
2. To know how knowledge management is implemented in the organization.
3. To know the results of knowledge management in the organization.
4. To know how responsible and accountable are the employees in the organization
about the knowledge management.

CHAPTER-3
Research & Methodology
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Research & Methodology
OBJECTIVES WITH EFFECTIVE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT:
Effective knowledge management should dramatically reduce costs. Most individuals, teams
and organizations are today continually ‘reinventing the wheel’. This is often because they
simply do not know that what they are trying to do have already been done by elsewhere.
They do not know what is already known, or they do not know where to access the
knowledge. Continually reinventing the wheel such a costly and inefficient activity, whereas a
more systematic reuse of knowledge will show substantial cost benefits immediately.
But as well as reducing costs, effective knowledge management should also dramatically
increase our speed of response as a direct result of better knowledge access and
application.
Effective knowledge management, using more collective and systematic process, will also
reduce our tendency to ‘repeat the same mistakes’. This is, again, extremely costly and
inefficient. Effective knowledge management, there for, can dramatically improve quality of
products and/or services.
Better knowing our stakeholder needs, customer needs, employee needs, industry needs, for
example, has an obvious immediate effect on our relationship management. So it is very
easy to see how effective knowledge management will greatly contribute to improved
excellence, which is to:
a. Dramatically reduce costs.
b. Provide potential to expand and grow
c. Increase our value and/or profitability.
d. Improve our products and services.
e. Respond faster

The knowledge economy is the next booming economy in a world of
recession:
In a world that is facing economic recession many are starting to ask ‘what is going to be the
next booming economy, what are its characteristics and, how will it help us to grow out of
recession?’
At knowledge-management –online.com we strongly suggest that the next booming
economy is already here! It’s the rapidly growing knowledge economy!
More individuals, teams, organizations and inter- organizations networks will be restructuring
and renewing themselves with the primary purpose of profitability trading their knowledge to
add even higher value, predominantly on the world wide web.
Already we see more enlightened organizations developing and applying the knowledge they
have about their industry, customers, partners and stakeholders, as their prime strategic
asset, and at the highest point in the value chain. And many are becoming less involved and
more open to profitably outsourcing the other business operations.
Around the world we hear automobile companies talking far more about their critical and key
knowledge areas of design, knowledge of manufacturing, knowledge of distribution,
knowledge of service and support etc as their ’crown jewels’ or ‘master recipe’.
Based on applying this key knowledge they then outsource the other business components.
We hear the same from the aerospace industry, the food and agricultural industry, the health
care industry, in fact most, if not all, industries.
Our knowledge mantra is ‘known and apply what you know the best, and link to the
rest’
Knowledge has become the key strategic asset for the 21st century and for every
organization that values knowledge it must invest in developing the best strategy for
identifying, developing and applying the knowledge assets in needs to succeed.
Every organization needs to invest in creating and implementing the best knowledge
networks, processes, methods, tools and technologies. This will enable them to learn, create
new knowledge, and apply the best knowledge much faster.
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Every individual who wishes to successfully participate in the rapidly growing global
knowledge economy must now consider the development of their personal knowledge
management competencies as an ‘essential life skill’ for the 21st century.
It has been said many times, ‘knowledge will radically and fundamentally transform
economies’.
One thing is absolutely certain in this rapidly changing world.
The best knowledge will always be in demand.
In, say, fifty years time you can be certain of one thing. Leaders of economies, industries and
organizations will always be very interested in finding new and better ways to create and
apply knowledge.
Effective knowledge management is a timeless and changeless principle.
The strategies, methods and tools of knowledge management will undoubtedly change, but
the timeless principles will, of course, remain unchanged.
And to survive and succeed in the new global knowledge economy we must become far
more effective and more productive. We must always strive for the best relations and highest
quality.
To do that, the successful organizations and individuals will not allow themselves to keep‘re-inventing
the wheel’ or ‘repeating the same mistakes’. This is so costly and, we suggest that
good leaders will simply not tolerate, nor be able afford, such cost inefficiencies caused by
knowledge gaps and bad knowledge flows.
Would the global financial crisis have been prevented or minimized with far more effective
global knowledge management?
Finally, those individuals and organizations that can best sense, become quickly alerted to,
find, organize, and apply knowledge, with a much faster response time, will simply leave the
competition far behind.
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All of this can only be achieved through good knowledge leadership that understands the
unchanging timeless principles for knowledge, that which transforms individuals and
organizations to become far more responsive and effective players in a growing knowledge
economy.
Knowledge management is for everyone.
Global and/or planetary knowledge management is becoming a reality today.
It is our belief that the knowledge economy is rapidly becoming the largest and most
successful and sustainable economy in the world.
Process of knowledge management system:
Organization will have many areas to improve but KM team should focus on all following
areas
.
 Learning from Failures in KM
 Chief knowledge officer
 Generations of Knowledge Management
 Key focus area for Knowledge Management
 Web Based Knowledge Management.
 Web based knowledge management software
 Customer knowledge management.
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Learning from Failures in KM:
Knowledge Management is not all about success stories. Crucial organization learning
comes from failures where planed effort is put to get a well targeted outcome. IN the process
of Knowledge Management we call it lessons learned.
Experimenting and learning is a continuous process for a learning organization but learning
from failures is important in such a process. Organizations should have a right frame work
and attitude to learn from its failures. Here are some of the key points to learn from failures
.
We identify or discuss about successful implementation or developing a new concepts by
any organization. But we rarely discuss our failures. Organization has to understand that
every failure opens up way for improvements and triggers learning and unlearning process.

Organizations pass through a failures and learning process to develop a successful product
or services. Here we are discussing about success which is an outcome of well targeted
approach. Not a success happened by chance.
Every failure is taken as a learning opportunity in the process of developing better product
and services in a learning organization. But we rarely understand or discuss the process by
which the new product or concept is developed.
Discussions on failures usually not takes place because of three main reasons. One is
organizational culture where failures are not taken in proper sprit. Often investigation carried
out to identify the person responsible than identifying learning and short comings.
Second is lack of trust among the employees. Sharing of success and failures comes if
culture of mutual trust and believe exists in the organization. Blaming others for failures
leaves less chance for learning.
This behavior known as Defensive Reasoning is well explained in the article Teaching Smart
People How to Learn by Chris Argyris in HBR May-Jun 1991. Third is availability of platform
to interact. Interactions should take place in a structured process by giving the members a
free and open atmosphere to explain or project the failures.
Root cause analysis discussion of a maintenance group is a good example of
this. Knowledge Management encourages discussion on failures in a tool popularly known as
Community. Here members of a Cop having common interest regularly meet to share their
failure and success stories and help each other.
A productive failure is better than an unproductive success. We have little to learn where
success is not because of targeted efforts. Whereas each failure gives us insight and new
way to develop or improve.
Learning from failure gives organizations the insight to move forward and develop new
learning. Organization should not forget its past and should never try to re-invent the wheel.
Organization culture, mutual trust creates an atmosphere of sharing among employees to
drive the organization in its journey of Knowledge Management.
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Generations of Knowledge Management:
Knowledge Available: First generation of Knowledge Management:
The KM system should able to deliver all the required knowledge to the Knowledge worker
as and when required with a little effort. The best practices should be shared among all the
employees to improve productivity.
There should be a way to discuss or access the systems for Lesions learnt, root cause
analysis, success stories etc. Knowledge workers must learn from each other experience
and would able to discuss freely with all other member of the organization. All documents,
procedures, maintenance practices, system tools etc should be available and can be easily
access by the knowledge workers as and when required.
Experts yellow page, community of practices encourages knowledge workers to innovate
and share the experiences. Frequently Asked Questions on various rules and procedures will
help in reducing time and efforts of different sections of the organization. A free flow of
information and knowledge is what targeted here.
Know what we don't know: Second generation of Knowledge
Management
Are we good in all the areas? Were we are lagging? How to bridge the knowledge gaps?
These are the questions the second generation of knowledge management will try to
address. Organizations must always evaluate its own performance with others and find out
the scope of improvements. All K-gaps need to be identified in a regular basis and to be
presented to the knowledge workers for discussion and innovation.
The target is not only to bridge the K-gaps but to move ahead with the experience gained in
the process. The door is always kept open for new learning to improve the standard. The
organization can't confined itself only to facilitate required knowledge flow for its knowledge
workers on their day to day activities but will make it more challenging to explore the best
possible way to do the same job. Benchmarking standards always rose to new heights
Knowledge for the future: Third generation of Knowledge Management
23

Can the organization find out what is going to be the next technology in coming years? What
the customers are going to looking for the product and services in future? What is working
today for the organization is going to work tomorrow also? How fast the organization will
realign itself to change in market?
All these falls in third generation of knowledge management. Here all innovations, learning's
are targeted to future market requirements. Organization must find out the future requirement
without any visible indication from the present environment. Products are developed to set
new standards. No one has asked Sony to produce Walkman; neither had they found the
demand for such a product from any market research. Market may not know that such a
product is required. MS Office developed by Microsoft keeping an eye the growing use of PC
in everyday life and long before they anticipated the requirement
Key focus area for Knowledge Management:
Every organization has many areas to improve or give better result. It is known that an
organization exist for customers but the way to achieve this may not necessarily be same for
all. After returning from a conference one member of KM team has proposed to develop
customer profile in an improved & new manner.
He was influenced by a success story of a mobile service provider who has substantially
increased its customer base by understanding customer and providing a better service. This
customer centric approach is to be copied and applied in a manufacturing company.
However in reality the company products were in high demand and there is always shortage
at market. The company was expanding its production capacity. Because of high capital cost
and delay from equipment manufacturers and long installation process the expansion was
getting delayed.
Here in this case a faster completion of capacity expansion would serve the customers
interest better than providing a better customer profile or service. The KM team has missed
the focus area to improve and got carried away by some other success story which has
worked in a different industry.
Every organization has its unique strategic focus area. By focusing in this the KM team gets
maximum impact.
What are the strategic focus (or strategic) areas the KM team must identify. In a broad way
there are three areas and one of these three are to be the key (or strategic) focus area for
the organization.
1. Internal Process improvements or optimize operational efficiency
2.Fast & innovative product development
3.Customer centric approach.
24

Let us take example of a pharmaceutical company manufacturing drugs. A new molecule or
fast to introduce a new drug can give better revenue to the company. Here the new product
development must be the focus of the KM team.
Web Based Knowledge Management:
With recent development in Internet technology and its wider acceptance and popularity
there are many products available today to facilitate knowledge sharing and coloration using
web technologies. The main advantage of web-based technology is it can be deployed in
Internet or in intranet within the organization.
Internet is also used to create a VPN (virtual private network) using internet as medium of
data transmission. We will discuss more about web based KM system here. Organizations
have used different platforms to deploy a KM system but in all most all cases a web browser
is used as client end tool to access the KM system.
Advantages of web based knowledge management system
1. This is easy to maintain as development requirements are limited to the server side.
Changes can be done to the system easily and continues improvement can be done
to the system.
2. The client side any web browser can be used to access the server. From the users
point of view they are comfortable with a web browser ( thanks to internet ) and they
know the common system of login / logout , form entry etc so using a browser at client
end is always advantages than using any custom maid front end tool. This is one of
the main reasons to go for a web based KM system. Any new employee joining the
organization can use the system without any formal training on portal.
3. Up gradation is also easy as one end at server the up gradation is to be done.
4. The reach of the portal is not limited as anyone can access from any part of the
intranet or internet. The access area of the portal increases with the expansion of the
network.
5. Easy to get technical staff as common features are used.
25

Requirements of a Web based KM system:
26
Web Server:
The hardware of the web server is to be decided based on the traffic, network configuration
etc. Web server operating system is the part of the system which delivers the required files to
the client browser after required processing.
Web server is to be selected based on the scripting (programming) language, database
supports etc. There are many web servers available in the market today and Microsoft's
windows® server is a major player in the corporate market today. Windows 2003 server is
the most recent one.
In the other hand the Linux server is of great demand as a part of open source community.
Window server usually runs IIS (internet information server) as the web server and in the
same way Linux server runs APACHE as the web server.
Programming Language and database
Depending on the server support the programming language can be selected. Some of the
languages popularly used for scripting are Java Server Pages (JSP), ASP or ASP dot Net,
PHP, Cold fusion, Perl, etc. Database support is a common requirement in such cases as
details of files, members, system tracking etc are to be stored.
.
Network
An existing network can be used to develop a web based KM system. Internet also can be
used for this with required access limitations. Organizations with offices in scattered
geographical locations can use VPN (virtual private network) which uses internet to create a
private network. In such a system organization can keep its web server inside its premises
and through VPN outside offices can access the server.

27
KM Portal
One web portal can be developed using any internet hosting solutions and access can be
restricted by login systems. Users with different levels of permission can access contributions
/ articles of different authors. This type of system helps in sharing best practices,
experiments, innovations, failure stories etc.
Web Based discussion board or forum
A virtual community can be created by using Web based discussion boards. Different
sections or areas can be created to create different sections for discussions. Here the
discussions are available for all in the organization to view / post / reply to the topics. This is
an ideal solution for branch offices, communities located in different geographical areas but
having common area of interest.
They can share their common problems, areas of concerns, experience and help each other
in building a strong bond of networking. Little help from organization in creating trust among
members by organizing face to face interactive sessions will encourage the members to
actively participate in the forums.
There are many readymade scripts available in the market and one such system can be
developed in house keeping in mind the requirements of the organization. Under open
source community some scripts are popular for web application like PHPBB,
BLOGS
Web blogs are popular now days and companies have utilized this tool to create awareness
and evolve opinions on different issues. Blogs can be hosted in the company intranet or
popular blog sites like blogspot.com can be used to give a platform to the employees to post
their views. Many companies have their blogging policy also.
Expert System

Many organizations don't know what they know. By encouraging employees posting their
problems or difficulties to an expert system organization can save time and money in finding
best solutions to the problems. Experts’ database with profile updating can be kept for the
public view and queries can be posted to specific experts based on the areas of domain and
expertise of the exports.
Web Based Knowledge Management software:
Web based knowledge management can be deployed in a company intranet or on the
Internet with or without secure login. Companies can develop a knowledge management
system using the Internet with login access to all its employees located in different part of the
world.
A mobile work force can login to the KM (knowledge Management) portal from anywhere by
connecting to internet. Many such initiatives in the past have given good result to the
companies.
Such systems help strategically to the company when company branches are located in
different geographical location and this gives a platform to the employees to share best
practices, problems, customer interactions etc and prevent reinvention of wheel. We will
discuss some of the tools here.
Customer Knowledge Management:
Knowledge residing in the mind of customer is different than the knowledge about the
customer. Knowledge about the customer is taken care in CRM (Customer Relationship
Management) process. In a simple form we can say knowledge from customer is different
than knowledge about customer.
The knowledge of Customer about the product and services and the related area varies in
different sectors. The knowledge of an industrial consumer is about product is different than
a knowledge of a retail shop consumer. Consumer in all respect knows about the product
and has different assumption and acceptability about the product, its market and demand.
Pickup the opportunity before the competitors knows about it. In some sectors, the first sign
of change in market segment or product cycle comes from the customers. New opportunities
can be explored based on the knowledge of the customer
28
Cop (Community of Practice):
Organizations have different forums to interact and create knowledge within and between the
organizations. Cop is one such forum where all members interested in a domain of
knowledge comes together and shares their experience and helps each other in creating

new knowledge. Interaction or knowledge creation with customers within a Cop environment
helps organization to understand the knowledge creating process of the customer.
Collaborate or join your customer in projects or new product development. The customer is
more likely to share new insights, knowledge and the experience when he is part of the
process. Some organizations have some jointly held intellectual property with their partners.
Customers are not just passive recipient of product and service offered, so they will be more
committed and willing to collaborate and share their knowledge once the organizations starts
giving value or importance to them.
Organizations encourage its employees to share their failure and success stories to prevent
re-invention of wheel, where as customer knowledge management focus on innovation and
new knowledge generation in collaboration with customer.
Organizations like amazon.com collects customer knowledge in terms of feedbacks and
reviews from the buyers or readers and made them available to others. In one section it tells
'those who purchased this book has also purchased.' and displays a list of related books.
Customer knowledge is not same as knowledge about customer. It should not be confused
with the knowledge we gather from the sells team about the customer. Customer can share
valuable market insight, new product demands and much other related knowledge in a
mutually beneficial conducive environment. This is a strategic step of the organization to
keep itself ahead of its competitors.
Importance of knowledge Management system in an organization:
Most companies are focused on producing a product or service for customers. However, one
of the most significant keys to value-creation comes from placing emphasis on producing
knowledge. The production of knowledge needs to be a major part of the overall production
strategy.
One of the biggest challenges behind knowledge management is the dissemination of
knowledge. People with the highest knowledge have the potential for high levels of value
creation. But this knowledge can only create value if it's placed in the hands of those who
must execute on it. Knowledge is usually difficult to access – it leaves when the knowledge
professional resigns.
“The only irreplaceable capital an organization possesses is the knowledge and ability of its
people. The productivity of that capital depends on how effectively people share their
competence with those who can use it.” – Andrew Carnegie
Therefore, knowledge management is often about managing relationships within the
organization. Collaborative tools (intranets, balanced scorecards, data warehouses,
customer relations management, expert systems, etc.) are often used to establish these
relationships.
29

Some companies have developed knowledge maps, identifying what must be shared, where
can we find it, what information is needed to support an activity, etc. Knowledge maps codify
information so that it becomes real knowledge; i.e. from data to intelligence.
In the book Value Based Knowledge Management, the authors advocate that every
organization should strive to have six capabilities working together:
1. Produce: Apply the right combination of knowledge and systems so that you produce
30
knowledge based environment.
2. Respond: Constantly monitor and respond to the marketplace through an empowered
workforce within a decentralized structure.
3. Anticipate: Become pro-active by anticipating events and issues based on this new
decentralized knowledge based system.
4. Attract: Attract people who have a thirst for knowledge, people who clearly
demonstrate that they love to learn and share their knowledge opening with others.
These so-called knowledge professionals are one of the most significant components
of your intellectual capital.
5. Create: Provide a strong learning environment for the thirsty knowledge worker. Allow
everyone to learn through experiences with customers, competition, etc.
6. Last: Secure long-term commitments from knowledge professionals. These people
are key drivers behind your organization. If they leave, there goes the knowledge.
Knowledge professionals will become the dominant force behind the new economy, not
unlike the farmer was once the key player behind the agricultural age. By the year 2010,
one-third of the workforce in the United States will be comprised of knowledge professionals.
It is incumbent upon all organizations to embrace this need for managing knowledge. Just
take a look at those organizations that seem to create value against the competition. You will
invariably find a strong emphasis on knowledge management.
Principles of Knowledge Management:
Winston Churchill said, "The empires of the future are the empires of the mind." Tom Peters
said, "Heavy lifting is out; brains are in."
The knowledge economy has brought new power to workers. Many are "free agents,"
contingency workers that make up almost a third of the U.S. workforce. Workers own the
means of production-their knowledge. They can sell it, trade it, or give it away and still own it.
As a result, the ways we manage people have undergone a dramatic, fundamental shift.
Knowledge is perishable. The shelf life of expertise is limited because new technologies,
products, and services continually pour into the marketplace. No one can hoard knowledge.
People and companies must constantly renew, replenish, expand, and create more
knowledge.

That requires a radical overhaul of the old knowledge equation: knowledge = power, so
hoard it. The new knowledge equation is knowledge = power, so share it and it will multiply.
Widespread noncompetitive benchmarking and best-practice sharing show how eagerly we
are embracing the concept of knowledge sharing.
Hubert St. Onge, who led the development of the knowledge management approach at
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, sees the primary challenge as making an
organization's unarticulated or tacit knowledge explicit so that it can be shared and renewed
constantly.
"It is important," he says, "to understand how knowledge is formed, and how people and
organizations learn to use it wisely."
A navigation technique is to look at the stars to tell you where you are. Similarly, we must
use a powerful new "knowledge lens" in order to navigate or manage our companies. But we
can't manage knowledge in a traditional way. Always changing, knowledge is more organic
than mechanical.
Nevertheless, here are 12 fairly steady principles about knowledge.
1. Knowledge is messy. Because knowledge is connected to everything else, you can't
isolate the knowledge aspect of anything neatly. In the knowledge universe, you can't
pay attention to just one factor.
2. Knowledge is self-organizing. The self that knowledge organizes around is
organizational or group identity and purpose.
3. Knowledge seeks community. Knowledge wants to happen, just as life wants to
happen. Both want to happen as community. Nothing illustrates this principle more
than the Internet.
4. Knowledge travels via language. Without a language to describe our experience, we
can't communicate what we know. Expanding organizational knowledge means that
we must develop the languages we use to describe our work experience.
5. the more you try to pin knowledge down, the more it slips away. It's tempting to try
to tie up knowledge as codified knowledge-documents, patents, libraries, databases,
and so forth. But too much rigidity and formality regarding knowledge lead to the
stultification of creativity.
6. Looser is probably better. Highly adaptable systems look sloppy. The survival rate of
diverse, decentralized systems is higher. That means we can waste resources and
energy trying to control knowledge too tightly.
31

7. There is no one solution. Knowledge is always changing. For the moment, the best
approach to managing it is one that keeps things moving along while keeping options
open.
8. Knowledge doesn't grow forever. Eventually, some knowledge is lost or dies, just as
things in nature. Unlearning and letting go of old ways of thinking, even retiring whole
blocks of knowledge, contribute to the vitality and evolution of knowledge.
9. No one is in charge. Knowledge is a social process. That means no one person can
take responsibility for collective knowledge.
10. You can't impose rules and systems. If knowledge is truly self-organizing, the most
important way to advance it is to remove the barriers to self-organization. In a
supportive environment, knowledge will take care of itself.
11. There is no silver bullet. There is no single leverage point or best practice to
advance knowledge. It must be supported at multiple levels and in a variety of ways.
12. How you define knowledge determines how you manage it. The "knowledge
question" can present itself many ways. For example, concern about the ownership of
knowledge leads to acquiring codified knowledge that is protected by copyrights and
patents.
32

ANALYSIS
1. The knowledge management system helps in fast and better decision making.
Strongly agree Agree Neither agree nor
disagree
34
Disagree
28 42 0 1
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
disagree
Disagree
FINDING:
1. By this question we can say that the employees in the organization participate in
decision making.
2. The employees in the organization agree that knowledge management helps in better
and fast decision making.
3. The about 58% of the employees agree that knowledge management helps in better
decision making.

2. Knowledge management helps in enhanced productivity or service quality.
disagree
35
Disagree
14 54 4 0
FINDINGS:
1. By this questionnaire we can say that the better usage of knowledge management helps
in increase of productivity.
2. The better usage of knowledge helps increase in output of the company.
3. About 73% of employees agree that improve of productivity is done by the knowledge
management.

3. Implementing knowledge results in sharing best practices.
disagree
36
Disagree
24 42 4 2
FINDINGS:
1. By the implementation of knowledge management the employees can have better
options of sharing their practices with all.
2. This knowledge management enhances the employees in sharing their best practices.
3. About 58% of employees agree that they share their best practices with other
employees.

4. Knowledge management makes it easy to enter into different market type.
disagree
37
Disagree
8 52 12 0
FINDINGS:
1. By this question we can say that knowledge management helps to enter into different
market types.
2. The employees in the organization say that by the implementation of knowledge
management we can enter into the different market types easily.
3. About 72%of the employees on the organization agree with the knowledge
management there is increase of the market types.

5. Knowledge management increase innovation by the employee.
disagree
38
Disagree
10 50 8 4
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Strongly agree Agree Eneither agree nor
disagree
Disagree
FINDINGS:
1. By this question we can say that by the knowledge management the innovations in
the organizations increase by the employees.
2. Knowledge management helps in increase of the innovations in the organization.
3. About 70% of the employees in the organization agree that innovations increase by
knowledge management.

6. Application of knowledge management system results in increased market shares.
disagree
39
Disagree
10 46 8 8
FINDINGS:
1. By this question we can say that knowledge management system helps in increase of
the market share of the organization
2. The employees in the organization say that implementation of knowledge
management results in the improvement of the market share.
3. About 63% of the employees in the organization agree that the knowledge
management system increases the market share.

7. Knowledge management increases the learning/adaption capability of employees.
disagree
40
Disagree
14 52 4 2
FINDINGS:
1. By this question we can say that knowledge management helps in increasing the
learning/ adaption capability of the employee.
2. The employees in the increase there learning/ adaption capability by the knowledge
management.
3. About 72% of the employees agree that they increase their learning/ adaption
capabilities by the knowledge management system.

8. Knowledge management helps in better staff attraction/retention.
disagree
41
Disagree
8 54 6 4
FINDINGS:
1. By this question we can say that knowledge management helps in the employee
attraction and retention process.
2. The employees in the organization say that knowledge management also helps in
attraction and retention of employees.
3. About 73% of employees agree that by the knowledge management attraction and
retention of the employees is done.

9. Knowledge management helps to decreases the communication gap in the organization.
disagree
42
Disagree
8 54 8 2
FINDINGS:
1. By this question we can say that knowledge management decreases the
communication gap between the employees in the organization.
2. The employees in the organization say that by knowledge management the
communication of the employees’ increases.
3. About 73% of employees agree that knowledge management decrease the
communication gap.

10. Knowledge management results in increased delegation of authority and accountability to
43
individuals.
disagree
Disagree
4 46 14 8
FINDINGS:
1. By this question we can say that knowledge management increases the delegation of
authority and accountability of the employees.
2. The organization employees also agree that knowledge management helps to
increase the delegation of authority and accountability of the employees.
3. About 64% employees agree that the delegation if authority and accountability
increases by knowledge management.

11. Knowledge management helps in achieving better Returns on investment (ROI).
disagree
44
Disagree
8 54 6 4
FINDINGS:
1. By this question we can say that the organization return on investment improves by
the knowledge management.
2. The employees in the organization agree that the return on investment increases by
the knowledge management.
3. About 75% of the employees in the organization agree that knowledge management
system helps in improving the return on investment.

CHAPTER-5
Conclusion &suggestion
45

46
CONCLUSIONS:
By the study of the knowledge management and analysis of the questionnaires we can give
some conclusions:
1. Knowledge management is the responsibility of the individual employee and the
employers in the organization.
2. Knowledge management helps in improving communication and coordination among
the employees.
3. Knowledge management helps in fast and better decision making in the organization
problems.
4. Knowledge management helps in increase of the productivity and service qualities in
the organization.
5. Knowledge management increases the learning and adoption capabilities of the
employees in the organization.
6. Knowledge management helps to enter into different market types and increase the
share in the market.
7. Knowledge management helps in increasing the innovative skills of the employees.
8. Knowledge management helps the employee in the organization to share their best
practices and experiences with their other employees which encourage the other
employees.
9. Knowledge management not only helps the employees but also it helps the
organization in learning and relearning.

47
SUGGESTIONS:
1. Organization should give encouragement to the entire employee in sharing their
opinions with the management.
2. Management should educate all the employees in the organization about the
3. The organization should provide some interaction programs to the employees in the
organization.
4. Organization should motivate the employees in the organization in the usage of
5. Organization should make the employees to feel accountable and responsible about
their work.

BIBILOGRAPHY:
48
INFORMATION FROM BOOKS:
Knowledge management: Excel books, NEW DELHI,
A. Thothathri Raman,
First Edition-2004.
Knowledge management WEBSITES:
WWW.KNOWLEDGEMANAGEMENT.COM
WWW.GAJHOO.COM

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