More on Knowledge Management

In the last post I mentioned I would provide some anecdotes (generally speaking) about knowledge management from past work experience.  In my career, I have experienced two extremes.  The first, working in the Education Department of a major grocery retailer where there was no formalized knowledge management.  The second, in a technology company where there was too much information.  The attempt to organize this information had little to no recognizable strategy behind it.

Every form of knowledge management has its own advantages and disadvantages.  Oddly enough, knowledge management occurs in some organizations even if there is no intent or awareness that the practice is being applied.

Let’s take a look at the first form of knowledge management I have observed in my career:

Ad-Hoc Knowledge Management

This is the form of knowledge management I observed at the grocery retailer.  While there were no formalized knowledge management systems or content management systems deployed, people were still able to exchange tacit and explicit knowledge.  If you were in need of information or instruction, it was about who you knew that possessed the knowledge you needed or could direct you to someone did.

While this grocery retailer did not intend to deploy a knowledge management system, one was developed naturally based on the culture and norms of the organization.

Advantages to Ad-Hoc Knowledge Management

• It’s relatively quick (provided you knew who and where to get knowledge from)
• Inexpensive – using only basic IT resources (intranet, e-mail, network drives, etc.)

Disadvantages to Ad-Hoc Knowledge Management

• Owners of content, or knowledge, being too possessive
• Outdated information – no governance to updating the knowledge
• Multiple copies of knowledge moving from person to person

Sadly, I wish I could say there were more advantages to an ad-hoc system, but there simply are not.  Now, let’s look at the other end of the spectrum – a formalized knowledge management system.

Formalized Knowledge Management

A formalized knowledge management system, such as a content management system housing information to be presented on a company intranet, is the ideal way go.  Knowledge is housed in a central location and is pulled from a single resource for consumption.  At the same time, people can contribute to the knowledge with either tacit or explicit knowledge.

Formalized knowledge management systems can help improve performance in organizations by leveraging technology, but as with most things in business there are advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages to Formalized Knowledge Management

• Centralized knowledge that is searchable and scalable
• Reduces or eliminates multiple copies of knowledge; ownership of knowledge is shared
• With proper management principles understood by all, governance on how content is updated and consumed can be applied

Disadvantages to Formalized Knowledge Management

• High cost of deployment
• Highly dependent upon the organization’s technology infrastructure
• People can circumvent the system if they choose to ignore the governance of knowledge consumption and exchange (taking path of least resistance)

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In the end, some knowledge management is better than no knowledge management at all if the intent is to improve performance.  In order for knowledge management to be successful, a strategy must be created and aligned with an organization’s business objectives before any technology solution is deployed.

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