This week’s readings focused primarily on the paradigm of e-learning – what is it and how we should look at it in context to improving performance in organizations. One such reading from A.D. Marwick on the subject of Knowledge Management Technology caught my attention.
Knowledge, to me, is the 50,000 foot view of experience and understanding that is essentially the life blood of an organization. It is information in its raw form, information artifacts, documents, reports, etc. As the paper indicates, effective knowledge management (KM) is a combination of organizational, social and managerial initiatives pulled together by a deployed technology solution.
A deployed technology solution is not necessarily a cure-all for rounding up knowledge in an organization, but it doesn’t hurt. The objective of a KM solution is to transform knowledge from being tacit to explicit. The explicit knowledge is housed and distributed via the KM solution. Tacit knowledge is basically information known by people in an organization – facts, history, experience, etc. Explicit knowledge is more tangible in the form of documents, audio, video or perhaps learning modules.
When we speak of KM solutions we are referring to learning management systems (LMS) and content management systems (CMS) – just to name a few. With these tools, instruction or information can be delivered. Whether the intent is to train or to inform the end result is the same – learning occurs. When a body of knowledge isn’t known by an end-user, the new knowledge acquired is learned once it is applied in a useful manner.
KM solutions can be a great benefit to most organizations, but only if a strategy is developed prior to implementation. You have to know what your objectives are and how you will manage the knowledge so it will be useful to end-users.
I’ve had experience with many organizations over the years that have attempted and currently apply KM solutions. In future posts I’m sure I’ll provide some anecdotes to illustrate the pros and cons / successes and failures of KM in the workplace. Unfortunately, there are more failures than successes and it is largely due to lack of strategy.
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