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• Outdated information – no governance to updating the knowledge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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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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