Knowledge management

Groups use what they know to do good work.

They share ideas to learn new things. This helps everyone do a better job.

People can learn by talking. They can also learn from teachers. Some people use computers to share.

One way to share is to write things down. This makes the ideas easy to find. Another way is to talk to experts. This helps people learn from each other.

Sharing ideas helps a group stay strong. It helps them make new things.

Working together makes everyone smarter.

Groups use what they know to do good work. This is called knowledge management. It is a way to help people learn and work together.

Knowledge can be two different things. Some knowledge is explicit. This is knowledge you can easily write down or talk about. Other knowledge is tacit. This is knowledge you use without thinking. For example, you might know how to do a task by feel.

One expert named Ikujiro Nonaka made a model for this. He said knowledge moves in a spiral. People take tacit knowledge and make it explicit. Then, they turn that explicit knowledge back into tacit knowledge. This helps everyone learn more.

There are two main ways to share this knowledge. The first way is codification. This is a way to store facts in a database. It is like a library of documents. The second way is personalisation. This is when people talk to each other. They share what they know by working in groups. This helps people learn from experts. Both ways help a group reach its goals and make new things.

Knowledge management is a way for groups to use what they know to reach big goals. It focuses on how people learn, work together, and create new ideas.

Organizations use these processes to improve how they perform every day. This can help a company stay ahead of others or find better ways to do tasks. Large businesses, government agencies, and even nonprofit groups use these methods. They might use special departments for human resources or business strategy to manage this information. It is a way to make sure a group's shared wisdom is used well.

There are two main ways that this knowledge moves and works. One type is called explicit knowledge, which is information you can easily write down or share. The other type is tacit knowledge, which is knowledge you use without thinking, like a skill you have learned by feel.

A scientist named Ikujiro Nonaka described how these two types interact in a spiral. In his model, people take tacit knowledge and turn it into explicit knowledge. Then, people take that written information and turn it back into tacit knowledge through practice. This cycle helps everyone in a group keep learning and growing.

People have been sharing what they know for a very long time. In the past, people used apprenticeships, mentoring, and group discussions to learn.

As computers became more common in the late 1900s, new tools were created to help. These tools include things like intranets and digital databases that store information. The term "knowledge management" became very popular in the 1990s. This was around the time that Peter Drucker first wrote about "knowledge workers" in his 1954 book. Today, many universities even offer special degrees to teach this subject.

Many different experts and leaders have helped shape this field. In Sweden, a man named Leif Edvinsson became the world's first chief knowledge officer at a company called Skandia. This role helps an organization make the most of its intangible assets. Other important researchers include Ikujiro Nonaka, Hirotaka Takeuchi, Thomas H. Davenport, and Baruch Lev. In 2001, Thomas A. Stewart wrote a famous story about how important intellectual capital is to a group. There are now 27 different academic journals that publish research on these topics.

Groups usually pick one of two main strategies to manage their information. The first is called codification, which is a system-centered way of working.

This method focuses on storing facts in electronic databases so they are easy to find later. The second way is called personalisation, which is a human-centered way of working. Instead of just looking at documents, people talk directly to experts to learn from them. Both of these ways help people share what they know so the whole group can succeed.

Knowledge management, often called KM, is a discipline focused on organizational awareness, learning, and innovation. It involves using and sharing knowledge to help an organization reach its specific goals. This field is not just about facts; it is about how groups use information to improve performance and gain a competitive advantage. Many different subjects contribute to KM research. These include business administration, information systems, management, and libraries. Other fields like computer science, public health, and public policy also play a role. Today, the discipline is so established that many universities offer master's degrees specifically in knowledge management.

To understand how KM works, we must look at the different types of knowledge being moved. One common way to categorize knowledge is by distinguishing between tacit and explicit knowledge. Tacit knowledge is internalized. It is the kind of knowledge an individual uses to complete tasks without being consciously aware of it. Explicit knowledge is the opposite. It is knowledge that a person holds in their conscious mental focus. Because it is conscious, it can be easily communicated to others.

A researcher named Ikujiro Nonaka proposed a model to show how these two interact. He called it the SECI model, which stands for Socialisation, Externalisation, Combination, and Internalisation. In this model, knowledge follows a spiral. Implicit knowledge is extracted to become explicit knowledge. Then, that explicit knowledge is re-internalized back into implicit knowledge.

There are several different schools of thought regarding how organizations should approach KM. A techno-centric approach focuses on technology. It looks for tools that enhance the creation and sharing of knowledge. An organizational approach focuses on how to design a company to facilitate knowledge processes. There is also a social-psychological approach. This view looks at how social networks contribute to a transactive memory system. Finally, an ecological approach views the interaction of people, identity, and knowledge as a complex adaptive system. This is similar to how a natural ecosystem works. Regardless of the approach, most KM programs rely on three core components: people and culture, processes and structure, and technology.

Knowledge management has a long history of helping people learn. In the past, people used formal apprenticeships, mentoring, and on-the-job discussions. As computers became more common in the second half of the 20th century, new technologies were introduced. These include knowledge bases, expert systems, and information repositories. Intranets and computer-supported cooperative work also helped people share information more easily. In 1999, the term personal knowledge management was introduced. This refers specifically to managing knowledge at the individual level rather than the organizational level.

The discipline gained significant prominence in the 1990s. This growth was centered on the concept of "knowledge workers." This term was first identified by Peter Drucker in his 1954 book, "The Practice of Management." As the field grew, specific roles emerged. In Sweden, the company Skandia hired Leif Edvinsson as the world's first chief knowledge officer (CKO). The goal of a CKO is to manage and maximize the intangible assets of an organization. Other important researchers include Ikujiro Nonaka, Hirotaka Takeuchi, Thomas H. Davenport, and Baruch Lev. In 2001, Thomas A. Stewart published a famous cover story about the importance of intellectual capital.

Organizations generally use two main strategies to manage their knowledge: codification and personalisation. A codification strategy is a system-oriented method. It is a "people-to-document" approach. This method focuses on collecting and storing explicit knowledge in electronic databases. It relies heavily on information infrastructure so that knowledge is easy to retrieve. In contrast, a personalisation strategy is human-oriented. It focuses on improving knowledge flows through networking. Instead of looking at documents, individuals make knowledge requests of experts on an ad hoc basis. In this method, information technology only serves to facilitate communication between people.

Applying knowledge management can be difficult in certain settings. For example, a supply chain can be a very challenging environment for KM. This is because a supply chain involves several different businesses. These businesses often lack a single hierarchy or a direct ownership tie. In these cases, researchers sometimes call the information "transorganizational" or "interorganizational" knowledge. Modern challenges like Industry 4.0 and digital transformation also add complexity. These trends create massive volumes and high speeds of information flows. This makes the generation and management of knowledge even more complex for modern organizations.