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CBKI4103
Knowledge Management
COURSE GUIDE
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to CBKI4103 Knowledge Management which is one of the courses
offered by Faculty of Information Technology and Multimedia Communication.
The course assumes that you do not have prior knowledge and experience in
knowledge management but you are encouraged to tap into your experiences as
a graduate, executive, manager, trainer, consultant, teacher and learner, and
relate them to the concepts, principles and explanation discussed. This is a three
credit hour course conducted over a semester of 15 weeks.
COURSE AUDIENCE
This course is offered to all learners from various backgrounds under Faculty of
Information Technology and Multimedia Communication programme. It is
designed for learners who want to gain and manage knowledge as individuals as
well as within the organisation. No prior knowledge in knowledge management
is required.
STUDY SCHEDULE
It is a standard OUM practice that learners accumulate 40 study hours for every
credit hour. As such, for a three-credit hour course, you are expected to spend
120 study hours. Table 1 gives an estimation of how the 120 study hours could be
accumulated.
Study
Study Activities
Hours
Briefly go through the course content and participate in initial
3
discussions
Online Participation 12
Revision 15
COURSE OBJECTIVES
By the end of this course, you should be able to:
1.! Explain why knowledge management is important to organisations;
2.! Describe the characteristics and understanding of different types of
knowledge;
3.! Discuss the impact of knowledge management on organisation and
knowledge workers;
4.! Compare between different knowledge management processes in
managing knowledge; and
5.! Discuss the use of technology approaches in managing knowledge.
COURSE SYNOPSIS
This course is divided into 7 topics. The synopsis for each topic is presented
below:
The first part of Topic 3 explains the major classification of knowledge, which is
organisational, tacit, explicit, implicit, heuristic, declarative and procedural
knowledge. The second part discusses the socialisation, externalisation,
combination and internalisation (SECI) knowledge conversion model.
Learning Outcomes: This section refers to what you should achieve after you
have completely covered a topic. As you go through each topic, you should
frequently refer to these learning outcomes. By doing this, you can continuously
gauge your understanding of the topic.
Summary: You will find this component at the end of each topic. This component
helps you to recap the whole topic. By going through the summary, you should
be able to gauge your knowledge retention level. Should you find points in the
summary that you do not fully understand, it would be a good idea for you to
revisit the details in the module.
Key Terms: This component can be found at the end of each topic. You should go
through this component to remind yourself of important terms or jargon used
throughout the module. Should you find terms here that you are not able to
explain, you should look for the terms in the module.
section), at the end of every topic or at the back of the module. You are
encouraged to read or refer to the suggested sources to obtain the additional
information needed and to enhance your overall understanding of the course.
PRIOR KNOWLEDGE
No prior knowledge required.
ASSESSMENT METHOD
Please refer to myINSPIRE.
COURSE MATERIALS
Becerra-Fernandez, I., Gonzalez, A., & Sabherwal, R. (2004). Knowledge
Management - Challenges, solutions, and technologies. New Jersey:
Prentice Hall.
Awad, E., & Ghaziri, H. H. (2004). Knowledge management. New Jersey:
Prentice Hall.
Debowski, S. (2006). Knowledge management. New Jersey: John Wiley &
Sons.
INTRODUCTION
Figure 1.1 illustrates a well-known Chinese proverb. This proverb shows the
importance of knowledge for a person, as it will always be with him until
the end. Knowledge is what one seeks throughout his/her life by means of
formal or informal education, training and apprenticeship.
In this topic, you will learn about the following: the importance of managing
knowledge, what Knowledge Management (KM) is and why KM is important. The
topic will also touch on the driving forces of knowledge management.
ACTIVITY 1.1
1.2.1 Definition
Although there is a strong interest from the commercial world, the term
„knowledge management‰ still suffers from a high degree of ambiguity (Hildreth
& Kimble, 2002). There is no consensus about what the term really means (Shin
et al., 2001; Salisbury, 2003; Call, 2005) and researchers are constantly attempting
to form their own definitions as shown in the work of Geng et al. (2005).
Managing organisational knowledge has many benefits, some of which are easily
perceived and understood, while others are not. Nowadays, organisations are
mostly valued for their intellectual capital and an example of this is the widening
gap between corporate balance sheets and the perceived value of the corporation
by investors.
Intellectual capital is composed of human and structural capital and is the most
precious enterprise resource. Human capital refers to the body of knowledge that
the organisation owns, which resides in the minds of the employee as well as
vendors and customers. Structural capital refers to what remains when an
organisationÊs employees go home from office, which is in the form of databases,
customersÊ files, software, manuals, trademarks and others.
This can be seen in Microsoft, one of the worldÊs highest most valued company.
MicrosoftÊs worth is not only in physical assets but also in its intellectual assets in
the form of structural capital, such as copyrights, customer databases, and
software for business processes. Intellectual capital here also includes the
knowledge that resides in the mind of MicrosoftÊs employees (software
developers, researchers, product managers and academic collaborators).
SELF-CHECK 1.1
1. Identify the two types of knowledge that are discussed in this section.
2. Why is there a need for knowledge to be managed?
3. Can we use technology to manage knowledge?
ACTIVITY 1.2
In the next section, you will look at the need for knowledge management and
how it can help organisations. You need to understand why organisations need
to manage knowledge.
You will notice several benefits of managing knowledge in this section and these are:
(a) Knowledge has become the new economic resource. Companies such as
Google and Microsoft depend on their staffÊs knowledge for developing
software.
(b) Improves organisational decision making as better and improved decisions
are made.
(c) Knowledge enables organisation to be innovative and innovation provides a
competitive edge.
(d) Improves collaboration between people and teams in an organisation.
(e) Improved business processes.
SELF-CHECK 1.2
1. What are the important perspectives on knowledge as a resource?
2. Why are there differences in the need to manage knowledge
between organisations?
3. What is meant by innovation and being innovative?
In this section, you have studied the need to manage knowledge and the
associated benefits of managing it well. In the next section, you will learn about
the forces driving knowledge management.
knowledge about the market, and sharing this knowledge among decision
makers will enable them to react quickly to adverse market effects on the
organisationÊs stock prices.
ACTIVITY 1.3
ACTIVITY 1.4
Activity 1.4
1. Give three reasons for Infosys Technologies to manage its
employeesÊ knowledge.
2. Justify why the management should reward participants for
sharing knowledge in an organisation.
3. Discuss why people do not want to share their knowledge with
others.
4. Knowledge management initiatives involve technology and non-
technology implementation. Elaborate this statement.
5. Implementing a knowledge management initiative involves
creative thinking. Do you agree with this statement?
ACTIVITY 1.5
Activity 1.4
1. Discuss the basic knowledge management practices that you have
done. For example, having a template for letter writing in soft
copy.
2. Discuss some knowledge management books and articles that you
have read before.
3. Make up a working definition for the following terms:
(a) Knowledge
(b) Domain knowledge
(c) Intellectual capital
Argote, L., McEvily, B., & Reagans, R. (2003). Introduction to the special issues on
managing knowledge in organisations: Creating, retaining, and transferring
knowledge. Management science, 46(4), v–viii.
Becerra-Fernandez, I., Gonzalez, A., & Sabherwal, R. (2004). Knowledge
management – challenges, solutions, and technologies. New Jersey: Prentice
Hall.
Benbya, H., & Belbaly, N. A. (2005). Mechanisms for knowledge management
systems effectiveness: An exploratory analysis. Knowledge and process
management, 12(3), 201–216.
Benjamins, R.V., Fensel, D., & Perez-Gomez, A. (1998, October). Knowledge
management through ontologies. Second international conference on
practical aspects of knowledge management (PAKM'98). Basel, Switzerland.
Lau, H. C. W., Wong, C. W. Y., Hui, I. K., & Pun, K. F. (2003). Design and
implementation of an integrated knowledge system. Knowledge based
systems, 16(2), 69–76.
Leung, R. W. K., Lau, H. C. W., & Kwong, C. K. (2003). An expert system to
support the optimisation of ion plating process: An OLAP-based fuzzy-cum-
GA approach. Expert systems with applications, 25(3), 313–330.
Marwick, A. D. (2001). Knowledge management technology. IBM systems
journal, 40(4), 814–830.
Moffett, S., McAdam, R., & Parkinson, S. (2004). Technology utilisation for
knowledge management. Knowledge and process management, 11(3), 75–184.
Nonaka, I., & Takeuchi, H. (1995). The knowledge creating company: How
Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation. Oxford University
Press: Cambridge.
Rowley, J. (1999). What is knowledge management? Library management, 20(8),
416–419.
Sallis, E., & Jones, G. (2002). Knowledge management in education: Enhancing
learning & education. Kogan Page: Boston.
Schreiber, G., Akkermans, H., Anjewierden, A., de Hoog, R., Shadbolt, N., de
Velde, W. V., & Wielinga, B. (1999). Knowledge engineering and
management: The CommonKADS methodology. MIT Press: Cambridge.
Shin, M., Holden, T., & Schmidt, R. A. (2001). From knowledge theory to
management practice: Towards an integrated approach. Information
processing & management, 37(2), 335–355.
Turban, E., Leidner, D., McLean, E., & Wetherbe, J. (2007). Information
technology for management: Transforming organisations in the digital
economy. John Wiley & Sons: New Jersey.
Salisbury, M. W. (2003). Putting theory into practice to build knowledge
management systems. Journal of Knowledge Management, 7(2), 128–141.
Call, D. (2005). Knowledge management – not rocket science. Journal of
Knowledge Management, 9(2), 19–30.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
1. Define knowledge;
2. Discuss the characteristics of knowledge;
3. Present different views of knowledge;
4. Discuss the data, information and knowledge hierarchy; and
\ 5. Explain knowledge advantage.
INTRODUCTION
True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing. And in knowing
that you know nothing, that makes you the smartest of all.
Socrates
Arabian proverb
These sayings show that to gain knowledge, one must be willing to learn what is
unknown to him, and knowledge is what we seek that will lead us to wisdom.
ACTIVITY 2.1
2.1.1 Definition
Here, you will look at three different definitions of knowledge through different
perspectives: general perspective, knowledge management (KM) perspective and
knowledge engineering perspective. There exist other perspectives but our
discussion is limited to these as we are interested in interpreting knowledge from
the knowledge management scope.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines knowledge as: (1) Information and skills
acquired through experience or education; (2) The sum of what is known; and
(3) Awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation.
From the KM perspective, Davenport and Prusak (2000) said the following:
Schreiber et al. (1999), on the other hand, taking a knowledge engineering (KE)
perspective, defines knowledge as that which „is the whole body of data and
information that people bring to bear to practical use in action, in order to carry
out tasks and create new information. Knowledge adds two distinct aspects: first,
SELF-CHECK 2.1
1. What is knowledge?
2. What are the four kinds of knowledge defined by the Greeks?
ACTIVITY 2.2
ACTIVITY 2.3
Knowledge is different from data and information, although these three terms
are often used interchangeably. To understand the difference among data,
information and knowledge, you need to analyse them in greater detail.
Figure 2.1 presents the transition from data to information, information to
knowledge, and knowledge to wisdom, which are supported by understanding
during the transition between stages.
Sections 2.4.1 to 2.4.3 will elaborate in detail on what data, information and
knowledge are. You should pay special attention to this section as our discussion
and understanding of knowledge is based on this data-information and knowledge
relationship, which is widely adopted in the computer science field.
2.4.1 Data
Data can be defined as a set of discrete facts about events. It may comprise facts,
observations or perceptions (both right and wrong), elementary descriptions of
things, events and activities. Data is commonly perceived as potential
information and is more objective and tangible compared to information and
data. Data represents numbers, alphanumeric figures, sounds or images that
have no context, meaning or intent. Data does not make much sense by itself and
is of no value to anyone and does not provide any information about its
relevance. Although data has no context, meaning or intent, it can be captured
without trouble, stored in databases (consisting of stored data organised for
retrieval), and communicated using electronic or other media. The following two
examples discuss data, and will be built up further for the discussion on
information and knowledge in the later part:
Example 1: A car dealerÊs sales order for two Proton Persona and one Proton
Waja cars is an example of data.
2.4.2 Information
Information is organised data that has meaning, possesses context, is relevant
and is of value to the recipient. Information usually involves the manipulation of
raw data to get a more meaningful indication of trends or patterns in the data.
The recipient interprets the meaning and draws conclusions and implications
from the data. Data are usually processed into information using application, and
this processing shows a more specific use and a higher value added than simple
retrieval from a database.
The following two examples continue from the previous examples of data:
Example 1: For the manager of the car dealer company, the numbers showing the
daily car sales of different models are regarded as information.
Example 2: The numbers of cars passing through the toll booth aggregated into
different time periods or days that support the decision-making process are
regarded as information.
Based on these examples, whether some facts are considered information or just
data depends on the person using those facts. The facts about the daily car sales
represent information for the manager but for the customer it is just data. If the
car dealer company is one out of a chain of 35 dealers, these facts about the daily
sales are only data for the top management of the company. As such, it can be
said that any information that is of no use to a person is just data for them.
2.4.3 Knowledge
Knowledge consists of organised and processed data and/or information that is
used to communicate understanding, experience, accumulated learning and
expertise as they are used to current problem or activities. Knowledge can also
be seen as highly contextualised information made more meaningful by adding
individual expertise and interpretation in order to perform tasks or create new
information. Knowledge also adds two distinct aspects to information: first, a
sense of purpose as knowledge is applied to achieve a goal; and second, a
generative capability, as one of the important roles of knowledge is to produce
new information. One way knowledge is captured is by reading and
understanding information.
Example 1: The daily sales of cars and other information such as market interest
rates for car loans can help the management to decide on running special
promotions during festive seasons such as Hari Raya and Chinese New Year.
Understanding the relationship between the number of cars sold, interest rates
and the effect of festive promotions is considered as knowledge about car sales.
Example 2: The aggregated information about the number of cars going through
the toll booth, information about staff schedule and long weekend breaks will
assist the management in making decisions about overtime work for staff.
Knowing the relationship between these factors and other factors such as school
holidays in determining the overtime schedule is the act of knowledge of the
manager.
Knowledge
Value
Zero Low Medium High Very High
Data Information
This is one of the reasons why there is no unilateral classification of any entity
either as information or knowledge. Section 2.4.4 elaborates on this view.
Figure 2.3: The recursive relationship among data, information and knowledge
Source: Bhatt, (2001)
The main reason the relationship among data, information and knowledge is
recursive lies in the basic fact that all of them are interrelated through the input-
process-output (IPO) concept in an information system. In the IPO concept, an
output of a process can also become an input to another process. Information for
one person might just be data for another person, and knowledge for one person
might just be information for another. This argument is similar to the one given
by Schreiber et al. (1999), who suggested that the three views (data, information
and knowledge) are interrelated and are very much dependent on the „context‰
of the viewer.
ACTIVITY 2.4
SELF-CHECK 2.2
available in new models of BMW cars sold at premium prices. This allows
BMW to showcase its superior technology and compete for a bigger market
share in the luxury car market segment with Mercedes Benz and Volvo.
ACTIVITY 2.5
1. Knowledge in people plays an important role in managing
knowledge. Discuss.
2. Explain why knowledge in process is important in streamlining
business processes and cost savings.
3. Explain why „intelligent/smart‰ products are in demand.
4. Justify why „intelligent/smart‰ products are worth their prices.
ACTIVITY 2.6
1. Discuss the basic knowledge that you have learned so far from this
topic.
2. Make up working definitions for the following terms:
(a) Knowledge
(b) Data
(c) Information
3. Review why understanding relations and patterns would change
the hierarchy of knowledge.
• There exist many definitions of knowledge from several domains, and there
is no consensus of what knowledge is. The definitions are highly dependent
on how the community in that domain view knowledge.
• There are alternative views of knowledge, which are subjective and objective.
The subjective view represents knowledge from the outlook of state of mind
and practice. The objective view sees knowledge from the outlook of an
object, an access to information or as a capability.
Data Knowledge
Information Understanding patterns
Know-how Understanding relations
INTRODUCTION
Kahlil Gibran
Any piece of knowledge I acquire today has a value at this moment exactly
proportioned to my skill to deal with it. Tomorrow, when I know more, I
recall that piece of knowledge and use it better.
We must learn our limits. We are all something, but none of us are
everything.
Blaise Pascal
Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)
TOPIC 3 TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE 31
ACTIVITY 3.1
For example, some organisational groups such as those found in fast food chain
restaurants have their knowledge codified in work flow „metaphors‰ that are
unique to that group, and only they can understand it compared to people
outside the team. These metaphors are usually the result of systematic
communication practices that take place in the workgroup environment. You
would experience this type of knowledge when you work in a team during
your undergraduate days or in the office. Managing organisational knowledge
is an uphill task as it involves understanding the relationship between the
different types of knowledge that flow in the organisation, how this knowledge
can be captured, stored and used, and the role of technology in managing this
type of knowledge.
In Subtopic 3.2, you will learn about tacit knowledge, which is a major type of
knowledge widely discussed in knowledge management literature. Thorough
understanding of this type of knowledge is vital when discussing knowledge
management.
SELF-CHECK 3.1
Tacit knowledge includes intuitions, values, know-how and beliefs that are
stamped from years of experience, which are used to create explicit knowledge.
Explicit knowledge is knowledge that can be easily shared and articulated
through reports. Subtopic 3.3 discusses explicit knowledge in detail. Tacit
knowledge is valuable as it provides context for people, ideas, places and
experience. For example, the knowledge of how to solve a problem (know-how)
is actually a matter of personal interpretation, ability and skill. While the
techniques for problem solving can be learnt in the classroom, the solution
created by one employee will definitely differ from that of another.
codified knowledge (knowledge that can be represented e.g. pen down what is in
the memory) that has not been articulated and the existence of it is implied by, or
inferred from, observable behaviour or performance (Nickols, 2000; Ichmann,
2003). You will learn more about implicit knowledge in Subtopic 3.5.
ACTIVITY 3.2
1. Discuss the type of tacit knowledge that you have, which seems
impossible for you to convey to others.
2. Why do you think it is impossible for you to convey it?
3. Do you agree with the phrase „we know more than what we can
tell‰ that Polyani used in referring to tacit knowledge?
4. Give five examples of tacit knowledge from your field or domain.
5. Identify the implicit part of the five examples you have given.
For example, a business strategic planning report can be circulated within the
organisation in any appropriate form such as memos, reports, procedure
manuals or handbooks and employees can read these materials and execute the
required plan. Explicit knowledge can also be computer programs, mathematical
formulae or they can exist as diagrams, in electronic or paper form.
However, most explicit knowledge is in the form of documents that contain the
work experiences of staff such as raw data, descriptions of cases or events, data
interpretation, beliefs, guesses, hunches, ideas, opinions, judgement and
ACTIVITY 3.3
Explicit knowledge can be the property of an organisation even after its inventors
or authors leave the organisation (Choo, 2000) because it is already captured in
the forms mentioned above. However, this is not true in the case of tacit
knowledge, which is often lost when the „owners‰ leave. The only means of
having access to this implicit knowledge is when it has been captured by the
organisation. We will discuss this later.
Both explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge can be managed using techniques
and methods developed in the field of knowledge management and knowledge
engineering. However, many researchers (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Schreiber
et al., 1999; Choo, 2000) agreed that most knowledge is tacit and is more valuable
to organisations than explicit knowledge. Despite this, tacit knowledge is the
toughest to manage as it resides in peopleÊs heads and is difficult to articulate
and share.
Based on the research of others, (Bolisani & Scarso, 1999) several differences
between explicit and tacit knowledge were highlighted. Their findings are
summarised in Table 3.1. Explicit knowledge is about knowing something and is
regarded as objective knowledge. It is derived from the rationalisation of
information and thus can be represented in formulae, diagrams, reports and so
on. It can be communicated, codified and transferred using appropriate
representation techniques and a shared language (such as knowledge
representation languages, formal logic and ontologies). Tacit knowledge, on the
other hand, is related to knowing how to do something, which is much more
subjective in nature. It is related to ideas, perceptions and experiences. These are
difficult to transfer directly by means of a representation because of the lack of
common ground (Clark & Brennan, 1991) and the fact that tacit knowledge is
usually only gained through experience and practice. Another important
distinction is that tacit knowledge has a higher degree of ambiguity, as it is open
to interpretation, unlike explicit knowledge, which has no room for
misinterpretation.
However, for the purpose of this discussion one of the most important
distinctions lies in what Cook and Brown (1999) call „the epistemology of
possession‰. Explicit knowledge is abstract and static. It is about, but not in, the
world and accordingly it may be owned without being used. Tacit knowledge, on
the other hand, is concrete and dynamic – it is concerned with who we are and
what we do; it is not something that can be possessed. Consequently, discussions
of „lost knowledge‰ tend to favour explicit knowledge over tacit knowledge.
For the purpose of this module, the focus is on managing codified knowledge
that is either explicit or implicit, and ways to manage tacit knowledge.
Understanding the differences between these two types of knowledge is
important when identifying the type of knowledge-related application/problems
that can be solved/addressed using knowledge engineering techniques as they
are applied in knowledge-based systems or in establishing knowledge sharing
sessions through communities of practice (CoP) sessions.
SELF-CHECK 3.2
to evaluate the policy applications. This is when the implicit knowledge becomes
explicit knowledge. Figure 3.2 shows the relationship between explicit, implicit
and tacit knowledge.
ACTIVITY 3.4
Figure 3.3: The difference between declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge
Source: Nickols, (2000)
SELF-CHECK 3.3
These four processes of SECI model do not occur separately but work together in
various combinations. For example, knowledge is created through the interaction
of individuals with both tacit and explicit knowledge. During interaction with
others, tacit knowledge is externalised and shared with others. Even though
employees experience each of these processes from the organisational knowledge
management perspective, the best value comes from the combination as new
knowledge is created, disseminated and externalised by other employees who
can as a result act on it. From this new experience, tacit knowledge can then be
shared with other employees. Therefore, all the four processes in the SECI model
are important and knowledge management solutions should support all these
processes based on the organisation's knowledge management strategies.
ACTIVITY 3.5
SELF-CHECK 3.4
Gradually, teams will establish their own beliefs on how something should
be done, who performs it better and how to gain value from it. This
knowledge is over and above the knowledge held by each individual
member. This is known as the synergy effect, whereby the group
knowledge is far greater than the sum of each individualÊs knowledge.
Communities of practice or online discussion groups, where individuals
interact (physically or virtually) and share knowledge and experiences
between them on topics of mutual interest, is an example of knowledge
within groups.
SELF-CHECK 3.5
ACTIVITY 3.6
• Implicit knowledge is the part of tacit knowledge that has the potential to be
articulated and its existence is implied by or inferred from.
• Knowledge can be translated from tacit to explicit and vice versa through the
socialisation, externalisation, combination and internalisation (SECI) of the
knowledge conversion model.
INTRODUCTION
The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say „I‰. And that's
not because they have trained themselves not to say „I‰. They don't think „I‰.
They think „we‰; they think „team‰. They understand their job to be to make the
team function. They accept responsibility and don't sidestep it, but „we‰ gets the
credit. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.
– Peter Drucker
The above proverbs show that to gain knowledge one must be willing to learn what
is unknown to him, and knowledge is what we seek, that will lead us to wisdom.
The above proverbs also show that one has to be an optimist in achieving
dreams, which is done by learning and acquiring knowledge. Working as a
team enables synergy between team members and gets the job done. Therefore,
understanding the impact of knowledge on people, processes, products and
organisational performance, as well as managing knowledge workers are vital
for organisationÊs success.
The two ways how KM can impact organisations are shown in Figure 4.1.
The impacts of KM on four levels and the inter-relation of effect between these
levels are shown in Figure 4.2. The impact at three of these levels – individuals,
products and the organisation is the top reason why US firms adopt KM, namely,
to retain employeesÊ expertise, produce products that enhance customer
satisfaction and increase company revenues. Subtopics 4.1 to 4.4 will discuss
these four levels in detail.
Source: http://www.ewenger.com/theory
changes without fear due to the KM practices that allow them to learn new
ideas and developments, and this enables the company to respond quickly
to the needs of its customers.
SELF-CHECK 4.1
ACTIVITY 4.1
1. Discuss how KM can impact on employee learning in an
organisation.
2. Give an example how KM helps employees adapt to
organisational changes.
3. Justify how KM can impact on employee job satisfaction.
British Petroleum (BP) has also gained from improved efficiency through
KM when an oil exploration geologist from Norway discovered a much
efficient way of locating oil in the Atlantic seabed in 1999. This method
requires a change in the position of the drill heads to improve the aim of the
drill, which reduces the number of misses.
This new method description was posted by the geologist on BPÊs intranet
to be shared across the company and has attracted the attention of another
engineer working at Trinidad. They exchanged messages on how this
method can be used and the Trinidad team successfully reduced five days
of drilling, which resulted in a cost saving of US$600,000. The BP case
proves how knowledge sharing using the power of information technology
in organisations could result in major cost saving. In the year 2001, BP
saved US$300 million through the use of KM and intranet in enhancing the
processes in its value chain. Figure 4.4 shows an oil rig in the sea.
ACTIVITY 4.2
1. Give an example of effectiveness.
2. Discuss how knowledge sharing can improve process efficiency.
3. Discuss why innovation is important. State the two main benefits
of managing knowledge in this context.
Figure 4.7: Partial screenshot of Sun download pages for software patches and updates,
and other resources
Source: http://www.sun.com
ACTIVITY 4.3
ACTIVITY 4.4
SELF-CHECK 4.2
There are no specific definitions of what a knowledge worker is but the following
definitions would help you in understanding this term well. A knowledge
worker is a person who:
(b) Follows and uses knowledge from internal and external sources, building
products that are distinguished by the specific information content in them;
(c) Is paid for his work which involves the processes of creating, manipulating,
or disseminating knowledge;
(e) Is able to obtain data/information from different sources; adds value to the
information; and distributes the value-added products to others;
(f) Uses his brain power (mental ability) more than his physical power to
produce value; and
The above definitions have several similarities between them, which can be
considered as the general characteristics of knowledge workers. Knowledge
work encompasses experience, innovation, creativity and transformation of
experience into knowledge for leveraging products and services. These workers
understand their business, their customers, their competitors, the business
environment in which the organisation operates, the usefulness of information
technology, external factors that influences the decision making processes, and
how to blend these different elements to make the organisation successful in
every aspect. Figure 4.10 shows the makeup of the knowledge worker.
(a) Hold unique values and are able to understand and adopt the
organisationsÊ culture;
(b) Align personal career development with the corporate vision and the
achievements of strategic goals;
(f) Have willingness to learn, unlearn, and utilise new ways, which would
result in better or improved ways of doing a job; and
ACTIVITY 4.5
(b) Share best practices, reinforce the importance of knowledge sharing among
employee on a regular basis.
(d) Minimise brain drain and human turnover at various levels in the
organisation and identify counter measures to address this problem.
(a) Agent of change – This requires the CKO to change the rather usual culture
of knowledge hiding to adopting the culture of knowledge sharing among
employees in the organisation. This requires the CKO to be the champion of
change among knowledge workers and management.
(b) Investigator – This requires the CKO to identify the problems associated
with knowledge sharing, and outline the procedures for implementing
alternative solutions.
(c) Liaison – The CKO is the liaison officer between employeesÊ expectations and
how the KM processes in the organisation functions to meet these
expectations.
(d) Listener – This role requires the CKO to reach out to employees,
interpreting their ideas and thoughts, and making conclusions out of these
interactions. Listening helps the CKO in understanding the problems faced
by the employees and management with regard to KM processes.
(e) Politician – The CKO should solve problems by not creating problems. A
respectable CKO is well-mannered and has good contacts, excellent
diplomacy skills and knowledge about the organisation. These skills will
help the CKO in persuading employees and the management in engaging
in KM processes and improving the acceptance of a new KM environment.
INTRODUCTION
What business strategy is all about; what distinguishes it from all other kinds
of business planning – is, in a word, competitive advantage. Without
competitors there would be no need for strategy, for the sole purpose of
strategic planning is to enable the company to gain, as effectively as possible,
a sustainable edge over its competitors.
– Keniche Ohnae
Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to
war first and then seek to win.
– Sun-Tzu, The Art of War
The above quotes argue the need for having a strategy in performing any
organisationÊs mission. The same is true for managing knowledge as any
successful implementation of knowledge management initiatives requires proper
strategic to achieve the intended goals.
ACTIVITY 5.1
1. Discuss why knowledge management has to be managed
strategically.
2. Describe the term „strategy‰ based on your understanding.
3. Argue when organisations need to adopt a strategy.
For example, Proton can use various media such as internet, intranet,
feedback forms, and other to gather customersÊ knowledge of using the
previous model. As such the valuable knowledge from customers can be
shared, and Proton can leverage von this knowledge in designing future
knowledge.
ACTIVITY 5.2
1. List and define the five knowledge development phases.
2. Discuss the importance of the knowledge development phases in
managing organisational knowledge.
3. Describe with appropriate examples, how knowledge diffusion
can take place in an organisation.
The HRM process make sure that the right people are employed, well supported
throughout their careers, and they are highly motivated to remain with the
organisation by building good employee support systems and rewarding
schemes. HRMÊs important function is in aligning the people processes with the
corporate priorities, so that employees strive to achieve the organisationÊs goals.
In a knowledge-intensive environment, the main emphasis is in providing the
necessary support required for development, growth and the continuous
development of knowledge-related capabilities and potentials. HRM services
also assist with knowledge transfer across organisation through and other forms
of training in other departments and units.
Knowledge is drawn from people and most people have developed their
knowledge as a result of years of experiences, learning and interacting with other
people. However, many knowledge management processes are built around
systems and most of these fail as these systems fails to address the needs of
people or communities. Technology complements human-based processes in
implementing knowledge management. Therefore, knowledge management
should be based on the basic understanding of people, their requirements, their
preferences, and the ways in which they can be motivated and encouraged to
share their attitudes and values toward knowledge sharing.
ACTIVITY 5.3
ACTIVITY 5.4
1. What constitutes the organisational core knowledge? Discuss.
2. Differentiate the three types of knowledge transference systems
that can be found in organisations.
(a) Planning
Strategic knowledge management needs comprehensive planning to ensure
proper execution of related activities. Planning would help clarify the
organisationÊs knowledge goals and establish effective values and processes
in supporting those directions. Both long and short-term goals should be
clearly defined to ensure that these goals are inline with the organisationÊs
(b) People
An important aspect of strategic knowledge management is the recognition
that strategic knowledge depends on people, as they are the ones who have
the knowledge and manage the systems as well as the processes in the
organisation. Therefore, their support to the strategic knowledge process is
vital to the organisationÊs success. A knowledge sharing culture that
promotes knowledge diffusion can be built through effective knowledge
hubs, networks, community of practices and other social community
strategies. Employees need to be convinced that there are social, economic
and logistic benefits from their knowledge partnership with others. This
implies that knowledge management is strongly supported by human
resources processes and procedures, and by the management at all levels of
the organisation. The organisation priorities and perceived values would be
a major influence on the way how employees react to knowledge
management initiatives.
(c) Processes
Knowledge management practices need to be practiced using effective
workplace techniques. Strategy, principles, processes and practices
alignment need to be well-managed so that knowledge management
principles can be implemented without any setback. Messages about
what is important may be perceived differently across organisation, and
employee should consider the rhetoric and the reality of consequences
when deciding how they should work and interact. If there is little tangible
commitment to knowledge principles, they will ignore the public messages
in favour of the local reality. Therefore, the actual processes require to be
monitored regularly to make sure that it reflects the organisations
knowledge priorities. Failing to do this would make the overall knowledge
management strategy is contradicted by the social context in which the
knowledge operates. The management infrastructure is very important
here for ensuring aligned practices, where managers could influence
significantly over the process operation.
(d) Products
Organisations develop their own knowledge products that may be
provided to clients or used within the organisation as shared knowledge
objects. Emphasising the development of core knowledge helps to identify
the range of knowledge products that should be cultivated, encouraging
their definition, capture, management, distribution and sharing. Different
sources of embodied knowledge need to be identified to encourage their
access by other employees. On the other hand, explicit knowledge needs to
be captured and distributed in an efficient and timely manner to make it
readily accessible by the employees. The identification and encouragement
of knowledge object sharing must be carefully planned since the important
goal here is in ensuring that all valuable knowledge is preserved and
accessed and both the long and short-term requirements are achieved.
(e) Performance
Organisational knowledge management must be regularly reviewed to
ensure that the financial and social investment is positively influencing the
intellectual and social capital of the organisation. Organisations also must
ensure that it balances long and short-term priorities to enable effective
financial management and development for future. Many companies strive
to find the best solutions for achieving efficient and cost effective, as well as
innovative approaches to their business challenges. Nevertheless, business
are aware that there exist many ways inefficiencies thrive and undermine
the effective development of better and improved processes, and the same
is true for knowledge management. Since knowledge management involves
long-term strategy that is culturally driven, there are many challenges in
measuring its impact and in determining how effectively the systems and
processes are contributing to better knowledge management practices.
Therefore, knowledge management needs to be evaluated continuously to
measure how well it is integrated into the business context, with the
expected outcomes clearly defined.
ACTIVITY 5.5
SELF-CHECK 5.1
ACTIVITY 5.6
INTRODUCTION
The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into
the impossible.
Arthur C. Clarke
The above quotation shows that people have to push the boundaries of their
work to achieve the most out of what is available. Then and only then, can they
claim that they have discovered the limit. The same is true in exploring the limits
in discovering, capturing, representing, sharing and applying knowledge, where
the limit is yet to be discovered.
knowledge has already been created and may exist tacitly in the minds of
experts. Knowledge creation assumes knowledge did not exist before the activity
that catalysed the innovation.
On the other hand, technologies can also support knowledge discovery systems
by facilitating combination processes. New explicit knowledge is discovered
through combination, wherein multiple bodies of explicit knowledge (data or
information) are synthesised to create new, more complex sets of explicit
knowledge. Furthermore, existing explicit knowledge may be recontextualised to
produce new explicit knowledge, for example, during the creation of a new
business proposal to a client that is based on existing prior client proposals that
are successfully implemented.
ACTIVITY 6.1
1. Discuss how knowledge discovery mechanisms help facilitate the
socialisation process in organisations.
2. Explain the importance of knowledge discovery activities in
knowledge management.
3. Briefly distinguish between the activities of knowledge capture
and knowledge creation.
These meetings enable creativity to flourish and provide ways for sharing
knowledge and building trust among group members. Socialisation as a means of
knowledge discovery is a common practice in many organisations, established
either by accident or on purpose. Simple discussions over lunch or tea break
among employees discussing their daily problems can often lead to knowledge
discovery.
Knowledge discovery in database (KDD) is the process used to search for and
extract meaningful information from volumes of documents and data. These
include tasks like knowledge extraction, data archaeology, data exploration, data
pattern processing, data dredging and information harvesting. Knowledge
discovery in database involves finding, establishing and interpreting patterns
from data, involving the application of different algorithms to interpret the
patterns generated by these algorithms. All of these activities are performed
automatically and allow quick discovery, even by non-programmers. The
common scenario in organisations is that data are often „buried‰ deep within
very large corporate databases, data warehouses, text documents or knowledge
repositories, all of which may contain data, information and knowledge that
were gathered over many years.
Data mining derives its name from the similarities for valuable business
information in a large database, and mining for valuable information and
knowledge. Data mining searches for previously unknown information or
relationships in large databases, and is one of the useful techniques for eliciting
knowledge from databases, documents, e-mails and so on. Both KDD and DM
process by either sifting through very large amounts of material or intelligently
probing it to find exactly where the value resides.
The following are the major characteristics and objectives of data mining:
(a) Data are often buried deep within very large databases which sometimes
contain data from several years. In many cases, the data are cleaned and
consolidated in a data warehouse.
(b) Sophisticated new tools, including advanced visualisation tools, help to
remove the information buried in corporate files or archival public records.
Finding it involves massaging and synchronising these data to get the right
results. The latest data miners are also exploring the usefulness of soft data
(unstructured text stored in such places as Lotus Notes databases, text files
on the Internet, or an enterprise wide intranet).
(c) The miner is often an end-user, empowered by data drills and other power
query tools to ask ad-hoc questions and obtain answers quickly with little
or no programming skills.
(d) „Striking it rich‰ often involves finding an unexpected result and requires
end-users to think creatively.
(e) Data mining tools are readily combined with spreadsheets and other
software development tools. Thus, the mined data can be analysed and
processed quickly and easily.
(f) Due to the large amounts of data and massive search efforts, it is sometimes
necessary to use parallel processing or supercomputers to execute data
mining.
(g) The data mining environment is usually a client/server architecture or a
web-based architecture.
These patterns and rules can be used to guide decision making and forecast the
effects of decisions. Data mining can speed up analysis by focusing attention on
the most important variables. The dramatic drop in the cost/performance ratio of
computer systems has enabled many organisations to start applying the complex
algorithms of data mining techniques.
There are many success stories of using DM techniques to create new knowledge.
The following are some examples of the application of DM to KM for business:
(a) Marketing
Predictive DM techniques, such as artificial neural networks, are used for
target marketing including market segmentation. This allows marketing
departments to segment customers according to basic demographic
characteristics, such as gender, age, income and purchasing patterns. These
techniques have also been used to improve direct marketing campaigns,
through an understanding of which customers are likely to respond to new
products based on their previous consumer behaviour.
(b) Retail
DM methods have been used for sales forecasting by taking into
consideration multiple market variables, such as customer profiling based
on purchasing habits. Techniques like market basket analysis also help
uncover which products are likely to be purchased together.
(c) Insurance
DM techniques have been used for segmenting customer groups to
determine premium pricing and to predict claim frequencies. Clustering
techniques have also been applied to detect claim fraud and to aid in
customer retention.
ACTIVITY 6.2
SELF-CHECK 6.1
The knowledge management systemÊs task is not only limited to displaying the
knowledge but also involves codifying it at different levels of reasoning or
explanation. Knowledge is often captured when the knowledge developer
interviews the experts, who answer the following questions:
(a) What do you do as a first step?
(b) What information do you consider next?
(c) What constraints do you look for?
The answers to these types of questions will lead the experts through several
scenarios or case situations. Then, the knowledge developer returns to specific
points and questions the experts further until all views of the problems are
thoroughly explored.
Just as the knowledge developer may not fully understand the experts, the
experts may be equally unclear about the role of knowledge developer. Experts
sometimes perceive knowledge developers as domain novices, who require
patience and who must undergo the apprenticeship process which takes them
from the novice to near-expert level during the building of the knowledge
management system. This perception requires the knowledge developer to
commit serious efforts towards preparation and familiarity in the domain that
they are working.
SELF-CHECK 6.2
1. What is meant by knowledge capture?
2. What are the three steps involved in capturing knowledge from
experts?
3. Why should knowledge developers focus on how experts
approach a problem during the knowledge capture process?
4. What visual tools can be used by knowledge developers in
capturing knowledge?
The next section discusses the interview process in detail. Interviewing is first
described as a sequence of different types of interview sessions, each having
separate and distinct objectives. Then, the discussions here focus on other issues
in the process, such as different ways for eliciting knowledge from the experts.
The first type of session is adopted by the engineer to learn the general
principles of the domain from the expert. The knowledge gathered here,
although important and educational, will not be explicitly expressed
because it is mainly used to gain basic understanding of the problem
domain. The engineer uses this knowledge to comprehend the more
specific knowledge that will be elicited in later sessions.
Then, the engineer uses the second type of session to understand and
gather the specific knowledge used by the expert. This is the type of
knowledge that the engineer must capture and represent. The following
subsections will describe these in more detail as well as some useful
techniques used in extracting knowledge.
The first few sessions after the kick-off interview are general knowledge-
gathering sessions. The main objectives for the engineer here are to better
understand the:
(i) Subject matter; and
(ii) ExpertsÊ opinions and viewpoints on the domain.
Prior to these sessions, the engineer must read about the domain based on
the literature suggested by the expert as well as other documentation that
are related to the domain and problem. At this point, the engineer knows
the vocabulary and has basic understanding of the domain. This helps the
engineer to converse with the expert and understand his answers.
Both these techniques are applied in an iterative way and are discussed here.
for when there is a need to just get a feel of the problem-solving process or to
verify some approaches used. Another setback of this technique occurs if the
experts are asked to think about what they are doing. This might catch the
experts by surprise about their approach, causing them to modify it or to
create a verbalisation that is much more complex than the actual technique.
Role-playing adopts the idea of role reversal, where the engineer acts as
the expert. The pseudo expert attempts to solve the problem in front of the
expert who then queries the pseudo-expert about what he is doing and
why. This is the process of observation with questions where the roles have
been reversed. With the cooperation of the right expert and appropriate
topic of discussion, this process can clarify and modify approaches that
were initially thought to be appropriate and can provide significant new
knowledge previously uncovered by the engineer.
ACTIVITY 6.3
Stories are also useful in capturing tacit knowledge as it is easier for people to
narrate their experience using analogies that are simple and easy for everyone to
comprehend. Furthermore, a simple story can communicate several complex
multidimensional ideas, by actively involving listeners in the creation of the
idea in the context of their own organisation. Through storytelling activities,
communities can be established and nurtured. In many organisations, the
formation of communities of practice enables employees with similar interests to
come together voluntarily and share their ideas and learn from each other. These
communities of practice are known as thematic groups (World Bank), learning
communities or learning networks (Hewlett-Packard), best practice teams
(Chevron) and family groups (Xerox).
There are five prominent representation techniques which are widely used in
developing a knowledge-based system and they are attribute-value pairs, object-
attribute-value triplets, semantic networks, frames and logic. The following
subsections provide a brief overview of these techniques.
Semantic networks are used to represent knowledge about objects and the
relations between them in a simple manner. The graphical notations can be used
to see how the knowledge is organised. The type of inferences supported by the
network is very restricted as it only supports inheritance of properties. It is not
suitable to represent very complex knowledge but can be used for certain types
of problems.
6.7.4 Frames
Frames are used to represent knowledge because experts represent their
knowledge as various concepts (frames) and these are interconnected. Frames are
considered as a variant of semantic networks and are widely used to represent
knowledge in a system. Frames are used to capture explicitly organised data
structures and the implicit connections of information in a problem domain.
Object-oriented programming languages have adopted some of the terminology
and ideas behind frame systems because of the class and inheritance concepts.
An example of a frame is shown in Figure 6.3.
Mammal:
Subclass: Animal
Has-part: Head
Elephant:
Subclass: Mammal
Colour: Grey
Size: Large
Frame systems support the default and multiple inheritance concepts. Subclass
objects will inherit all the properties of their parent class. Frame systems also
allow for properties (slots) that are just typical of a class, with exceptions
allowed, but must be true for all instances. The value of the property that is only
typical of a class is called a default value and can be changed by giving a
different value for an instance or subclass. Slots contain information on rules,
pointers to other frames, default values and procedures. Both slot values and
slots may be frames. Various attributes of a slot can be specified by allowing slots
to be frames.
6.7.5 Logic
Logic is another knowledge representation technique that is widely used in
developing expert systems. A logic is a formal system which may be described in
terms of its syntax (what allowable expressions are), its semantics (what they
mean) and its proof theory (how we can draw conclusions given some statements
in the logic).
Sentences in predicate calculus are formed from atomic sentences and express
basic facts using a predicate name and some arguments. Arguments in an atomic
sentence may be in the following terms: constant symbols, variable symbols and
function expressions. One possible way of defining the semantics of predicate
logic is in terms of the truth-values of the sentences. Logic representation is
widely used in logic programming languages such as Prolog for developing
knowledge intensive applications. However, business applications and users
demand simpler knowledge representation that is easier to understand
compared to logic, which requires a strong mathematical background.
Most of these frameworks suggest that a PSM decomposes the whole reasoning
task into elementary inferences that are easy to understand, defines the types of
knowledge that will be used by the inference steps to be completed, and specifies
the control mechanisms and flow of knowledge among the inferences. Therefore,
PSMs can be considered as design patterns in KE for developing KBS.
SELF-CHECK 6.3
The original use of alert system was limited to disseminating information about a
negative experience that has occurred or is expected to occur. However, recent
applications also include increasing exposure to positive experiences. Alert
systems could also be used to report problems experienced with a technology,
such as an alert system that issues recalls for consumer products. These systems
could operate in a single organisation or a set of related organisations that share
the same technology and suppliers.
The aim of lessons learned (LL) systems is to capture and share lessons that are
beneficial to employees who will face situations that are almost the same as a
previous experience in a similar setting. LL systems could be pure repositories of
lessons or sometimes intermixed with other sources of information such as
reports, and usually focus on multi tasks.
Several studies have proved that any technological support for knowledge
exchange and share requires participants to believe they know and can trust one
another. Communities are groups of people who get together to share and learn
from one another and who are held together by a common interest in a body of
knowledge. Communities get together through either direct face-to-face contact
or virtual meeting using technology, and are driven by the desire and need to
share and exchange problems, experiences, insights, templates, tools and best
practices.
There are systems that are used to share tacit knowledge, which are specifically
developed to support CoPs. People come together in CoPs because they are
interested in the topic and can receive direct value from participating in the
community, because they are emotionally connected to the community, or
because they want to acquire new tools and techniques. Communities grow out
of their membersÊ natural network; and follow five stages of development:
planning, start-up, growth, sustenance and closure. Although CoPs are not a new
trend, the Internet has enabled the proliferation of virtual communities,
facilitated through a range of collaborative technologies described earlier.
(a) Decreasing new employeeÊs learning curves. CoPs can help new employees
identify subject matter experts in the organisation who can guide them to
proper resources and thus foster relationship with more senior employees.
CoPs can help develop a mentor-protege relationship that can help
employees to develop their careers and to understand the larger
organisational context of their individual tasks.
(c) Reducing rework and preventing to reinvent the wheel. CoPs are able to
locate, access and apply existing knowledge in new situations. Repositories
serve as common virtual workspace to store, organise and download
presentations, tools and other valuable materials. Meta-data are used to
identify authors and subject matter experts. Most repositories include
human moderation to ensure that the messages are appropriate. CoPs help
establish trust within the organisation by helping individuals build
reputations both as experts and for their willingness to help others.
(d) Spawning new ideas for products and services. CoPs serve as a forum in
which employees are able to share perspectives about a topic. Discussing
diverse views within the community can often spark innovation.
Furthermore, CoPs provide a safe environment where people feel
comfortable about sharing their experiences.
ACTIVITY 6.4
(a) Direction
Direction is the process through which individuals having the knowledge
direct the action of another individual without transferring to that person
the knowledge underlying the direction. This preserves the advantages of
specialisation and avoids the difficulties inherent in the transfer of tacit
knowledge. Direction is the process used when a production worker calls
experts to ask them how to solve a particular problem with a machine, and
then proceeds to solve the problem based on the expertsÊ instructions. This
(b) Routines
Routine involves the utilisation of knowledge embedded in procedures,
rules and norms that guide future behaviour. Routines save on
communications more than directions because they are embedded in
procedures or technologies. However, they take time to develop, relying on
constant repetition. An inventory management system utilises considerable
knowledge about the relationship between demand and supply, but neither
the knowledge nor the directions are communicated through individuals.
ACTIVITY 6.5
Knowledge discovery in database and data mining are the technologies that
can be used to discover knowledge from a vast amount of data.
Knowledge sharing is the process through which explicit and tacit knowledge
is communicated to others. This can be achieved through systems such as
document management systems, groupware and workflow.
INTRODUCTION
Because we do not understand the brain very well we are constantly tempted to
use the latest technology as a model for trying to understand it. In my childhood
we were always assured that the brain was a telephone switchboard. („What else
could it be?‰) I was amused to see that Sherrington, the great British neuroscientist,
thought that the brain worked like a telegraph system. Freud often compared the
brain to hydraulic and electro-magnetic systems. Leibniz compared it to a mill, and
I am told some of the ancient Greeks thought the brain functions like a catapult. At
present, obviously, the metaphor is the digital computer.
The quotation shows the important role of technology for humans, and how our
perception of technology changes as it evolves over time.
However, not all types of knowledge can be managed successfully through the
use of technology as some are better managed through human-oriented
processes with the support of ICT. Tsui (2005) believes that successful
implementation of any KM project involves the blending of technology, people,
process and content. To select the appropriate technology support for KM
requires an understanding of the extent to which knowledge can be structured
and the type of strategy adopted: codification versus personalisation strategy.
The codification strategy relies on knowledge which is stored in databases that
are easily accessible by people who need to access it. The personalisation
strategy, on the other hand, focuses on the tacit dimension of knowledge that is
embedded in people and is shared through person-to-person contact.
ACTIVITY 7.1
Storage and retrieval technologies are originally meant for using a database
management system to store and manage knowledge. This system worked well
in the early days for storing and managing explicit knowledge, and tacit
knowledge that are converted to explicit knowledge. Nevertheless, capturing,
storing and managing tacit knowledge requires a different set of tools. Electronic
document management systems and specialised storage systems that are part of
collaborative computing systems fill this void. These storage systems are
commonly known as knowledge repositories or organisational memory.
Table 7.1 shows the relationship between these knowledge management systems
and the Web.
Knowledge
Web Impacts Impacts on the Web
Management
Communication Consistent, friendly, graphical user Knowledge captured and
interface for client units shared is utilised in
improving
Improved communication tools
communication,
Convenient, fast access to knowledge communication
and knowledgeable individuals management and
communication
Direct access to knowledge on the technologies
servers
Collaboration Improved collaboration tools Knowledge captured and
shared is utilised in
Enables anywhere/anytime
improving collaboration,
collaboration
collaboration
Enables collaboration between management, and
organisation, vendors and customers collaboration technologies
(Group Support Systems)
Enables document sharing
Improved, fast collaboration and links
to knowledge sources
Makes audio and video conferencing
a reality, especially for individuals
not using a Local Area Network
(LAN)
Storage and Consistent, friendly, graphical user Knowledge captured and
Retrieval interface for clients shared is utilised in
improving data storage
Server provides for efficient and
and retrieval systems,
effective storage and retrieval of
database
knowledge
management/knowledge
repository management,
and database and
knowledge repository
technologies
SELF-CHECK 7.1
In the early 1970s and 1980s, AI development was ready for the technology that
KM would bring. Computer scientists from the AI field strongly believed that
expert knowledge could be codified, directly transferred and managed through
an expert system. However, this proved to be a costly mistake as human
knowledge was much more complex and context dependent than was first
thought; in the end, not all of it could be coded into a computer program.
ACTIVITY 7.2
systems are two well-known examples of early and successful expert systems.
This has led to the birth of knowledge engineering, a domain that supports the
development of these systems.
Expert systems continue to evolve as the need to have a stable technology for
managing knowledge grows and their current role as an enabler for KM
initiatives has led to greater appreciation of this technology. As a result of this
evolutionary process, different names have been given to this technology to
reflect its current impact and adoption as an established tool for managing
knowledge, business rules and process automation in software systems. In recent
years, the terms knowledge-based systems (KBS), business rule management
systems (BRMS), rule-based systems, and knowledge systems (KS) have been
used interchangeably with the term expert system. They all refer to the same type
of system, where knowledge (in the form of rules) is inferred in order to arrive at
a decision.
To comprehend this situation better, let us look at the technique how fuzzy logic
would represent various temperatures in a computer application to control room
temperature automatically. These terms (known as membership functions) are
imprecisely defined so that, for example in Figure 7.1, cold is between 50 degrees
and 70 degrees (in Fahrenheit), although the temperature is most clearly cool
from about 60 to 67 degrees. Note that the values of cold, cool and warm can
overlap with each other. To control the room environment using this logic, the
programmer would develop similarly imprecise definitions for humidity and
other factors, such as outdoor wind and temperature. One of the rules would be:
„If the temperature is cool or cold and the humidity is low, while the outdoor
wind is high and the outdoor temperature is low, raise the heat and humidity
in the room‰. The computer would then combine the membership function
readings in a weighted manner, and using all the rules, raise and lower the
temperature and humidity.
Figure 7.1: Membership functions for the input temperature in the logic of the thermostat
to control room temperature
Fuzzy logic systems are also useful in management decision making and
organisational control. It is used to detect possible fraud in medical claims, help
stock traders select companies for potential acquisition and decide risk categories
for insurance applications.
A neural network contains a large number of sensing and processing nodes that
continuously interact with each other. Figure 7.2 shows one type of neural
network consisting of an input layer, an output layer and a hidden processing
layer. People train the network by providing it with a set of training data for
which the input produce a known set of outcomes or conclusions. This enables
the computer to learn the correct example. As more data are entered into the
computer, each case is compared with the known outcome. If the outcome is
different from the expected one, then a correction is calculated and applied to the
nodes in the hidden processing layers. These steps are repeated until a specific
condition is met, for example, correction of less than 5% is achieved. The neural
network shown in Figure 7.2 has learned how to identify a fraudulent credit
purchase.
Although neural networks are very useful, there are several puzzling aspects
about them. Unlike a knowledge-based system, which has the ability to explain
why it has arrived at a solution, neural networks cannot always explain how a
solution is reached. Furthermore, neural networks cannot always guarantee a
completely certain solution, arrive at the same solution again with the same input
data, or guarantee the best solution. They are also very sensitive and may not
perform well if their training is too little or too much. Currently, neural networks
are used to aid human decision makers.
There exist many intelligent agent applications nowadays and these can be found
in operating systems, application software, e-mail systems, mobile computing
software, virus detection programs and network tools. For example, wizards
found in Microsoft Office software tools have built-in capabilities to show users
how to accomplish various tasks such as formatting documents, or drawing
tables, and to anticipate when a user requires assistance. Several names are used
to describe intelligent agents and these include software agents, wizards,
software daemons, knowbots, softbots and bots (intelligent software robots).
These terms sometimes refer to agent of different types or intelligence levels.
Procter & Gamble (P&G), manufacturer of personal care, food and household
products, used agent-based modelling to improve coordination between different
members of its supply chain in response to changing business environments.
Figure 7.3 illustrates the use of intelligent agents in Procter & GambleÊs supply
chain network. The network models a complex supply chain as a group of
semiautonomous agents representing individual supply chain components such
as trucks, productions facilities, distributors and retailers. The behaviour of each
agent is programmed to follow rules that mimic actual behaviour, such as
„dispatch a truck when it is full‰. Using agents, the company can do simulations
to perform what-if analyses on inventory levels, ion-store stockouts and
transportation costs.
Using intelligent agent models, P&G found that trucks must be dispatched before
they are fully loaded. Although transportation costs would be higher for partially
loaded trucks due to driver time and fuel to deliver fewer goods, the simulation
showed that retail store stockouts would happen less frequently, thus reducing
the amount of lost sales, which would be more than the higher distribution cost.
Through agent-based modelling, P&G saved about $300 million annually on an
investment that is around 1% of the saving amount.
ACTIVITY 7.3
The greatest challenge of KMS is to identify and integrate the three components
of communications technologies, collaboration technologies and retrieval
technologies, to meet the knowledge management needs of the organisation.
Earlier knowledge management systems were built with networked technology –
intranets, collaborative computing tools – groupware and databases – knowledge
repository. These systems were constructed from a variety of off-the-shelf
IT components. Larger management consulting firms like Accenture and
J. D. Edwards developed their own knowledge architecture with a set of tools
that combined all the three types of technology. Collaborative computing suites
like IBMÊs Lotus Notes/Domino and GroupSystemsÊ OnLine also provide many
KMS capabilities. Other systems integrate different sets of tools from a single or
multiple vendors, like J. D. EdwardsÊ Knowledge Garden KMS which integrates
Microsoft tools and products. However, the KMS technology has evolved to
integrate the three components into a single package.
The earlier enterprise information portals in the market did not have
knowledge management features, however, now most of them do.
Leading portal vendors include Autonomy, Brio, Corechange,
Dataware, Intraspect, Hummingbird, InXight, IBM/Lotus, Knowmadic,
OpenText, Plumtree, Verity, Viador and Vignette. Database vendors
such as Oracle, Sybase and Microsoft are also selling knowledge
portals. Portal prices typically range from a few hundred thousand
to a few millions depending on the requirements and the size of the
organisation. One popular knowledge portal in Malaysia is
myGoverment – the Malaysian governmentÊs official portal.
SELF-CHECK 7.2
ACTIVITY 7.4
Early versions of KBS were built around expert knowledge, as KE activities were
approached as a transfer process; however, this approach lacks the problem-
solving capabilities of the expert. Nevertheless, KBS developers quickly
discovered that such capabilities could only be captured through the use of
conceptual models in order to understand the problem-solving behaviour of the
expert. This leads to defining KE as a modelling process. Sections 7.6.2 and 7.6.3
will discuss this in more detail.
KBS testing is done in two phases: verification and validation of the system. In
the verification phase, the rules in the knowledge base are analysed for sequence,
structure and specification to ensure the logical correctness of the rules. Then, the
validation of the KBS is carried out to test the behaviour of the system in a
realistic situation. There are well-established techniques for the verification and
validation of KBS which are dependent on the implementation domain of the
system. For example, in safety-critical applications such as aeroplanes and space
missions, the reliability of the KBS is essential, and therefore a formal method
verification is essential, whereas in a low-risk application such verification is not
necessary. However, testing can also be done on the correctness of the rules
during the iterative development process.
The knowledge acquired from the expert is logically checked for its correctness
before populating the knowledge base. Reliability of the knowledge base is
achieved by removing circular rules that are contradictory in meaning or logic,
deleting redundant rules that provide different methods for the same problem
which causes knowledge duplication, and removing unusable rules that never
execute because of the contradictions in the premise of the rule.
In comparison with SE, the KE has one additional stage: that of knowledge
acquisition (KA). This stage is vital in KBS development as the KBS is designed
around the domain expertÊs knowledge of solving problems for a particular task,
such as diagnosis, assessment and so on. The acquired knowledge is then used to
populate the knowledge base in the form of rules, with which the system will
perform reasoning. However, in SE there is no KA stage as the system is
intended to capture information rather than reason with it and the actual dataset
of the database will be populated by the system user when the system is
deployed. Therefore, it may be concluded that the KA stage differentiates the SE
and KE domains when developing software systems.
The transfer approach also ignores the importance of the tacit knowledge
of an expertÊs problem-solving capabilities. This creates a new problem if the
knowledge base is to be updated, as changes require substantial effort in
reconstituting the coded rules in order to implement the needed changes.
Consequently, the transfer approach is only feasible for developing prototype
systems and fails to scale up when building larger and more reliable KBSs where
knowledge bases change. These deficiencies have caused the transfer approach to
be replaced by the modelling approach. During this time, the SE community had
already used the modelling approach to construct information systems and it
seems to also suit KBS development.
Another direction taken by the KE community during this time to overcome the
limitations of the knowledge transfer approach is through Knowledge Sharing
initiatives and the major outcomes of this work are ontologies, knowledge
interchange format (KIF), Knowledge Query and Manipulation Language
(KQML) and Knowledge Representation System Specification.
Developers feel that building a KBS means building a computer model that has
problem-solving capabilities similar to those of a domain expert. It is not
necessary to be an exact replica of human cognition; instead, it must simulate the
thinking processes involved in the narrow area of concern. While experts may
consciously articulate part of their knowledge, they will not be aware of a
significant part of this knowledge because it is hidden in their skills. This view
has been an important part of KE activities.
SELF-CHECK 7.3
the reasoning process of the inference engine to generate decisions related to the
problem domain. These features are unique to KBS and as such are commonly
used to define KBS in the literature.
7.7.1 Architecture
Architecture differentiates a knowledge-based system from an information
system. The reasoning engine (inference engine) and the knowledge base are the
main constituents of KBS architecture. This basic architecture was originally
developed and used in expert systems in the late 1970s and is still in use today.
The inference engine is usually programmed in a shell-based programming
language rather than developed and run with explicit declarative knowledge and
information to arrive at a conclusion. The knowledge base contains all the
domain knowledge represented as rules (production rules) that are to be
consumed by the inference engine during execution.
The current use of this architecture is a modified version of the original one. The
original architecture is shown in Figure 7.7. Here, the reasoning control actually
refers to the reasoning or inference engine, and application domain knowledge
refers to the knowledge base of the domain.
Figure 7.7: The basic architecture of the first generation of expert systems
Based on the KBS architecture presented in Figures 7.7 and 7.8, it may be
concluded that the core components of any given KBS are the knowledge
base and the inference engine (or reasoning mechanism). However, current
architectures differ from the original because new components such as
knowledge acquisition, user interface, and the explanation facilities are now
added to the core components to make the architecture much more suitable for
those current practices used in systems development. One example of this is the
Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)
162 TOPIC 7 TECHNOLOGICAL APPROACHES IN KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
user interface component, which has become an important part of any systems
development project and takes the form of a conventional graphical user
interface (GUI). Due to the growing importance of the user interface element in
any system, this component has been explicitly included in the current KBS
architecture.
Most knowledge systems adopt rules to drive their inference engines. Earlier
inference engines (such as CLIPS, VP-Expert, XeprtRule and KnowledgePro)
used shell-based production rule systems. These were written in a declarative
rather than procedural programming style based on algorithms such as RETE.
However, there have been developments in inference engines in which support
for embedding features in conventional programming languages such as C++
and Java are implemented, which simplifies the integration of conventional
program code with rule inferencing capabilities.
As a result, the Java Expert System Shell (Jess), based on C-Language Integrated
Production System (CLIPS), has been developed to enable enterprise software
developed using Java to have some built-in reasoning capabilities. Use of the Java
programming language to develop rule-based applications has prompted the
Java community to develop standards for Java-based rule engines based on the
JSR-94 Java Rule Engine API. The JSR-94 specification is popular among vendors
and is implemented in ILOG JRules, Jess, Fair Isaac Blaze Advisor, Computer
Associates CleverPath Aion, Drools and others.
The KBS technology has evolved from the early rule-based reasoning to
accommodate other strands of AI research, such as fuzzy logic, genetic
algorithms, case-based reasoning and neural networks. This evolution has been
beneficial to the knowledge management initiatives community as different KBS
technologies can be utilised in providing solutions to the problem domains.
Nevertheless, production rules are considered as the most convenient approach
in representing most business rules and are widely supported by many inference
engines. Section 7.7.3 discusses the benefits and problems of using KBS as a tool
for managing knowledge.
of the KBS to produce some decision for all possible inputs, while consistency is
the KBSÊ ability to produce a standard set of decisions that are true for all
possible inputs. Rule verification identifies redundant rules, inconsistent rules,
circular rules and unreachable decisions. Validation of the KBS is done by
executing the system and comparing the test results against the required
performance. This proves that the KBS is producing decisions only for the set of
given inputs. Validation and verification is an important area in KE and any KBS
that is crucial to safety and health decisions must be verified and validated; this
contrasts with those systems that are not safety or mission critical.
Using KBS the quality of the decisions made increases because there are fewer
inconsistencies than if the decisions were performed manually. Results produced
by the KBS are consistent throughout its operational lifespan unless it is modified
to incorporate new rules or delete older ones. Two copies of the same KBS will
provide the same answer to the same problem; human experts do not achieve
this level of consistency and such consistency is important in certain domains
such as insurance premium calculations for insurance policies. Achieving such
consistency is vital as decision quality is an important criterion when adopting
KBS, particularly in relation to decisions involving huge amounts of data,
variables and information.
KBSs are also capable of assisting experts in decision making even if the experts
have that knowledge to hand; this improves the accuracy and timeliness of
decisions made. Experts are humans, who have the tendency to forget and make
mistakes when making decisions. However, when the knowledge of the experts
is stored as rules in the knowledge base, such mistakes can be avoided provided
there are no implementation errors. KBSs will always produce the desired result
for every decision case, as they will not leave out any rule (consideration) in the
reasoning process. The decision made will always be the same and reliable.
ACTIVITY 7.5
ACTIVITY 7.6
1. Discuss the five artificial intelligence tools that are widely used
for knowledge management.
2. Provide a brief description for the following terms:
(a) Knowledge engineering
(b) Knowledge-based systems
(c) Electronic Document Management
3. Justify why the modelling process is better than the transfer
process in knowledge engineering.
4. Argue the benefits of knowledge-based systems as a tool in
managing organisational knowledge.
5. Explain why the role of artificial intelligence in knowledge
management is controversial.
Not all types of knowledge can be managed successfully through the use of
technology as some types of knowledge are better managed through human-
oriented processes with the support of ICT.
AI methods and tools are widely used to assist in finding expertise, eliciting
knowledge automatically and semi-automatically, interfacing through natural
language processing, and intelligent search through intelligent agents. AI
methods such as knowledge-based systems, neural networks, fuzzy logic,
evolutionary algorithms and intelligent agents, are used in knowledge
management systems.
Awad, E., & Ghaziri, H. H. (2004). Knowledge management. New Jersey: Prentice
Hall.
Becerra-Fernandez, I., Gonzalez, A., & Sabherwal, R. (2004). Knowledge
management – Challenges, solutions, and technologies. New Jersey:
Prentice Hall.
Debowski, S. (2006). Knowledge management. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Loudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2007). Management information systems –
Managing the digital firms. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Natarajan, S., & Shekhar, S. (2000). Knowledge management: Enabling business
growth. New Delhi: McGraw-Hill.
Turban, E., Leidner, D., McLean, E., & Wetherbe, J. (2007). Information
technology for management: Transforming organisations in the digital
economy. Boston: John Wiley & Sons.
OR
Thank you.