What is knowledge management and why is it important and its types?
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Knowledge
Understanding the different forms that knowledge can exist in, and thereby being able to distinguish between various types of knowledge, is an essential step for knowledge management (KM). For example, it should be fairly evident that the knowledge captured in a document would need to be managed (i.e. stored, retrieved, shared, changed, etc.) in a totally different way than that gathered over the years by an expert craftsman.
Over the centuries many attempts have been made to classify knowledge, and different fields have focused on different dimensions. This has resulted in numerous classifications and distinctions based in philosophy and even religion. Though not directly related to our purpose here, the wikipedia article on knowledge provides some interesting background reading (go to article).
Within business and KM, two types of knowledge are usually defined, namely explicit and tacit knowledge. The former refers to codified knowledge, such as that found in documents, while the latter refers to non codified and often personal/experience-based knowledge.
KM and organisational learning theory almost always take root in the interaction and relationship between these two types of knowledge. This concept has been introduced and developed by Nonaka in the 90's (e.g. Nonaka 1994) and remains a theoretical cornerstone of this discipline. Botha et al (2008) point out that tacit and explicit knowledge should be seen as a spectrum rather than as definitive points. Therefore in practice, all knowledge is a mixture of tacit and explicit elements rather than being one or the other. However, in order to understand knowledge, it is important to define these theoretical opposites.
Some researchers make a further distinction and talk of embedded knowledge. This way, one differentiates between knowledge embodied in people and that embedded in processes, organizational culture, routines, etc. (Horvath 2000). Gamble and Blackwell (2001) use a scale consisting of represented-embodied-embedded knowledge, where the first two closely match the explicit-tacit.
Without question, the most important distinction within KM is between explicit and tacit knowledge. However, I find that the embedded dimension is a valuable addition, since the managerial requirements for this type of knowledge are quite different. For this reason, the discussions on this site will, when relevant, use all three categorizations of knowledge but the focus will always be primarily on the explicit-tacit dimension.
Understanding the different forms that knowledge can exist in, and thereby being able to distinguish between various types of knowledge, is an essential step for knowledge management (KM). For example, it should be fairly evident that the knowledge captured in a document would need to be managed (i.e. stored, retrieved, shared, changed, etc.) in a totally different way than that gathered over the years by an expert craftsman.
Over the centuries many attempts have been made to classify knowledge, and different fields have focused on different dimensions. This has resulted in numerous classifications and distinctions based in philosophy and even religion. Though not directly related to our purpose here, the wikipedia article on knowledge provides some interesting background reading (go to article).
Within business and KM, two types of knowledge are usually defined, namely explicit and tacit knowledge. The former refers to codified knowledge, such as that found in documents, while the latter refers to non codified and often personal/experience-based knowledge.
KM and organisational learning theory almost always take root in the interaction and relationship between these two types of knowledge. This concept has been introduced and developed by Nonaka in the 90's (e.g. Nonaka 1994) and remains a theoretical cornerstone of this discipline. Botha et al (2008) point out that tacit and explicit knowledge should be seen as a spectrum rather than as definitive points. Therefore in practice, all knowledge is a mixture of tacit and explicit elements rather than being one or the other. However, in order to understand knowledge, it is important to define these theoretical opposites.
Some researchers make a further distinction and talk of embedded knowledge. This way, one differentiates between knowledge embodied in people and that embedded in processes, organizational culture, routines, etc. (Horvath 2000). Gamble and Blackwell (2001) use a scale consisting of represented-embodied-embedded knowledge, where the first two closely match the explicit-tacit.
Without question, the most important distinction within KM is between explicit and tacit knowledge. However, I find that the embedded dimension is a valuable addition, since the managerial requirements for this type of knowledge are quite different. For this reason, the discussions on this site will, when relevant, use all three categorizations of knowledge but the focus will always be primarily on the explicit-tacit dimension.
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