Knowledge Management

Knowledge Management can be described as a management discipline that focuses on the utilisation of the knowledge held by individuals, though there is no single, agreed definition among those who work in the field. In fact, many argue that the name itself is a misnomer, because knowledge cannot be managed in the way that other business resources can. Other terms often used to describe knowledge management include knowledge sharing, intellectual capital and knowledge transfer.

 

Most knowledge management work focuses on recognising and using the knowledge that individuals posess to improve business performance.

 

An alternative term to knowledge is interllectual capital, which can then be split up into human, social and organisational capital.   We apply knowledge management techniques to get the best use out of our human and social and organisational capital.

 

An interesting issue in knowledgement is that there are two views regarding knowledge. One view regards knowledge as an objective entity. It can be converted into external objects like articles, papers, knols and transferred to people. The other view regards it as more subjective experience sharing. The communication of experience is not structured and happens as a dialogue. Knowledge transfer in the experience sharing paradigm occurs through meetings, seminars, workshops, chats and orkut discussion groups etc.