What is a Knowledge Management System?

What is knowledge? The Australian Standard on Knowledge Management (AS 5037 2005) defines Knowledge as A body of understanding and skills that is constructed by people and increased through interaction with other people and with information. There is no single agreed definition of knowledge or one unifying theory of knowledge management indicating the immaturity of this management discipline. Davenport and Prusak define knowledge as a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information, and expert insight that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information. It originates and is applied in the minds of knowers. In organizations, it often becomes embedded not only in documents or repositories but also in organizational routines, process, practices, and norms.

What is knowledge Management? AS 5037 2005 defines Knowledge Management as: A trans-disciplinary approach to improving organisational outcomes and learning, through maximising the use of knowledge. It involves the design, implementation and review of social and technological activities and processes to improve the creating, sharing, and applying or using of knowledge. Knowledge management is concerned with innovation and sharing behaviours, managing complexity and ambiguity through knowledge networks and connections, exploring smart processes, and deploying people-centric technologies. Snowden (2009) states that The purpose of knowledge management is to provide support for improved decision making and innovation throughout the organization. This is achieved through the effective management of human intuition and experience augmented by the provision of information, processes and technology together with training and mentoring programmes. The literature is replete with many contested definitions of knowledge. See also separate document entitled 43 definitions of KM. From this it is obvious that there is no single agreed definition of knowledge or one unifying theory of knowledge management.

What is a Knowledge Management System? A Knowledge Management System (KMS) refers to either a technology-based or non-technical interconnected group of functions that have behaviour that enables or facilitates either (or a combination of) the discovery, capture, integration, sharing or delivery of the knowledge required by an organisation to meet its objectives. It can comprise a part of a Knowledge Management initiative or strategy to improve the utility of an organisations intellectual capital. A knowledge management system is inherently a soft open system. This means that boundaries are permeable and difficult to position. What may be useful to one person in one part of an organisation may be useless to someone else in another department. Any knowledge management initiative must therefore establish clear achievable goals that deliver benefits to the organisation, or a sub-set of the organisation, and take into account user and stakeholder requirements. The key principle is that it must be useful and solve a problem. A successful knowledge management system is founded on a clear understanding of: what the organisation considers to be organisational knowledge; what the organisations knowledge goals are;

where knowledge resides in an organisation, and its form; what knowledge components must be managed; and finally the absolutely central role of people in any system.

References and further reading Durant-Law, G., The Essential Components of a Knowledge Management System | Knowledge Matters. Available at: http://www.durantlaw.info/essential-components-of--knowledgemanagement-system [Accessed May 24, 2011]. Langton, N & Robbins, S. (2006). Organizational Behaviour (Fourth Canadian Edition). Toronto, Ontario: Pearson Prentice Hall. Tiwana, A., 1999. Knowledge Management Toolkit, The: Practical Techniques for Building a Knowledge Management System, Pearson Education. Maier, R (2007): Knowledge Management Systems: Information And Communication Technologies for Knowledge Management. 3rd edition, Berlin: Springer. Shelley, A, The Organizational Zoo - Resources. Available at: http://www.organizationalzoo.com/resources [Accessed May 22, 2011]. Snowden, D, Cognitive Edge. Available at: http://www.cognitiveedge.com/blogs/dave/2009/09/defining_km.php [Accessed May 22, 2011]. Standards Australia, AS 5037-2005 Knowledge management a guide