Knowledge Management As an Economic Development Strategy

The United States is shifting to an information economy. Productive capability is no longer completely dependent on capital and equipment; information and knowledge assets are increasingly important. The result is a new challenge to the practice of local economic development. In this information economy, success comes from harnessing the information and knowledge assets of a community and from helping local businesses succeed in the new environment. Knowledge Management (KM) can provide the tools to help economic development practitioners accomplish that task. KM is a set of techniques and tools to uncover and utilize information and knowledge assets -- especially tacit knowledge. Economic development organizations can use KM tools to enhance external communications of local companies including marketing and to promote internal communications within local businesses and help companies capture tacit knowledge. More importantly, they can use those tools to uncover and develop local intellectual assets, including helping develop information products, and helping identify entrepreneurial and business opportunities. KM tools are also useful in developing local economic clusters. Finally, these tools can be used to enhance external knowledge sharing among the economic development community and to capture and share tacit knowledge within an economic development organization

The integration of knowledge management in the operations of Malaysian banks

The globalization of financial markets forced bankers to be knowledge-based and be more efficient in managing knowledge in their banking operations. The importance of this function is accentuated further by the call from the Central Bank of Malaysia (Bank Negara Malaysia) to integrate the concepts of knowledge management in banking operations. In this paper, we discuss a research model called: Banking Knowledge Management Model (BKMM),which encompasses knowledge creation, knowledge retention and knowledge sharing and more importantly, how each of these elements can be integrated to enhance the quality of banking operations. The various components of BKMM are explained and we illustrate the application of BKMM in two Malaysian commercial banks. We find that the two banks apply the concept of knowledge management in line with BKMM but differ in their knowledge management approach. Despite different approach, both banks derive many benefits from applying knowledge management in their operations. We expect a wider application of BKMM by other banks in Malaysia would create a culture that promote and enhance knowledge management in the banking sector

Knowledge Management: A Discovery Process

Getting strategic about how you organize and redistribute knowledge can help just about anyone achieve their goals more efficiently. We at The McKnight Foundation often find ourselves at the center of meaty, data-rich, analytic conversations. This case study summarizes our yearlong exploration and planning to consume, organize, and share knowledge better

Factors shaping the evolution of electronic documentation systems

The main goal is to prepare the space station technical and managerial structure for likely changes in the creation, capture, transfer, and utilization of knowledge. By anticipating advances, the design of Space Station Project (SSP) information systems can be tailored to facilitate a progression of increasingly sophisticated strategies as the space station evolves. Future generations of advanced information systems will use increases in power to deliver environmentally meaningful, contextually targeted, interconnected data (knowledge). The concept of a Knowledge Base Management System is emerging when the problem is focused on how information systems can perform such a conversion of raw data. Such a system would include traditional management functions for large space databases. Added artificial intelligence features might encompass co-existing knowledge representation schemes; effective control structures for deductive, plausible, and inductive reasoning; means for knowledge acquisition, refinement, and validation; explanation facilities; and dynamic human intervention. The major areas covered include: alternative knowledge representation approaches; advanced user interface capabilities; computer-supported cooperative work; the evolution of information system hardware; standardization, compatibility, and connectivity; and organizational impacts of information intensive environments

Valorificarea capitalului intelectual - criteriu pentru performanta manageriala in societatea bazata pe cunoastere

If we can see the knowledge society as an essential part of the “external environment” of the firm management, that brings with it some specific opportunities and threats, we have to consider the intellectual capital – that integrates the two basic resources: knowledge and human – a key ingredient for the “internal environment” of the firm management, which determines some strengths and/or weaknesses that lead to the success or the failure of the managerial effort of the firm operating under the circumstances given by the emergency of three processes with global spread: the economic globalization, the managerial revolution and the knowledge-based society. Having as starting point the premise that Peter Drucker emphasized years ago: the managerial revolution represents the third essential change into the dynamics of knowledge, when knowledge is applied to knowledge itself, we have to accept the priority of the human factor – which generates, uses and valorizes knowledge in a never ending process of interaction with the environment. By continuing with this logic, we can not ignore that, even if there is no unanimously recognized approach about the meaning of the intellectual capital, it appears recently a quasi-unanimous recognized opinion regarding the first place that the intellectual capital has to take as source for the competitive advantage of the firm and strategic resource for its management. More than that, in a time when knowledge becomes the strategic resource for any of the human activities, firms shift through a new managerial paradigm that characterize “the civilized business” and promote management intellectualization. By this way, the valorization of the intellectual capital of the firm could become vital criteria for the managerial performance in the knowledge – based society.intellectual capital; managerial performance; knowledge-based society

Harvesting Knowledge

{Excerpt} If 80% of knowledge is unwritten and largely unspoken, we first need to elicit that before we can articulate, share, and make wider use of it. Knowledge harvesting is one way to drawout and package tacit knowledge to help others adapt, personalize, and apply it; build organizational capacity; and preserve institutional memory. The so-called know-do gap is one outcome of poor knowledge translation and organizational forgetting. In decreasing order of incidence, that is commonly attributed to (i) shortage of resources, e.g., skills, time, and finance, (ii) lack of buy in at all levels within and across organizations, and (iii) information overload. Shortage of resources affects policymakers, researchers, and practitioners equally. In the 21st century, intra-organizational flows of knowledge have become as important as the resource itself. And so, managing both stocks and flows has become an imperative rather than an alternative for most organizations. Knowledge harvesting is a means to draw out, express, and package tacit knowledge to help others adapt, personalize, and apply it; build organizational capacity; and preserve institutional memory. In addition to context and complexity, the concepts that relate to it are tacit knowledge stocks, tacit knowledge flows, and enablers and inhibitors of tacit knowledge work

MAST: Mental Ambidexterity in Strategic Thinking

There are two fundamental ways to think about what strategy is. The first one is strategy as a plan of action for reaching one or several goals. The second one is strategy as discipline, a formalized body of knowledge. The latter can be understood as the set of governing ideas that guide managers in the identification of opportunities for value creation and the realization of that value. In the present article, we argue that these ideas tend to fall into two main paradigms, which come with two metaphors about managers: managers as commanders and managers as designers. We further argue that these represent two fundamental ways of thinking, which in turn become ways of ‘seeing’ and even feeling. Is one better than the other? We suggest that is not the right question to ask. Rather it is important to appreciate that these are worldviews that affect how we interpret our day-to-day reality and our ability to see opportunities. We introduce the notion of Mental Ambidexterity in Strategic Thinking (MAST) and define it as the ability to hold both views of the world—that of the commander and that of the designer— and play with them simultaneously, rather than focusing solely on one and rejecting the other. MAST is an individual level capability; it is a flexible, non-ideological and fluid mode of cognition. At the core, it is characterized by switching flexibility back and forth between rational decisionmaking among alternatives, and creation of new alternatives, between what is and what could be. We illustrate three principles – i) intellectual humility, ii) contingent thinking and iii) poke into ambiguity – that act as catalysts for individuals to develop MAST capabilities

Collaborative knowledge management - A construction case study

Due to the new threats and challenges faced by the construction industry today, construction companies must seek new solutions in order to remain ahead of the competition. Knowledge has been identified to be a significant organisational resource, which if used effectively can provide competitive advantage. A lot of emphasis is being put on how to identify, capture and share knowledge in today's organisations. It has been argued over the years that due to the fragmented nature of the construction industry and ad-hoc nature of the construction projects, capture and reuse of valuable knowledge gathered during a construction project pose a challenge. As a result critical mistakes are repeated on projects and construction professionals have to kee

Knowledge Transfer Needs and Methods

INE/AUTC 12.3