What is Knowledge Management?

When I started out in my first IT job, I met a guy, let's call him Bob. Bob knew everything. If you wanted to know how our 30-year-old billing system worked, you called Bob. Network down? Bob would kick it back into operation. He knew where the stash of good coffee was kept. However, just one month into my employment, Bob sent out a company-wide email informing us of his imminent retirement, causing major worries for management. Bob spent his last weeks furiously documenting everything he knew, highlighting a lack of recorded enterprise knowledge. What was needed all along was a proper knowledge management system.

Knowledge management involves identifying, organizing, storing, and disseminating information within an organization to enhance operational efficiencies, collaboration, and skill identification. It consists of three main types of knowledge: tacit, implicit, and explicit. Tacit knowledge is acquired through experience and intuition, implicit knowledge is practical know-how not yet documented, and explicit knowledge is information captured in various documents. The goal of knowledge management is to make valuable enterprise knowledge easily accessible when needed.

Keywords:

Knowledge Management
Tacit Knowledge
Implicit Knowledge
Explicit Knowledge
Content Management System
Document Management System
Data Warehouse
Skill Gaps
Data Security
Operational Efficiencies

FAQ:

How does knowledge management benefit businesses?
What are the different types of knowledge in knowledge management?
What are some tools used in knowledge management?
How can knowledge management help identify skill gaps?
What are the stages in a knowledge management system?