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 Knowledge Management > Dimensions & Levels
Dimensions and Levels of KM
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"Knowledge has become the most important factor in economic life.
It is the chief ingredient of what we buy and sell; it is the raw material
with which we work. Intellectual capital — not natural resources,
machinery, or even financial capital — has become the one
indispensable asset of corporations."
Tom Stewart, editor of Fortune
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Knowledge Management can be applied at strategic, tactical and operational levels. Historically, KM implementations have addressed three main dimensions: domain of enterprise focus, enabling technologies and workflow processes:
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Domain of Enterprise Focus
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Enabling
Technologies
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Workflow
Processes
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Business Strategy
Project Initiatives
Business Functions
IT Infrastructure
Organizational Learning
Product Innovation
Social Networks
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Document Management
CRM
Project Mgt Methodology
Collaboration
E-Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Decision Support Systems
E-mail
Data Warehousing
Portal Site
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Procedure Automation
Continuous Improvement
Total Quality Management
Customer Relationship
Process Engineering
Workflow Design
Best Practices
Communities of Practice
Social Networking |
A KM initiative may be strategic, tactical, or operational — or a mix of all three levels. When people talk about KM they may be referring to: (1) a holistic, integrated, systems approach, (2) only to initiatives affecting a single enterprise domain, or (3) to a single enabling technology or method of implementation. So it is essential that one is careful when both listening and speaking about KM to identify the scope of the discussion.
In order to manage the availability and distribution of knowledge within an enterprise, the type of needed knowledge (explicit or tacit) must be defined. Then the appropriate access and resource mechanisms can be designed and installed. The early history of KM generally focused on a "capture and store" approach, while later paradigms have emphasized "create and apply" methods. Clearly, both mechanisms are needed.
Types of KM initiatives have included technology implementation, leveraging knowledge assets, better retention of corporate knowledge, and forming & developing communities of practice. Grassroots KM initiatives that emerge from the collaboration required to solve existing problems have been often been more successful than imposed "top-down" initiatives — which often do not take into account motivation, trust and interpersonal barriers.
By collecting the artifacts of the KM process (documents, records, or meta-information about these documents or records) in a central or distributed electronic environment, KM aims to help an enterprise gain competitive advantage. The database or repository of these artifacts usually called a "knowledge base." Desktop applications provide the needed software tools and platforms. Internet and intranet "portal sites" provide distribution gateways to resources, knowledge bases, tools and flow of communication.
Verna Allee presents a comprehensive model of KM in which there are three levels of implementation: strategic, tactical and operational. The following table has been adapted from The Future of Knowledge: Increasing Prosperity through Value Networks (2003):
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Strategic KM
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Tactical KM
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Operational KM
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View
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A company is part of a larger ecosystem; knowledge that supports mission, vision, position & uniqueness |
Configuration of people, functions, roles & relationships; knowledge that support corporate organization & objectives |
All the activities, processes & systems that keep an enterprise healthy; knowledge that supports functional flow and structural maintenance |
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Frame
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Why |
How |
What |
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Purpose
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Connect knowledge to the business model |
Connect people to knowledge and each other |
Connect knowledge activities to business results |
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Key Question
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What is our purpose? How does knowledge create business value? |
How can we better create, use & apply our knowledge? |
How can we codify and share knowledge of routine tasks, etc. |
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Business Automation Objectives
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Create business value |
Achieve knowledge efficiencies |
Automate operational processes |
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Key Applications
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Business Modeling
Intangibles scorecards |
Communities of Practice |
Technology Platforms
Internet Portals
Databases
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Supporting Technologies
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Business modeling
Systems mapping
Knowledge mapping
Strategic planning
Scenario building
Metrics software
Enterprise software
b2b software
Dialogue
Learning intensives
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Collaborative tools
After action review
Knowledge mapping;
Video-conferencing
Project histories
Personalization tools
Social network analysis
Virtual team tools
Group processes |
E-Learning tools
Workflow software
Knowledge repositories
Best practices databases
Knowledge engineering
Imaging technologies
Search engines
Newsfeeds
Process documentation
Job-aid databases |
Allee has also created a methodology called HoloMapping ™ that depicts an enterprise's "value networks" in order to illustrate and analyze the dynamics of value. KM tools can then be applied to enhance value at key points of leverage to obtain the greatest benefits.
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