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 Knowledge Management > Knowledge & Understanding
Knowledge & Understanding
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"Data are collected, sorted, grouped, analyzed and interpreted.
When data are processed in this manner, they become information.
Information contains substance and purpose. Knowledge is generated when information is combined with
context and experience."
Huang, Lee & Wang, 1990
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The distinction between data, information, knowledge and wisdom is foundational. An almost universally accepted view of these relationships was articulated by Stephen Tuthill at 3M in 1990. The following illustration, entitled "The Data Hierarchy," conveys several observations and assumptions:
- There is always much more data than there is wisdom, and wisdom is hard to obtain.
- Data processing can be machine automated, whereas knowledge processing is a human systems product.
- Information processing is a strategic blend of both computer tools and infrastructure (IT) and human systems work (knowledge workers).
- It is not a matter of asserting that knowledge is superior to information and data because each serves a distinct and essential purpose at its own level. Human knowledge depends upon the effective processing of both information and data.
Corporate knowledge can be addressed in three different ways:
- Knowledge as an "object" — such as a knowledge base or corpus
- Knowledge as a "process" — as in a social network or business process (including a set of dynamic skills that are constantly changing)
- Knowledge as a complex "self-organizing system" — such as a culture or learning organization.
It is probable that the most successful KM approach will incorporate all three of these dimensions.
The following classification of knowledge has been suggested as a way of organizing KM goals:
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"know-what" |
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"know-how" |
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"know-why" |
- Self-motivated creativity:
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"care-why" |
Gene Bellinger, in a white paper on Knowledge Management, offers the insight that the hierarchy of understanding proceeds from understanding relations (information), to understanding patterns (knowledge), and finally to understanding principles (wisdom). See http://www.systems-thinking.org/ kmbh/kmbh.htm.
| Data |
Raw transactional representations and outputs without inherent meaning; data are typically what we attempt to gather and measure, such as age, size or amount. Data by themselves explain very little, yet data are the substance by which explanations are formed. Data are often strings of alpha-numeric or graphic images. Data on its own carries no meaning.
"Data is represented as an item or event out of context with no relation to other things." ( Bellinger, 1997)
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| Information |
Information is considered to be organized and sorted data that can be used for answering a specific question. Information is based on aggregated and filtered data, such as averages, trends, and percentages (patterns of data).
"A message, usually in the form of a document or an audible or visible communication, meant to change the way a receiver perceives something and to influence judgment or behavior; data that makes a difference." (Thomas Davenport & Laurence Prusak, 1997)
"Information is represented by relationships between data, and possibly other information. The relationships may represent information, yet the relationships do not actually constitute information until they are understood. Also the relationships which represent data have a tendency to be limited in context, mostly about the past or present, with little if any implication for the future." (Bellinger, 1997)
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| Knowledge |
The state of knowing; both to the process of knowing and
the capacity to act. Other definitions include: familiarity, awareness or understanding gained through experience or study.
"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, processes, practices, and norms. " (Davenport & Prusak, 1997)
"Knowledge is information that changes something or somebody -- either by becoming grounds for actions, or by making an individual (or an institution) capable of different or more effective action."
(Peter F. Drucker, 1990, The New Realities)
"Knowledge is presented by patterns between data, information, and possible other knowledge. These patterns may represent knowledge, yet the patterns do not actually constitute knowledge until they are understood. Also, the patterns which represent knowledge have a high level of predictability associated with them such that the pattern suggests its past, its present, and its future." (Bellinger, 1997)
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| Wisdom |
"Wisdom is the talent for penetrating to the very core or essence of things. It is a highly creative and connective way of processing knowledge that distills out essential principles and truths. Wisdom tells us what to pay attention to... Wisdom is the truth seeker and pattern finder that penetrates to the core of what really matters. (Allee, 1997)
"Wisdom is the patterns which represent knowledge as what they are because of foundational principles, which for a time I called eternal truths but people beat me up so much I stopped. When one understands these foundational principles they then understand why the knowledge is what it is." (Bellinger, 1997)
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Knowledge differs from information — requiring different concepts and tools. At least six characteristics distinguish knowledge from information:
- Knowing is a human process, not a machine process
- Knowledge is the result of cognition
- Knowledge is experiential
- Knowledge belongs to communities
- Knowledge circulates through communities using a variety of communications media, tools and technology infrastructure
- New knowledge is created at the boundaries of old knowledge
The importance of acknowledging the experiential and social dimension of knowledge is based in the fact that knowledge depends upon knowers. Certain abstract language and philosophical assumptions of epistemology can make it appear that knower and knowledge can be treated as separate realities. Yet "knower" & "knowledge" are abstractions (like "subject/object" or "body/mind") that arise from the seamlessly unified fabric of reality — that is in fact non-fragmented, non-segmented, and non-dual.
There are two major kinds of knowledge:
- Knowledge of things (descriptive knowledge) and
- Knowledge of changes in things (productive knowledge).
Each of these kinds of knowledge can occur in either of two forms: Particulars are single, unique cases, often referred to as referents, examples or instances. Generalities are statements which apply to more than one particular.
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Kinds of Knowledge
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Particulars
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Generalities
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Descriptive
(Things)
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Facts, Information,
Examples,
Instances |
Concepts |
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Productive
(Changes)
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Facts, Information,
Demonstrations,
Instances |
Rules,
Procedures,
Principles |
Anderson and Krathwohl, in their book A Taxonomy for Learning,Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (2001), suggest a taxonomy that defines both the object of learning and the learning process.
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The kind of knowledge to be learned — Knowledge dimension
- Factual Knowledge
- Conceptual Knowledge
- Procedural Knowledge
- Meta-cognitive Knowledge
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The process used to learn — Cognitive process dimension
- Remember (recognize, recall)
- Understand (interpret, exemplify, classify, summarize, infer, compare, explain)
- Apply (execute, implement)
- Analyze (differentiate, organize, attribute)
- Evaluate (check, critique)
- Create (generate, plan, produce)
The following definitions provide an understanding of the context in which Knowledge Management operates.
| Organizational Knowledge |
The accumulated know-how, expertise and ways of working identified with a particular organization that become so embedded in the physical and social systems that the knowledge essentially remains accessible to the organization, even if key individuals leave.
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| Learning Organization |
An organization that is able to adapt to change and move forward successfully by acquiring new knowledge, skills, or behaviors, thereby transforming itself. |
| Knowledge Processing |
A set of social processes (including formal business processes) through which people in organizations create and integrate their knowledge. These include such processes as: create, identify, collect, adapt, organize, apply and share. |
| Knowledge Management |
The facilitation and support of processes for creating, sustaining, sharing and renewing of organizational knowledge in order to generate economic wealth, create value, or improve performance. A management activity that seeks to enhance knowledge processing. The overall knowledge management process is supported by four key enables: leadership, culture, technology and measurement. The most important task is connecting knowers together — building teams, building community — to collaboratively solve problems, engage in discovery, and be creative together.
"Knowledge Management caters to the critical issues of organizational adaptation, survival and competence in face of increasingly discontinuous environmental change. Essentially, it embodies organizational processes that seek synergistic combination of data and information processing capacity of information technologies, and the creative and innovative capacity of human beings." (Malhotra 1997)
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The driving forces behind KM include the following:
- The intensity of the competitive environment in a "knowledge economy"
- Globalization
- New and increasingly powerful Information Technology
- The emergence of the "knowledge worker" in a changing and mobile workplace
- The most expensive resource for an enterprise is knowledgeable staff.
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