Knowledge Management: A New Idea Or a Recycled Concept?

Abstract

Reading recent knowledge management (KM) articles, one cannot escape the impression of a recycled concept. Definitions of the new field look remarkably like those of information systems, decision support systems, and even data management of the past. Since we believe KM is essentially new, a refined articulation of KM is desirable. Our point of departure is the observation that yesterday's data are today's information, which will become tomorrow's knowledge, and knowledge, in turn, recycles down the value chain back into information and into data. We outline a framework of KM that articulates the basic terms of this perpetual process. The proposed model defines operations and transformations of data-to-information, information-to-knowledge, and their reverse order. Such transformations correspond to a time dimension of pastpresent-future and resemble the process of abstraction. Based on our analysis, we conclude that knowledge management is truly a new idea, not a recycled concept.

Measuring KMS success: A respecification of the DeLone and McLean's model

“…The second are searchable indexes or catalogues of expertise held by individual employees. However, because it is impossible to capture and store knowledge itself, the best way to use it is to map it in an organized way [39]. The KMS can then help team members find individuals with particular knowledge to help analyze complex problems, thereby improving the diversity of knowledge in analyzing problems.…”

Analyzing the structure of expert knowledge

“…Many believe that explicit knowledge without the concomitant tacit knowledge is incomplete and will result in a suboptimal solution when used in a problem-solving task. The high value of tacit knowledge motivates the organization to attempt to capture it [58]. The elicitation of tacit knowledge has been identified as a challenge in developing information systems, since traditional and more modern requirements elicitatation techniques do not address it [12].…”

Examining the dimensionality and measurement of user-perceived knowledge and information quality in the KMS context

“…Knowledge maps are searchable indexes or catalogues of expertise held by individual employees. As capturing and storing knowledge itself is notoriously difficult, the next best alternative is to map it in an organized way [15]. A KMS can help team members find individuals holding particular knowledge to help analyze complex problems, and thereby improve the richness and diversity of knowledge employed in analyzing a problem.…”