Knowledge management

The knowledge management (in English Knowledge Management ) - or engineering of knowledge - is the whole of the method S and the Technique S allowing Percevoir, to identify, analyze, Organiser, to memorize, and to divide Connaissance S between the Membre S of the Organization S, in particular the To know S created by the Entreprise itself (ex: Marketing, Research and Development) or acquired outside (ex: economic Intelligence).

The actors of the Organization should not limit themselves to the consumption of Information S rough. They owe Veiller of the Usage S of information, which mean Interprétation, structuring, capitalization, and divides Connaissance S.

The knowledge management is a practical application of the cognitive Sciences which are the theoretical base.

History

The knowledge management emerged in the Années 1980 following several reports:

the Information is not perennial in the Organization:

information is the main wealth of the modern organizations, in the form of Compétence S trade, of To know S, know-how, Brevet S, Stratégie S of Technologie S, or others.
In the traditional operation of a Entreprise, the useful Information (i.e. organized) is primarily held by the Employé S of the organization, with all the Aléa S that can comprise (ex: change, departure with the retirement, resignation, Dismissal or other causes of unavailability).

the nature of information is varied. It is possible to distinguish in the organizations three levels from information:

the Données which represent facts and are often quantitative
information as aggregates of data. Built according to rules and requiring a human intermediation (or at least a consensus as for their significance)
the knowledge perceived then as information has strong added value and requiring a human expertise

the quantity of information available for the members of an organization is too important so that they can quickly find information relevant and useful. For example, some Décideur S are invaded so much by the emails that they do not read them any more, fault of being able to sort effectively between useful and useless messages.

Stakes and objectives

Field of the knowledge management

Undoubtedly it is not always easy to show the Intérêt of a step of knowledge management, on the level of a Entreprise, was it international.

The knowledge management, included/understood with the restricted direction of capitalization of knowledge, reduces the direction of them to the internal field of the company, which was that of the data processing of the years 1960, and to the functions of recording.

In the context of the Mondialisation, multiplication of the networks of Télécommunication, so much interns (Intranet), that extended to the Partenaire S of the undertaken (Extranet), and to the Recipients in general as with the rest of the world (Internet) reveals the bonds who exist between the employees of different companies, on same the trade S (one speaks then about Filière S trade).

For as much, one cannot really define the field of the knowledge management like extending beyond the perimeter from a company. Indeed, as soon as one is interested in the context of the company, one is in the field of the economic Intelligence.

Nevertheless the knowledge management is an essential component of the economic Intelligence (Bernard Besson).

Stakes

The field of the knowledge management being posed, it remains with good in Percevoir the Enjeu X.

One saw, in the Histoire, the upheaval which the Imprimerie at the time of the Renaissance brought. After a few decades (1460 - 1500) where one used the Imprimerie without change of the organizations, came a time when the division of printed information became such as it modified the organizations.

At the total level (Territory S)

It is undoubtedly thus of the Toile. Contemporary technologies of exchange of Information bring much facilities, at the same time as they comprise Risque S, since the Information is not any more Contrôlée.

With the limit, a Information not controlled in a Strategic sector , an error of Communication (nuclear, Aerospace, Public sector,…), can threaten the Sécurité of the State S, and shake the interior Sécurité (Terrorisme). The Risque of reputation can be important, when information is disseminated on Internet, by ONG or associations which does not aim at the fundamental Intérêt S of a State (group of State S) or of a Territoire. The Souveraineté of the State S can be affected about it. A surface Communication of Undertaken, made within the framework of provisions of Responsabilité sociétale for company, without a solid knowledge management, can put in danger the Organization, if the effects of advertisement take precedence over the real Action S.

Another Stake quite as important, always on a total scale, touches with the development of the To know, the Savoir-faire, the Compétence S of the Entreprise S, which relates to also the centers of Research and development, the Université S and the Universities. The development of the Société of knowledge, or the economy of the knowledge what is relatively similar, results in the implementation of the Pôles of competence, which of course requires a true policy of engineering of knowledge, In Europe, this was the subject of the Stratégie of Lisbon (2001).

At the total level (Macroeconomic), there are thus two Enjeu X principal: the Safety and the cultural radiation and scientist of the country.

On the level of the companies

At the level of the companies, the Enjeu is located in

the performance of the company related to the Motivation of the personnel,
in the capacity of the Entreprise S to tie Alliances and partnerships in the context of economic Mondialisation, i.e. to organize Pôles of competence on the Territoire S, by sharing Compétence S and Connaissance S, and especially to concretize them in their implementation on the ground.
in the profits of the Value of the company related to the increase in Stock of knowledge.

With these Enjeu X is added that of the control of the Risque S: Risk of loss of competence, but also Risk S in general.

In fact the Stake X of the economic Intelligence and knowledge management are dependant. The knowledge management will more particularly allow the Organization of the collective Mémoire (in terms of economic Intelligence), which is a key factor of the perpetuation of the economic Intelligence.

Objectives

The objectives of the knowledge management are thus of:

to achieve the goal laid down by the direction (reduction in the turn-over, to deal with the grandpa boom, fidéliser customers, to support the innovation, to improve quality of the product, to avoid a delocalization…) thanks to an optimal exploitation of the knowledge of the company
to formalize and exchange knowledge specific to the organization (undertaken, association, administration,…), knowledge often not formalized the such complex Know-how and procedures resulting from the Experiment,
to provide the useful informations, and only they, at the convenient period without one needing to launch long and tiresome research;
to allow to capitalize information in an organized way, in order to perennialize them.

Related stakes

The knowledge management, much more than the Data-processing , puts directly concerned the Connaissance S of the Individu S, by the Interaction S required by the economic exchange S. This is made all the more necessary as the modern economies are structured in Pôles of competence S, combining the Entreprise S, the centers of Research and development, the Université S and the Universities, the Chambers of commerce and of industry.

Undoubtedly some are needed strategic Culture, of division of the Information, to set up of such steps under the best conditions. The Individualisme can constitute a frightening brake.

The Praxis plays a part here. The Cultural Factor and Sociologique is determining for the success of such projects (Pierre Lacoste, Henri Plagnol).

Concretely, the knowledge management consists:

to collect the knowledge of the people of the organization by talks and to gather it in reference books (ex: breviaries of knowledge) and/or knowledge bases,
if required to be formatted and to exchange this knowledge by the means of the system of the the Community of practice,
to diffuse this knowledge within the organization, in particular (but not only) by average data processing (on this aspect, to off see the 2nd principle of km defined by Thomas H. Davenport in Nap Principles Knowledge Management, 1995).

Some key concepts

Information vs knowledge

The Information corresponds to mechanical interpretation (IE: using computers) or human (IE: using brains) of Given S rough.

The knowledge is a combination;
- of Information S (or Observation S),
- of their Interpretation by the men who draw from their Expérience personal and/or collective, et
- of Model S, Theory S or Belief S which gives their direction to this information (Jean-Yves Prax). Without theory, model or belief, information is likely to be only “noise” and there will be no profit of knowledge.

The concept of knowledge thus calls upon the questions of direction carried in particular by the concepts such as the language, the Sémantique, the Croyance S, the Conscience…

By these definitions, one understands that the information, which is factual, can be easily capitalized and transported in documents, bases in explicit form, whereas the Connaissance, strictly speaking, is an item more Humain, Subjectif, and often tacit.

The modeling of the Connaissance S is related on the cognitive Sciences, and the ontology, which impacts the Information theory and has important applications in the Technologies the information.

Tacit knowledge vs explicit knowledge

The knowledge management distinguishes two great types of Connaissance S, in accordance with the contributions of the cognitive Psychologie:

the tacit Connaissances which are knowledge belonging to the world of the mental objects, of the mental representations. They gather innate or acquired competences, know-how and the Expérience of the individual (ex: to know to work a shoe in a wood ball). They are generally difficult “to formalize” in opposition to explicit knowledge.

This type of knowledge one can add the tacit reasoning : the specialist in the field observes the rules and principles which he learned, the expert adapts them according to the context, of the circumstances,… without inevitably being able to clarify it why. We enter then the field of the Raisonnement by case:. A case includes/understands mainly the description of the situation and the solution suggested, without indication of the advance of the reasoning, a case corresponds to the same compilation of reasoning as that of the expert.

the explicit Knowledge - in opposition to tacit knowledge - which is the knowledge clearly articulated on the level of a written document or a system Informatique (ex: wikipedia). This knowledge is transferable physically, because they appear in a tangible form: a paper document can be transferred by the post office, an electronic document can be transferred by a Email or via a Web site. They are then more “collectivisables” that tacit knowledge which remains more individual.

Access vs contained

With regard to the more technical approach of the knowledge management, i.e. that which employs means Informatique S, it is important to make the difference between the accesses and the contents, which are two very different markets.

It is necessary to pay attention to the expressions which the editors of contents, solutions Intranet and software employ: they tend to give to the expression " management of the connaissances" (especially under its English name of knowledge management (KM)) a direction which comes down to speaking in fact about management about the contents (content management) or about management about information (information management), i.e. more or less of information retrieval (search engines) associated with indexing. This " KM" there cannot be qualified of knowledge management strictly speaking. Recently, the concept of Cognition for making well was created this difference with management of information and contents.

Nevertheless the content management has an major importance in terms of Intellectual property. In addition, it has very strong implications in standardization.

However the knowledge management is not limited to its technical approach. There exist other practices, in organization and human resources in particular which have vocation to manage knowledge. Those are found today under terms like formation and management of competences. And this besides from the point of view much more faithful since the technical approach of the knowledge management is victim of a terminological confusion between knowledge, information and data.

The companies included/understood the need for supporting the division of knowledge. To arrive there, of the solutions were selected. Unfortunately, most of those installation are not adapted or are it only partially; two of the main reasons are the confusion which is made between knowledge and information and it not taken into account of the two facets of knowledge.

The tools of Knowledge Management have like essential support data processing. Explicit knowledge, by definition, is a knowledge which one can register on a support, which is not the case of tacit knowledge, but the essence of the knowledge held by a person is tacit. The management tools of knowledge having a numerical support make it possible to manage only explicit knowledge and are consequently insufficient. There is an imbalance in the solutions installation by the organizations.

The term bases knowledge finds its origin in the confusion made between knowledge and information. These bases are in fact of the bases of information on situations lived by people and on the knowledge held by certain people. Companies hesitate not to enrich these bases, which becomes very quickly of true works gas, which submerge you of information of any kinds, relevant or not.

The knowledge management includes/understands three dimensions

the human one and Management: The knowledge management must have a sponsor with the more possible hierarchical high level, and all the intermediaries must take share with the step. Management lays down the objective (relating to the line of business) and must take part in the identification and selection of the related strategic knowledge, and also in the exploitation of knowledge while ensuring their protection (tacit knowledge can protect the exploitation from explicit knowledge). Management must ensure of the actions of coaching of team and motivate the employees to collaborate, by transforming the possible vertical structures " tayloriennes ", of horizontal structures functioning by project, for tightening towards a learning Organization.
Knowledge: since the data with tacit knowledge, while passing as indicated higher by explicit information and knowledge. Related strategic knowledge is given starting from the analysis/decomposition (as in the case of an analysis of performance or software quality) of the laid down objective.
the Computer support (possible: this knowledge can be simply described for example in a book " guide good pratiques"). The computer support will depend on the goal of the application and the line of business. A company frequently answering invitations to tender in varied fields will use tools for localization of internal expertise and collaboration rapids and easy to use; whereas a company which sells standard products with large scales seeks tools for coding of knowledge to carry out standards offers and to present precise descriptions to the customers.

The structuring of knowledge

Sometimes it is called ontology, of the Greek word ontos , meaning to be. Ontology being here a formal representation of knowledge (concepts, properties, relations). It is indeed about the structuring of the heart of trade of the Entreprise, of its Mémoire, with entities (Métadonnées), texts, bonds, images…

This part is Essentielle to ensure the coherence of the Mémoire, compared to the other components of the Information system: the Record management will condition the good performance of the procedures of company, compared to the Norme S lawful S and to the standards of Comptabilité in particular.

Exploitation of knowledge

The exploitation of knowledge passes by five operations in addition to questions of general order: identification, creation, storage, division and use. Here the questions which the employees and leaders must put who want to check if they exploit fully and effectively knowledge (translated according to CEN Knowledge Management European Guide to good Practice in Knowledge Management, Part 4: Guidelines for Measuring km, Appendix 1, Example off has diagnosis tool: Knowledge Quick Scan):

General information

Strategy: does our company have of a mission, a vision and a strategy clear?
Division: are there conflicts of interest within our company?
Style: is the culture in our organization based on confidence, the respect, collaboration and professionalism?
Collaborator: are the collaborators strongly motivated to contribute to the objectives of the company?
Qualifications: does our company have competences to support its strategy?
Structure: are we very well organized (i.e. we have the organisational structure and the processes) to achieve our goals?
Systems: do we have the best information systems?

Identification

We know which are knowledge necessary to the support of our strategy
If you ask any person of the company where our principal expertise is, you will always obtain the same answer.
We are encouraged to find existing knowledge in order to avoid reinventing the wheel.
In our company, all the collaborators know who knows what.
We know to find knowledge available.
Our structure organisational reflects our fields of specialization.
We have systems allowing to easily find the knowledge which we have.
I often wonder which knowledge I have need to achieve my current and future tasks.
I know what I know.

Creation

We have an explicit strategy for the development (example: research and development) and the acquisition of knowledge (example: recruitment, partnerships, fusions and acquisitions).
In our company we agreed on the method of acquisition new knowledge.
We are encouraged to acquire and/or develop new knowledge.
the collaborators seek to learn and explore new work methods.
We know how to innovate
We developed methods of creation of new knowledge (example: partnerships with the university, training courses, rotations of station)
We have effective systems to capture and share new ideas and experiments.
I like to learn.
I can develop new knowledge effectively when I need some.

Storage

We have a clear strategy for the storage of our intellectual capital.
We share a common vision of knowledge having to be stored.
the hierarchy encourages the collaborators to store the learned experiments and lessons and to make them available.
the collaborators contribute (time and effort) to the constitution of the base of knowledge of the company.
We know how and where to store our knowledge for their re-use by others.
the roles and responsibilities for storage and maintenance for knowledge are assigned.
We have powerful systems, databases, Intranets, where we can easily store our documented knowledge.
I appreciate to be able to contribute to the base of knowledge of the company.
My personal knowledge is actually made available to the others.

Divide

the strategy of our company can be followed only if knowledge is shared.
In our organization " share knowledge = pouvoir" applies more than " possession of knowledge = pouvoir".
the hierarchy motivates the collaborators to share their knowledge by founding a climate of trust, (incentives, time and available resources).
We spend time to share our ideas and experiments with others, even if that does not correspond directly to our work.
We know how to share our knowledge in an optimal way.
Our organization (departments, meetings) does not present any barrier to the division of knowledge.
We have the systems appropriate (databases, Intranets, meeting rooms and e-mail) of supports to the division of knowledge.
I appreciate to share my ideas and experiments with others.
By sharing my knowledge I contributed a significant share to the company.

Use

We have a systematic approach directed towards the optimal use of knowledge in our processes trade.
We have a common method to optimize the use of our knowledge.
We are encouraged to use knowledge available.
We apply our knowledge to the improvement and the innovation.
We know how to use knowledge available in our work.
We know how to connect knowledge to the activities and process trade.
We have systems which facilitate the use of knowledge available.
I use readily knowledge of the others to become more effective, more powerful…
I prefer to use the ideas and suggestions of the others, rather than to reinvent mine.

Return on investment

Problems

To launch out in a step of knowledge management supposes to evaluate the profits and the costs of them.

One of the first building sites will be thus to evaluate the Return on investment, at least coarsely, even if it means to refine this estimate in later phases of the Projet.

It is the building site most difficult to implement with that of Conduite change, because it measures the capacities of evolution of the organization.

Five questions arise: is

Which the Stock of knowledge of the Organization?
Which bond is there between this capital and the individual Connaissance S?
How to allot a Value to this capital? is
Which the profits which will result from a project of knowledge management?
How to evaluate the Cost S of implementation?

Another question arises:

Which would be the costs of a dysfunction of the organization, related to risks badly taken into account because of noncross information: risks country, competing risk, risk of loss of competence, risks reputation, risks legal,…?

Stock of knowledge

Bond between Intellectual capital and individual knowledge

The purely centralized approaches of knowledge management show limits.

There exists an approach of knowledge management which is interested in the Utilization by the Opérationnel S. It emerges from the report that many individuals are submerged by the Information S which they receive. They are the people implied in the Veille which, the first reacted. There exists indeed a need to classify, structure, categorize information.

Various tools, often simple, unquestionable free, provide methodologies of knowledge management. It is the case of the tools of Syndication and the agrégateurs of flow RSS, of technologies Push/Pull or of the tools of Social bookmarking.

Beyond the personal aspects, these methodologies should not make forget the needs for Sécurité of information, which means confidentiality, integrity and availability. For example, one must define rules of diffusion and division, according to user profiles. Questions of arise then ethical, of right, and Organization.

Evaluation of the immaterial Capital - profits

Micro-economic method

One distinguishes tangible and intangible knowledge, as well as measurable and nonmeasurable knowledge.

The tangible/intangible axis is to be put in connection with the Actif S tangible (physics, well S) and intangible (knowledge, services). The manner of managing the immaterial Active to create Valeur is determining for the Valeur of the Entreprise in general, and reveals the capacity of evolution of the organization and the quality of the Programme of knowledge management.

It is in general more difficult to measure the Valeur of a intangible Actif (immaterial) that of a tangible Actif. The method of estimate of the intangible Valeur is determining.

The measurable/nonmeasurable axis corresponds to the capacity to define a measurement of the profits related to the Programme of knowledge management.

tangible Examples of profits

Measurable

Jobs created by insertion of the students in Undertaken;
Savings made in the use of Raw materials
Economy in the Budget voyage, especially in the case of the Plane.
Other economies on purchases of goods,
Increase in the number of cards treated by Internet;
Quality of the produced S, reduction in the risk of Liability for the defective products;

Nonmeasurable

Quality of the produced files.

intangible Examples of profits

Measurable

Satisfaction of the customer S.

Nonmeasurable

Good preparation of the Meeting S (in-house), Conference S, International Conferences, professional Living rooms (into external);
Goodwill, increase in the fidelity of the customer S;
Competences of the employees;

etc Studies are in hand in order to standardize the relative data with the immaterial Capital.

Measurement

In all these cases, one adopts the following methods of measurement:

tangible and measurable Profits: obtained by accountancy
intangible and measurable Profits: it is necessary to define a measurement (many treated files,…)

For the tangible and nonmeasurable profits, it is necessary to set up a prospective Instrument panel.
For the intangible and nonmeasurable profits, it is necessary to define qualitative means of measurement: environment in the company…

Indicating of sustainable development

The companies generally employ Indicateurs of management in their programs of Sustainable development. These indicators can be usefully distributed between the four types of profits.

Macroeconomic method

On the aspects Macroeconomic S, to see:

Company of knowledge, and on the economic aspects, economy of the knowledge;
the Capital article on the various shapes of capital, in particular the article Authorized capital relating to the aspects Cultural S, and the cognitive article Capital relating to the Knowledge and the To know;
the Standard S established for the Public accounts in Europe at ends of measurement and comparison, in the article: National accounting.

According to the Macroeconomic method , the just capital knowledge:

the countable Value of the company
market cap of this one
other contributions.

According to L. Edvinsson and Mr. Malone ( the immaterial capital of the companies 1999), the macroeconomic model is summarized by the ratio:

CIV = Price of the action * Nb of outstanding shares/accounting value

That corresponds to the estimate of the ratio of the immaterial Actif S (or intangible Actifs) of the company (CIV wanting to say Calculating Intangible Been worth ).

Note:

This ratio does not integrate the countable Valeur Immobilizations (grounds…) ;
This ratio does not integrate the estimate of the future results of the Entreprise, often presents in the price of the action;
This report/ratio is useful within the framework of companies in same the Branch of industry;
It must be used at ends of comparison.

This ratio is interesting for the companies of new technologies, from the point of view of the human capital or the capital of innovation.

It is interesting to bring the ratio closer to the CIV of the countable news Normes IFRS, which integrates since 2001 Derivative products, based on subjacent Actifs.

Costs of the knowledge management

There are two types of costs:

costs of Investment,
costs of exploitation (recurring).

the capital costs include/understand:

costs of Consulting, for the analysis and the definition,
costs of implementation of the news Organization: Formation, Organization of the stations,
costs of new the Information system: Computer material, Software network, S, Parameter setting, development,
costs of redefinition of the process,
costs of coding, transfer, and acquisition of existing knowledge,
costs of Formation.

the recurring costs of exploitation include/understand:

costs of the Resources necessary to the maintenance of the process of division of knowledge (typically the Webmaster),
costs of update of the process,
costs of management of the means of measurement of the performance,

Costs of Led change,

costs of recognition of the actors contributing to the Project,

costs of exploitation of new the Information systems introduced into the knowledge management, and the costs induced.

The measurement of performances

For the tangible and nonmeasurable profits, it is necessary to set up a prospective Instrument panel.