FREE online courses on Knowledge Management - Corporate Knowledge Management
- Change Management
After the Appreciative Knowledge Systems Research is carried
out, the logical next step is to operationalize the change management strategy
-- devising tools and techniques, systems and procedures, framing policies and
guidelines, identifying and installing appropriate hardware and software,
carrying out and institutionalizing the changes.
This involves a series of participatory but systematic
exercises for identifying and mapping the knowledge resources and knowledge
processes in the organization. The process of constructing the map itself is an
involving one, and builds up the culture of sharing. The maps are objectified in
the form of appropriate artifacts (guides, directories, CD-ROMs, intranet, etc.)
and ritualized in the form support systems for mining the mapped resources.
This involves a re-designing of the group and organizational
processes from a knowledge management perspective, so as to create an enabling
environment for knowledge based organization and community. Wherever necessary,
appropriate technology will have to be mobilized, installed and
institutionalized.
Capacity Building in Knowledge Management
Perhaps the most important input in knowledge management is
capacity building of people. Without this no amount of knowledge tools can help.
It is important that the resources mobilized are put to the best of use. This is
usually carried out through training programmes, workshops and various group
exercises.
The paradigm shift accompanying knowledge management has
meant a stronger theoretical integration with the revolutionary changes in
Psychology, Epistemology and Modern Physics.
Long gone are the days of mind as a
'ghost-inside-the-machine'! The tools and techniques we use can also become
extensions of our mind. And in a knowledge sharing environment, mind can operate
as a social entity, operating through individual minds but yet going beyond
them. KM tools and techniques are defined by their social and community role in
the organization in:
-
facilitation of knowledge sharing and socialization of knowledge (production of
organizational knowledge);
-
conversion of information into knowledge through easy access, opportunities of
internalization and learning (supported by the right work environment and
culture);
-
conversion of tacit knowledge into "explicit knowledge" or information, for
purposes of efficient and systematic storage, retrieval, wider sharing and
application.
Here, of course, we refer to technology that aids human-human
interaction through human-tools interaction. We need both IT-based and non-IT
based tools and techniques, which must be integrated well.
It needs to be clarified that you do not need to make a huge
investment in IT infrastructure to adopt the KM framework. The existing
infrastructure, with some minor modifications, can be very well adapted to suit
the need. Some investments may have to be made on the software side.
