SMR Knowledge

Building the Knowledge Culture

  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • About Us
  • The SMR Team
  • SMR’s Knowledge Services Blog
  • SMRShare

Knowledge Audit Pushback?

September 27, 2011 By Guy St. Clair

Are you beginning to see several points of view about KM in your work?

As knowledge workers, we’re exposed to (and are positioned to react to) a wide range of perspectives about how knowledge is managed in the workplace.

I’m becoming more and more aware that colleagues (both knowledge workers and “others” – whoever these “others” might be!) are thinking about KM, knowledge services, and knowledge strategy in many different ways.

Would it be helpful if we shared some of these different perspectives with one another?

As for me, I’m thinking there are probably four ways people think about KM and how we manage knowledge. Naturally, since we focus on knowledge services in most of the work our company does, I’m a little prejudiced toward knowledge services. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to hear what other people are finding. Indeed, I’m very anxious to hear about how the whole KM “picture” is interpreted in different workplace situations.

Here’s what I’m seeing. Think about these and share your observations.

1. KM as part of the ICT/IT infrastructure. In many organizations, knowledge management is the result of or otherwise intimately connected with information technology. No one questions the incredibly powerful ICT/IT role in KM, but I’m still a little surprised to run across people who equate managing knowledge with ICT/IT. Certainly information technology supplies the pipeline (to take up again that old analogy). And the product that passes through the pipeline is the information people need, the information they must work with to turn into knowledge or, if it has already been generated as knowledge, to re-use to create new knowledge. But don’t ICT/IT and KM work in tandem? Or are they merging into one line of work?

2. KM = Working with knowledge. Prusak and Davenport’s classic definition of KM (“working with knowledge”) seems to capture what the concept means to most people, and in many cases, organizations define a knowledge manager as an employee who excels at understanding the role of knowledge development and knowledge sharing (KD/KS) in the company, particularly in connection with a particular discipline or subject specialty. Perhaps that point of view makes the best sense. If I’m a chemist and I am also exceptionally well skilled at KD/KS within the chemical industry, doesn’t that qualify me as a “knowledge manager”? Certainly within the organization it makes me a valuable employee.

3. Knowledge services. Which leads to that broader way of thinking about KM that works for many people and organizations: converging information management, KM, and strategic learning as an enterprise-wide management methodology. Moving in this direction ensures not only that knowledge is managed for the benefit of the larger company or organization. Equally important (or almost as important) is the development or strengthening of an organizational knowledge culture: all stakeholders recognize their responsibilities with respect to developing and sharing knowledge.

4. Knowledge strategy matches business strategy. Then there is that almost-ideal scenario in which corporate leadership recognizes the value of KD/KS in organizational effectiveness. In doing so, an articulated knowledge strategy provides guidance for all employees and affiliates, and – when appropriate – a senior manager has responsibility for ensuring that all information management, knowledge management, and strategic learning leads in one direction, in support of the corporate mission. And while characterizing this management framework as “ideal” might be a little bit of an overstatement, the framework is remarkably achievable, once senior management is educated about and committed to the KD/KS function.

So what works for you? In your workplace, does one or another of the above describe what happens at your place of business? Are you combining all (or some) of the above? Or is there a totally different situation where you work?

About Guy St. Clair

Guy St. Clair is the Series Editor for Knowledge Services, from Verlag Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin, the scholarly publishing house specializing in academic literature. The series subject is knowledge services, the approach to managing intellectual capital that merges information management, knowledge management (KM), and strategic learning, presenting and discussing new and innovative approaches to knowledge sharing in all fields of work.

With Barrie Levy, Guy  is the author of The Knowledge Services Handbook: A Guide for the Knowledge Strategist (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020). He is also the author of Knowledge Services: A Strategic Framework for the 21st Century Organization (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016). [Note: Go here for the free PDF version of this book: https://bit.ly/3msI27V. ]

Guy is also the author of Knowledge Services: Five Free Webinars from Guy St. Clair, available to anyone who wants to learn more about knowledge services. The webinars are offered at no charge.

Guy’s other professional writings are listed in SMR International’s corporate website, at SMRShare. 

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

SMR’s Knowledge Services Blog Archives (since 2009)

Tags

archives management Conversational Leadership corporate archives corporate records COVID – 19 Healthcare Hovell (John) IAO ICT ICT training Information Africa Organization information and communications technology information management information technology KD/KS KM KM KM/Knowledge Services KM training knowledge asset management knowledge development/knowledge sharing knowledge development and knowledge sharing knowledge networking knowledge services knowledge sharing Knowledge Strategy Knowledge Thought Leaders Manion (Kevin) organizational archives organizational behavior organizational effectiveness organizational management organizational records Peter F. Drucker records management social networking Special Libraries Association strategic knowledge strategic knowledge management strategic knowledge services Strategic Learning strategic planning strategy development The Knowledge Culture ” management

Contact Information

SMR International
10 Park Avenue, Suite # 4-F
New York, NY 10016 USA

+1 917 797 1500
info@smr-knowledge.com
www.smr-knowledge.com

Follow Us

  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Recent Blog Posts

  • Five Free Knowledge Services Webinars August 1, 2022
  • KM/Knowledge Services Community: Humanist Management and Knowledge Services (Part 2) January 24, 2022
  • KM/Knowledge Services Community: Guy St. Clair on Humanist Management and Knowledge Services ( Part 1) December 28, 2021

Copyright © 2025 · SMR International · All Rights Reserved