Brighter Minds Publishing

Knowledge Management is the ability to selectively capture, archive, and access the best practices of work-related knowledge and decision making from employees and managers for both individual and group behaviors. For example, a manager may have knowledge of how to quickly procure parts from a supplier (individual behavior) as well as how to work with other managers in getting policies pushed through the corporate hierarchy (group behavior). In practice, most KM practices fall short of this ideal. This is primarily because it’s virtually impossible to capture the thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors of a manager or employee in a way that is both economical and complete enough to provide another person—or machine—with enough quality information to make the same decisions, exhibit the same leadership principles, or perform the same complex tasks at the same level of performance.

One of the first challenges in understanding exactly what practical Knowledge Management involves is agreeing on a definition. Part of the confusion arises because of how the term “Knowledge Management” is used by vendors who sell products that have very little to do with the ideal and more to do with relabeling products initially directed at other markets. There is also confusion caused by terminology borrowed from the academic community regarding the use of knowledge in artificial intelligence research, much of which doesn’t apply to Knowledge Management.

From a practical business perspective, Knowledge Management (KM) is a deliberate, systematic business optimization strategy that selects, distills, stores, organizes, packages, and communicates information essential to the business of a company in a manner that improves employee performance and corporate competitiveness.