2 Key Knowledge Management Elements

2 Key Knowledge Management Elements Written by Victor T. Madubuko, SPHR, GPHR.

You are definitely not alone if you are concerned about your organization’s knowledge that may be lost through layoffs, voluntary resignation, and a larger percentage of employee population moving towards retirement.

I had finished facilitating a Knowledge Management (KM) course in Lagos, Nigeria and was having a conversation with a concerned colleague looking to cut “learning and development” costs by converting classroom courses into customized e-learning. It appears like he was seeking consultation on how to transfer the expertise and tacit knowledge that is inherent in key employees to a documented form for wider diffusion, storing the data in a knowledge bank, and for use in customizing e-learning content. I thought that was pretty awesome. What started as a cordial conversation ended up being a 15 months’ engagement to implement KM in Nigeria for a leading asset management firm with presence across West Africa.

In today’s competitive environment, it is becoming imperative to capture, house, and share an organization’s knowledge, information, practices, and policies.
Knowledge Management is the process of creating, acquiring, sharing, and managing knowledge to augment individual and organizational performance. KM programs typically focus on two key elements:

1. Expertise sharing and organizational learning; and

2. Knowledge retention and recovery of knowledge lost due to employee attrition.

During the engagement, we identified subject matter experts in the organization and conducted forty-seven knowledge acquisition interviews, digitalized the knowledge captured, built a dynamic knowledge database into the client’s Learning Management System (LMS), and incorporated organizational knowledge into case studies that we used in customizing the e-learning courses. Another key deliverable was instilling a knowledge-sharing attitude in new employees and using training and performance management systems to encourage and reward creativity, innovation, and knowledge transfer.

With the globalization of organizations and the availability of new technologies and intranets, there is greater efficiency in managing corporate knowledge. There is also a greater need to protect competitive knowledge and intellectual property from infringement.

When was the last time you were concerned about your organizations knowledge?

Photo credit: KM Photo courtesy-of-uthscsaedu

Reference. SHRM Learning System.