What is Knowledge Management ?

The concept of knowledge and how to manage it is a hotly debated topic. There are as many viewpoints as there are protagonists. What can be agreed is that managing knowledge is about working with people, either directly sharing what they know or building processes to allow what is known to flow.

In knowledge management, there are 4 aspects we talk about - technology, process, people and content.

According to Wikipedia, Knowledge Management (KM) is the process of capturing, developing, sharing, and effectively using organizational knowledge. It refers to a multi-disciplinary approach to achieving organizational objectives by making the best use of knowledge. An established discipline since 1991 (see Nonaka 1991), KM includes courses taught in the fields of business administration, information systems, management, and library and information sciences. More recently, other fields have started contributing to KM research, including information and media, computer science, public health, and public policy. In Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University offers a dedicated Master of Science degree in Knowledge Management. Some large companies, public institutions and non-profit organisations have resources dedicated to internal KM efforts, often as a part of their business strategy, information technology, or human resources management departments. KM efforts typically focus on organisational objectives such as improved performance, competitive advantage, innovation, sharing of lessons learned, integration and continuous improvement of the organization. KM efforts overlap with organisational learning and may be distinguished from that by a greater focus on the management of knowledge as a strategic asset and a focus on encouraging the sharing of knowledge. It is an enabler of organisational learning. [ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management]