Knowledge Based Management for

Higher Education

Robert D. Stueart

No activity in the world is attracting as much attention as that of knowledge management

Confusion over meaning of Knowledge

Management

Some view it as a pretentious label for Information Management

Some use the term to signal more complex work involved in organizing access to networked information resources

Cynics simply dismiss it as the latest management fad

All healthy organizations generate and use knowledge

As they interact with environment, they absorb information, turn it into knowledge and take action based on its combination with their own:

ExperiencesValuesInternal rules

Knowledge Management, then, is the process of transforming

INFORMATION and INTELLECTUAL ASSETS

into enduring VALUE

This requires a blend of:

PEOPLEPROCESSES (Strategy)

TECHNOLOGY

PEOPLE – not technology –

manage knowledge

Organizations can promote those policies and practices that build teamwork to help people share and manage knowledge – but people ultimately “manage” knowledge

Quote from Andrew Carnegie, a well known American Educator

"the only irreplaceable capital an organization possesses is the knowledge and ability of its people. The productivity of that capital depends on how effectively people share their competence with those who can use it."

Knowledge Management involves

connecting

• people with people• people with information

THE TRANSFORMATION OF:•DATA•INFORMATION•RECORDED KNOWLEDGE

INTODIGITAL FORM

HAS PRECIPITATED ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

Technology

Enhances the ability to rapidly disseminate information and develop knowledge bases thereby presenting opportunities to:

change traditional organizational structures

inspire an informal style promote social networks

Knowledge-sharing underpinnings

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Should not be co-opted by technology which, though important, is not the focus of knowledge management; technology can capture information but not create knowledge

Remember: technology is a tool

“when the only tool available is a hammer, everything looks like a nail” (quote from Mark Twain

HOLISTIC VIEW OF KNOWLEDGE

Present in ideas, judgment, talents, root causes, relationships, perspectives and concepts

Stored in the individual’s brain or encoded in organizational processes, documents, products, services, facilities and systems

Draw out the tacit knowledge people have, what they carry around with them, what they observe and learn from experience, in addition to what is usually explicitly stated.

Knowledge management practices

‘Explicit' and ‘Tacit' Knowledge

Explicit knowledge is formal and systematic and can be easily communicated and shared, i.e., in a book or a database in the library, a product specifications, or a scientific formula or a computer program. Tacit knowledge is highly personal, is unrecorded and unarticulated and is hard to formalize and therefore difficult, if not sometimes impossible, to communicate.

ELEMENTS of Explicity:

ACCESSINGEVALUATINGMANAGINGORGANIZINGFILTERINGDISTRIBUTING

Tacit “information” is more difficult to obtain because it is buried :

in web-based links to other sites, databases, publications, and in the knowledge of experts employed in institutions (the value-added dimension)

in the past, communication of this information has always been informal, word-of-mouth, and not the province of any organizational unit

Example: How many times is something like this observed :

"If Mr. Smith gets run over by a bus tomorrow, we're in trouble because only he knows how the scheduling [or accounting or other reporting] system actually works" How then, do we take advantage of the wealth of knowledge held only in our minds and those of our colleagues?

Unlike Information, Knowledge is not just a:

“thing” to be“ managed”

It is a Capacity - of people and communities - to continuously generate and renew themselves to meet new challenges and opportunities; it is the collective knowledge of the organization

KNOWLEDGE TRANSFORMATION:

HUMANS: transform information into a format that causes it to be easily converted into knowledge by another human being

KNOWLEDGE-BASED SYSTEMS: statistical analysis software; data mining tools, decision support systems, AI, data visualization tools, expert systems, decision support systems, etc. are aids

THE TRANSFORMATION IDEA ENCOMPASSES TWO CONCEPTS

Utilizing and exploiting the organization’s information

Application of people’s competencies, skills, talents, thoughts, ideas, intuitions, commitments, motivations, and imaginations in that process

Knowledge should be differentiated from other levels in a heirarchy of assimilation

HIERARCHY OF ASSIMILATION

DATADATA

INFORMATIONINFORMATION

KNOWLEDGEKNOWLEDGE

UNDERSTANDINGUNDERSTANDING

WISDOMWISDOM

ENLIGHTMENTENLIGHTMENT

In order to Understand one part of

that hierarchyone should

Understand all of them

Data:

Data is Symbols: And has no significance

beyond its existence;

No meaning in and of itself

ORGANIZATIONS HAVE ALL SORTS OF DATA:

TANGIBLE DOCUMENTS: REPORTS, PRESENTATIONS, FINANCIAL FACTS AND FIGURES, ETC.

So to bring order out of chaos organizations provide mechanisms to organize data into information. Information systems, like library databases, provide consistent and logical treatment of data so people can find things.

Information:Data that are processed to be useful: "who", "what", "where", "when,” data that has been given meaning

Knowledge:Answers “How”, “Why”; involves appropriate collection and distillation of information

Knowledge Management is concerned with developing organizations in such a manner as to derive knowledge from information.

KNOWLEDGE

enhances the learning processstimulates innovation in

educationraise levels of productivity speeds development improves lives

One major difference One major difference between between

InformationInformation & & KnowledgeKnowledge

InformationInformation is: is:

VisibleVisible Independent from action and Independent from action and

decisiondecision Format changes after processing Format changes after processing Physical productPhysical product Independent from existing Independent from existing

environmentenvironment Easily transferable Easily transferable Can be duplicatedCan be duplicated

While While KnowledgeKnowledge

Can’t be duplicatedCan’t be duplicated Closely related to action and Closely related to action and

decisiondecision Thought changes after processing Thought changes after processing

InvisibleInvisible Spiritual productSpiritual product Identified with existing Identified with existing

environment environment Transfer through learningTransfer through learning

difference between knowledge and understanding is the difference between "memorizing” and "learning"

Understanding: appreciation of "why"

calls upon all the previous levels of consciousness;

human programming (moral, ethical codes, etc.)

Wisdom:Evaluated Understanding

For my BuddhistFriends this is the ultimate level -“be all you can be”

Enlightenment

Categories

First two of those elements (data and information) involve the past (what has been or what is known)

Last four (knowledge, understanding, wisdom, enlightenment) address the future- (people can create the future rather than just grasp the present and past).

EXAMPLES (1)

Data represents a fact or statement of event without relation to other things.

Example: It is raining.

EXAMPLE (2)

Information embodies the understanding of a relationship of some sort, possibly cause and effect.

Example: The temperature dropped 15 degrees and then it started raining.

EXAMPLE (3)

Knowledge represents a pattern that connects and generally providing a high level of predictability as what is described or what will happen next.

Example: If the humidity is very high and the temperature drops substantially the atmosphere is often unlikely to be able to hold the moisture so it rains.

EXAMPLE (4)Understanding; embodies more of an

Understanding of fundamental principles embodied within the knowledge

Example: It rains because it rains. And this encompasses an understanding of all the interactions that happen between raining, evaporation, air currents, temperature gradients, changes, raining.

Knowledge Management.

"...a discipline that promotes an integrated approach to identifying, managing and sharing all of an enterprise's information assets. These information assets may include databases, documents, policies and procedures, as well as previously unarticulated expertise and experience resident in individual workers." (Gartner Group Inc, October 1996)

Applications in libraries and other information centers might typically fall into broad categories:

1)Knowledge databases and repositories (explicit knowledge)

storing information anddocuments that can be sharedand re-used, for example: in personnel data; meeting

minutes; research reports; training packets, etc.

2) Knowledge route-maps and directories (tacit and explicit knowledge)

Pointing to: people, document

collections and datasets that can

be consulted: for example,

'yellow pages'/'expert locators'

containing CVs, competencyprofiles, research interests

3) Knowledge networks and discussions (tacit

knowledge)

Providing opportunities for faceto-face contacts and electronicinteraction, for example,establishing chat facilities/'talkrooms', and fostering learning

groups

Once we admit to ourselves how loosely we may be attending to the critical knowledge assets of our institutions, the sooner we will be ready to embrace KM as a valuable tool in both using and protecting that asset.

A KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM WOULD DECIDE:

WHAT to shareWITH WHOM to shareHOW to share, and in factDECIDING to share

But:

“Before an organization can adopt a knowledge management strategy, it must develop a knowledge management culture” Sivan (1999

Core Idea of Knowledge Management

Establish an environment where information is shared and openly accepted

Requires change in organizational culture because people are not accustomed to “sharing”

“Knowledge management should not strike library institutions as a radically new idea; rather it is a new way of reasoning their existence

KM and how it is being

discussed in

LIBRARY SITUATIONS

Libraries and information centers today are asking themselves difficult questions about accountability: Which programs and services are integral

to the vision, mission and goals of the university or other organization

How to better meet the needs of students How to encourage and support faculty

research and creativity Educational quality assurance

Some repositories of explicit knowledge in libraries: volumes in the library, the institution's official business records, a recorded history of constituent

problems with technology.

An effective KM system would attempt to identify, index, store, and relate these disparate pieces of information which could then be of value to the institution

This Development Probably Requires:

Thoughtful consideration of the educational mission and the interdisciplinary relationships with other units in the larger organization

Greater oversight of all learning repositories and resources, ranging, for instance, from libraries to scientific and technological laboratories or other governmental agencies

Facilitating the development of an administrative infrastructure that combines strategic budgeting with the management of programs and services

Technologies are effective KM tools in managing explicit knowledge Intranets, Videoconferencing, Chat rooms, Collaborative groupware “E” whatever

allow members of an online learning

community to capture and disseminate

explicit knowledge

But, in libraries:

Most of the tacit knowledge is associated with the area of information services which gives a “value-added” dimension – that great “old” reference service aspect

The library community has just tentatively begun to more systematically collect tacit information

Examples:

take the form of bookmarks or “pointers” (both physical and electronic)

manifests itself in the form of hot-links that connect related Web sites

BARRIERS TO KNOWLEDGE ACCESS IN LIBRARIES

Decisions are often impaired by what one might call

Information silos (confining structures)

Information politics (knowledge is power; humans resist sharing)

Information “silos” examples:

certain data may be kept in the technical processing department;

another set stored in information services;

other records housed in technology. Instead of communicating and sharing this

information, silos are formed, preventing the integration of these data for more system-wide decision-making

Information politics, people are:

proprietary towards data block the flow of information, control the use of data for their own benefit enact their own interpretation of the classic

phrase, ‘information is power”.

which can lead to missed opportunities in planning and forecasting as well as difficulties in day-to-day decision-making

IS THE INSTITUTION ON A

DATA-INFORMATION-KNOWLEDGE

TRACK?

Conduct an Information audit:

1)Examine how data is shared throughout the organization,

2) Look at possible satisfaction survey

3) Examine work-flow processes. how do they change, and how long does it take for something to get implemented

Example:

Information stored in paper files or in computer files of a former employee might not be accessible, but the use of this information could enable the organization to do something in a more productive way.

Example:

Through cross-functional examination, the organization may be able to meet some of the needs by locating information in other units.

Knowledge Audit:

Assess how information is controlled in the library by exploring how information is provided, understood and made use of;

how, and if, people are rewarded for sharing information;

what type of subtle information sabotage might be taking place (this could take the form of databases that aren’t regularly maintained, corrections that aren’t entered into systems when reported, or duplicate paper versions of information that are maintained in addition to a library-wide information system)

Some possible outcome activities

Compile a yellow pages directory for library-wide networking

Share library-wide information on personal and departmental resources (including library-wide resources, software, conference attendance & proceedings)

Swap experiences, trends and opinions Experiment with tools and techniques

Activities (cont’d)

Act as catalyst for providing a total system that transmits a lucid relationship between explicit and tacit knowledge

Facilitate staff development: encouraging them to examine practices in their area of responsibilities to determine how knowledge is best transmitted by joint discovery and construction of meaning with peers

Activities (cont’d)

Integrate resources in institutional research and information technology to promote a knowledge management systems approach

E-learning is one of the most important KM practices, with focus on “just-in-time knowledge,” delivered anytime and anywhere in order to capitalize on the total staff’s knowledge as an intellectual asset.

Other areas:

Institutional planning offices can serve as the nucleus of information and facilitate the flow of information throughout the organization

Administration can encourage managers to use data and information for decision making, and to ensure that there is an information-based culture of research and inquiry in place

Three concepts are required for knowledge management to

succeed Cooperation - information sharing, serving on

committees together, while allowing participants to remain separate and continue to function in a more-or-less autonomous manner

Coordination - actual resource sharing, filling in the gaps that participants would not be able to accommodate individually, while adapting and accommodating differences in order to achieve a common goal

Collaboration - actual commitment and investment of resources, based on a shared vision that can develop

Therefore : Aim of a Knowledge Management Strategic Plan

should be to create a framework to enable all members of the library community to seamlessly and easily connect to the information they need, whenever they need it, wherever it resides and to be able to use it effectively in providing information services.

Having set the stage, let me comment more specifically:

What is the role of libraries in supporting the larger organization’s initiatives and developing the traditional library’s own knowledge management systems

There is no segment of society that has experienced a greater impact of Technology than Libraries

Libraries are experiencing a transformational change as digital technology has fundamentally altered: how services are provided; research is conducted; and learning occurs. Digital technology is dramatically changing the print-on-paper library model that has been the mainstay of library services.

More than any other traditional asset, the library is the means by which society can transform itself into something entirely new

The traditional role of The traditional role of librarieslibraries

The management ofThe management of informationinformation has been the domain of librarians has been the domain of librarians and information professionals and information professionals trained to be experts in trained to be experts in information searching, selecting, information searching, selecting, acquiring, organizing, acquiring, organizing, preserving, making it available to preserving, making it available to users, that users, that explicit explicit information.information.

Libraries have focused effectively on:

collecting, organizing and making explicit

information/knowledge available

A VISION OF KNOWLEDGE BASED LIBRARY - INFORMATION SERVICES

A guarantee of universal electronic access to the collective corpus of our traditional libraries, as well as the inclusion of Web-based materials and certain other kinds of tacit information.

THIS DREAM WOULD INCLUDE THE INTERNET AND MEAN: All relevant publications be universally

available on the Internet to seekers of knowledge

Implies that appropriate description and validation of content would occur: and

Must recognize that access may be free, licensed, or available through micro-payments

Of course there is no clear plan, yet, for

how we might achieve this dream and get from here to there!

In the print-only world there has been

a complex but well-defined system of content validation and description that involves librarians, referees, reviewers and publishers; and

after going through those various defined processes, its selection gave that material a legitimacy that students and scholars came to depend upon

Electronic Information Resources

freely accessible through the Internet has disrupted this relatively efficient system; and

there is no clear and defined role for libraries with regard to the selection, preservation and provision of access in regard to the digital resources accessible through the net; additionally

users must learn how to evaluate these new information resources, and it is far more difficult to do so on the Web than in a traditional library

This implies

people (users or seekers of information) doing this searching have the ability to discern the quality, authenticity and validity of the information that they find on the web

Librarians as Knowledge Intermediaries

negotiators – identifying needs facilitators – providing effective search

strategies educators – familiar with the literature and

information in many formats information intermediaries – providing

current awareness services and liaison between the seekers of information and that information itself

information advocates

LIBRARIANS ARE:

The ultimate search tool, with a more interactive and human touch

LIBRARIES LIBRARIES PARADIGM SHIFTPARADIGM SHIFT

ResourcesPreserve Purvey

Own Collection Virtual LibraryOne Medium Multiple Media

ServicesWare House SupermarketCustodial Access and DeliverBuy for a rainy day Just in time deliver

Users

Wait for Users to Come Promote Links to Users

Staff Authority User Empowerment