In the evolutionary process of man, knowledge was one of the aspects that defined and marked throughout history the characteristics of each group or ethnic group, in which man began to group together giving rise to various societies or primitive groups that were classified into: collectors, farmers, fishermen, hunters, etc. The knowledge acquired through lived experiences was transmitted from generation to generation through stories, but even so, man felt the need to seek a more appropriate and safe way where this knowledge would not be lost, and he would forget the accumulated experience and transformed into wisdom, since history could be distorted or lost through oblivion. It is there where writing is born; at first very rudimentary, but later it was perfected according to social development.Writing was the second way to perpetuate knowledge since the first was the oral form, repeated and disseminated by the oldest of the initial populations.
Knowledge management becomes important to the extent that it supports business strategy. It is about having a structure that stimulates communication and an open attitude to change, to influence and facilitate technological assimilation
Definition of Knowledge
Knowledge is a set of information stored through experience or learning (a posteriori), or through introspection (a priori). In the broadest sense of the term, it is the possession of multiple interrelated data that, when taken by themselves, have a lower qualitative value.
For the Greek philosopher Plato, knowledge is that which is necessarily true (episteme). Instead, belief and opinion ignore the reality of things, so they are part of the realm of the probable and the apparent.
Knowledge has its origin in sensory perception, then it reaches understanding and finally ends in reason. Knowledge is said to be a relationship between a subject and an object. The knowledge process involves four elements: subject, object, operation and internal representation (the cognitive process).
Science believes that, to achieve knowledge, it is necessary to follow a method. Scientific knowledge must not only be valid and consistent from a logical point of view, but must also be tested by the scientific or experimental method.
The systematic way of generating knowledge has two stages: basic research, where the theory is advanced; and applied research, where the information is applied.
When knowledge can be transmitted from one subject to another through formal communication, we speak of explicit knowledge. On the other hand, if knowledge is difficult to communicate and is related to personal experiences or mental models, it is implicit knowledge. (Pérez, 2008)
Types of Knowledge
Empirical Knowledge.- It is defined as knowledge based on experience and perception, which every man acquires due to the various needs that arise in life, acquired many times by instinct and not grounded thought where all knowledge that is generated it does not involve science or law. Thus, there are people with great mastery of a certain aspect without having received any education.
Scientific Knowledge.- Unlike empirical knowledge, scientific knowledge is a fundamentally critical, methodical, verifiable, systematic, unified, ordered, universal, objective, rational, provisional knowledge that explains events from laws. It should be noted that for this the scientific method is also used, which apart from other things often starts working on the basis of something empirical that needs to be tested.
Explicit Knowledge.- Unlike tacit knowledge, we know that we have it and to execute it we are aware of it. For this reason it is easier to transmit or represent it in a language, because its characteristics are: being Structured and Schematized
Tacit Knowledge.- It is known as the type of unconscious knowledge, which we can make use of, which means that we can implement and execute it, as one might say, in a mechanical way without realizing its content.
Intuitive Knowledge.- Intuitive knowledge is defined as the immediate apprehension of internal or external experiences in its experimentation or perception. This means that we have a kind of vague sensation about something but rather it is established as the clear and direct vision of experiencing things in their original form.
Revealed Knowledge.- This type of knowledge implies that all the phenomena that it involves are intelligible, always implying an attitude of faith, having a strong weight in human behavior. It is about something hidden or a mystery that someone wants to manifest or is intended to know.
Knowledge Management
It is the process by which an organization facilitates the transmission of information and skills to its employees, in a systematic and efficient way. It is important to clarify that information and skills do not have to be exclusively within the company, but can be or generally be generated outside of it.
This final nuance is very important. Generally, most companies identify knowledge management only with the information and internal skills of the company, which is known as Business Intelligence or business intelligence. In this way, almost all efforts are aimed at channeling the information and skills that an organization already has, focusing on the efficiency of internal communication processes through the implementation of systems such as CRM, ERP and a CMI.
This has traditionally been the case because it has always been much easier to control the volumes of internal information than external information that is outside the organization that is more difficult to find, search, select and organize. (Archanco, 2011)
It may seem like a complex task, but in reality knowledge management only translates into the transfer of that knowledge and existing experience among the members of an organization, so that it can be used later as an available resource. This knowledge transfer has always existed as a process in organizations; It may be done informally through discussions, sessions, reflection meetings, among others, or formally through learning, professional training and training programs, but ultimately knowledge always moves in a company.
Looking at it this way, it is an activity that could be done on a daily basis, like one of the many that any employee faces in his "day to day". Obviously, this process involves techniques to capture, organize and store knowledge to transform it into an intellectual asset that provides benefits and can be shared later and for this there are innumerable tools supported by technology, however, the decision to use them remains in the hands of the users. same procedures defined by the organization. (Perego, 2015)
How it arises
The main arguments are:
- The need to combine explicit and tacit knowledge, competitive intelligence, to increase the speed in producing changes in knowledge structures, and the amount of effective responses that are made in time and quality to the demands of the context. Increase connectivity of the system, as well as creating the languages that facilitate the circulation of knowledge, where the understanding of the knowledge that needs to be disseminated and shared is increased.In this discipline, new forms of knowledge production appear in networks and in non-traditional spaces such as work places,where the knowledge creation process takes place from experience that is transformed into knowledge and knowledge into experience as "new cognitive models based on collaborative work and the use of virtual communication environments" and within a multidisciplinary environment. aspect is the need to create a collective intelligence or organizational brain, which allows to increase the value "of an organization or region through the identification, capture, evaluation, synthesis, organization, distribution and application of knowledge capital in public or private organizations, companies, institutions, etc. ”. This implies managing information, intelligence, documentation, personnel,innovation and change and the organization of work within a systemic dynamic to rescue tacit knowledge and transform it into unexplained ones. Guarantee the circulation of social intellectual capital within the different contexts of a given society to strengthen its development processes.
Importance
Knowledge management implies going much further than a mere computer system or training plan. It is essential to foster an innovative and efficient business structure. If knowledge flows and is transmitted correctly in the organization, it can only grow. Useful skills and information are transmitted among employees quickly and in this way increases the possibility of generating new knowledge that leads to new applications, improvements in processes or products and new ways of doing business to reach new opportunities.
Do not forget that knowledge is the only asset that grows over time and does not wear out but can disappear with people, if it is not shared. There are cases in which the departure of an employee has meant a very important loss of competitiveness for a company because it is the only one that had very specific knowledge. That is why it is vital to manage it, both in large organizations vs in small organizations.
Advantages and benefits
There are many advantages and benefits, they could be listed from what it contributes to the internal environment, as well as for what translates into potentialities in the outer circle of the company, but definitely what can constitute an added value in the process is how management Knowledge generates new knowledge, giving rise to innovation to gain significant force and consequently substantial improvements in the performance of the company become evident. In fact, the mere awareness of managing knowledge and making it an activity inherent to the others, typical of the business, makes organizations begin to identify, in an agile and efficient way, those opportunities for corporate growth, not only in their business strategies, but also in terms of its structure. (Naurona, 2010)
Differentiation: when knowledge begins to have structure, the entire organization will generate a different behavior, streamline its processes and consequently the levels of quality and satisfaction in its customers increase considerably and in the same way the market begins to perceive the organization as " unique ”and concepts such as brand loyalty appear, which translates into mitigation and in other cases elimination of price sensitivity.
Focusing: being aware of the cognitive asset, provides tools to assess the target market and therefore efforts are strengthened to deliver a product and / or service that meets the customer's expectations, meeting their needs more assertively.
Financial assertiveness: when quality products and / or services are offered, as a result of knowledge management on the subject, the experience turns into cost reduction and in the same way it is incurred in ensuring adequate levels of competitiveness.
Cognitive planning: when you have all the organizational information at the service of decision making, the planning and elaboration of corporate strategies can be done more accurately, since all the corporate memory that has been stored over time, facilitates the definition of the organizational course.
Quality and customer service: being able to use knowledge to perfect internal quality standards allows customer service to be improved in the same way. In other words, when knowledge is managed in terms of productivity, generally the results go in the same direction of quality and therefore customer satisfaction and that means that the product and / or service offered also obeys a knowledge management process.
Proactive Human Resource: when an organization is clear about what it wants from its work team and executes adequate selection processes based on the management of its knowledge, it will very surely include human resources that identify with the organizational philosophy and thus its productivity, In addition to coinciding with what is expected, it will promote the added value that every company expects from its employees, since there is motivation for the assigned functions. This also means that the economic reward matches those expectations.
Education and training: managing knowledge, promotes more knowledge, which translates into continuous learning plans, work tables in favor of training and obviously everything has an impact on a more technical human resource and therefore with better tools to promote efficiency in its job.
Stages
Knowledge management is developed in six phases or stages in the permanent cycle that allows incorporating it as a common practice in an organization that manages organizational knowledge as its most valuable strategic resource. These stages are:
Knowledge Management Cycle
Stage 1: initial diagnosis of Knowledge Management
Determine the state of the knowledge management system within the organization, which will define the needs for knowledge and its management (technology, processes, people and values).
Depending on the degree of maturity that determines the domain of the language and categories of knowledge management, as well as the practices already installed within the organization (for example: management by competencies, use of intranet or other tools), it is possible to apply different types of diagnoses, among which the following can be included: Organizational Knowledge Map, Diagnosis of Habitual Practices and Evaluation of the Dynamic Capacities of the organization.
The three types mentioned have approaches and seek to answer the question about the current state of the knowledge management system in different ways. However, in some cases it may be justified to use more than one approach to have a picture that allows to approach knowledge management projects from a more comprehensive basis.
Stage 2: Definition of the objectives of knowledge
Knowledge objectives are defined as those that provide direction to knowledge management in relation to the creation of knowledge and key competencies to strengthen the development of their strategies.
All the initiatives associated with knowledge management set certain objectives for their leaders and certain deadlines for meeting those objectives. In practice, knowledge management projects are implemented in successive stages in which it is intended to achieve some of the global objectives associated with this discipline, which allows the following steps to be accommodated to the predominant culture in the environment on which applies.
The initial diagnosis guides the initiatives and adds a feasibility perspective to the objectives and expectations that have been raised with the vision.
Stage 3: production of organizational knowledge
The generation of organizational knowledge represents the support base of the organizational learning processes that in turn allow the development of the adaptive capacities that organizations require in the face of changes in the environments in which they operate.
At this point, it is necessary to differentiate the generation or production of knowledge from knowledge management, since in the first case mentioned, it is the process through which new knowledge is incorporated into an organization through permanent learning mechanisms, as long as that knowledge management is justified and based on ensuring that the knowledge products generated at each stage of production are captured and stored in a certain way and are reused at a later time.
Stage 4: storage
This phase is characterized by the storage of previously encoded knowledge, placing it in repositories from which users can easily access relevant knowledge whenever they need it. One of the determining factors of the success of the storage function is the navigability that said user has in his needs to structure knowledge of a certain complexity in shorter times. The participation of content specialists is key, ensuring their quality and relevance in relation to the needs and language of the user, and the security of the system.
Stage 5: Circulation and use of knowledge: users
The Circulation phase has to do with the creation of adequate spaces for conversation and exchange so that the circulation of tacit and explicit knowledge of the organization takes place. Together with the learning spaces, these environments are conducive to the uninterrupted flow of knowledge, so that the objective of the distribution and use of such knowledge is achieved.
Users can participate in a passive or active way, however interaction is encouraged to improve the services provided. In more active participatory environments, community collaboration networks are generated that tend to give quicker responses to common problems.
Stage 6: Performance measurement
This is a phase that is present periodically and its objective is to determine in each of the cycles in which the measurement itself occurs, the trend in the indicators that have been selected to visualize how knowledge management is producing impacts on the expected results of the organization, be it private or public.
The measurement mission consists of periodically evaluating the value of the initiatives associated with knowledge management practices regarding their contribution to organizational development, verifying on the ground the results associated with the variables that have been established in the performance criteria. The support tools used are under the category of intellectual capital measurement. (UNAD, sf)
Implantation
A strategic implementation of Knowledge Management must be carried out. The steps to be taken to undertake said strategic implementation would be the following (Perego, 2015):
- Define how we want Knowledge Management to contribute to our business Mission Define the Business Objectives to be covered or supported Define the Knowledge Management processes to implement and plan their implementation, by defining the corresponding projects Establish the Key Roles in the process and identify the most suitable people for each of them Identify the Critical Knowledge for the Organization (Knowledge Map) Establish the evaluation criteria of Knowledge Management Create the structures, processes, technologies, etc. necessary to support the defined Knowledge Management System Implement the Knowledge Management processes, gradually approaching the different defined projects Communicate the project: this step is often forgotten,regardless of its success or failure, since without the support and commitment of all members of the organization, any initiative in the field of Knowledge Management will fail.
conclusion
In the current environment of high competitiveness, globalization, technological development, reduction of product life and world crisis, knowledge management is key to achieving the sustainable success of the company. In this context, it is really critical to develop the skills of the company to acquire information, transform it into knowledge, incorporate it into the company as learning, share it quickly and put it into practice.
This is very important since there is a correlation between knowledge management and business success, between knowledge management and adaptability of the company to the changing and challenging environment, where threats can turn into opportunities.
Thanks to knowledge, companies manage innovation, the creation of more effective organizational routines, business growth, sustainability, adaptive capacities to the environment, etc. All of this provides more successful products, the establishment of more efficient distribution channels, access to financing sources, the support of stockholders, the best human team, the best clients and suppliers, etc.
References
Archanco, R. (September 25, 2011). Intelligence Papers. Obtained from
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