The role of IT in knowledge management
Featured in the Knowledge Management training manual
By Mike Bagshaw & Paul Phillips
Category: Management
Credit price: 4 download credits (Single user)
The aim of knowledge management is to deal with information that exists in the organisation in a way that adds value. It is important to manage the company’s knowledge assets. Physical resources are much easier to see and therefore ‘capture’; it is also easier to see ways to exploit them easily, whereas the more ethereal knowledge assets – the intellectual capital – need somehow to be harnessed. A large amount of time, money and capital resources have been put into using IT as an enabler to managing the information in a meaningful way. Equally, considerable resources have been wasted on wrong systems, wrong methods; some companies have spent millions for little return. This training activity is about helping participants consider the requirements they would have for an IT-based system and to begin the process of platform design for that system.
You begin this training activity with a brief input session to look at whether IT can be of assistance in knowledge delivery and transfer using the standard and newer technologies. Participants are invited to look as the strategic decisions they would need to make to set up a knowledge platform. Using an intranet as a specific example, the group brainstorms the question ‘What would you need to find out before embarking on choosing a system/platform?’ You facilitate a discussion to theme their ideas and ensure the key points are covered and then input on what makes a successful platform and what elements it may contain. Words and their meaning are important when setting up an effective platform (the information architecture needs a standard business vocabulary), so an optional exercise is included to underline this point. You then give the participants the task of designing a rudimentary platform relevant to their business context(s). Underpinning this is the question ‘What would be the main elements that an IT solution would need to provide given the type of storage and knowledge transfer/delivery required?’ This is a facilitated training activity. Participants work in syndicates and then come together as a group. You run a discussion to explore their thinking and look at their specification, and summarise by reminding them that some tasks are best suited to particular methods of knowledge sharing that do not necessarily work best with IT solutions.
Who is it for: This training resource is intended for use by trainers to encourage participants to explore the major factors that will enable systems to serve knowledge needs, rather than providing an information glut.
- Themes:
- Knowledge management,
- Strategic thinking,
| Resource Type: | Activity |
| Min Group Size: | 4 |
| Max Group Size: | 12 |
| Typical Duration: | 03:50:00 |
| No of Pages: | 24 |
Resources: View standard resources for Fenman training activities
Purpose: This training resource is intended for use by trainers with groups that have not reached the stage of deigning an IT-based solution or enabler for their knowledge management programme or, alternatively, for those who want to review what they have got.
Download the training activity, The role of IT in knowledge management as featured in the Fenman training manual; Knowledge Management