Knowledge Management Training- Terms and definitions
Featured in the Knowledge Management training manual
By Mike Bagshaw & Paul Phillips
Category: Management
Credit price: 4 download credits (Single user)
We can’t get wealth from things – we have to have knowledge. We produce things from the knowledge we have. We increase our knowledge by applying what we know to what we don’t yet know. This creates ideas. Knowledge brings us productivity and creativity. Company value can no longer be assessed solely in terms of tangible assets (for example, property, plant and equipment). The intangibles (such as know-how, brand and processes) have a huge and increasing impact. In the old industrial world, the value of the company was primarily judged on productive capacity. However, with market segmentation, these assets are increasingly regarded as commodities, and more value is placed on intangibles such as brand, knowledge capital, and the relationship with the seller. Intangible assets are accounting for an increasing percentage of companies’ market value. Two companies that illustrate this well are IBM and Microsoft. Although Microsoft has only a fraction of the tangible assets that IBM has ($930 million compared to $16.6 billion in 1996), Microsoft’s market value in the same year was higher ($85.5 billion compared to $70.7 billion). When technology gallops on so fast, in a world of ever shorter business cycles, knowledge and, in particular, intangible assets provide the foundation for added value. This training activity is an introduction to the key terms and concepts in the growing interdisciplinary field of knowledge management. The training activity introduces the key concepts to those who are still unfamiliar with the subject and also gives the more ‘knowledgeable’ participants the opportunity to share their knowledge.
You introduce the training activity with a discussion of what knowledge is. You go on to define knowledge management and discuss its importance for organisational success. The concepts and terminology of knowledge management are addressed through a practical team exercise which incorporates a combination of a crossword and a word search puzzle. This leads on to a fuller exploration of the concept of tangible versus intangible assets in which the participants do a small group exercise to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their organisation with regard to various intangible assets categories. You then describe the distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge, and the group conducts an exercise to describe examples from their own experience of the four ways of creating knowledge described by Ikujiro Nonaka. Finally, you summarise the training activity by asking each participant to tell the group something they now know/are aware of that they didn’t know before.
Who is it for: This training resource is intended for use by trainers to ensure that the participants understand the basic concepts in knowledge management.
- Themes:
- Knowledge management,
| Resource Type: | Activity |
| Min Group Size: | 4 |
| Max Group Size: | 12 |
| Typical Duration: | 02:10:00 |
| No of Pages: | 25 |
Resources: View standard resources for Fenman training activities
Purpose: This training resource is intended for use by trainers as an introductory session on knowledge management on a range of management programmes. It may be of particular value with mixed groups of IT/IS people and non-IT/IS people as a way of developing a common understanding of and mutual respect each other.
Download the training activity, Knowledge Management Training- Terms and definitions as featured in the Fenman training manual; Knowledge Management