Knowledge Management(KM) Defination

1. Knowledge Management:

Before getting into the Knowledge Management (KM), there is a need to know what Knowledge is. Knowing is a cognizance, a conscious state of being aware or informed (having knowledge) (Oxford English Dictionary, 2002, p. 1510) beyond that which is perceived through the five senses, although it does not exclude incoming signals from the five senses. In rhetorical terms, knowing can be described as hearing beyond words, seeing beyond images, sensing beyond appearances and feeling beyond emotions. It focuses on methods to increase individual sensory capabilities and increase the ability to consciously integrate these sensory inputs with our tacit knowledge, that knowledge within each of us that is created by past learning and experiences but cannot be put into words. In other words, it is knowledge gained from experience that resides in the unconscious mind.
Knowledge is defined variously as
(i) Expertise, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.
(ii) Knowledge is the human capacity (both potential and actual) to take effective action in varied and uncertain situations There is however no single agreed definition of knowledge presently, nor any prospect of one, and there remain numerous competing theories.
1.1. Definition of knowledge management:

(Wikipedia, 2008)The definition of KM varies. There is no single definition for Knowledge Management. Different definitions have been proposed by different authors. Knowledge management is a management theory which emerged in the 1990s. Knowledge Management (KM) compresses a range of practice used by organizations to identify, create, represent, and distribute knowledge. Many large companies have resources dedicated to Knowledge Management, often as part of ‘Information Technology’ or ‘Human Resource Management’ departments. Knowledge management programs are typically tied to organizational objectives such improved performance, competitive advantage innovation; lessons learnt transfer and the general development of collaborative practices.

1.2. Knowledge Management: the context

There is a broad range of thought on Knowledge Management with no unanimous definition. The approaches vary by author and school. Knowledge Management may be viewed from each of the following perspectives:
Techno-centric: A focus on technology, ideally those that enhance knowledge sharing/growth.
Organizational: How does the organization need to be designed to facilitate knowledge processes? Which organizations work best with what processes?
Ecological: Seeing the interaction of people, identity, knowledge and environmental factors as a adaptive system.

When I tried to find the definition of Knowledge Management on the internet, I found that most of them discussed about creating, storing, and distribution of the Knowledge. (Wigg. K, 1997)

(Mountain Quest Institute, n.d) Knowledge management is a process for optimizing the effective application of intellectual capital to achieve objectives. In an organizational setting, this would mean a systematic approach to getting an organization to make the best possible use of knowledge in implementing its mission, broadly viewed as either sustainable competitive advantage or long-term high performance. From the individual viewpoint, this can be extrapolated to mean optimizing the effective application of the individual's knowledge (their potential and actual capacity to take effective action in varied and uncertain situations) to achieve the individual's professional and personal goals.

(KMTool Community) Knowledge Management -Information or data management with the additional practice of capturing the tacit experience of the individual to be shared, used and built upon by the organization leading to increased productivity (Tacit Knowledge - Innovation, creation of new knowledge often comes from collaboration and interaction with experts. These are some of the many ways to create a culture where there is greater collaboration, team work and sharing of ideas.).

(Article 13 Co) Knowledge is a fluid mix of contextual information, values, experiences and r. For an organization this resides within employees (human capital) and represents a source of creativity, innovation and adaptability to change. Knowledge management is an explicit system to use this capital.

1.2. Knowledge Management (KM) in my perspective

KM is a systematic process of creating, organizing and developing an organization to make best use of individuals that helps in reaching the goals of organizations. The function of knowledge management is how to transform the tactic knowledge into explicit knowledge.

Example in our engineering college we have SPRINT-IT. It is both Knowledge Management system and Information system. It helps to share the ideas and views of the different student in college; it helps to gain good result in their studies as well as their future career. Information is given by the every student and it is knowledge to the each and every student in the college who access the web. Every student has permission to access the knowledge base and update the knowledge base. This contains doubts on lectures, general issues, events organized in the college, various career options after the studies and information regarding the jobs. This helps to achieve their goals through the creation and application of the relevant knowledge. This is done by motivating and inspiring the students to exploit their innovative capabilities and achieving the goals.
1.3. My reflections by reading others blogs
Kranthi in his blog he explain Knowledge management in his perspective’s it is experience, sharing of what works and what doesn’t works.
In pavan’s blog he mainly explained about the objectives of the Knowledge Management. And he given that Knowledge Management is to ensure that right information is delivered to the right person in right time.
According to munir he concluded that there is no fixed meaning for Knowledge and it varies from person to person.

1.4. References:

Wigg K. (1997), "Knowledge Management: An Introduction and Perspective", Journal of Knowledge Management, Volume1, Issue1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge
http://www.gdrc.org/kmgmt/what-is-km.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management#External_links
http://www.mountainquestinstitute.com/definitions.htm