KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

Priyanka Gandhi
(Lect. In YMCA, FARIDBAD)
Mob: 9953949435

Himanshu Gandhi
(Student-YMCA)
Mob: 9968324005
Fax: 01251-232115
E-mail: himanshu_ymca01@yahoo.co.in
ABSTRACT:

The concept of “Knowledge Management and Information Management” is rapidly

getting a lot of attention in many areas of industry as it encompass a range of
information management and enabling technologies , including internet-based user
interfaces. Knowledge Management programs are typically tied to organizational
objectives and are intended to lead to the achievement of specific outcomes, such as
shared intelligence, improved performance, competitive advantage, or higher levels of
innovation. Information management (IM) is an interdisciplinary field which focuses
on information as a resource with an emphasis on collection. Collectively, the paper
explains a brief idea regarding knowledge and information management.

"Knowledge management is a fancy term for a simple idea. You're managing

data, documents, and people efforts." – Bill Gates

1. INTRODUCTION

KNOWLEDGE, the body of information might consist of facts, opinions, ideas,

theories, principles and models. Knowledge management (KM) involves blending a
company’s internal and external information and turning it into an actionable
knowledge. Knowledge-management systems get the right information to the right
people at the right time, provide them with the tools for analyzing that information.
Knowledge management is branch that treats intellectual capital as a managed asset.
”Knowledge" in this context includes both the experience and understanding of the
people in the organization and the information artifacts, such as documents and
reports, available within the organization and in the world outside. {1, 2}One form of
the knowledge is tacit knowledge, which is derived from experience and embodies
beliefs and values. Tacit knowledge is actionable knowledge, and therefore the most
valuable. Furthermore, tacit knowledge is the most important basis for the generation
of new knowledge. The key to knowledge creation lies in the mobilization and
conversion of tacit knowledge. Another form of the knowledge is explicit
knowledge, represented by some artifact, such as a document or a video, which has
typically been created with the goal of communicating with another person. Both
forms of knowledge play an important role in an organization. The majority of
companies have their knowledge embedded in people and organizations. It is often
intuitive, tacit, rather than explicit. Such knowledge often gets lost when someone
leaves the company.

In order to make decisions, managers need the right information to serve a

wider range of needs. A systems approach to managing this demand can be met
through information management systems (IMS). Information management is the
means by which an organisation maximises the efficiency with which it plans,
collects, organises, uses, controls, stores, disseminates, and disposes of its
Information, and through which it ensures that the value of that information is
identified and exploited to the maximum extent possible. The aim has often been
described as getting the right information to the right person, in the right format and
medium, at the right time. It is sometimes referred to as: Enterprise information
management, Information resources management, or Business intelligence,
especially in connection with relevant software. {3}

“A system to convert data from internal and external sources into information and to
communicate that information, in an appropriate form, to managers at all levels in
all functions to enable them to make timely and effective decisions for planning,
directing and controlling the activities for which they are responsible”.

2. IMPORTANCE OF INFORMATION & KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT:

• The amount of time available to experience and acquire knowledge has

diminished.
• Increase in networked organization.
• Global markets are increasingly competitive and the rate of innovation is rising.
• Improve customer service by streamlining response time
• Improve employee retention rates by recognizing the value of employee’s
knowledge and rewarding for it.
• Growing knowledge intensity of goods and services.
• Enhanced Decision-Making
• Global integration
• Revolution in information technology.

3. KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION

Let us consider the definitions of information and knowledge, each of which has the
following two meanings. {4}

Information is:
(A) Knowledge transmitted by character, sign, and voice, etc.
(B) Data arranged to be useful for decision-making.
(C) Relating to or having the nature of information.

Knowledge is:
(A) Body of information with meaning.
(B) Judgment or a system of judgment that has objective validity.

KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION {5}

 Apparently, there are no clear distinctions between information and knowledge.
However, they are different and each of them is converted to the other. Such critical
transformation is bringing out by ‘intelligence’.
.
Intelligence is:
(a) Ability to understand and learn things.
(b) Ability to think and understand things instinctively or automatically.

People convert data and knowledge into information for some purpose. They create new
knowledge based on data and information. These conversion and creation require
existing knowledge and some ability called intelligence. We can see that the approach
from management science aims at developing the ability (a), while the approach from
information science is related to the ability (b).Of course, both is important. However,
their integration is difficult. We should understand the limitation of our ability to
objectify the real world, the limitation of our ability to understand indirect observation,
and the limitation of our ability to analyze things objectively.

4. A KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK:

• Identifying company’s knowledge assets:

ο Where is the knowledge asset?

ο What does it include and how it is accessible?
ο What is its utility and form it have?

• Evaluating how the knowledge can add value

ο What are the opportunities for using the knowledge asset?

ο What would be the result of its use and the obstacles while using them?
ο What would be its increased value to the company?
• Specifying what actions are mandatory to achieve better usability

ο How to plan the actions, to make use of the knowledge asset?

ο How to perform actions?
ο How to supervise actions?

• Over-viewing the use of the knowledge to ensure added value

ο Did the use of it produce the desired added value?

ο How can the knowledge asset be maintained for this use?
ο Did the use create new opportunities?

5. BENEFITS:

Better decisions are achieved by spending less time on information gathering and
more on the creative process. The category of organizational benefits includes better
and efficient innovation, improved customer service, reduced knowledge loss and
increased productivity. These are the benefits which will have an impact on the way
an organization thinks and operates to achieve its objective:

• Increase relevant information access

• Facilitate collaboration & knowledge sharing
• Overcome organizational & geographical boundaries
• Shorten cycle time
• Increase versatility of the work force
• Accelerates learning and innovation through sophisticated KM processes

6. CONCLUSION:

As knowledge and information management described above and finds to be a very

beneficial for our organization. Knowledge management is also connected with several
well-known management strategies, practices, and business issues, including Strategic
management and Customer Relationship management. The organization should have
sufficient management skills and the ability to adapt new behaviors and processes to
successfully manage an external part of their business. These skills should include
knowledge management abilities and a willingness to apply them to a new and more
challenging situation. In conclusion, it becomes imperative for companies in the digital
economy to strategically align their knowledge management technologies and skills as a
new method in reaping and sustaining competitive advantage.

7. REFERENCES:

1. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=239247,559300
2. http://knowmgt.blogspot.com/2007/07/benefits-of-knowledge-management.html
3. http://www.quantum3.co.za/CI%20Glossary.htm
4. unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/APCITY/UNPAN020324.pdf
5. tomandmaria.com/691/Presentations/Unit%207%20%20Knowledge
%20Management.pdf