Knowledge management in companies is not a new topic. However, it is becoming increasingly relevant in a time of rapid change that requires companies to learn and adapt quickly, as well as in a time of growth among domestic firms that are reaching the point where it becomes a problem that most of the knowledge resides in the heads of just a few people. Because the chief engineer will retire (or move to Germany), as will the master craftsman, the head of sales, or the director. What happens then, when they leave and the knowledge of why something works, how bottlenecks are bypassed, and how to deal with a difficult partner leaves with them? Therefore, this truly is a topic that deserves attention. It is recognized both by those who lead companies and by those who are meant to succeed them. That is why, in this series of blog posts, I will address what the literature says and, I hope to a great extent, what is happening in practice in our context.
To begin with, it is useful to go through the meaning of the most important concepts before delving into the details.
Knowledge management in companies is a systematic approach to collecting, organizing, storing, and using knowledge within a company or organization. It refers to a repository that contains the knowledge, experience, procedures, and information that the organization possesses. The collected knowledge can be divided into two groups:
- explicit and
- tacit knowledge.
Explicit knowledge can be relatively easily articulated in text, audio recordings, or diagrams, that is, standardized into procedures, manuals, or methodologies where it resides. Tacit knowledge, on the other hand, represents what a person knows how to do but, due to its complexity, finds difficult to clearly convey in writing. Tacit knowledge is acquired through experience, observation, and practice. It is contextual, intuitive, and difficult to verbalize (answers often begin with: “It depends…”, and frequently contain an unquantified measure—“by feel”). Paradoxically, experts in their fields often struggle more to articulate their skills than beginners. Regardless of the type of knowledge, when employees leave an organization that does not engage in knowledge management, they take years of experience with them and that knowledge is lost. People do not even have to leave for this to happen—knowledge can simply be forgotten because it has not been systematically documented anywhere.
The main processes in knowledge management are the following:
- identification
- organization
- sharing and use
(1) Identification involves recognizing what knowledge the organization possesses. This is achieved through mapping. (2) Organization refers to structuring knowledge in a way that makes it accessible and easily searchable for employees in an internal knowledge base—that is, in a central place where rules, processes, instructions, and contacts are recorded—instead of having information scattered across Word documents, emails, or in the heads of certain individuals. With advances in information technology, such databases can now be much easier to (3) use and search, enabling new employees to quickly and easily access the knowledge base and find ready-made solutions or procedures at the right moment, instead of independently searching for solutions to similar problems, making the same mistakes, and learning lessons that others in the company have already mastered.
Since we are speaking here about knowledge management, it is impossible not to mention the way knowledge is acquired in companies or organizations—organizational learning. Learning, in the broadest sense, takes place through at least two mechanisms: learning from experience and learning from others. There is a saying that a wise person learns from others’ mistakes, while a fool learns from their own. There is another, experience-based one, which goes that a wise person learns from their own mistakes, while a fool thinks they will learn from others’. Let us say that the truth lies somewhere in between. Learning from experience occurs when an organization experiments, monitors results, records them, and adapts accordingly. This knowledge is then embedded into procedures, ways of working, and even the organization’s culture. Learning from others occurs when a company pays a consultant to teach it something, when a demanding customer/client prepares the company to collaborate with them, but also when it learns—covertly or openly (through cooperation)—from other companies. What is important to emphasize is that organizational learning requires the intentional design of learning systems and the allocation of certain resources for that purpose. It is not something that will simply happen on its own.
Knowledge management may seem like yet another area that requires management, attention, and time – which is absolutely true. However, the continuity, speed, and the freed-up space for innovation enjoyed by companies and organizations that pay attention to this topic are a valuable trade-off.
* This blog was translated from Serbian using AI. Original version can be found at https://edabl.org/home/