Knowledge management
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Contents
Definition
Knowledge management is Coordinated, integrated, systemic practices and activities which enable and promote effective knowledge processes and ensure adequate knowledge assets as needed to achieve organizational goals. (Last published: an integrated, systematic approach to identifying, acquiring, transforming, developing, disseminating, using, sharing, and preserving knowledge, relevant to achieving specified objectives)
Summary
Knowledge management is by now well established and widely adopted, and documented in a vast body of literature. The IAEA defines Knowledge Management as an integrated and systematic approach for identifying, acquiring, transforming, developing, disseminating, using, and preserving the knowledge that is critical to an individual or organization in achieving specified objectives The KM model adopted contains three primary elements: people, processes and technology.
Description
Knowledge Management emerged as a scientific discipline in the earlier 1990s. Since then, a vast body of literature with fundamental textbooks as well as a large number of Internet links covering a broad range of thoughts on the KM discipline including manifold practical experiences have been established. An overview on many relevant aspects of general (not organization or domain specific) Knowledge Management may be found in Wikipedia.
The IAEA defines knowledge management as: “an integrated and systematic approach for identifying, acquiring, transforming, developing, disseminating, using, and preserving the knowledge that is critical to an individual or organization in achieving specified objectives”.
The knowledge management approach in business is prompted by the combination of three primary elements — people, processes, and technology — operating within a culture that recognizes the importance of knowledge to the success and safety of all (see Fig. 1). These three elements are shortly characterized as:
- KM focuses on people and the organizational culture required to stimulate and nurture the sharing and use of knowledge, on processes or methods to find, create, capture and share knowledge, and on the technologyneeded to store and make knowledge accessible and to allow people to work together without being together
- KM focuses on processes or methods which find, create, capture and share knowledge. Established operational processes are essential to safely operating and maintaining nuclear facilities. KM must be integrated into business processes such as strategic planning, analysis and decision making, implementation of plans, and evaluation of results
- KM focuses on technology to store and make knowledge accessible, which allows people to work together irrespective of location or time. Thus, technology is an important enabler to the success of KM
