KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

What is the difference between data, information and

knowledge?

Dat

a Specific objective facts, or observations.

Easily captured, easily structured, easily transferred. Compact, quantifiable.

Info

rmat

ion Data endowed

with relevance and purpose.

Requires unit of analysis, needs consensus on meaning, human mediation required, often garbled in transition.

Know

ledg

e Mix of contextual information, experiences, rules and values – includes reflection, synthesis and context.

Hard to capture electronically, hard to structure, hard to transfer, often tacit, highly personal to the source.

More human contribution required, more valuable

Knowing:

◦How?◦What?◦Why?

What are the different types of knowledge?

Based on assembling information and eventually applying it.

Requires: Being able to recognize, describe, and classify concepts an things.

e.g. Being able to organize tasks into groups (e.g. EP servicing, Ra/Re/Ma, etc.)

Knowing What

Fully understood by actually experiencing the situation.

Generated by the “knowing what”

Gives context – understanding the sequence of events, or the ability to perform a set of actions. ◦ E.g. understanding rules, procedures, or routines

(HOW to Ra/Re/Ma)

Knowing How

The causal knowledge of something occurs.

Happens when there is a synthesis process of the “how” and “what”, through a reasoning process.

Values and beliefs are a component of knowledge, and determine the interpretation of knowledge and organization.

Knowing Why

Know Why

Know What

Know How

Information

Application

Procedure

Reasoning

Experience

Easy to gather – data, memorandum, records.

Easy to gather on a digital medium, and share.◦ E.g. Statistics on myaiesec.net

Explicit Knowledge

Tacit knowledge – the things you know, but you can’t explain.

Often personal; context-specific, hard to formalize and communicate.

Consists of experiences, beliefs and skills – often acquired through physical practice of a skill or activity. (e.g. Sports, promoting to raise.)

Tacit Knowledge

Tacit vs. Explicit

Tacit Explicit

Knowing how to identify the key issues necessary to solve a problem.

Apply similar experiences from past situations.

Estimating work requirement based on intuition and requirement.

Deciding on appropriate course of action.

Procedures listed in a manual

Books and articles News reports and

financial statements Information left over

from past projects.