7 - Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research

Advances in Knowledge Management
Kuriakose K.K., Satya Murty S.A.V., Athinarayanan S. and Swaminathan P.
Abstract
Knowledge Management has become a core management discipline that enables
knowledge to grow , flow and create value in an organization. In other words it is the
process by which the organization generates wealth form its knowledge-based assets. It
involves people, information, workflows, ‘best practices’, alliances, ‘Communities of
Practice’ etc. “Knowledge” in this context includes both the experience, emotions,
values, hunches 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. Value is created in the organization by "productivity" and
"innovation", through the application of knowledge to work. Knowledge is basically
classified into explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge. Explicit knowledge is available
in paper, computers etc., where as tacit knowledge resides in the heads of people.
Knowledge Management is concerned with creating organizational environments for
people to share, create and leverage knowledge for innovation and competitive
advantage. Knowledge Management has created a paradigm shift in the thinking of
people from “knowledge is power” to “knowledge sharing is power”. ‘First
Generation Knowledge Management Systems’ deal more with explicit knowledge. It
follows the hierarchy of ‘Data’, ‘Information’, ‘Knowledge’ and ‘Wisdom’. Here the
organization is treated as an ‘Information Processing Machine’. The ‘Second
Generation Knowledge Management Systems’ deal more with tacit knowledge. The
central tenet here is that ‘ knowledge resides in the user and not in the collection; what
matters is how the user reacts to a collection of information’. Here organization is
treated in a more humanistic & organic way.
In this paper the concept, benefits, and implementation of Knowledge Management
Systems is described. The concept of ‘Second Generation Knowledge Management
Systems’ necessitated by new organizational environments is introduced. The concept
of ‘Communities of Practice’ and ‘knowledge intrapreneur’ are explained. It is
emphasised that successful Knowledge Management implementation requires the
synergistic combination of innovation and creativity of humans and advanced
capabilities of new information technologies and more importantly the initiative and
involvement of top management. It is concluded that ‘Second Generation Knowledge
Management Systems’ can achieve simultaneous ‘freezing’ and ‘unfreezing’ of
‘organizational best practices’ to ensure that the effectiveness of the decision making is
not sacrificed at the altar of increased efficiency.
1. Introduction
Ever growing uncertainty, unpredictability, increasing complexity and globalisation seem
to have unleashed a whole series of rapid changes of unforeseen magnitude, affecting
every sphere of life. Survival and success in the 21 st century depend entirely on our ability
Electronics & Instrumentation Group, IGCAR, Kalpakkam – 603 102
Email- kuriakose@igcar.ernet.in
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