Knowledge management includes techniques and tools required to gather, integrate and disseminate knowledge. There are several different models when it comes to knowledge management which can be analyzed in two different areas. The first area refers to it being a restricted subject to the IT scope while the second considers organizational development and emphasizes structure and corporate culture to facilitate the interaction between the individuals. The goal of knowledge management process is to capture and utilize the resources and best practices in order to gain competitive advantages. When it comes to the knowledge management process, it consists of four different stages: acquisition, creation, reuse and sharing.
The acquisition relates to the intra-organizational process which serves to facilitate the creation of explicit and tacit knowledge. External knowledge sources are an integral part when it comes to the acquisition of the knowledge, and they come in the form of suppliers, customers, partners, external experts and even competitors.
What stands at the heart of organization’s competitive advantage is the ability to always create new knowledge. The creation of new knowledge shares a thin border with innovation management, and as such, it is sometimes not treated as part of knowledge management. According to the SECI model, knowledge creation is about the non-stopping transfer, conversion and the combination of different types of knowledge. The shift in condition between the act of knowing and possessing is considered to be the prime mover when it comes to creating new knowledge, and therefore, knowledge sharing and knowledge creation go hand in hand.
There are three identifiable roles when it comes to the reuse of knowledge, and these are:
- Knowledge producer who is the original creator of knowledge
- Knowledge intermediary who indexes knowledge, packs it, and prepares it, so it can be adequately stored, retrieved when needed and shared again.
- Knowledge consumer who is considered to be the recipient and later on the user of the knowledge in question
All of the functions can involve different people or be performed by the same person. As far as tacit knowledge is concerned, the role of an intermediary belongs to the expert himself, as xhe is the one that must present knowledge through practice and socialization. The functions imply that someone has to produce the knowledge in the first place which is further going to be made available to all who are in need for that knowledge.
Knowledge sharing is considered the most crucial aspect of this process as many various knowledge management initiatives depend upon it. It is about making the right knowledge available to the right people at the right time.