Knowledge Management
Purpose of Research: To explore knowledge and the management of knowledge to identify
new ways of thinking and behaving that will improve our personal lives and our organizations.
Knowledge Management (KM) is the systematic nurturing of an organization to enable it to
make maximum use of knowledge in achieving its purpose. The goal is for an organization to
become aware of its knowledge, individually and collectively, and to shape itself to make the
most effective and efficient use of the knowledge it has or can obtain. Knowledge Management
gives visibility and focus to an awareness and appreciation of knowledge as a strategic asset in
organizations.
KM works primarily with meta-knowledge or knowledge about knowledge. It is also
concerned with people, organizations, technology, networks and knowledge about knowledge
processes and is focused on designing, developing, leading, managing and changing
organizations to improve their performance in a knowledge economy. To discover the nature of
this field, research was directed at uncovering those aspects of the field that excited passion in
its thought leaders. New insights included new ways of looking at the field and the discovery
that it is self-referential, complex adaptive, has no dominant leader and its nature supports
autotelic work. The research methodology, results and discussion of results are available for
download. Major Research Study
The field of KM has demonstrated its value to many firms as they work to understand and
respond to threats and opportunities rising from a turbulent environment, and holds even
larger potential for the future.
Thought Bite: KM and People (single PowerPoint slide) Quotes focused on value for the
individual.
Thought Bite: KM and Organizations (single PowerPoint slide) Quotes focused on value to
organizations.
Thought Bite: KM and the World (single PowerPoint slide) Quotes focused on value to the
world.
See the Knowledge
Management area of the Publications section.
Key Definitions
Knowledge is the human capacity (both potential and actual) to take effective action in varied
and uncertain situations.
Knowledge Management is a process for optimizing the effective creation and application of
intellectual capital to achieve objectives. In an organizational setting, this would mean a
systematic approach to getting an organization to make the best possible use of knowledge
in implementing its mission, broadly viewed as either sustainable competitive advantage or
long-term high performance. From the individual viewpoint, this can be extrapolated to
mean optimizing the effective application of the individual's knowledge (their potential and
actual capacity to take effective action in varied and uncertain situations) to achieve the
individual's professional and personal goals.
Context is the set of circumstances or facts that surround a particular situation, the totality of
features having relevance to the causation, meaning, or effect of an event or situation.
If there is any part of this collection of thoughts that you do not understand or would
like to discuss, please call 304-799-7267 and ask for David or Alex. If we are not
available please leave your name and phone number and we will return your call as
soon as possible. You may email Alex at alex@mountainquestinstitute.com
All rights reserved. Mountain Quest Institute LLC 2013
