Knowledge Management: Converting individual learnings into organizationl learning (original) (raw)

Abstract

Knowledge Management' (KM) has become the new 'mantra' for survival and growth of organizations. The new initiative is often projected as a direct outcome of the IT revolution and even equated to IT-based techniques for codifying, storing, and retrieving information. This is indeed a misconception. KM is as old as the human race itself; it is only the tools, techniques, and the methodologies that have undergone changes. The oldest of these, that is, person-to-person transfer of knowledge is no less important even in the present era of high technology. One may recall from the Greek mythology, how the human race acquired the technology of fire from the gods through the unauthorized services of Prometheus, and how severely Zeus punished the latter for smuggling this technology to an alien race! Knowledge is always generated by individuals but can be shared selectively among groups, organizations, and communities and beyond. There can be and will be unwillingness and inadequacies at all these levels. Modern organizations, being very complex technologically as well as structurally-and being under tremendous pressure for acting quickly and efficiently on a global playing field-have to minimize the process of "re-inventing the wheel". Hence, there are deliberate efforts now in organizations to harness the knowledge generated by the various individuals and groups and re-use it for the benefit of their future operations. What used to be an informal process in organizations is being formalized in the name of Knowledge Management. As this is emerging as a new function in many organizations, a brief description of its definition and characteristics would help us to understand the way this is being conceived and implemented in organizations.