There is no universal definition of knowledge management (KM), just as there's no agreement as to what constitutes knowledge. For this reason, it's best to think of KM in the broadest context. KM is the process through which organizations generate value from their intellectual and knowledge-based assets. Most often, generating value from such assets involves sharing them among employees, departments and even with other companies in an effort to devise best practices (Santosus & Surmacz, 2001). The goal of KM is to simultaneously manage data, information, and explicit knowledge while leveraging what people know (tacit knowledge) through a combination of technology and management practices (Emery,

Knowledge and differences between Knowledge and Information

Knowledge management is an emerging corporation discipline that focuses on organizing, filtering, and key corporate data as an asset (Emery, 1999). Today, more and more organizations are realizing that they need corporate-wide program for assimilating and organizing the continuing system of knowledge and data that is generated internally and externally within the organization. Islands of knowledge and data exist through the corporation, but they are not connected and hence not usable where and when needed. Valuable information is lost when an island is abandoned or the data is not available as a corporate-wide asset (Emery, 1999). KM actually makes a bridge between those knowledge islands and makes them available to managers and decision makers. KM, as a concept, uses technologies which are still emerging. It is expected that in future technology will make KM implementation easier in corporations and more and more organizations will be benefited by KM.

One of the most important strategies that can be implemented is one that fosters the employee’s willingness to share and contribute to the knowledge base. This may be the most difficult obstacle to overcome. Employees must be made to understand the success and advancement in their career will be based on KM principles. Political, organizational, and technical challenges are considered as another major obstacle for some companies to overcome. Sharing is such a valuable component to the success of KM because it focuses on the human side of knowledge (Puccinelli, 1998). Most of the time, we try to solve business problems with technology alone and fail to consider the users. Because knowledge is fundamentally a product of people and not technology, the focus should be social and not technical. Many organizations approach the lack of sharing using technical tools, when sharing is not a technical issue. It is a people issue (Puccinelli, 1998).

To successfully implement a KM initiative, moving from individual to collaborative effort is essential. Several strategies can be used to encourage sharing in the organization. Creating formal communities of interest and centers of excellence is a strategy that encourages knowledge sharing across functional divisions that exist in many corporate organizational structures (Puccinelli, 1998). Creating new knowledge through the process of gathering, sorting, sharing, and applying knowledge may require changes in organizational structures that go beyond technology.

Some topics in this essay:
Giannetto Wheeler, Knowledge Management, Buckman Laboratories, Conclusion Knowledge, Technology KM, , Primus SolutionSeries, Knowledge Information, Networks Organization, Knowledge Knowledge, knowledge management, emery 1999, wheeler 2000, giannetto wheeler 2000, giannetto wheeler, explicit knowledge, knowledge sharing, tacit knowledge, information knowledge, sharing distance learning, distance learning, sharing distance, knowledge sharing distance, emery 1999 organizations, people share knowledge,