KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Knowledge Management is just common Sense Management



Knowledge Management is just common Sense Management

Introduction

Many organizations have started focusing on knowledge management and are considering it to be an essential factor that needs to be incorporated within every practice. The purpose behind this paper is to assess whether knowledge management is simply common sense or there is more to it. The paper will focus on understanding individually both terms, the objectives and purposes, some of its major applications and lastly devise an argument whether there is any truth in knowledge management being nothing more than common sense.

Discussion

Beginning with the basics the term knowledge means; familiarizing oneself with something or someone, which includes facts, information, skills that are acquired through experience and education. Hence for understanding Knowledge management we will refer to Newman (1991) Knowledge management can be implied as a compilation of procedures that are associated with the creation, dissemination and utilization of knowledge. The application of knowledge has always been a part of our daily lives; people rely on philosophies, teachings, instructors to gain a better insight on a particular aspect.

The question that arises is that since Knowledge has been a part of our lives since forever then why is so much attention given to it now? According to Sierhuis (1991) people have been familiar with the term information management since they started understanding that information is a valuable resource that needs to be properly managed in order to effectively apply it within an organization. Therefore, managers and organization heads starting understanding the importance of knowledge as well. Knowledge is equally an important asset that needs to be managed and effectively applied within an organization.

Albert Einstein has said that common sense is nothing but a deposit of prejudices created within the mind, Béteille (2012) has elaborated about common sense that it is based on the experiences of people and places. Common sense is localised and particular, however it is highly variable to the constraints of place, time and specifically social constraints, and he further notes that it is unreflective because it does not have any origin or presuppositions. Based on these definitions we get a clearer understanding of how both principles are considered a necessary part of our daily lives. However based on these definitions, I consider knowledge management a lot more than common sense and the recent emphasis on pursuing knowledge management is not without ground.

Objectives of Knowledge management

The objective of knowledge management is a strategic commitment to enhance the effectiveness of the organization, and to improve the organization's ability to perform core activities with more efficiency. Based on Davenport et al. (1998) the fundamental objectives of knowledge management can be divided into the following categories.

Creating a storage of knowledge

Improving knowledge

Enhance the overall knowledge environment

Manage knowledge as an asset

By summarizing these points we can easily understand the goal of knowledge management as the continuous practice of gathering and storing knowledge and applying it in order to improve the organization's performance by constantly sharing knowledge throughout the organization and ...