Knowledge management

Knowledge is a competitive advantage, which has become a more central issue than a few years ago. The purpose of knowledge management (KM) is to transfer, application and develop knowledge within organisations so that they can achieve their organisational goalsas well as possible.

Expicit knowledge can be systematically stored and distributed by the means of classic information management (e.g. knowledge portals). Tacit knowledge depends very much on individuals and cannot be easily distributed. So-called yellow pages can help to locate the particular knowledge carriers – that are experts – more easily. It is, however, often important to assess the future needs so that the particular professional and personal skills can be developed internally in the organisation or integrated from outside on time. This is the task of skills management.

Yet, the technologically best knowledge management is pointless, if the employees do not use it. It is important to acceptance that the knowledge management system brings more work than benefit to the single employee. Therefore, the partical methods of knowledge management shall not be applied at random. Furthermore, it is necessary not to give unknowingly any incentives to hoard knowledge: For example, if not those employees who generously share their knowledge but those who hoard and withhold their knowledge, they will hardly pass on their knowledge.

Seminar papers

Masters thesis