Table Of ContentKnowledge Management
Innovation and Technology Set
coordinated by
Chantal Ammi
Volume 5
Knowledge Management
The Creative Loop
Jean-Louis Ermine
First published 2018 in Great Britain and the United States by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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© ISTE Ltd 2018
The rights of Jean-Louis Ermine to be identified as the author of this work have been asserted by him in
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2017962951
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ISBN 978-1-78630-170-3
Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Part 1. Theoretical Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter 1. A Knowledge Value Chain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2. Different KVCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3. The DIKW model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.4. KVC and management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.5. Transformation processes in the KVC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.6. Practical application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1.7. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Chapter 2. The Knowledge Capital of a Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.1.1. The accumulation of knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.1.2. The company as knowledge producer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.2. Modeling a company as a knowledge producer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.2.1. Systemic modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.2.2. The “black box” model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.2.3. The “division of labor” model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.2.4. The informational model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.2.5. The knowledge capital model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.2.6. The knowledge capital and knowledge actors model . . . . . . . . . 31
2.2.7. Integration of customer knowledge
and external knowledge into the AIK model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.3. The operators of the AIK model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.3.1. The Wenger operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
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2.3.2. The Nonaka operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.3.3. Integration of the Nonaka theory into the AIK model . . . . . . . . 37
2.4. Tacit/explicit knowledge and knowledge communities . . . . . . . . . . 39
2.5. Mapping as a modeling tool to steer the AIK system . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.6. Practical application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.7. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Chapter 3. The Structure of Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.2. The semiotic triangle of knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.3. The systemic triangle of knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.4. The knowledge macroscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3.4.1. Knowledge and information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.4.2. Knowledge and meaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3.4.3. Knowledge and context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.5. Practical application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.6. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Chapter 4. Shannon’s Theory of Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4.2. Some definitions and notations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4.2.1. The basic unit of knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4.2.2. Measuring knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.2.3. Quantity of knowledge in a corpus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.3. Measurement of the quantity of information in a corpus . . . . . . . . . 70
4.4. Measurement of the quantity of meaning in a corpus . . . . . . . . . . . 75
4.4.1. Definitions and notations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
4.4.2. Quantitative characterization of semantic graphs:
Gurevich entropy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
4.5. Measurement of usage context in a corpus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
4.5.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
4.5.2. Social networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
4.5.3. Hierarchical small-world networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
4.5.4. Scale-free networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
4.5.5. Quantitative characterization of the usage graph of a corpus . . . . 90
4.6. Practical application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
4.7. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Contents vii
Part 2. Practical Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Chapter 5. A New Approach to KM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
5.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
5.2. Two examples of KM standardization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
5.2.1. KM and international standardization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
5.2.2. KM in the nuclear domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
5.3. The French Knowledge Management Club . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
5.4. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Chapter 6. A Framework for Knowledge-based KM . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
6.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
6.2. The Daisy Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
6.3. Building a KM process framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
6.4. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Chapter 7. KM: From Strategy to Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
7.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
7.2. Framing a KM project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
7.2.1. The objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
7.2.2. Responsibilities and roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
7.2.3. Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
7.2.4. Internal communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
7.2.5. Connections between KM and other company issues . . . . . . . . . 119
7.2.6. Other subjects of interest to consider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
7.3. Implementing the KM project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
7.4. Monitoring the KM system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
7.5. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Chapter 8. Analyzing Knowledge Capital and
Elaborating a KM Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
8.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
8.2. Tools for analyzing knowledge capital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
8.2.1. Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
8.2.2. The knowledge criticality analysis grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
8.3. The knowledge capital analysis process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
8.3.1. Step 1: analyzing critical capacities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
8.3.2. Step 2: analyzing critical knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
8.3.3. Step 3: strategic alignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
8.3.4. Step 4: elaborating a KM plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
8.4. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
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Chapter 9. Implementing the KM Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
9.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
9.2. Knowledge organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
9.2.1. Tangible resources (explicit knowledge) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
9.2.2. Intangible resources (tacit knowledge) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
9.2.3. New knowledge resource additions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
9.3. Knowledge codification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
9.3.1. Lessons learned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
9.3.2. Knowledge-based documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
9.3.3. Knowledge books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
9.4. Knowledge sharing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
9.4.1. Knowledge communities or communities of practice . . . . . . . . . 179
9.4.2. Knowledge transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
9.5. Knowledge search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
9.5.1. Knowledge search and information retrieval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
9.5.2. The knowledge search process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
9.5.3. The challenge of KM in knowledge search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
9.6. Knowledge creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
9.6.1. Knowledge creation and innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
9.6.2. Knowledge-based innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
9.6.3. Evaluating the maturity of the innovation process . . . . . . . . . . 207
9.7. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Preface
Knowledge management (KM) has become a necessity in companies and
all other types of public or private organizations.
More than 20 years ago, the business community clearly entered
into what is known as the “knowledge economy”. Up until that point,
the forces that supported the economy were production and workforce.
Now, knowledge is the primary engine for growth and competitiveness.
Knowledge has become economic capital, a strategic resource, a stabilizing
factor, a competitive advantage and so on. It is now a matter for an
organization to capitalize on its knowledge (“Know where we come from,
where we are, to better know where we are going”), to share it (“Move from
individual intelligence to collective intelligence”) and to constantly create
new knowledge (“Create, innovate to survive”).
Today, the issue even extends beyond the economic context, because
we talk about a Knowledge Society, a Knowledge City or Smart City, etc.
This falls under another point of view that depends on a new development
relationship between people (citizens, workers, etc.) and Information and
Communications Technologies (ICTs). The spread of ICTs will have major
consequences on education, social expression, the nature of labor and the
economy. Every society can establish institutions and organizations to allow
people and information to flourish without restrictions. This fundamental
and inevitable connection between knowledge and ICTs is now part of
the dominant thought regarding knowledge societies, often to the point of
inverting the predominance between ICTs and knowledge. International
organizations (notably the United Nations), governments and local actors are
now mobilized on these subjects.
x Knowledge Management
For these reasons, KM is currently a rapidly growing field. It has returned
in full force in companies, because it responds to real underlying issues that
are only increasing with the phenomena of globalization, aging populations,
knowledge societies, etc. There is an abundance of literature on the subject,
and even providing an overview has become impossible. Identifying a clear
issue in this movement, which includes the economic, social, and cultural
spheres, is occurring relatively slowly, because the creation of such a field is
fairly complex. It borrows from economics, management, social sciences,
information systems, computer sciences, etc. Discerning what KM really is
in an organization is not an easy thing, because it includes almost all of its
components.
KM concerns strategy, because it is really a new type of management
responding to a new socioeconomic environment and a new vision of
the organization. It concerns the structure of the organization, because
knowledge is made and unmade through complex networks connected to the
environment that can challenge traditional systems. It concerns many
processes that are already implemented in organizations (fortunately, human
beings have always managed their knowledge!), but that need to be revised
from new perspectives, optimized or developed. It concerns the personnel
of the organization, who is at the heart of the issue, because it is true
that knowledge is only created, shared or developed through people, who
must mobilize personally and collectively for this purpose. It concerns
information and communications technologies, which are powerful vectors
for KM if they are used effectively.
It is important to have a well-founded and practical approach that can
help companies implement their KM system. This is all the more necessary
because the international standardization of KM is in progress through the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and other organizations.
That is the objective of this book.
This book is the result of more than 20 years of research and experience
in the field of KM, begun even before the subject arrived on the scene. It is
composed of two parts that can be read independently, although they are
inextricably tied.
