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6 Knowledge Application

All that is gold does not glitter; not all those that wander are lost.
— J. R. R. Tolkien (1892 – 1973)

This chapter brings us to the fi nal step in the knowledge management cycle when
the knowledge that has been captured, coded, shared, and otherwise made available
is put to actual use. Unless this step is accomplished successfully, all of the KM efforts
have been in vain, for KM can only succeed if the knowledge is used. However, it
now becomes imperative to understand which knowledge is of use to which set of
people and how best to make it available to them so that they not only understand
how to use it, but believe that using this knowledge will lead to an improvement in
their work. The use of learning taxonomies, task support systems, and personalization
or profi ling techniques can help ensure the best possible match between user and
content. Expertise location systems and other collaboration aids can help groups of
people fi nd and apply valuable knowledge and know-how. Content management
systems can be designed to optimize knowledge application on an organization-wide
basis.

Learning Objectives

1. Understand how user and task modeling approaches can help promote effective
knowledge use at the individual, group, and organizational level.
2. Describe how an organizational KM architecture is designed.
3. Defi ne organizational learning and describe the links between individual and
organizational learning.
4. Compare and contrast learning and understanding with internalization of
knowledge.