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32 Chapter 2

Introduction

Effective knowledge management requires an organization to identify, generate,
acquire, diffuse, and capture the benefi ts of knowledge that provide a strategic advan-
tage to that organization. A clear distinction must be made between information —
which can be digitized — and true knowledge assets — which can only exist within the
context of an intelligent system. As we are still far from the creation of artifi cial intel-
ligence systems, this means that knowledge assets reside within a human knower — not
the organization per se. A knowledge information cycle can be envisioned as the route
that information follows in order to become transformed into a valuable strategic asset
for the organization via a knowledge management cycle.
One of the major KM processes identifi es and locates knowledge and knowledge
sources within the organization. Valuable knowledge is then translated into explicit
form, often referred to as codifi cation of knowledge, in order to facilitate more wide-
spread dissemination. Networks, practices, and incentives are instituted to facilitate
person-to-person knowledge transfer as well as person – knowledge content connec-
tions in order to solve problems, make decisions, or otherwise act based on the best
possible knowledge base. Once this valuable, fi eld-tested knowledge and know-how is
transferred to an organizational knowledge repository, it is said to become part of
corporate memory . This is sometimes also referred to as ground truth .
As was the case with a generally accepted defi nition of KM, a similar lack of con-
sensus exists with respect to the terms used to describe the major steps in the KM
cycle. Table 2.1 summarizes the major terms found in the KM literature.
However, upon closer inspection, the differences in term defi nitions are not really
that great. The terms used differ, but there does appear to be some overlap with regard
to the different types of steps involved in a KM cycle. To this end, four models were
selected as they met the following criteria:

• Implemented and validated in real-world settings
• Comprehensive with respect to the different types of steps found in the KM
literature
• Included detailed descriptions of the KM processes involved in each of the steps

These four KM cycle approaches are from Meyer and Zack (1996) , Bukowitz and
Williams (2000) , McElroy (1999, 2003), and Wiig (1993) .