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The Knowledge Management Cycle 33

Table 2.1
A comparison of key KM cycle processes

Bukowitz and Meyer and
Wiig (1993) McElroy (1999) Rollet (2003) Williams (2000) Zack (1996)

Creation Individual and group Planning Get Acquisition
learning
Sourcing Knowledge claim Creating Use Refi nement
validation
Compilation Information acquisition Integrating Learn Store/retrieve
Transformation Knowledge validation Organizing Contribute Distribution
Dissemination Knowledge integration Transferring Assess Presentation
Application Maintaining Build/sustain
Value realization Assessing Divest

Major Approaches to the KM Cycle

The Meyer and Zack KM Cycle
The Meyer and Zack KM cycle is derived from work on the design and development
of information products ( Meyer and Zack 1996 ). Lessons learned from the physical
products cycle can be applied to the management of knowledge assets. Information
products are broadly defi ned as any information sold to internal or external custom-
ers such as databases, news synopses, customer profi les, and so forth. Meyer and
Zack ( 1996 ) propose that research and knowledge about the design of physical
products can be extended into the intellectual realm to serve as the basis for a KM
cycle.
This approach provides a number of useful analogies such as the notion of a product
platform (the knowledge repository) and the information process platform (the knowl-
edge refi nery) to emphasize the notion of value-added processes required in order to
leverage the knowledge of an organization. The KM cycle consists primarily of creating
a higher value-added knowledge product at each stage of knowledge processing. For
example, a basic database may represent an example of knowledge that has been
created. Value can then be added by extracting trends from these data. The original
information has been repackaged to now provides trend analyses that can serve as the
basis for decision making within the organization. Similarly, competitive intelligence
can be gathered and synthesized in order to repackage raw data into meaningful,
interpreted, and validated knowledge that is of immediate value to users, that is, it
can be put into action directly. Yet another example is a news gathering service that