Knowledge Management
From Dajuroka
- Philosophy
- Wisdom
- Knowledge Management and Economics
- Learning Organisations
- Knowledge Industries
- Information Management and Technology
- Knowledge Management in Health Care
There is precious little agreement of what "knowledge management" means. (Davidson and Voss.p.31)
"The pre-eminent source of competitive advantage or power in the modern economy comes from the sharing of knowledge, and the source of that knowledge is people. Knowledge management is about creating systems that enable organisations to tap into the knowledge, experiences, and creativity of their staff to improve their performance." (Source: Carl Davidson and Dr Philip Voss in Knowledge Management)
"In an economy where the only certainty is uncertainty, the one sure source of lasting competitive advantage is knowledge." Ikujiro Nonaka - Nonaka, I. (1991). "The Knowledge–Creating Company." Harvard Business Review(November–December 1991): pp. 96–104
Definitions
"A multi-disciplined approach to achieving organisational objectives by making best use of knowledge. It involves the design, review and implementation of both social and technological processes to improve the application of knowledge, in the collective interest of stakeholders." Interim Australian Standard Knowledge Management, AS 5037(Int)—2003
- KM is the use of technology to make information relevant and accessible wherever that information may reside. To do this effectively requires the appropriate application of the appropriate technology for the appropriate situation.
- KM incorporates systematic processes of finding, selecting, organizing and presenting information in a way that improves an employee’s comprehension and use of business assets.
- KM is an engine that can drive innovation by unlocking the knowledge assets within the organization.
Susan Conway, Char Silgar
The World Bank in 1999 stated: "For countries in the vanguard of the world economy, the balance between knowledge and resources has shifted so far towards the former that knowledge had become the most important factor determining the standard of living - more than land, than tools, than labour."
Alan Greenspan stated "over half the USA economic growth is associated with the growth of its knowledge based economy."
"Intellectual capital grows more valuable as it is used." Robert Reich 1992, The Work of Nations. Vintage Books NY.
Symptoms of Poor Knowledge Management in an Organisation.
Knowledge creation, transmission and use remain unstructured (and hence, informal and often unconscious processes). Decisions are often made without the benefit of the best knowledge available to an organisation. Knowledge is not reused or shared, meaning staff either continually reinvent the wheel or duplicate the efforts of others elsewhere in the organisation. People are overwhelmed with information that detracts from rather that adds to their ability to do their job (paradoxically, creating a situation where staff experience a simultaneous flood and drought of information). Knowledge hoarding by staff is common, and there is little organisational interest in the value of developing knowledge capacity among staff.
(Standards Australia report International Best Practice: Case Studies in Knowledge Management, 2001)
Data Transformation
The transformation of data into information is one driver for health care organizations to develop decision support systems.
"Decision support enables an individual to combine financial analysis and operational data to enhance managerial decision making and strategic planning, and institute the closed-loop process."
Benefits
- enabling closed loop or planning cycles
- enhancing profitability
- streamlining decision making.
Economic Incentives Constraints over health care facility funding and reimbursement systems have created the economic incentive to utilise DSS technology and other changes to take advantage of the enhanced data-processing capabilities.
A DSS enables a facility to organize data captured by its information system in numerous ways realted to activity, length of stay, acuity, function and by personality.
This capability affords management with an entirely new way of analyzing performance - fiscal, clinical, quality etc.
Hospitals, traditionally organized on a departmental basis, must change their management structures in order to effectively use the data provided by a DSS.
The development of the DSS relies on developing an architecture for the Integration of Decision Making Support Functionalities
There is a necessity for categorizing the various Decision Support Systems. A multidimensional approach is required.
The ontology of the Decision Support System is challenging.
There are also issues of spatial Decision Support Systems to consider.
Deep within the DSS is the need for knowledge warehousing that utilised the "Ripple Down Rules" for acquiring knowledge.
The use of narratives forms a foundation for semantic understanding of what is being produced to the user when interogating the results of decisions.
The use of synthetic characters can useful.
In addition the overall knowledge management and information sharing models need examination.
The work involves the followinf areas:
- Evidence-based decision support systems
- Rational choice and Decision Making
- Medical guidelines and Pathways
- Current and future use of ICT for patient care and management in hospitals and other facilities
- Stakeholder involvement
- Crisis management
- Achievements, difficulties and future challenges
Decision tools
The use of DSS tools can lead to more timely interventions, better planning, better use of resources, a greater understanding of decision-making, process and context, allows for critical evaluations, database benchmarking and ultimately monitoring performance improvement from using Decision Support Systems.
Of course the DSS is part of the solution to manage information overload or infoglut in all its forms.
Other options include the use of balanced scorecard (BSC) indicator systems - usually a customized decision support system which integrates multiple measures in a BSC framework into a powerful tool for enabling complex decision making by a management team.
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