Knowledge Management: A Manager's Briefing.

• Author: WILLIAMSON, SANDRA

TITLE: Knowledge Management: A Manager's Briefing

PUBLISHER: ARMA International

PUBLICATION DATE: 1998

LENGTH: 24 pages

PRICE: $17 members / $25 nonmembers

SOURCE: ARMA International Bookstore, http://www.arma.org or 888/298-9202

In today's business environment of fast-paced decision-making, electronic commerce, and Internet communication, the collective memory of a corporation is fragmented and difficult to manage. In addition, many corporations do not realize that some of the most valuable information they have is the experience and expertise of their employees. The effort to gather, maintain, and disseminate this intelligence is the goal of knowledge management (KM).

Since its emergence just a few years ago, KM has become one of the fastest-growing management disciplines. As a result, information professionals everywhere are asking, "What does knowledge management mean to me?" William Saffady's white paper "Knowledge Management: A Manager's Briefing" offers insight to this very question.

Saffady provides a framework that defines KM, explains its benefits to businesses today, and identifies what information managers can do to incorporate these ideas into their programs. The white paper begins with a definition of KM and an explanation of the similarities of its purpose to basic information management principles. This is followed by a discussion of the importance knowledge brings to companies, including suggestions on how to conduct a knowledge inventory. Finally, Saffady explains the role of information technology and provides a section on what information managers can do to incorporate this into their basic program.

Saffady is a recognized expert on information management and its relationship to technology, so it is not surprising that one of this paper's strengths is its examination of the role information technology plays in KM programs. Saffady states that "if information is the raw material of knowledge, technology promotes knowledge management by facilitating the creation, storage, retrieval, and distribution of information." Therefore, information technology plays an enabling role in the initiative. Records management, as described, is closely allied with KM because of its basic business purpose...