SKILLS FOR KNOWLEDGE ENVIRONMENTS.

• Author: ABELL, ANGELA

AT THE CORE

THIS ARTICLE EXAMINES:

* Importance of knowledge management (KM) in organizations

* Information literacy skills for a knowledge environment

* Research findings about roles of information professionals in KM

The knowledge economy is a reality in the Western world. Before the term knowledge management (KM) was coined, many organizations examined alternative ways of doing business and restructuring themselves. Information and communications technology (ICT) had widened their internal and external networks, which enabled different and more flexible arrangements with staff, suppliers, and clients. Theoretically, they could increase their capacity to innovate and respond to their markets. However, this technology provided the same advantages to current competitors and lowered the cost of entry to new competitors.

Organizations found that their environments were subjected to rapid change and that survival depended on their being able to recognize and harness the change. Successful private sector organizations needed to operate in a fast-moving and global marketplace where their customers were knowledgeable, where those customers had a rich landscape of choice, and where the relationships between supplier and client were changing.

Public sector organizations recognized that they faced competition as well, whether it was for funding or from alternative services. The message was that the customer was central to operations and that meeting their requirements and exceeding their expectations were the road to success. Corporate capability -- the ability to meet market need as well as develop and expand it -- was the key, and this capability was made up of more than the ability to implement and use the latest technology.

As organizations faced the challenge of reinventing themselves in radically changing environments, a series of management writers, academics, and consultants influenced views on adaptive cultures, stakeholders, business processes, knowledge sharing, learning organizations, and benchmarking other elements of organizational development. Culture and identity, involvement and commitment, process and flexibility, learning and sharing, creativity and innovation, and trust and respect were aspects of the changes advocated, the best practices rehearsed, and the lessons learned through case study. Of the management themes developed and explored in the last 25 years, five have been particularly influential in changing the way that people and organizations work. These are:

* total quality management

* business process reengineering

* intangible assets

* learning organizations

* knowledge management

These themes are not mutually exclusive nor are they exhaustive, and their common themes have fed and enlarged them. They have been responsible for a significant portion of business language. Their common thrust is away from using the balance sheet and financial accounting as the main tool of management and more toward a broader understanding of what creates value and sustainable business success. At the core sits the crucial interaction between the people of an organization -- its customers, suppliers, and partners -- and the structures that underpin the organization.

Emergent Centrality of the Knowledge Worker

KM concepts and strategies are making their mark on organizations of all sizes and in all sectors. In a number of surveys, chief executives placed KM high on their list of priorities.

For organizations to compete effectively in the knowledge economy, they need values that focus on creating and using intellectual assets. For individuals working in these organizations, the ability to navigate and use information, learn new skills, and feel comfortable in ambiguous work situations has become as important to success as academic achievement. To be successful in these environments, individuals need to acquire new combinations of skills. In particular, they need to learn skills that enable them to find, acquire, manage, share, and apply information and knowledge -- they need information literacy skills.

By developing a stimulating environment, what some have called an information ecology, where intellectual assets are created and used efficiently and effectively, organizations can increase their corporate capability. By acquiring and applying information literacy skills, individuals can increase their individual capability. Increasing both corporate and individual capability is the primary and necessary success factor in the knowledge economy.

This focus on intellectual assets and information literacy requires new approaches to the management of information and knowledge and to the environment in which it is created and used. It requires a new combination of the skills that embrace every aspect of our complex information world.

The business strategies of many organizations depend on their staffs working together and communicating effectively and creatively and on their ability to innovate and respond to the marketplace. KM facilitates this marketplace success. While one may question the label knowledge management, knowledge worker-based knowledge initiatives reflecting KM concepts are rapidly becoming a way of life. Such initiatives are becoming the next phase of the continuous process of improving business performance.

Objectives and Techniques of the Research

The KM philosophy states that no single department or function alone can deliver corporate objectives. Corporate capability is created by the following:

* skills and expertise of staff

* staff's ability to learn and to build knowledge from learning

* processes that enable the staff's skills and evolving knowledge to be applied and shared

* culture and values that encourage knowledge building and sharing

* an infrastructure (technology and physical) that supports knowledge building, flow, and sharing

* intellectual assets the organization builds, organizes, maintains, and exploits

Information is a necessary and foundational precursor to knowledge. Individuals -- rather than organizations -- identify and acquire information. Then they combine it with experience and additional information. In the right environment and circumstances, this nurturing process may lead to new knowledge that the person can share with others and benefit the organization.

Although information management (including records management, archives management, librarianship, and information systems) is very much part of the KM environment, it is but one part, and it is only truly effective when applied with an understanding of the full...