Knowledge Management Enablers - Article Example

This cost them their exile out of the Garden of Eden and onto a life of suffering. Such is the value of knowledge that in its pursuit, it wields its power to drive people to do things unexpected of them. Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) make the distinction between two types of knowledge: explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge. Discussions of this concept are abundant in the KM literature (Bollinger and Smith, 2001). Explicit knowledge is defined as structured and codified knowledge. It is formal and systematic and is easily expressed in the production specifications, scientific formulae or computer programs (Nonaka and Konno, 1998), thus it can be easily communicated and shared.

Tacit knowledge, in contrast, is unconsciously understood and applied, difficult to articulate, and developed directly from experience, and action (Zack, 1999). Tacit knowledge is highly personal, hard to formalize, difficult to communicate or share with others. The adage that “Knowledge is Power” has been adhered to by many people as a rule of strategy in achieving personal or professional empowerment and advantage, or as a protective measure against the uncertainties and unstable conditions of life’s situations. . It is as arbitrary and shallow as its premises imply.

So, like money and time, knowledge needs to be managed well so it is used for the best outcomes. Knowledge management has been getting much attention due to its accorded importance in organizations. O’Dell and Grayson (1998) defines it as “a conscious strategy of getting the right knowledge to the right people at the right time and helping people share and put information into action in ways that strive to improve organizational performance” (p.6) In addition, Nakra (2000) contends, “Knowledge management refers to the ability to develop, share, deposit, extract, and deliver knowledge such that it may be retrieved and used to make decisions or to support the processes” (p. 54). Magnier-Watanabe and Senoo (2008) defines it as “the process for acquiring, storing/sharing, diffusing and implementing both tacit and explicit knowledge inside and outside the organization’s boundaries with the purpose of achieving corporate objectives in the most efficient manner” (cited in Magnier-Watanabe & Senoo, 2010, p. 216). It should be noted that the common characteristics of knowledge management in the definitions is that it is something that is movable from one person to another for the purpose of achieving organizational goals.

However, it is not as simple as it seems as there are several considerations in order for knowledge management to be successful in working for the whole organization and not just for a few individuals. Dissecting Magnier-Watanabe & Senoo’s definition further, the processes involved in knowledge management are likewise described. Knowledge acquisition is gaining new knowledge from whatever source and although knowledge already