An enterprise‐wide knowledge management system infrastructure
| Published date | 01 February 2002 |
| Pages | 17-25 |
| Date | 01 February 2002 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02635570210414622 |
| Author | Sang M. Lee,Soongoo Hong |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
An enterprise-wide knowledge management system
infrastructure
Sang M. Lee
Department of Management, College of Business Administration, University of
Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA
Soongoo Hong
Department of Accounting and Information Systems, College of Business
Administration, Texas A&M International University, Laredo, Texas, USA
Introduction
Today's organizations have to deal with
complex, rapidly changing business
environments in order to survive in the
increasingly competitive global economy.
Accordingly, the structure of economy has
shifted from ``products-based strategy'' to
``knowledge-focused business''. Without
adapting to new rules such as using flexible
knowledge workers and advanced
information technology (IT) for competitive
advantage, organizations simply cannot exist
for the long term in the global market. Of the
Fortune 500 companies operating in 1956,
only 29 firms are still operating their
businesses today (National Research
Council, 1997). After Nonaka's article, ``The
knowledge-creating company'', was
published in 1991, the strategic value of
knowledge has been recognized by
world-class organizations. In a later study,
Drucker (1996) claims that:
... knowledge is the only meaningful
economic resource.
Due to the importance of knowledge relative
to competitive advantage and advances in IT
which allow organizations to utilize such
advantage, knowledge management (KM) has
become part of today's new management
terminology. In fact, many leading
world-class organizations are implementing
KM. According to research reported in
Fortune, a survey of 200 firms by CAP
Ventures in 1997 found that 63 per cent had
employed a KM strategy (Dykeman, 1998).
According to Nonaka's (1991) definition,
the essence of a ``knowledge-creating''
company is ``endless innovation''. From his
perspective, previously defined innovative
management tools, including total quality
management (TQM), business process
reengineering (BPR) or business process
innovation, and learning organization (LO),
are closely associated with the concept of
KM. The Knowledge Research Institute (1998)
views KM as the most recent and valuable
management paradigm today and that the
concept is based on TQM, BPR and LO.
Numerous researchers and practitioners
point out that the core managerial concept of
those innovative management tools is
endless innovation in organizations. Nonaka
(1991) views KM as synonymous with
innovativeness. It is clear that continuous
improvement in organizations is essential to
survive in the knowledge era.
World-class organizations view IT as a key
enabler for implementing a new management
paradigm that mostly focuses on endless
improvement in organizations.
Organizations recognize that without
applying IT, it is almost impossible for them
to employ new management ideas in the
global market. A wide range of ITs, such as
the Internet, data warehousing, data mining,
and database systems have been employed to
implement KM.
The three objectives of this study are to:
1 define KM and distinguish its concept
from LO and BPR in terms of information
technology application;
2 review how application systems of
information technology support each step
of a KM life cycle; and
3 suggest the future role of information
technology in KM practices.
Knowledge management
There are many ways to define KM. Before its
definition is presented, it is useful to
understand BPR and organizational learning
whose concepts are very similar to that of
KM. The concept of BPR was first introduced
by Hammer in 1990. BPR, sometimes referred
to as process innovation (Davenport, 1996), is
a management tool for organizations to
enhance their competitiveness; and this
concept has been variously defined by many
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available
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[17]
Industrial Management &
Data Systems
102/1 [2002] 17±25
#MCB UP Limited
[ISSN 0263-5577]
[DOI 10.1108/02635570210414622]
Keywords
Knowledge-based systems,
Information technology
Abstract
The borderless global economy
has accentuated the importance
of knowledge as the most critical
source of competitive advantage.
Thus, knowledge management
(KM) has become a strategic
mandate for most world-class
organizations. A key enabler for
implementing an effective KM
system is advanced information
technology (IT). Strategies for
developing an enterprise-wide KM
system infrastructure with
embedded IT are discussed. In
particular, this paper discusses
the concept of a KM life cycle ±
knowledge capture, knowledge
development, knowledge sharing,
and knowledge utilization, and
how applications of new IT support
each step of the KM practices
within and between organizations
is suggested.
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