Understanding Knowledge Management

Remark 1

Knowledge management appeared as a scientific and practical direction in 1995. The first publications related to this direction of management appeared in the USA. The first works were practical recommendations and scientific treatises that informed readers about the new practice. Gradually, the innovative direction acquired a well-deserved relevance among managers. Journals, institutes, communities emerged that studied knowledge management. Massive research began.

With each passing day, the popularity of this type of management only increased. In Russia, studies have also been carried out on this topic. Domestic managers also began to show interest in knowledge management. From simple practical recommendations, knowledge management has grown into a serious scientific and practical direction.

Knowledge resources in management

Knowledge can be considered in management based on two key aspects. In the first direction, knowledge is perceived as providing information to the manager and staff for effective problem solving. This approach is based on the idea that if an employee or manager receives information in a timely manner, then he will be able to solve absolutely any problem without much effort and consequences. The efficiency of an enterprise depends on information.

In the second case, knowledge is perceived as a specific model or hypothesis, example or method. This approach is applied by the manager not to the entire organization, but only to one part of it. This may be a department or workshop that needs modernization and strengthening.

Modern approach to knowledge management

At the present stage, knowledge management is a specific commodity. Specialists who have a significant amount of knowledge and do not want to sell it cheaply can realize themselves on their own. Such a specialist becomes a freelancer and manages his own knowledge, implementing it to the required extent. Thus, knowledge is commercialized. The exact cost of knowledge has not been determined. Each specialist determines this cost independently. If there is demand, then the cost is determined adequately.

Knowledge tasks

1. Efficiency challenge
2. Level of innovation

Remark 2

The task of increasing efficiency in the knowledge management process is quite obvious. Specialists with interesting knowledge want to apply it effectively. If a person works for himself, then it is quite simple to do this. He just voices the offer and waits for customers. It is more difficult to prove yourself as a specialist who works in a team. His work has already been paid. His knowledge and experience is already appreciated. He is either satisfied with this pay, or plans to find another job.

The level of knowledge innovation does not depend on the place of work of a specialist. Innovation and knowledge are quite close to each other. The higher the level of innovation, the more demanded knowledge.

manager and knowledge

The manager does everything possible to ensure that his company develops. In order to increase efficiency, managers quite often use different knowledge and invite specialists. The newer and more interesting the knowledge, the more effectively it will be possible to apply it. Quite often there are situations when knowledge becomes obsolete. Therefore, they need to be updated periodically. If the manager does not want to invite a specialist, then he can independently manage knowledge. Modern technical means allow you to do this quickly and efficiently.

If you try to compile a list of areas in which knowledge management has proven to be effective, then such a list will not end. The problem of knowledge sharing, encouraging employees to participate in the process of accumulating and using collective knowledge and implementing knowledge management systems is relevant in all sectors of the economy. Even if a company operates in an area where competitive advantages do not play a decisive role in business development, and innovation is not the main criterion for success, knowledge management is still necessary. After all, we live in an era of ever-increasing globalization, dramatic change and interaction. Today, knowledge management is not just a wealth accumulation tool. It's a means of survival.

Knowledge management is a systematic process of searching, using and transferring information and knowledge. This is the process by which an organization reproduces knowledge, accumulates and uses in the interests of obtaining competitive advantages.

The purpose of knowledge management is to accumulate intellectual capital, identify and disseminate information and experience, create conditions for the dissemination and transfer of knowledge. In practice, this is the systematic and purposeful formation, updating and application of knowledge to enhance the efficiency of the company.

Knowledge management as a function of management solves such problems as:

giving value to knowledge can ensure a more efficient existence of the company;

diagnostics and analysis of the knowledge that the company has (what knowledge is available - how to make the transition from implicit to explicit knowledge, what knowledge is needed);

acquisition of knowledge (for example, purchase or internal reserves);

implementation of knowledge in products, services, documents, databases, software (improving efficiency, increasing productivity by reducing costs);

creation of a knowledge management system (motivation for the exchange of knowledge and experience, creation of an organization structure that facilitates the exchange of knowledge);

Knowledge management functions

Analytical - at this stage, the transition of information to knowledge is carried out (methods: comparisons, consequences, connections);

Distributive - ordering knowledge, assessing its usefulness, classifying knowledge, experience according to criteria, entering knowledge into corporate memory. Creating corporate memory allows you to identify valuable knowledge for the organization and structure it according to the criteria of value, issue and scope. Corporate knowledge reflected in corporate memory may include the following segments:

customer knowledge;

knowledge about competitors - a mechanism for success, strategies;

knowledge about the product - its place in the market, what value this product creates for the consumer, who buys it and why;

knowledge about processes management methods, technology, innovation;

knowledge about finance;

knowledge about people - a motive, what knowledge they have, advanced training.

Structuring according to the criteria of value and scope contributes to the rapid dissemination of the necessary knowledge. Thanks to the availability of the knowledge base for all employees, it becomes clear what issues this or that employee is dealing with and what knowledge he has, and also accelerates the transfer of knowledge from one employee to another.

Security - building barriers to the leakage of knowledge and information. Extends to production processes, customer knowledge, financial documents, experience, strategic plans;

Integration - extracting knowledge from corporate memory (by exchanging knowledge between departments, different levels of management, sharing experience between employees). One type of integration is the sale of knowledge;

Creation of new knowledge - for example, buying and renting.

By managing knowledge, the organization seeks to create and consolidate its competitive advantages, to maximize the professional and personal qualities of employees. Knowledge management includes the functions of providing personnel with the necessary knowledge, their application in practice, control over their use, organization of storage and distribution. The competitiveness of the organization depends on the effectiveness of the implementation of each knowledge management function.

Organizations compete using different strategies. The best result is achieved when a company, when developing and implementing a knowledge management strategy, correlates it with its strategic goals and key aspects of the overall corporate strategy, as well as with marketing, innovation, financial, personnel management and other strategies implemented in the company. This means that knowledge management efforts need to be concentrated on areas that contribute to the achievement of strategic objectives.

Consider some knowledge management strategies that allow you to form intellectual capital and use it to improve the efficiency and competitiveness of the organization.

There are seven basic strategies for the formation and use of knowledge in an organization. Three of them are to effectively form and use knowledge within one of the types of intellectual capital. Three more strategies involve achieving a positive effect from the interaction of two different types of intellectual capital (human and organizational, human and relationship capital, organizational and relationship capital). The seventh strategy is based on the simultaneous interaction of all three elements of intellectual capital. Thus, the basic knowledge management strategies are aimed either at the exchange of knowledge within one type of intellectual capital in order to increase it, or at the effective transfer of knowledge from one type of intellectual capital to another.

The first strategy, based on the formation and use of knowledge within the framework of human capital, answers the questions: “How is knowledge exchanged between employees of the organization?”, “How is their competence increased and how is it used to increase the competitiveness of the organization?” This strategy is aimed at developing the individual competence of employees through training.

The second strategy is aimed at the formation and use of knowledge within the organizational capital (information system, databases, organizational structures, copyrights, patents, licenses).

The third strategy is the formation and use of knowledge in the external relations of the organization. The strategy is based on marketing technologies.

The fourth strategy is aimed at the interaction of human capital and relationship capital. The strategy includes techniques and methods of interaction with consumers that increase the individual competence of the employees of the organization. For example, any form of feedback received through sociological research can be used to improve the skills of employees. Sometimes, within the framework of the fourth strategy, one can single out actions aimed at transferring individual competence from the employees of the organization to external structures (books of company success stories).

The fifth strategy is aimed at the interaction of human and organizational capital. It answers the question: “How does the individual competence of employees contribute to the construction of elements of the internal structure of the organization, and how can individual competence be increased with the help of elements of the internal structure?” The strategy deals with the transfer of individual knowledge into internal corporate systems, where it is fixed and becomes available to all employees (the best management decision, information resources).

The sixth strategy is aimed at the productive interaction of relationship capital and organizational capital. For example, systematic surveys of consumers, telephone hotlines, on their basis, for example, the improvement of goods takes place. Or customer complaints about equipment defects are collected, a database is created that serves as the basis for prompt assistance to customers who can use the “hot line” and receive a qualified answer.

To ensure competitiveness, some organizations in the process of serving customers give them additional information that serves as a factor in the effective use of the goods sold. For example, a firm sells fertilizers and seeds to farmers. Through its sales representatives, it supplies them not only with goods, but also with weather reports, crop forecasts, and helps to select the necessary agrotechnical solutions, taking into account the specific soil conditions of each farm.

The sixth strategy collects sales data to streamline the production process.

The seventh strategy is aimed at the movement of knowledge simultaneously between all types of intellectual capital.

The main goal of all strategies is to increase the efficiency of using all available resources of the organization.

Knowledge management can be seen as the process by which an organization manages to profit from the amount of knowledge at its disposal. The following processes are distinguished in knowledge management activities: 1) formation; 2) distribution and scope; 3) use of knowledge.

The purpose of the first stage is to determine what knowledge the organization needs, from what sources and in what ways it will be acquired, how much it will cost, who will do it and when. This process breaks down into the following:

1.1. Definition of knowledge;

1.2. Acquisition of knowledge;

1.3. Accumulation of knowledge;

1.4. Development of knowledge.

1.1. In the definition phase, it is necessary to establish what core knowledge is critical to the implementation of the strategy and the success of the company. Basic basic knowledge is a set of expert knowledge, tools, methods necessary to implement the relevant strategic opportunities. This basic knowledge is immediately divided into subject areas:

market - production, competition, pricing, suppliers, partners;

consumer - requests, prices, expectations, requirements, feedback;

product - properties, functionality, cost, quality;

service - purchase, maintenance, repair;

management - business strategy, structures, workforce, modernization;

employees – skills, knowledge, career goals, interests, benefits, wages.

After the distribution of knowledge by subject areas, it is necessary to assess the existing level of competence of employees in each area of ​​knowledge. It is necessary to determine whether employees have sufficient knowledge and experience to achieve a high result. An expert assessment of professional skills (knowledge, experience) should be made. There are two types of assessment: operational – which considers the current skills and performance required to maintain existing core knowledge, strategic – which determines what existing knowledge can be transferred to provide future core knowledge.

When the difference between the existing and required levels of competence is determined, specialists in the respective fields of knowledge create training programs.

1.2. Management tasks at the stage of acquiring knowledge:

choice of sources of knowledge;

selection and concentration of significant information;

obtaining new knowledge.

In order to become usable, knowledge, experience, competencies must be streamlined and refined. In addition, you need to know where and how to get the necessary knowledge and experience. Knowledge can be obtained from external and internal sources. External: public rating systems (media, general public, publications); political forces (authorities); assessment knowledge and technology (courses, seminars, research, best practices, environmental monitoring), economic structures and trends (customers, suppliers, competitors). The more effectively the organization collects, processes and integrates relevant external information into internal decision-making processes, the higher will be the level of its competitiveness. In addition to external sources, the company can draw knowledge from internal sources: internal training and education, business strategy, leading specialists of the company, organizational planning, organizational structure, employee proposals, corporate information publications.

1.3. accumulation process.

The main goal of knowledge management is to create corporate memory. The tasks of managing the process of knowledge accumulation are:

classification of knowledge;

knowledge codification;

ensuring the availability of knowledge.

Corporate memory exists in three different forms: in human memory, on paper and in electronic form. There are several approaches to ordering knowledge for its storage in corporate memory. The accumulated experience can be generalized and presented in a certain classification: external and internal, profession, theoretical and practical knowledge. Creation of corporate memory requires the solution of the question of what types of knowledge, i.e. what types of intellectual resources need to be presented in an explicit systematized form, how to extract the knowledge possessed by certain employees of the company, and how to make it understandable and accessible to others. Thus, any knowledge or any information that contributes to the success of the organization must be stored in this memory. This includes knowledge about products, production processes, customers, marketing market needs, financial results, experience gained, strategic plans and goals, etc. The professional knowledge of the organization should also be part of the corporate memory. Professional knowledge includes:

cognitive knowledge (“know that”): very good knowledge of the basic discipline, achieved by professionals through intensive training and certification;

craftsmanship ("know how"): translates "book learning" into effective performance; the ability to apply discipline-specific rules to solve complex real-world problems;

systemic understanding (“I know why”): deep knowledge of the entire system of relationships, causes and effects that underlie a particular discipline;

personal motivation for creativity (“I want to know why”): covers the will, motivation and attitude to success.

An organization that nurtures the desire for knowledge (“I want to know why”) in its employees can thrive in the face of rapid change and upgrade its cognitive capabilities, application skills, and systems understanding to compete in product and service markets. By developing corporate memory within the organization, knowledge sharing can be facilitated, as innovations implemented in one department of the organization become available to other departments if they are stored in the memory of the organization.

Corporate memory is divided into 4 main types: a) "top"; b) "sponge"; c) "publisher"; d) pump.

The "top" - the simplest form of organization of corporate memory - is used as an archive, which can be accessed as needed.

"Sponge" - provides a more active collection of information compared to the "top". A fairly complete corporate memory is being created, the use of which to improve the quality of organizational processes depends on each employee individually.

"Publisher" - the function of corporate memory coordinators is to analyze the experience gained, combine it with knowledge in corporate memory and send the combined knowledge to employees for whom the experience gained may be relevant.

"Pump" - includes elements of both active collection and active dissemination of knowledge.

A company can also use a fairly new approach to the collection and dissemination of internal information, called "open management book". The implementation of this system requires the implementation of three main actions. First, for each employee of the company, data is collected daily that reflects the results of the work performed. Secondly, the information collected once a week is transmitted to all employees of the company, from the secretary to the director. Thirdly, employees are trained, which allows them to correctly understand the processes that take place in the company. The more employees adequately understand the processes actually taking place in the company, the higher their assistance in solving existing problems.

1.4. The process of knowledge development involves the identification of new knowledge and the replenishment of corporate memory. One of the tasks is to obtain non-verbal, implicitly expressed knowledge from experts and turn it into explicit, documented. Ways to develop knowledge: training employees outside the organization; The holding of trainings; inviting instructors from outside for training; distribution of already existing knowledge within the organization. The development of knowledge is attractive when it corresponds to the current or future capabilities of the company.

Sufficient time requires not only the creation but the dissemination of knowledge. Some firms form knowledge creators - R&D units. As awareness of the importance of knowledge grows, many organizations are realizing that knowledge creation should not be an isolated activity. They believe that being a knowledge creator is the responsibility of every employee in the firm.

Dissemination and exchange of knowledge is aimed at solving such problems as:

search for the necessary knowledge, providing employees with quick access to knowledge, quick retrieval of knowledge from corporate memory;

transfer of knowledge through the use of new information technologies;

creation of conditions for the exchange of experience as a result of group interaction, informal communication of company employees;

assimilation of knowledge, creation of opportunities for training and advanced training of company employees.

Internal information sharing is important, but if an organization is inaccessible to its external environment, its strategy will fail. Therefore, in knowledge management great importance has the exchange of knowledge not only within the company, but also with the external environment: consumers, customers, suppliers, partners.

Use of knowledge - active application in the implementation of tasks, in solving problems, making decisions, searching for ideas, learning. Tasks of knowledge management in the process of using knowledge:

creation of conditions for the use of knowledge in business processes, decision-making (accessibility of knowledge);

employee training;

sale of knowledge.

Based on intellectual capital, new products are created that can be sold outside the company. This applies primarily to organizational capital: inventions, technologies, computer programs, databases. It, to a greater extent than other types of intellectual capital, is the property of the company and can be an independent object of sale and purchase.

Knowledge management as a process includes stages; formation - dissemination - use of knowledge. In the course of management, various methods of knowledge extraction are used: communicative and textological.

Communicative methods - the analyst's contact with sources of knowledge: employees or experts. Communication methods are: passive and active. Passive - the leading role in the knowledge extraction procedure is transferred to the expert, and the analyst only records the expert's reasoning during his work on making decisions or presenting his position. Passive methods: observation, "thinking out loud", lectures. In active methods, the initiative passes to the analyst, who is actively in contact with the expert - in games, dialogues, round-table discussions. Active methods can be individual and group. Group - a group of experts or employees. Textological methods - methods for extracting knowledge from documents (service manual, regulations, articles, monographs, textbooks).

Imitation – an attempt to learn the strategy, technology and functional activities of other firms and to apply someone else's experience. Benchmarketing is a method of studying and using someone else's experience. Benchmarketing helps to significantly reduce costs and increase labor productivity. Benchmarketing began to be seen as a relatively cheap and accessible method of obtaining new knowledge. Benchmarketing can be defined as a systematic process of identifying the best organizations, evaluating their products, technologies, methods in order to use the best practices of these companies. The main stages of benchmarking:

1. Selection of products, services, technologies, methods for comparison;

2. Selecting a company for comparison;

3. Collecting the necessary information about the accumulated experience;

4. Information analysis;

5. Adaptation and application of the best experience.

Acquisition – firms buy other firms not only because of their production capabilities or customer base, but also to gain their knowledge. Some knowledge is contained in processes and ordinary work, but most of the knowledge is contained in people. If competent employees leave the organization, their experience will go with them. In order to retain knowledge, the acquiring firm must identify employees with the most significant knowledge base and ensure that they remain in the company using all possible methods of motivation.

Buying knowledge - buying methods: hiring new employees.

Knowledge rental - hiring consultants, attracting scientific and other organizations to develop a new product.

In all cases, the main task of acquiring organizational knowledge is the development of core competencies that generate new products. New knowledge enriches competitive advantage.

Conditions for effective knowledge sharing

The most difficult task when implementing a knowledge management system is to create an appropriate organizational culture. In an ideal business world, every member of an organization has easy access to the knowledge of their colleagues. Employees are willing to share their know-how and the organization is growing rapidly thanks to the continuous flow of new knowledge.

Unfortunately, modern world business is far from ideal. This is a world where knowledge is not shared, but is securely stored and protected. A new category of employees "portfolio careerists" has appeared. Often changing jobs, people take with them not only experience and knowledge, but internal and external connections.

Now the speed of dissemination and application of new knowledge is especially important - this increases the mobility of the company, its ability to change: quickly transfer in order to quickly apply. A company whose employees have free access to collective knowledge, make equally high-quality decisions and equally quickly and effectively respond to all changes in the environment, gets unlimited opportunities for growth and development. If effective work with knowledge and information is not established, then problems may arise in the organization:

information overload - resources are irrelevant, unknown to employees, the same information is searched for many times;

waste of experience - both individual and collective (unprofessional actions, the wheel is being reinvented);

communication between departments is disrupted - wrong decisions are made, actions are duplicated.

It is difficult to instill in employees the need to share their knowledge. For most people, this need goes against everything they've been taught since day one of school. At school and institute they teach that a person differs from those around him in what he knows. Jeffrey Pfeffer believes that the internal competition that exists in the company hinders the successful exchange of knowledge. He draws attention to the fact that internal competition may seem fair to employees, but it comes at a cost to organizations. As a rule, the ranking of people, departments and divisions, as well as the internal competition that it leads to, is justified by the fact that it is fair and the desired behaviors are encouraged. Many organizations use some form of benchmarking and performance, especially when it comes to assessing the effectiveness of management and/or pay systems. At first glance, notes D. Pfeffer, the fairness of the comparative assessment does not raise any doubts, if we imagine that the performance of the seller is evaluated by the total volume of sales made by him. But, does sales volume depend solely on his good will and desire to do his job well, or can factors beyond his control, such as poor quality or a meager range of products you sell, influence him? The answer is obvious. Thus, even if he is not involved in the occurrence of these and other problems in his company, they can still have a negative impact on the evaluation of his performance.

On the other hand, all sellers are equally affected by factors outside their sphere of influence, and therefore it seems appropriate to evaluate their performance against each other. If all top 10 sellers receive the same bonus regardless of the amount of equipment sold, none of them will suffer from factors beyond their control. As long as the performance of an individual employee is higher than the performance of his colleagues, he will earn his points and receive corresponding rewards. Thus, a comparative assessment of effectiveness seems logical.

However, the advantage of comparative performance evaluation - its apparent fairness in the face of external factors outside the sphere of influence of employees - is also its disadvantage. All people primarily care about their status, therefore, at best, they simply refuse to help their colleagues, which can increase their efficiency, and at worst, they deliberately interfere with their work. .

According to D. Pfeffer, there is internal competition in a company if:

people have an incentive to refuse to help their colleagues or even purposefully interfere with their work;

leaders behave as if performance is the sum of the actions of individual employees, and not the result of interdependent behaviors such as cooperation, knowledge sharing, and mutual assistance;

management treats employees as participants in a competition or game in which there are a limited number of winners and many losers;

employees feel that someone is watching them closely and constantly comparing them with colleagues; as a result, they begin to observe what their internal competitors are doing;

a comparative rather than an absolute assessment of effectiveness is used;

leaders value competition and have extensive experience playing (and winning) zero-sum games;

Ways to overcome destructive internal competition:

hire, reward (at least in part) and retain employees based on their ability and willingness to work with their colleagues for the good of the company;

fire, demote and penalize employees who seek to achieve their personal goals in the first place;

focus the attention and energy of employees on the fight against external competitors. At the same time, stop all manifestations of internal competition;

abandon performance criteria and pay systems that encourage internal competition;

use criteria that evaluate collaboration between employees;

create an organizational culture in which the personal success of employees is inseparable from the success of their colleagues;

make sure that company leaders set the right example - collaborate with colleagues, help them and exchange information;

appoint to leadership positions those employees who have experience of successful teamwork;

in every possible way encourage cooperation, mutual assistance, exchange of information and experience among employees.

The refusal of employees to share knowledge lies not only in the internal competition that exists in the company, M. Marinicheva suggests the following reasons: “shy mimosa syndrome”, star disease syndrome, “not invented by us” syndrome, the syndrome of true professionals.

Syndrome of "shameful mimosa"

I don't think I know anything special;

no one will be interested in what I know and do;

There are many true professionals in the world.

2. Star sickness syndrome

hardly anyone understands what I'm doing;

I will not tolerate being tested;

I can't waste time with your questions.

3. Syndrome "not invented by us"

everything is different with us here;

except ourselves, no one understands us;

our problems are unique.

4. Syndrome of real professionals

success depends entirely on professional independence

real professionals don't need advice

if I consulted with others, I would not have reached what I have now

In order for employees of an organization to share knowledge, three conditions must be met:

1. employees must trust each other and the employer (atmosphere of trust);

2. employees must be motivated to share experience and knowledge

3. in the organization it is necessary to create conditions for the preservation of formalized knowledge, as well as for the exchange of experience.

Consider an atmosphere of trust. For example, fear hinders the exchange of knowledge. Employees are afraid to tell their boss bad news, even if it's not their fault. This is the desire to distance themselves from negative information as much as possible, people are afraid that if they tell someone bad news, they will be accused of involvement. Then employees stop making new proposals to improve workflows, so as not to tell about the error.

How to eradicate fear and inaction:

1. praise employees who have the courage not to hide bad news from management;

3. encourage employees to talk about their failures and the lessons that have been learned;

4. encourage open communication;

5. give people a second chance;

6. do not punish people who want to bring something new to the organization.

The introduction of a knowledge management program is a major organizational change. The main reason for the inactive participation of employees in new processes or negative attitudes is resistance to change and a lack of understanding of what favorable opportunities these changes bring. To reiterate, it is difficult to expect people to voluntarily share what determines their professional value. Therefore, it is necessary to create such conditions when it becomes profitable. Or vice versa, to create such conditions when it will be unprofitable for people not to share knowledge.

First of all, people need to know what will count as a contribution to the collective knowledge system. There are three main (most popular) approaches to solving this issue.

input information - if the company already has a formalized repository of collective knowledge, the metric might be to count how often each employee contributes to the knowledge base. However, a good manager will agree that such a measurement system is far from perfect, as it does not take into account the full cycle of knowledge exchange. With such a measurement system, the user of knowledge remains outside the field of view of the metric. By introducing such a metric, the company's management runs the risk of giving an incentive to employees to invest useless knowledge in the database. After all, a knowledge provider, in order to earn a reward, can contribute absolutely unnecessary information to the collective knowledge base. There is a known case when an employee of the company IBM obtained a document of his colleague from the computer memory and passed it off as his own, trying to earn a reward for contributing to the collective knowledge base. The manager will pay more attention not to the quantity but to the quality of knowledge.

Imprint - an organization can focus not only on replenishing the knowledge base, but also on the active participation of employees in the exchange process as knowledge users. This approach rewards those employees who use existing knowledge in the collective base to promote new ideas, processes and/or products. Despite the fact that this approach has its advantages over the previous one, it cannot effectively motivate employees to share their knowledge, but rather encourages them to use someone else's.

Input/output information - The most effective way to evaluate information exchange and create an atmosphere of cooperation and interaction is to evaluate the entire knowledge exchange cycle. The company rewards employees not only for their contribution to the knowledge base, but also for the value of the knowledge they contribute, thanks to which colleagues will be able to improve their work. By implementing such a system of metrics, management sends a clear message to employees: the company values ​​not only those who share their knowledge, but also those who use it effectively. A good way to visualize such a system is to draw a circle whose perimeter points are all users and knowledge providers. These points are connected by lines, the number of which corresponds to the frequency of interactions (you can analyze the information flows of the Intranet or the volume of e-mail). The result of this visualization will be a diagram of the interaction of the company's employees, which demonstrates the community's desire for cooperation and the process of knowledge sharing. You can go even further and identify the communities within the organization that have been the most innovative and successful in terms of knowledge sharing at certain times.

Consider good ideas for successful employee participation in new processes, including knowledge management processes:

The presence of elements of the game. For example, in one of the domestic companies, as a result of certain efforts, a corporate portal was created, where the information necessary for work was placed. How to get the attention of employees? September 1 was declared the day of knowledge in the company. The developers of the corporate portal organized a quiz for employees, the answers could be found in the portal. The winner received a new computer, and the rest got cups with the inscription "New knowledge - new opportunities." Photos of the best participants were placed in the corporate newspaper.

Create a mechanism for assessing the merits of each colleagues. Example. In one of the companies, when discussing issues on the intranet, its participants thanked each other for help, expert opinion, advice. At the end of the month, everyone who received a reward from colleagues received a small reward.

We encourage the authorship of the best ideas, we celebrate success stories, not only financially, but also publicly, or you can assign honorary titles, such as "Quick mind", we collect points for published and read documents in the internal environment, then transfer points into rewards (t-shirts with company logos , keyboard, home appliances). For example, there may be a different gradation of points: we write an idea in the idea bank, if it is implemented, then a large number of points, or participation in seminars for beginners, where there is an exchange of experience, or from colleagues with whom they shared experience.

The knowledge that is used in organizations is special and general. Special knowledge includes know-how, market research for specific products, a special corporate culture, specific management methods, original ways of motivating staff, etc. Special knowledge is the most likely source of an organization's competitive advantage, since it forms its distinctive abilities. The general knowledge possessed by similar organizations in the industry includes knowledge about the methods of production, about the basic industry technologies. The general also includes the knowledge that is shared by all organizations (universal principles, knowledge of fundamental laws, etc.). General knowledge is necessary for any business, but it is difficult to create a competitive advantage based on this knowledge.

Depending on the field of knowledge, one can distinguish technological knowledge(knowledge of product creation technologies) , marketing knowledge(about consumer groups, pricing policy, ways to promote goods, etc.), macroeconomic knowledge(on trends in exchange rates, foreign economic trends, prospects for increasing domestic demand, etc.).

From the point of view of knowledge holders, there are individual and group knowledge. What an individual man knows is his individual knowledge. Traditional ideas proceed from the fact that knowledge is the prerogative of individuals, while the group is only a simple sum of the members of this group, and group knowledge is the sum of their knowledge.

There is another, modern point of view, according to which a group of people forms a new entity with its own unique specifics. Within the framework of this representation, one can speak of group behavior and group knowledge. The new representation is often used within the science of knowledge management. Thus, knowledge can be not only in an individual, but also in a group of people. Then they say: the organization knows something, the group, the brigade knows something, and so on.

B. Gates in the book "Business at the speed of thought" writes about the need to increase the intellectual potential of the organization, or corporate intelligence quotient (IQ). By this, he means not only the number of smart employees, but also the accumulation of knowledge in the company and the free flow of information, which allows employees to use each other's ideas. The ultimate goal of building a high corporate IQ is so that the group can come up with ideas and implement them as effectively as a single person could do if he concentrated his energies on solving the problem. “When there is a critical mass of people with high IQs working hand in hand with each other, the company's potential skyrockets. This mutual stimulation generates a lot of new ideas and helps less experienced workers to reach the highest skill levels. The company as a whole is starting to work better.” Cm.: Gates b. Business at the speed of thought. - M., 2001. - S. 246--271.

We can propose the following classification of knowledge that is formed within the organization, depending on the field of application See: Quinn J.B. and oth. innovation explosion. Using Intellect and Software to Revolutionize Growth Strategy. -- L., 1997. (Table 1.1). Knowledge, only with a certain degree of conventionality, is a relatively independent species. They always exist together, complement each other and cannot exist without each other.

Table 1.1 Types of knowledge in terms of content and scope

Knowledge alone cannot solve all the problems of effective organization. So, it may contain a fairly advanced understanding of the activities of individual employees, knowledge about the prospects, factors of activity (“I know why”). At the same time, without appropriate staff motivation, it is difficult to expect a high return on such knowledge. The construction of new knowledge is a complex, interactive and non-linear process. Professional managers must act on all five levels of new knowledge creation: cognitive, advanced, systems integration, creative and intuitive - and manage accordingly through training, stimulation, appropriate organizational structures, monitoring results.

Thus, knowledge differs in the degree of their generality (special, general), in areas (marketing, technological, communication, macroeconomic, etc.), in carriers (individual and group), in subject (I know how; I know why; I know what; I know who; know where; know when), as well as other characteristics.

The first three features may overlap. So, it is possible to allocate special individual marketing knowledge. This is what the individual knows about the specific marketing practices being carried out in the organization. Along with them, there are special group marketing knowledge. This is what a group of people (for example, the marketing department) knows and is able to do about specific marketing practices carried out in the organization. You can also highlight the general individual marketing knowledge, general group marketing knowledge.

There is scientific knowledge. They can be "packed" in the head of a scientist, presented in a scientific treatise in a codified form.

There is applied knowledge, for example, the special knowledge of a craftsman who not only knows how to make this or that complex product, but also knows how to do all the necessary operations. In this case, knowledge is in the head and hands of a particular master, while they cannot be codified, mastery acts as a “packaged” knowledge.

Knowledge can take the form of wisdom. In this case, we have, as a rule, codified knowledge, supplemented by experience and intuition.

Explicit and implicit knowledge

Explicit (explicit) knowledge is expressed in the form of words and numbers and can be transmitted in a formalized form on media (documents, instructions, books, diskettes, memos, etc.).

Implicit (tacit) knowledge is not formalized and can exist only together with its owner - a person or a group of persons.

Implicit knowledge is difficult to transfer from one person to another. It is associated with intuition, insight, conjecture, ideals, values. This kind of knowledge is the basis of individual action and experience.

Western traditions in management theory have their roots in Taylorism, within which there was a desire to break down all actions into elementary components, rationalize them and issue comprehensive instructions. For modern management practice, the Eastern, in particular Japanese, approach to management is important, including the approach to defining what knowledge is. Different approaches are due to cultural differences between Western and Eastern civilizations. Knowledge in Japan is not limited to data and information that can be collected on a computer, it involves the inclusion of an emotional background, reliance on values ​​and guesses.

Organizations in the process of their activities not only and not so much sort, store and use existing knowledge, but create new knowledge in the process of innovation, including relying on implicit knowledge. Each employee is initially included in the process of creating new knowledge of the organization.

Western researchers note: “Throughout the history of mankind, it has been repeatedly recognized that the human mind has two ways of knowing, two types of consciousness, which are often designated as rational and intuitive, and traditionally associated with science and religion. In the West, an intuitive, religious type of knowledge was often considered less valuable than a rational, scientific type of knowledge, while in the East the opposite opinion was widespread. Capra F. Tao of physics. An exploration of the parallels between modern physics and the mysticism of the East. - SPb., 1994. - S. 22 ..

When comparing Eastern and Western approaches, one can trace the differences between explicit and implicit knowledge. The most important part of knowledge management is the technology of distribution, adaptation, conversion and use of tacit knowledge, which is closely intertwined with emotions, principles, commitment, etc.

Samurai as the owner of implicit knowledge

An example of the transfer of implicit knowledge can be the practice of educating a samurai. In the process of training and educating a samurai, the main emphasis is not so much on knowledge in the field of literature, philosophy, exact sciences (the area of ​​explicit knowledge), but on developing the character of a person of action that meets the principles and patterns of behavior (the area of ​​implicit knowledge). It is impossible to cultivate beliefs in the process of reading any texts, moreover, this knowledge cannot be transmitted through instructions. The process of education is a complex and consistent process of communication with the teacher, as a result of which beliefs are gradually formed and the will is tempered.

Implicit knowledge is also possessed by people who have mastered one or another type of art (ballet, calligraphy, flower arranging, painting, etc.)

There are two types of tacit knowledge: technical skills, which are manifested by masters of their craft and are, as a rule, the result of many years of practice; beliefs, ideals, values ​​and mental models that we use without thinking about them.

Tacit knowledge is formed and developed in the process of creating and strengthening a positive corporate culture and with the help of group interaction technologies (retreats, creative groups, etc.)

The attitude towards explicit and implicit knowledge on the part of commercial organizations is very contradictory. On the one hand, many organizations seek to translate implicit knowledge into explicit knowledge. This is done in order not to depend on individuals and to duplicate significant achievements. At the same time, these organizations are not interested in the fact that the main competitive advantages have passed into a form ready for duplication. That is why many organizations try to keep some of their competitive advantages in forms that cannot be duplicated (specific training, corporate culture, special service systems, etc.). The main types of knowledge (explicit and implicit, individual and group) are presented in Table. 1.2.

Table 1.2 Explicit and implicit knowledge from the position of their carriers

To learn by example is to obey authority. The teacher is followed because they believe in his strength and authority. Observing the teacher and striving to surpass him, the student acquires the necessary personal knowledge. At the same time, the norms and traditions, the bearer of which is the teacher, are unconsciously assimilated.

Eastern traditions emphasize the use of not only explicit, but also implicit knowledge in life and in production. Japanese researchers I. Nonaka and H. Takeuchi proposed the concept of a company that creates knowledge, which provides for the use of both explicit and implicit knowledge in the process of constantly increasing the company's intellectual capital See: Nonaka I., Takeuchi H. The company is the creator of knowledge. The origin and development of innovations in Japanese firms. -- M.: Olimp-Business, 2003..

Knowledge shapes experience. Information obtained from training courses, conversations, books, layered on real experience, can form new knowledge. Experience opens up a historical perspective for assessing a new situation and new events, so knowledge is sometimes correlated with experience. When an organization hires an experienced expert, it actually buys his assessments based on his personal experience.

The carrier of both explicit and implicit knowledge can be not only a specific person, but also an organization. Therefore, we can talk about implicit group knowledge, which underlies stable models of collective reactions and internal interactions.

In Western literature, the term “routines” is sometimes used to refer to implicit group knowledge, which are actions that repeat according to a pattern, regular behavioral patterns of an organization. Routines are things that happen automatically, without instructions and in the absence of a selection procedure, and routines cannot be codified.

In Russian, a routine is understood as a routine, an established practice, a certain regime, a pattern, established rules regarding people's activities. At the same time, the concept of "routine" has another connotation: it is an inert order, i.e. such an order, which gravitates towards the old, familiar, due to its backwardness, is immune to the new, progressive. Where the term "routine" is used to refer to group tacit knowledge, there are no connotations of rigidity.

Thus, personal implicit knowledge is, first of all, skills. At the same time, group tacit knowledge is routine. Routines do not exist in isolation, forming a mutual dependence. Some routines may be implicit for some members of the organization and explicit for others. The boundaries between explicit and implicit knowledge are relative, moreover, we can talk about the degree of implicit knowledge.

organizational knowledge

Some researchers, in particular D. Stonehouse See: Stonehouse D. Management of organizational knowledge // Management in Russia and abroad. - 1999. - No. 1. - S. 14--26. , allocate organizational knowledge into a separate group.

Organizational knowledge is a distributed set of principles, facts, skills, rules that provide information for decision-making processes, behavior and actions in an organization. Organizational knowledge develops based on the knowledge of everyone in that organization.

Organizational knowledge manifests itself in plans, specific resources, individual and group competencies, in the broad sense of the word in practice and is embodied in technologies. Organizational knowledge can be explicit, and then it fits into the instructions; may be implicit, and then it manifests itself in the routines and sustainable nature of the actions of the members of the organization. Explicit organizational knowledge can be stored centrally and transmitted through information systems, and those decisions that need implicit knowledge must be made where such knowledge is concentrated. In other words, the adoption of such decisions should be delegated to individual employees of the organization who have the required implicit knowledge, or all decisions that require this knowledge should be made with the help of experts.

In any case, notes D. Stonehouse, “it is necessary to have the ability for reasoning and logical conclusion in order to be able to extract knowledge from the available information. In order to build new knowledge, the organization must take certain actions aimed at stimulating the acquisition of information and its transformation into knowledge. It is important that managers have knowledge of their business and area of ​​activity. It is also important that they understand the nature of this knowledge itself so that they can create an environment in which knowledge is generated, accumulated, distributed, coordinated and, above all, valued as a source of distinctive abilities and, consequently, competitive advantage. If we want the efficiency of the business as a whole to be improved, knowledge must be used anywhere in the business. The distribution of knowledge is vital to the organization" Stonehouse D. Decree. op..

And further: “The unique feature of knowledge is that it is one of the few assets of an organization that increases, as a rule, according to an exponential law, when it is shared. Thus, by sharing knowledge throughout the organization, we increase its ability to add value to the product more than proportionally. Organizational learning and knowledge management aims to develop organizational knowledge by formalizing content, structure, and procedures that stimulate the creation and sharing of knowledge.

D. Stonehouse considers the most successful organizations in terms of the development of organizational knowledge as intellectual. Only intelligent organizations are able to develop their basic knowledge-based capabilities. Only intelligent organizations can learn how to learn better. “…They don't just want to learn how to run their business better, they try to understand the processes of individual and organizational learning. By understanding the nature of their learning, they are in a position to improve and accelerate the process of creating and using their knowledge.” There.

As an example, D. Stonehouse cites the Intel corporation, which was able to increase the pace of learning after focusing on the key points of the learning process. Companies like Dow Chemical, Anderson Consulting, Polaroid, and Skandia are also developing internal systems for finding, accessing, using, and creating organizational knowledge. They stimulate doubt and creativity, trust, group style of work and exchange of experience; a special infrastructure has been created with the help of which the distinctive abilities of these companies are created and developed.

What is important is not so much what organizational knowledge is, but what can be done with it. The modern idea of ​​organizational knowledge is not limited to listing its components. System integration becomes a kind of paradigm for the development of organizational knowledge. The process of institutionalization of knowledge is also important. Another important aspect is how, on the basis of daily procedures and general ideas, organizational knowledge is used in practice. In addition, organizational knowledge, that which is materialized in organizational systems and procedures, can only become the subject of sale and purchase together with the organization as a whole, which, in fact, happens when the organization’s business is bought and sold.

It is no secret that the solution to the problem
effective knowledge management consists of two major components -
humanitarian and IT. We offer an integrated approach to the implementation of modern
methods based on our experience.

For timely adoption of adequate decisions in the conditions
rapidly changing market, it is important to be able to use a huge store of knowledge,
which almost every modern company has. However, not in all
companies have implemented a methodology knowledge management,
without which it is impossible to effectively use information dispersed in
employees' heads, databases, document repositories, email messages
mail, sales reports, data about customers, partners and competitors of your
enterprises.

The modern company operates in a growing
competition that is chaotic, complex and global in nature, requiring
reduction of reaction time in conditions of limited resources. Employee Knowledge
and organizations as a whole become a valuable resource that begins to be taken into account
along with other material resources. Modern management techniques
knowledge allow to achieve measurable business results from their implementation.

Knowledge management firms increasingly benefit
in the market compared to companies using ordinary collection and accumulation
information in a semi-structured "bale".

Knowledge management allows you to set and
solve the right problems instead of
correct problem solving by themselves
yourself . In essence, this means that knowledge management allows
determine strategy, which is expressed in the correct formulation of the necessary tasks
and their effective solution.

We also use the term "knowledge management" to
highlight the benefits management before the chaotic process of exchange
information. This means, for example, that if information has been posted or
transferred according to the rules that correspond to knowledge management methods, then in the event that
if it is in demand, it will be possible to easily find and use it.

What is knowledge management?

Knowledge management is a common name for techniques,
organizing the communication process (targeted communication) in corporate
communities, directing it to extract new and update existing knowledge
and helping employees of the company to solve problems in time, make decisions and
take the necessary action to necessary
knowledge V right time .
Such methods use 80% humanitarian technologies, and only 20% use IT.
solutions.

The application of knowledge management techniques makes it possible
using collective experience and knowledge and turning them into a corporate
capital.

The role of communities

Each company has mission
in which the tasks that she faces are formulated
sets and reflects its positioning. It is reasonable to assume that the staff of the company
made up of employees body of knowledge
which allows you to follow missions .

The experience and knowledge of a particular employee, before whom
the task is set, may not be sufficient to solve it, but in the right
In an organized firm, the totality of knowledge of the staff ensures the achievement of the goal.

Therefore, knowledge management techniques in the company require
formation communities .

Experts believe that in organizations in one form or another
only 20% of all knowledge is used, which becomes "explicit"; it means,
however, that 80% remain unclaimed. They stay in hearts and minds
employees of these organizations. Access to this "unexpressed" knowledge can be
received only in the process of human interaction. The main mechanism for creating
highly valuable knowledge and its application is communication among employees who
work together within the organization, and such communication is completely
is under the control of the community. [ Jim Botkin
and Chuck Seeley - Knowledge Management Review; Vol. 3, Issue 6,
2001, p. 16 ]

In companies that do not apply knowledge management techniques,
problem solving and decision-making are regularly carried out in conditions
lack of awareness of employees who use only
own experience and knowledge, which do not always correspond to the required solution
new competence tasks.

Knowledge carriers

People are the bearers of knowledge. It is the value of the accumulated
their knowledge and experience is ultimately converted into company profits.

Knowledge transfer

The transfer of knowledge takes place during communication or
communications between people, aimed at obtaining the necessary knowledge for
problem solving or decision making.

Communications can be personal And
group, direct or indirect.

Personal communications (communication)
are used by you in Everyday life, for example, when you apply for
advice or advice from a colleague.

To ensure efficiency group communications
humanitarian measures are applied that organize the process of communication in groups,
guiding him to extract the right knowledge from the minds of employees and transfer it
colleagues who need them to solve urgent problems. To such
events include your usual meetings, seminars, conferences,
congresses, etc.

Remote communications can take place, for example, through
paper or electronic documents and messages.

The Role of Humanitarian Technologies

The role of humanitarian technologies is to create
special conditions under which the exchange of knowledge does not occur randomly, but
purposefully.

There is some difference between information And
knowledge. The information itself can be basically useless,
if, faced with a task, you have no idea where to look
the information you need, how to use it, and who to contact for help.
Knowledge is in the minds of people and reveals itself at the moment of interaction between
them. In the process of communication, employees share knowledge that is impossible
glean from documentation and other sources of information. Need to be directed
it is interaction to achieve the goal, generate new ideas and update
existing knowledge.

Knowledge is implied, not directly expressed, their
difficult to separate from context of relationships between people (we
we mean relationships in the interaction of people both within the company and
with customers, suppliers and partners).

Because the broadcast knowledge occurs only during
interactions between specific people, the formation of a community as environments
people united by a common professional interest or a common goal,
allowing to establish contact between those who seek knowledge and the source of knowledge in
conditions of trust and using the existing personal ties with each other -
is the most important task.

An obstacle to the implementation of knowledge management techniques
may become internal competition. Therefore, the formation of an atmosphere of communication in
community, corporate culture should take into account this peculiarity of people and
be guided so that they share knowledge with joy ( see article
in "Kommersant" dated May 25, 2001 under the title "Knowledge Management System
changed the face of business).

If the main motive of an employee is not an individual
leadership, but the achievement of the goal, then the team is capable under favorable conditions
achieve greater results than the sum of the results achieved in the absence of
cooperation.

The role of IT solutions

IT solutions support the rules that accompany the knowledge management process,
help remove barriers to solving the problems of forming a unified working
environments, implementation mechanism of alienation, accumulation, use and
modifications knowledge, support innovation and providing information about them
to all interested employees.

However, IT solutions do not play a dominant role in the methods
knowledge management: if your firm does not carry out activities to
building a culture of collaboration and data sharing, no IT
solutions will not produce tangible results. As well as using
only humanitarian technologies without involving information
technologies will not lead to effective knowledge management.

The form of knowledge representation should make it possible to
search And development for later use. It means,
that knowledge formalized explicitly, once mastered, can become
part of the experience employee and be used by him to solve problems and make
solutions.

Here are just some of the tasks that cannot be solved without
use of IT solutions for knowledge management.

The main cycles of knowledge management technologies

In today's economy, knowledge is the most valuable asset, because today only high-quality products, produced at lower costs and ahead of competitors, are successfully sold on the market. Competitiveness in domestic and foreign markets provides expertise and experience in the field of new products, design, marketing, production and sales. Changes convince us of the validity of the famous aphorism of the famous philosopher Francis Bacon, who, back in the 17th century, said: "Knowledge is power."

The globalization of the world economy leads to the disaggregation of companies: giant corporations are divided into separate self-managed structures and integrated into a single whole with the help of information technology. In addition, new models are becoming widespread, within which traditional ideas about the boundaries of the organization are changing - primarily due to a significant expansion of cooperation between competitors, suppliers and consumers. The combination of competencies, professional knowledge and experience of partners allows you to quickly and efficiently implement any function/business process on a global scale. The rapid development of information networks, a common information space also contributes to the acceleration of the interaction of partners, more efficient use of the knowledge of all participants in partnerships.

People's perception of the value of assets is also changing significantly. If in the 20th century most of the value of a business was formed by real estate and production equipment, then in the 21st century a significant part of the capitalization of many companies is made up of intangible assets - intellectual property (patents, know-how, etc.), as well as human capital (knowledge, qualification, experience and creative potential of employees). One cannot but agree with the patriarch of management P. Drucker, who, foreseeing radical changes in the world economy, pathetically exclaimed at one of his lectures: “There will be no undeveloped countries, there will be ignorant countries!”

Radical changes in the organization of large-scale industrial production that have taken place since the time of F. Taylor and H. Ford have modified not only the methods and forms of activity, but also our understanding of the development of workers. The previously prevailing stereotype - someone else plans and pays for education: parents, an educational institution, an employer, the state, has come to understand that the person himself is primarily responsible for improving his own qualifications. There are many opportunities for this today: universities, various courses, trainings, the Internet, etc. A person independently plans his training and development (including career development), optimizing its cost through distance learning opportunities.

People become active agents in the labor market, their demands on the employer, workplace and content of the activity grow. As a result, the mobility of the labor force increases, which leads to a decrease in the loyalty of workers to a particular employer. Under these conditions, it becomes increasingly difficult for an enterprise to attract and retain highly qualified and talented employees, to ensure that the right people with the right skills work at all jobs at the right time. Moreover, in the knowledge economy, the notorious "churn" means not just additional costs for finding and training new employees, but also the loss of human capital - unique competencies, knowledge and experience. With high competition, this is a very serious risk. In our country, the situation is aggravated by demographic problems: in the next decade, representatives of the large generation of the 1950s and 60s will leave for a well-deserved rest, and there is often simply no one to replace them.

Therefore, we believe that Today, for manufacturing companies, knowledge management is not a luxury, but a vital necessity.. The competitiveness of manufactured products will be determined, first of all, by the competitiveness of the ideas embodied in it. You must always remember: everything today is already outdated, so you should constantly look for new ideas, discover new technical directions, create new products (instead of copying existing samples). Only by putting the interests of the consumer at the forefront, you can awaken confidence in your products, without which it is impossible even to maintain the achieved level - not to mention the implementation of ambitious plans for the development of the enterprise.

The main task of management in the new conditions is to ensure the effective organization of activities and increase the productivity of "intellectual" workers - the "brain of the company", and in the future - to create learning organization. In the difficult conditions of the economic crisis, only the mobilization of intellect, abilities and will everyone employee will help the company find new reserves and new solutions for survival and further development.

Systems approach

Any organization is both a recipient of knowledge from the external environment and a source of new knowledge, so building a knowledge management system in a large enterprise is a difficult, complex task.

Traditionally, in the knowledge management system ( knowledge management) included the following subsystems:

office work and information support of departments(including archives and a library) - provides formalization (description), accumulation and preservation of accumulated knowledge and experience;

learning and development- ensures the transfer of knowledge and experience to new generations of employees;

organization of R&D, innovation and rationalization activities of employees- ensures the creation of new knowledge;

external and internal corporate communications- provides access to knowledge (external and internal sources) and their exchange.

Today, not only innovators and researchers, but also all employees of the organization are considered creators of new knowledge. Since only products that meet their expectations are of value to the consumer, each person can improve something in his workplace. Improving the execution of a technological operation and / or customer relationships, optimizing a business process, etc. as a result, can increase the productivity and product quality of the entire enterprise. The way in which the employee achieved the best results is a little new knowledge, his personal contribution to the achievements of the entire team.

The high-quality work of all subsystems is a prerequisite for effective knowledge management, but its success cannot be ensured without a radical restructuring all personnel management processes. The company should also:

develop and implement assessment and motivation systems that encourage each employee to achieve high results and continuous professional development;

create a corporate culture focused on cooperation and mutual assistance, encouraging initiative, rationalization and innovation;

remove internal organizational barriers that prevent the exchange of necessary information and new ideas;

create a modern information infrastructure, train personnel in new methods of searching for information and working with it.

The system of human knowledge is self-developing: information is a "raw material" for the production of knowledge, in the process of its processing, new knowledge arises.

The prospects of an enterprise are determined by the volume of accumulated useful information, the ability of staff to transform information into knowledge and use it rationally. It is intellectual leadership that will be the main factor in competitiveness in the markets - both in the present and in the future.

The availability of information is a necessary condition for the emergence of new knowledge, but not sufficient. In addition, people need to be taught how to extract knowledge from existing information, process it and generate new ones. But this is still half the battle, then they should be trained to form new abilities based on new knowledge - both individual and organizational.

Only by providing access to knowledge that has been accumulated in various areas of management, science, engineering, technology, as well as providing people with the tools to work with them and teaching them to generate new ideas, analyze options and choose the most promising solutions, we will create conditions for the development of new technology which will best satisfy consumers.

The need to develop a knowledge management system on the scale of a single enterprise was prompted by analysis of changes taking place in the world economy and the economy of Ukraine. Our findings:

the processes of globalization have intensified the flow of material, financial and intellectual resources between countries;

the collapse of the planned socialist economy significantly changed the situation for Ukrainian enterprises (both external and internal), the incompleteness of the market transformation increased their instability and vulnerability to competitors;

restructuring of internal corporate management towards more active use of knowledge increases the competitiveness of the company;

the level of support and use of knowledge at domestic enterprises is still significantly inferior to the average world and average European.

Based on these trends, we have developed general approaches to building a knowledge management system at NKMZ:

Knowledge is information, accumulated experience and competencies that ensure successful targeted economic activity and enterprise development. This means that only information that is already useful (or will be useful in the future) can become knowledge.

Knowledge is an organic part of corporate culture, since it is a micromodel of various processes (management, technology, production, marketing, etc.), in which information is presented in a concentrated and adapted form.

The struggle for the client leads to the individualization of demand and consumption. This, as a rule, requires the manufacturer to customize (fit to the requirements of a particular buyer) products and services. Knowledge is also rapidly “individualized”, which leads to a sharp increase in implicit (non-codified) knowledge. As a result, the labor market is radically transformed: instead of the market of "working hands", it becomes the market of "smart heads" capable of producing new knowledge.

We had to find a rational solution that would make it possible to include knowledge management among the factors of production and management. We planned two stages of this work:

on the first the main role will be played by the processes of collecting, processing and transmitting information: each employee will have access to its repositories (global and corporate);

on the second(it can be called “creative knowledge”), our employees, having comprehended the accumulated experience, will themselves begin to create new knowledge.

Knowledge as a resource should become an object of accounting, monitoring, accumulation, storage and periodic updating.

Since within the framework of the "quality economy" the intellectual component turns products into a "clot" of knowledge, it is inextricably linked with the "knowledge economy".

Knowledge is an integral indicator that reflects the corporate intellectual potential.

Knowledge is objectified in various forms:

an independent product (for example, a marketing project);

end-use item (for example, cost analysis data);

production resource used in the manufacture of products (for example, the technology of the roll heat treatment process);

management decision support resource (for example, an analytical review of the market for certain raw materials);

team consolidation resource (for example, corporate culture values), etc.

We found a rational balance for ourselves basic concepts enterprise and knowledge. In the basic version neoclassical theory the enterprise is considered as an “information processor”, in which resources are distributed taking into account information signals coming from outside. We accepted enterprise cognitive theory: it assumes that organizations have the ability to perceive and process external information. In this theory, the enterprise is considered as a “knowledge processor”, connecting newly incoming knowledge with existing ones, and also forming new competencies - the basis of competitiveness.

Within the framework of this approach, we have understood the importance of the individual knowledge of each employee and the need to integrate all “private” knowledge in a common corporate system (this stimulates the free exchange of knowledge, which creates a synergistic effect).

After clarifying the general approaches, we proceeded to development of a conceptual model of a knowledge management system at NKMZ. In this model, in general terms, the directions of work on the creation, use and reproduction of knowledge within the organization are indicated; it is also determined how they affect the self-improvement of personnel ( rice. 1).

Rice. 1. Conceptual model of the knowledge management system at NKMZ

Improving information retrieval methods

The most important task, which largely ensured the success of the implementation of the technologies under consideration, was the formation unified information infrastructure of the enterprise.

Over the past five years, the pace of updating the product range has been constantly increasing at the plant. As a result, the requirements for the corporate information system have increased many times over. It became clear that new approaches were needed, and only such a system of information selection would win support among employees, in which hard-to-reach information would be literally "at arm's length" in front of the user. This determined the choice as one of the priority areas - "improving the methods of information retrieval".

In practice, for a specific employee (knowledge user), the knowledge management process consists of three main stages:

data collection/information retrieval;

using selected information to develop innovative solutions;

transfer of information to the general knowledge fund of the enterprise and the organization of knowledge exchange in the corporate environment.

We have taken the first step towards optimizing the information retrieval process. To do this, we analyzed: 1) how aware the employees are of the information available at the enterprise and 2) how provided they are with the necessary tools to search for it.

It turned out that we have a typical situation for large industrial enterprises:

there were many information systems (with different interfaces) formed over time;

there were no uniform formats for displaying data and universal mechanisms for searching for information of interest.

To optimize access to information and unify its storage formats, a corporate information portal was created, which allowed:

form a single information space to meet the needs of managers and specialists of the plant;

ensure the interaction of employees in the performance of various business tasks;

optimize information flows coming to the enterprise from the outside (from suppliers, customers, from the Internet, etc.).

In order to ensure efficiency when working with information concentrated in numerous databases, the plant's specialists created an information-analytical system "Automated Workplace (AWS) of Managers and Specialists". This information and analytical system has streamlined the process of bringing important information - primarily to managers. The mechanisms of authorization and differentiation of powers, integrated with database management systems, provided the required level of information protection.

At our enterprise, almost all departments are involved in the process of collecting, processing, analyzing and synthesizing information. The information accumulated in the databases of the corporate information system, as well as the information obtained from external sources, is transformed into knowledge base. Special analytical tools (software applications for creating queries) allow you to generate reports and identify significant trends in the development of a particular problem. This helps professionals and managers make decisions faster and more informedly. For example, marketers, having analytical data on individual market segments and the level of consumer requests, develop special programs and justify specific offers for customers.

The information support cycle consists of the following steps:

Collection of information.

Formation of knowledge bases.

Development and adjustment of programs.

The full implementation of this cycle allows you to create a "self-learning" organization (the term was proposed by Peter Senge, Peter Senge), which is able not only to quickly and adequately respond to changes in the market situation, but also to anticipate possible problems.

Information technologies make it possible to increase the efficiency of management based on the implementation of the principles of centralization and decentralization in management systems. We have developed a corporate organizational structure change model, which, in particular, provides for the creation of a Business Information Center and an extensive network of information and analytical groups of divisions ( rice. 2).

Click image for a larger view

Rice. 2. Model for changing organizational structures

The Business Information Center employs special employees - "knowledge managers" (specialists-analysts), whose functions include organizing knowledge management processes. Knowledge managers are in close contact both with experts from the information and analytical groups of departments that are responsible for the formation of thematic databases, evaluate and filter information in the relevant subject areas, and with business process managers (consultants). It is knowledge managers, together with experts and consultants, who make decisions about what knowledge is important for the enterprise and select materials for placement in corporate databases.

Administrative duties - such as managing the intranet and databases, servicing requests for information resources of the enterprise, are performed by "knowledge coordinators" (system administrators). Basically, these are specialists in the information technology service.

To meet the information needs of specialists, the following forms of requests are widely practiced at NKMZ:

communication with specialists within the enterprise;

posting a request on the website of the department;

placing a general request on the corporate portal, where it is available to all employees.

Unfortunately, often specialists cannot take advantage of the achievements of their colleagues, because they do not have the necessary information. In order to provide more opportunities for communication between professionals, we are expanding the range of indexes (printed and electronic), supplementing groups of consultants and experts with specialists. In the future, we plan to create professional associations on the corporate website - associations of employees of the enterprise with close professional interests and solving similar problems.

But every technology has its negative side. More recently, we have been doing a lot of laborious work related to the review of current information. From our own experience, we have seen that due to information overload, the user sometimes becomes immune to new information. In order to help specialists maintain high performance, it is necessary to develop and implement effective means of navigation and information capture.

To ensure that external information reaches the right worker at the right time, we have implemented viewing system access to Internet resources: special computer programs that allow you to "download" a selection of necessary files from a site specified by specialists and place them on the corporate portal. We also looked at exactly what information developers need and prioritized their service.

In addition, we have begun to create an electronic repository called "Corporate Information Base". Viewing data in it is carried out using a web browser, and searching for information in the same way as searching for sites on the Internet - using metadata (keywords).

In the future, the structure of the corporate information base should become a kind of universal matrix to classify information. Work has now begun on the next stage in the development of the information management system, the basis of which is to assist employees in creating individual information matrices. With their help, the necessary information - relevant to requests - will be automatically sent to the workplaces.

We also managed to solve the problem of providing traffic to a large number of users. Since developers require significant amounts of data, bandwidth problems often arise. We have focused our efforts on ensuring that the available search tools are customized for specific users:

First, each user described their area of ​​interest using keywords.

Then we developed special questionnaires that store the "information profiles" of specialists and correlate them with a wide range of information sources.

Then they developed methods for determining the value of the information received.

It was very important to involve all specialists in this process, since the more users are involved in the individual "adjustment" of information retrieval methods, the more effective the search is. Now the information corresponding to the description is delivered in a timely manner to each specific customer.

An important role in the implementation of this problem was played by knowledge managers and experts of information and analytical groups of divisions, who helped to "tune" each specialist to the information environment he needed, and also created a kind of (gateways) that manage information flows in such a way as to facilitate the work of developers with her.

Our immediate plans include further development of business intelligence systems. We have developed a promising scheme for organizing the information space of the plant ( rice. 3), which involves the division of the corporate information system of the enterprise into two complementary components: 1) a platform that performs all the functions of data processing and 2) an add-on that translates this information into a form accessible to human perception and into knowledge used to create a competitive advantage.

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Rice. 3. Perspective scheme for organizing the information space of the plant

In our model of the knowledge management system, the NKMZ corporate information portal is a single "entry point" to the corporate information system. This system allows you to discover and release structured and unstructured information from various sources, which then turns into corporate knowledge necessary for decision-making.

In the future, we plan to develop a corporate information portal in the following main areas:

Creating a context for the use of analytical packages, such as management information systems, decision support systems (they allow you to analyze data, carry out exploration and highlight the main events in the external environment, analyze their relationships).

Turning the portal into an effective tool, a technological mechanism for extracting, forming and disseminating knowledge in the plant, which allows users of the corporate network to interact with each other, helps to incorporate information into the systems of collective understanding, values ​​and experience.

Linking training programs to specific user needs (in real time), which makes it possible to make the learning process truly continuous, turning the portal into a “self-documenting” learning-by-experience center.

The transformation of the portal into the basis for the implementation of methods for integrating information applications at the plant, which can ensure the effective collection of information (from structured and unstructured sources of various types).

According to information technology and knowledge management experts, an information infrastructure is comprehensive and well organized if:

access is provided both to centralized information and to the places of its occurrence;

the structure and methods of knowledge reuse have been created;

corporate training methods for sharing knowledge have been developed and are constantly being improved.

To achieve the goal of the second stage of the accelerated evolutionary development of the enterprise - to become a self-learning intellectual organization, we have developed strategy for the proactive formation of employee competencies (rice. 4). The most important component of this strategy is the formation of a new category of specialists - interdisciplinary "knowledge coordinators" responsible not only for knowledge management, but also for the creation of training regulations and knowledge sharing regulations.

Rice. 4. Strategy for proactive formation of competencies of NKMZ employees

Among the main tasks of these specialists is the description, analysis and fixation of the experience of employees, as well as transferring it to the corporate level (so that all employees of the plant can use this experience). An equally important task is the development of training programs that help employees understand the organization's development strategies and the requirements for new competencies. Such programs are an effective means of personnel self-improvement.

Today our company has reached a conceptually new level of development. First, we create knowledge bases focused on priority areas of activity - "sharpened" for future leadership. Secondly, we have changed our attitude to the products created at the plant: now we see in new developments not only a sold product (the final stage of production), but also a source of replenishment of the patent and know-how bases - a guarantee of future innovations.

Knowledge base optimization

With the development of the corporate knowledge management system, we began to look at customers differently, because our customers are not only a source of income for the enterprise, but also the most important resource for expanding the knowledge base. The fulfillment of many orders for the manufacture of unique machines and equipment requires fundamentally new engineering and technological solutions, inventions and know-how. By describing completed projects, analyzing mistakes made and innovative findings, we learn. The most important thing in this practical training is to transfer new knowledge in a timely manner, to provide access to it to all employees of the enterprise who need it.

This knowledge is the basis for future innovations. We have seen in practice that cooperation with clients helps us not only expand the base of necessary knowledge, but also structure it - highlight the knowledge that is most important in the long term.

By fulfilling orders for clients from many countries, we gain experience in different markets, under different financial accounting systems, patent laws, intellectual property laws, various standardization systems and safety requirements. Such knowledge cannot be found in textbooks, it is in the experience of people who have carried out specific projects. This wisdom is acquired by hard work, but it is impossible to “preserve” it - to seal and archive it, it becomes obsolete literally before our eyes.

Until recently, we did not study our corporate knowledge base in order to identify and eliminate that part of it that has already lost its value and no longer creates competitive advantages. A psychological prejudice weighed upon us: it is difficult to refuse something in which the labor of many workers is invested. But as the practice of knowledge management improved, we came to the following conclusions:

knowledge, like material assets, requires processing and storage costs, and over time, in accordance with the law of diminishing returns, their value decreases;

by abandoning old knowledge that no longer meets our strategic goals, we will only win.

The decision to add the process of their elimination to the knowledge management scheme was influenced by the study of foreign experience: colleagues consider the revision and optimization of intellectual assets (including the elimination of obsolete ones) as a mandatory part of the knowledge management strategy. Any organization is open system, its functioning ensures the continuous interaction of three processes:

1) obtaining knowledge from the external and internal environment;
2) use of knowledge - transformation, creation of new ones;
3) converting knowledge into new products and services.

It would be a mistake to focus on only one process - the accumulation of knowledge, it is necessary to systematically consider all three processes in interaction.

But we went further - we decided to revise our business processes and "get rid" of the very tendency to accumulate unnecessary knowledge. Previously, we tried to save - "save" - ​​literally everything based on the principle "everyone does it" (first of all, competitors). Today we decide what kind of knowledge should be preserved, based on the principle: "necessary and sufficient" - no frills. This approach helps to focus on key areas of competence(in accordance with the development strategy of the enterprise). At the same time, we exclude information that has lost its relevance from the knowledge base: outdated or related to closed lines of business.

The division of knowledge into clusters: 1) for long-term and 2) short-term use has allowed us to reduce risks and create the potential for future growth of the enterprise.

Protection against unfair competition

Another important area of ​​work in knowledge management is protection from unfair competition. Functioning in a market environment forces companies to develop competitive advantages, including the accumulation of useful information (management, scientific and technical, trade, etc.). For a machine-building enterprise, new technologies and technical solutions that allow creating products with exclusive quality indicators are of the greatest value. Naturally, it is this confidential information that is of particular interest to competitors. How to protect her?

To ensure the right of an enterprise to own, use and dispose of its intellectual asset (innovative technical solutions), as well as to protect it from unauthorized use, various methods are used:

patenting of inventions, useful models of industrial designs;

trademark registration;

conclusion of licensing/franchise agreements;

At the same time, the question often arises as to which method of protection is better to choose: to obtain a patent * for a new technical solution or to keep a new know-how as a trade secret.

Expediency decisions patenting new technical solutions (TR) at our plant are taken by an expert commission chaired by the chief engineer. The Commission takes into account many factors: the significance of specific developments, the demand for products created on the basis of these TRs, the prospects for using the developments and the opportunities available for their commercial implementation.

Technical solutions are protected in trade secret regime in cases where:

it is impossible to control their use (technical equipment);

it is difficult to prove the fact of use (mixtures, compositions);

the publication of the received patent reveals the original direction of solving the problem (in fact, it is a clear hint to competitors to create alternative versions of devices or methods).

But the question remains: “How to protect “non-technical” creative solutions, namely: managerial, financial, organizational, marketing know-how?” They are also part of corporate knowledge and an essential component of a company's competitiveness.

The most common (and reliable) method of protecting such information is implementation in the enterprise. permit/access system, delimiting the rights of users to access a trade secret. The main principles of this approach are:

when entering information into the database, the level of its confidentiality is determined, as well as which of the employees gets the right to access it);

II stage. Next, we began to develop an access system - integrated information security system(KSZI). We think it's mandatory component business process to ensure economic security.

The key element of the CSIS is the factory expert commission for information security. The main tasks of the expert commission:

• formation of a list of information constituting a commercial secret of the enterprise;

  development and implementation of regulatory and methodological documents, instructions, regulations for the protection of information at the plant;

  development and implementation of measures to protect information (including economic justification and coordination of place and time);

  coordination of actions of structural divisions of the enterprise for information protection;

  monitoring compliance with information security requirements in the plant's divisions.

The degree of confidentiality (level of protection) of information is established in the following order:

The divisions of the plant independently determine the types of knowledge that require protection. At the same time, they are guided by a specially developed "Methodology for the formation of a list of information constituting a commercial secret." These include data on production, pre-production, marketing, finance, investment project management, the formation of an information support infrastructure, accounting, the components of the personnel certification mechanism, software and methodological support for the educational process in certain areas, etc. The legitimacy of this information is established by the legal department enterprises.

The employee responsible for the transformation and management of business processes approves the "List ...", after which he sends it to the factory expert commission on information security for generalization and systematization.

Having considered the received data, the plant's expert commission on information security issues a conclusion on the advisability of classifying this information as information constituting a trade secret. When making decisions, the commission proceeds from ensuring the financial and economic interests of our organization.

The list of information constituting a commercial secret is approved and put into effect by an order for the enterprise.

Then, extracts from the "List of information constituting a commercial secret for the division" are sent to the structural divisions.

Employees of all departments are required to be guided by this "List" in their work.

III stage. Familiarization of personnel with information constituting a commercial secret of the enterprise is carried out through a permit system.

The legal basis for the implementation of this system is the right of the information owner (enterprise) to appoint authorized persons who determine the information users and establish their powers. By order of the CEO, managers responsible for the transformation and management of business processes are appointed authorized persons of the information owner.

Employees must obtain special permission to access knowledge constituting a trade secret of the enterprise. Permissions for access to such information are issued in accordance with the lists formed by the heads of structural divisions. IN user lists include specific professionals who need this information to perform their job duties.

Employees who have received permission to access information constituting a commercial secret of the enterprise undergo initial briefing on information protection and sign treaty- non-disclosure obligation. Training provided by experts information security groups And personnel department.

IV stage. To prevent the leakage of confidential information in the protection system, it is important to 1) continuously monitor the current situation, 2) predict the possibility of new threats. One of the risk management tools is "List of Threats". Its development and adjustment at our enterprise is also carried out step by step.

On first step experts of the factory expert commission on information security:

develop a "List of current threats to enterprise information";

calculate the attack probability coefficient;

conduct an expert assessment of the possible amount of damage.

This work is carried out on the basis of statistical data for the reporting period (on the occurrence of threats to information processed at the enterprise) - in accordance with international computer security standards ISO / IEC 15408, ISO / IEC 15408-2002 ( Common Criteria for Information Technology Security Evaluation- General criteria for assessing the security of information technology).

On second step based on the current list of threats, attack probability coefficients, the amount of possible damage and statistical data, expert risk assessment(information leaks). Risk analysis is a quantitative (qualitative) assessment of the damage that can be caused if a threat is realized, taking into account the probability of its occurrence. The following is a list of the most likely threats to information ranked- depending on the magnitude of the risk.

Based on these data, "Requirements for the protection of confidential information and knowledge" are determined.

V stage. In accordance with the "Requirements for the protection of confidential information and knowledge", the following systems have been implemented at the plant:

system of legalization of users, automated workstations (AWP) and software;

permit-access system;

anti-virus protection system;

information backup and recovery system;

protection system for communication channels and electronic communications,

training of administrators and users of computer systems.

The mobility of the information and knowledge protection system is supported by a set of organizational, legal, engineering and program measures.

VI stage. Even an ultra-perfect technical system will not work “on its own”, therefore, we pay special attention to preventive and preventive work with personnel. People are trained on the following topics:

"The nature and composition of information constituting the commercial secret of the enterprise";

"Possible threats and channels of leakage of information and knowledge constituting the commercial secret of the enterprise";

"Legislation of Ukraine in the field of information protection and intellectual property";

“Information protection rules and the procedure for employees to work with information constituting a commercial secret of the enterprise - in documented and electronic form”;

"Personnel actions in the event of emergency and extreme situations."

Additionally, practical classes are held in the following courses:

"Operation and information security of computer systems" - for administrators of computer systems of structural divisions;

"Ensuring the security of information and corporate knowledge bases in the operation of computer systems" - for users.

In addition, seminars and interviews are regularly held in specific areas of information security:

in the training and retraining of workers of various professions;

during briefing meetings on the facts of leakage of confidential information.

Our employees perceive the achievements of specialists and innovators of production as real values ​​that belong to the entire team of Novokramatorsky Mashinostroitelny Zavod. Today, the time advantage is recognized by business as an important (and often decisive) factor in the competitive struggle. Therefore, most of our employees understand that the protection of useful information, which is the basis of corporate knowledge, is everyone's task.
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* Patent certifies the exclusive (monopoly) right of the patent owner to use the patented object; without permission (obtaining a license), no one has the right to use it in any way.

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