Knowledge management

Abstract

This chapter presents what knowledge is, what types of knowledge are there, what knowledge management (KM) is about, and finally how knowledge is created and shared. What can be learned from this chapter? Knowledge is the most important asset an organization has! It is inherent in people and forms the organizational intellectual capital. It is hard to share, acquire, and store if knowledge is in the tacit format because of that, it should be converted into explicit knowledge. There is a way of dealing with knowledge - KM - that tries to "get the best out of it". To do effective KM, there are components, standards, and processes. They must be understood by and incorporated in the organization, so that knowledge can be extracted from people's mind and be internalized into the company as organizational knowledge. Doing that will make possible the development of goods, services, business processes, and systems.