Knowledge Management Potentia”

Touro University International

ITM 525

Module 2 SLP

“Knowledge Management Potential”

Dr. Wendy Wang

This essay aims to explore the implications for management by illuminating the nature of knowledge in the workplace, how it is generated and how to further amplify its generation such that an organization can be in a better position to capture and diffuse it. Also highlighted are the compelling reasons as to why knowledge should be managed. Finally, one leading strategy, of moving from “channels” to “platforms”, is more fully explored through the analysis of a new type of “wiki” software.

The United States Army makes extensive use of a sophisticated integrated knowledge management operation at a scale so vast that it cannot be analyzed properly in such a short paper. For this reason, I have chosen to focus on personnel records administration in order to provide a macro-view of how the Army manages information on a grand scale.

Knowledge Management (KM) is the process through which organizations generate value from their intellectual and knowledge-based assets. Most often, generating value from such assets involves sharing them among employees, departments and even with other companies in an effort to devise best practices (Santosus & Surmacz, 2001). The goal of KM is to concurrently manage data, information, and precise knowledge while leveraging what people recognize as tacit knowledge throughout a mixture of technology and management practices.

Traditionally, the Army like the rest of the US military relied on a complex bureaucratic system heavily reliant on paper. Hundreds of different forms were designed to document enlistment contracts, medical evaluations, leave requests, promotions, change of station, and change of duty, role calls, physical fitness scores, volunteer hours, and any other procedures relevant to a service member’s life in the military. Although in most cases the military kept copies of original documents on file on...