Knowledge Management Technology By A. D. Marwick

Knowledge
management
technology
by A. D. Marwick

Selected technologies that contribute to
knowledge management solutions are reviewed
using Nonaka’s model of organizational
knowledge creation as a framework. The extent
to which knowledge transformation within and
between tacit and explicit forms can be
supported by the technologies is discussed, and
some likely future trends areidentified. It is
found that the strongest contribution to current
solutions is made by technologies that deal
largely with explicit knowledge, such as search
and classification. Contributions to the formation
and communication of tacit knowledge, and
support for making it explicit, are currently
weaker, although some encouraging
developments are highlighted, such as the use
of text-based chat,expertise location, and
unrestricted bulletin boards. Through surveying
some of the technologies used for knowledge
management, this paper serves as an
introduction to the subject for those papers in
this issue that discuss technology.

T

he goal of this paper is to provide an overview
of technologies that can be applied to knowledge management and to assess their actual or potentialcontribution to the basic processes of knowledge creation and sharing within organizations. The
aim is to identify trends and new developments that
seem to be significant and to relate them to technology research in the field, rather than to provide
a comprehensive review of available products.
Knowledge management (see, for example, Davenport and Prusak 1 ) is the name given to the set ofsystematic and disciplined actions that an organization
can take to obtain the greatest value from the knowledge available to it. “Knowledge” in this context in814

MARWICK

cludes both the experience and understanding of the
people in the organization and the information artifacts, such as documents and reports, available
within the organization and in the world outside.
Effective knowledgemanagement typically requires
an appropriate combination of organizational, social, and managerial initiatives along with, in many
cases, deployment of appropriate technology. It is
the technology and its applicability that is the focus
of this paper.
To structure the discussion of technologies, it is helpful to classify the technologies by reference to the
notions of tacit and explicitknowledge introduced
by Polanyi in the 1950s 2,3 and used by Nonaka 4,5 to
formulate a theory of organizational learning that
focuses on the conversion of knowledge between tacit
and explicit forms. Tacit knowledge is what the
knower knows, which is derived from experience and
embodies beliefs and values. Tacit knowledge is actionable knowledge, and therefore the most valuable.
Furthermore, tacitknowledge is the most important
basis for the generation of new knowledge, that is,
according to Nonaka: “the key to knowledge creation
lies in the mobilization and conversion of tacit knowledge.” 5 Explicit knowledge is represented by some
artifact, such as a document or a video, which has
typically been created with the goal of communicating with another person. Both forms of knowledge
areimportant for organizational effectiveness. 6
Copyright 2001 by International Business Machines Corporation. Copying in printed form for private use is permitted without payment of royalty provided that (1) each reproduction is done
without alteration and (2) the Journal reference and IBM copyright notice are included on the first page. The title and abstract,
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IBM SYSTEMS JOURNAL, VOL 40, NO 4, 2001

These ideas lead us to focus on the processes by
which knowledge is transformed between its...