Summary and review of “Some Principles of Knowledge Management” by Thomas H. Davenport (Lecture 3 preparation)

Writing in 1998, the author of this article acknowledges that Knowledge Management in business was still at an early stage, and organizations would need high-level guiding principles for implementing Knowledge Management which detailed approaches and plans can be based on.

The author takes a systematic view towards the implementation of Knowledge Management in organizations and reflectively outlines the 10 most important Knowledge Management principles according to his experiences in this field. The 10 principles can be described as –

Financial commitment – organizations should invest on Knowledge Management, as knowledge generates revenues and the lack of Knowledge Management may cost an organization more.

People and technology – Knowledge Management requires both people and technology. People need to interpret knowledge in certain context and combine it with other information whistle technology can capture, transform and distribute knowledge.

Organizational politics – Knowledge is often associated with power within an organization and would have certain political implications. Managers should work together towards better utilization of Knowledge across the organization.

Knowledge managers – clear responsibility needs to be established within the organization and Knowledge Managers need to be committed to the Knowledge Management processes and activities.

Knowledge mapping – Mapping organizational knowledge, rather than creating a hierarchical model or architecture for knowledge, would lead to better access and utilization of knowledge.

Knowledge sharing – Organizations should provide incentives for staff members to share knowledge, such as performance evaluations, compensations and rewards.

Process improvement – Organizations should continuously refine Knowledge Management process, and carefully choose between top-down and bottom-up approaches to improve the process.

Attention and engagement – both consumers and employees should be actively involved with Knowledge Management; they should interact and receive knowledge from each other as well as pay attention to tacit knowledge.

Ongoing task – Knowledge Management should be ongoing within organizations as change in Knowledge environment can be rapid.

Knowledge contract – organizations should consider the legal aspects of Knowledge Management, especially the rights to the knowledge of employees.

Once putting forward the above 10 principles of Knowledge Management, the author also reviewed and summarized how Knowledge Management was implemented across organization at HP, which the author described as a knowledge-orientated company and was committed to Knowledge Management.

This article and the Knowledge Management principles it proposes are mainly based on author’s reflection as he looks at his experiences of working in Knowledge Management areas at different organizations. This article offered very little academic background of the Knowledge Management topic but the principles outlined in this article are practical and should be considered and adopted by organizations which are keen to implement Knowledge Management.