Knowledge {Management} is POWER!

What is Knowledge Management?

Knowledge management is a discipline involving the creation, dissemination, and application of knowledge. While the material we read this week spanned over decades of years, the commonality among them all was that the trend of knowledge management and its importance in learning is not going anywhere. Through advanced technology, knowledge management tools have enabled themselves to create a permanent presence within all levels of education and beyond. According to Sangeeta & Dhamdhere (2015), knowledge management is the transformation of information into something valuable. The article goes on to explain that there are two types of knowledge: explicit and tacit. Explicit knowledge is the more concrete information that can be articulated, represented, and understood without further explanation. In contrast, tacit knowledge is more complex and is connected to personal schema and observations.

Knowledge Management Today

In today’s world, knowledge management is incredibly important in all stages of learning, but particularly in higher education and the corporate world. To believe that knowledge is power is to understand the importance that knowledge management can have on the success of corporate companies. Zendesk, a cloud-based company offering AI software for companies, believes that proper knowledge management can make or break how a company handles its performance. Some of the benefits of knowledge management can include improvements in the training and onboarding stages, streamlining customer support, reducing support costs, and providing better support access (Wray, 2023). Wray also writes that it is important to consider the four key components of knowledge management: people, process, content, and strategy.

Another company that values the implementation of knowledge management to build success Amazon. The well-known retail source prides itself on catering to the needs of its consumers and highly contributes parts of that success to its use of knowledge management to best understand their customers. Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon, says that “we see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better” (Rosenburg, 2014). The principles of knowledge management that entail everything from consistent presentation to crowdsourcing have allowed them to succeed in adding value to their customer’s experiences.

The last resource I looked at that successfully understands and defines knowledge management is Cypher Learning. Cypher Learning is an LMS used by companies to best train and equip their employees. Leaders at Cypher Learning believe that the power of knowledge management should be harnessed and utilized in ways that transform company data into valuable profits. By understanding knowledge management and strategically approaching the data available through it, companies can best implore and foster relationships between data and steps to success (Hajric, 2020). Cypher Learning conveys that strategic use of knowledge management can help develop valuable learning experiences that best prepare employees for the training needed to successfully work for companies.

Conclusion

In conclusion, knowledge management is relevant to instructional design because it all encompasses how learners learn. From the very beginning, we all learn through experience and retain information based on how we manage our knowledge. This information can be traced back to the earliest theories of learning from Piaget and Skinner and can be relevantly relayed through learning today. While the way we absorb information has changed dramatically, the foundational ways in which we learn have only improved through the use of technological advances that tailor to the needs of our brains.

Works Cited

Hajric, E. (2020, August 18). Knowledge Management techniques can be used to enhance training. Cypher Learning. https://www.cypherlearning.com/blog/business/how-knowledge-management-techniques-can-be-used-to-enhance-training

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Rosenberg, M. (n.d.). The knowledge management genius of amazon.com. LearningGuild.com. https://www.learningguild.com/articles/1480/the-knowledge-management-genius-of-amazoncom/?rd=1

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Sangeeta, M., & Dhamdhere, N. (2015). Importance Of Knowledge Management In The Higher Educational Institutes. In Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1092819.pdf

Wray, H. (2023, August 18). What is knowledge management? Definition, types, and benefits. Zendesk. https://www.zendesk.com/blog/knowledge-management-system/

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