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Knowledge mapping involves an organization discovering the location, ownership and use of knowledge. It requires an understanding of staff, their roles and expertise. Comprehensive knowledge mapping allows management to understand and highlight constraints and opportunities in managing knowledge processes more effectively. Set out here is a generic model of knowledge mapping.
The following are the key principles of knowledge mapping:
- an understanding that the pool of knowledge within an organization is subject to constant change
- the ability to recognize and locate knowledge in all forms including tacit and explicit, codified and personalized, and internal and external
- recognizing and appreciating the significance of IT, business processes, staff, culture, personal networks, customer relations, intellectual property rights, reward and incentives and organizational structure
What is a Knowledge Map?
It is a navigation aid charting codified and tacit knowledge and the flows and networks (formal and informal) along which knowledge runs. The map portrays sources, flows, constraints and stopping points of the knowledge within an organization. The technique by which these maps are drawn is unimportant. However, most practitioners favor traditional flow charting. The key is that the map must be of aggregate, tractable and manageable size.
An example of a knowledge map is given here.
The Advantages of Knowledge Mapping
- encourages economies of reuse, and discourages duplication of effort
- highlights expertise and opportunities and suggests ways to increase knowledge flow
- discovers where best practice is occurring and why
- provides a baseline against which to measure future knowledge strategy
- reduces the workload of specialists by allowing staff to access knowledge easily
- improves customer response times
- provides an inventory of intellectual assets
What Should be Mapped?
Location, ownership, documents, files, policies, competencies, relationships, databases, IT infrastructure, formal and informal networks, best practice, explicit and tacit knowledge, drivers, enablers, market and customer intelligence and competencies.
This information can be found by staff consultation, in directories, personnel files, intranets, HR databases and libraries.
The following techniques might be employed to find the information:
- interviews
- tracking network activity
- exploring common and individual file structures
- gathering policy documents, organizational charts and process documentation
- observing informal gatherings and networking
Improving Knowledge Management
This information, once gathered, can be used to improve the management of an organization’s knowledge via the following activities:
- record best practice
- compile company contact databases, listing experts
- explore opportunities for codification and economies of reuse
- map opportunities and challenges
- check for patterns of usage and high traffic
Key Questions to Ask
- What type of knowledge is needed to improve customer service?
- Who provides it and where does it come from?
- How can knowledge flow be improved?
- How can this best be managed?
Knowledge mapping represents a methodology and model in a field in which such devices are rarely used and frequently dismissed. The model is flexible enough to be adaptable to fit most organizations. However, it offers sufficiently specific advice to aid management teams confused by the amount of jargon and modeling surrounding this topic.
