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Home › TRY THE ONLINE TRAINING FACILITY › Section 1 - Introduction to Knowledge Management › 1.3.3 Types of Knowledge and Knowledge Creation / Conversion ›
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E. Knowledge Codification
Knowledge codification serves the pivotal role of allowing what is known in the organization to be shared and used collectively. By converting knowledge into a tangible, explicit form such as a document, knowledge can be communicated much more widely and with less cost. Knowledge must be codified in order to be understood, maintained and improved upon as part of corporate memory. People always used some type of knowledge codification during their everyday activities to make communication and discussions more effective. Work or business jargon, e-mail as well as computer programmer’s technical language are only some examples. However, it is impossible to codify in a document or a database the knowledge, skills, expertise, understanding and passion of an employee. In this case, the best solution is to provide a link to the sources of knowledge using a knowledge maps, company yellow pages or a company guide. These issues are examined later in this Handbook (Chapters 3.1.5, 3.1.7)
The codification of explicit knowledge can be achieved through a variety of techniques such as cognitive mapping, decision trees, knowledge taxonomies, and task analysis [10]:
Cognitive Maps – Once expertise, experience, and know-how have been rendered (made) explicit, the resulting content can be represented as a cognitive map. A cognitive map is a representation of the "mental model" of a person's knowledge and provides a good form of codified knowledge. In the map, the nodes represent the key concepts, while the links between them show the interrelations between concepts. Thus, cognitive mapping is based on concept mapping, and allows experts to construct knowledge models. They could show multiple perspectives or views on the content (Figure 1.3 (4)).
Figure 1.3 (4): Example of a Concept Map. Source: Dalkir (2005)
Decision Trees – typically in the form of a flowchart, with alternate paths indicating the impact of different decisions being made at that juncture point. A decision tree can represent many "rules," and when you execute the logic by following a certain path, you are effectively bypassing rules that are not relevant to the case in hand (Figure 1.3 (5)).
Figure 1.3 (5): Example of a Decision Tree. Source: Dalkir (2005)
Knowledge Taxonomies – Concepts can be viewed as the building blocks of knowledge and expertise. Taxonomies are basic classification systems that enable us to describe concepts and their dependencies – typically in a hierarchical fashion. The higher up the concept is placed, the more general or generic the concept is. The lower the concept is placed, the more specific an instance it is of the higher-level categories. This approach allows lower or more specific concepts in the taxonomy to directly incorporate the attributes of the higher level or the parent concepts (Figure 1.3 (6)).
Figure 1.3 (6): Example of Knowledge Taxonomy
The codification of explicit knowledge can be achieved through a variety of techniques such as cognitive mapping, decision trees, knowledge taxonomies, and task analysis [10]:
Cognitive Maps – Once expertise, experience, and know-how have been rendered (made) explicit, the resulting content can be represented as a cognitive map. A cognitive map is a representation of the "mental model" of a person's knowledge and provides a good form of codified knowledge. In the map, the nodes represent the key concepts, while the links between them show the interrelations between concepts. Thus, cognitive mapping is based on concept mapping, and allows experts to construct knowledge models. They could show multiple perspectives or views on the content (Figure 1.3 (4)).
Figure 1.3 (4): Example of a Concept Map. Source: Dalkir (2005)
Decision Trees – typically in the form of a flowchart, with alternate paths indicating the impact of different decisions being made at that juncture point. A decision tree can represent many "rules," and when you execute the logic by following a certain path, you are effectively bypassing rules that are not relevant to the case in hand (Figure 1.3 (5)).
Figure 1.3 (5): Example of a Decision Tree. Source: Dalkir (2005)
Knowledge Taxonomies – Concepts can be viewed as the building blocks of knowledge and expertise. Taxonomies are basic classification systems that enable us to describe concepts and their dependencies – typically in a hierarchical fashion. The higher up the concept is placed, the more general or generic the concept is. The lower the concept is placed, the more specific an instance it is of the higher-level categories. This approach allows lower or more specific concepts in the taxonomy to directly incorporate the attributes of the higher level or the parent concepts (Figure 1.3 (6)).
Figure 1.3 (6): Example of Knowledge Taxonomy
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