What Is Kennismanagement?
Kennismanagement, often referred to as Knowledge Management (KM), is the systematic process of identifying, creating, storing, sharing, and utilizing the collective knowledge and information within an organization. It falls under the broader umbrella of Organizational Management and aims to enhance an entity's efficiency, foster innovation, and improve decision-making by ensuring that valuable insights and expertise are accessible to those who need them. Effective Kennismanagement transforms raw data into actionable intelligence, allowing organizations to leverage their intellectual assets for strategic advantage.
History and Origin
The foundational concepts behind Kennismanagement began to crystallize in the late 20th century, spurred by the recognition that an organization's intellectual capital was as crucial as its physical and financial assets. Management theorists like Peter Drucker emphasized the rise of the "knowledge worker" in the mid-20th century, highlighting the increasing importance of knowledge as a core economic resource. The formalization of Kennismanagement as a distinct discipline gained momentum in the 1990s. Early adopters, particularly consulting firms, began to develop in-house programs to systematize the capture and sharing of their professional expertise. Influential academic work, such as Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi's "The Knowledge-Creating Company" (1995), further popularized the notion of how companies generate and leverage knowledge for dynamic innovation. As observed by Thomas H. Davenport and Laurence Prusak in the Harvard Business Review, the practice of knowledge management became a strategic imperative for businesses seeking to make sense of the vast amounts of information available to them.6
Key Takeaways
- Kennismanagement systematically captures, organizes, shares, and applies an organization's collective knowledge.
- Its primary goal is to improve organizational performance, foster innovation, and enhance decision-making.
- It involves both explicit knowledge (codified, documented) and tacit knowledge (experiential, intuitive).
- Effective Kennismanagement can lead to increased efficiency, reduced costs, and stronger competitive advantage.
- Successful implementation requires a combination of people, processes, and technology.
Interpreting Kennismanagement
Kennismanagement is interpreted as a holistic approach to managing an organization's intellectual assets. It's not merely about storing documents but about fostering an environment where knowledge flows freely and is actively used to solve problems and seize opportunities. For example, a financial firm might interpret Kennismanagement as the continuous effort to refine its risk management procedures based on past experiences, market shifts, and regulatory changes, ensuring that all relevant staff have access to the most current best practices. Its success is often measured by qualitative improvements, such as faster problem resolution, more informed strategic decisions, and enhanced organizational learning, rather than a single numerical output.
Hypothetical Example
Consider a global investment bank, "Diversified Capital," that frequently engages in complex international mergers and acquisitions. Each deal involves a unique blend of legal, financial, and regulatory expertise across different jurisdictions. Without effective Kennismanagement, the legal team in London might spend weeks researching a regulatory nuance that the New York team already resolved on a similar deal last year.
To implement Kennismanagement, Diversified Capital establishes a central knowledge repository accessible to all deal teams globally. When the London team completes a deal, they are required to document key insights, legal interpretations, and successful strategies related to cross-border regulatory approvals. This includes documenting challenges encountered and how they were overcome. Later, when a new deal arises with similar complexities in Asia, the Asian deal team can search the Kennismanagement system, quickly retrieve the documented experiences from London, and adapt the solutions to their specific context. This proactive sharing of intellectual capital significantly reduces research time, minimizes errors, and accelerates the deal-making process.
Practical Applications
Kennismanagement finds numerous practical applications across various sectors, especially in finance, where informed decisions and regulatory compliance are paramount. Financial institutions leverage Kennismanagement to:
- Enhance Customer Service: By centralizing FAQs, policy documents, and product information, customer service representatives can quickly access accurate answers, leading to improved client satisfaction.
- Streamline Compliance and Risk Mitigation: Financial firms operate under strict regulatory frameworks. Kennismanagement systems provide easy access to the latest regulations, internal policies, and audit trails, helping ensure adherence and reduce the likelihood of penalties.
- Facilitate Product Development: Insights from market analysis, client feedback, and competitor strategies can be captured and shared, informing the creation of new financial products or services.
- Support Strategic Planning: Centralized knowledge enables leadership to access comprehensive data and expert opinions, leading to more robust long-term strategies.
- Improve Human Capital Development: Onboarding new employees, especially in highly specialized fields like portfolio management or complex financial analysis, becomes more efficient when a wealth of training materials, best practices, and expert contacts are readily available. The ongoing need for tax knowledge-sharing, for example, is critical for financial institutions, especially with remote workforces and ever-evolving regulations.5
Limitations and Criticisms
While Kennismanagement offers substantial benefits, its implementation and effectiveness are not without challenges. One significant limitation is the difficulty in capturing and codifying tacit knowledge—the experiential, intuitive knowledge that resides in individuals' minds and is often hard to articulate. Moreover, organizational culture can pose a major hurdle; if employees are unwilling to share their expertise, or if there's a lack of trust, even the most sophisticated Kennismanagement systems will fail to deliver value. Resistance to change, concerns about job security, and a perceived lack of time to contribute to knowledge systems can undermine efforts.
4Another criticism lies in the potential for information overload, where too much undifferentiated information makes it difficult for users to find what is truly relevant or reliable. Maintaining the currency and accuracy of stored knowledge is an ongoing and resource-intensive task, and outdated information can be more detrimental than no information at all. Additionally, measuring the direct return on investment (ROI) of Kennismanagement initiatives can be challenging, as many benefits are qualitative, such as improved collaboration or faster problem-solving. As Julian Birkinshaw and Tony Sheehan noted in the MIT Sloan Management Review, knowledge-management tools are not universally applicable, and different strategies are required for different types and stages of knowledge.
3## Kennismanagement vs. Information Management
While closely related and often used interchangeably, Kennismanagement and Information Management differ in their primary focus and scope. Information Management is largely concerned with the efficient and effective acquisition, storage, retrieval, and governance of data and information assets. It focuses on the lifecycle of information, ensuring its accuracy, accessibility, and security through systems, processes, and technology. This includes managing databases, documents, and digital records.
Kennismanagement, on the other hand, goes beyond mere information handling. It emphasizes the human element and the transformation of information into actionable knowledge. While it utilizes the tools and systems of information management, its core objective is to leverage human experience, insights, and understanding to create new knowledge, solve problems, and foster innovation. Kennismanagement seeks to answer "how" and "why" things are done, not just "what" the data or document contains, often through practices like communities of practice, mentorship, and storytelling.
FAQs
What types of knowledge does Kennismanagement address?
Kennismanagement primarily deals with two types of knowledge: explicit knowledge, which is easily articulated, codified, and stored (e.g., reports, procedures, databases), and tacit knowledge, which is personal, experiential, and often difficult to formalize (e.g., intuition, skills, unwritten rules).
2### Why is Kennismanagement important for financial institutions?
For financial institutions, Kennismanagement is crucial for maintaining regulatory compliance, managing complex risks, fostering innovation in financial products, enhancing customer service, and ensuring that critical expertise is retained and shared across the organization, especially in a rapidly evolving market.
How does technology support Kennismanagement?
Technology plays a vital role by providing platforms for knowledge repositories, collaboration tools, search engines, and artificial intelligence-driven analytics that help in storing, organizing, retrieving, and disseminating knowledge. However, technology is a facilitator and must be supported by appropriate processes and a culture of sharing.
What are common barriers to successful Kennismanagement?
Common barriers include a lack of organizational culture that encourages sharing, resistance from employees, difficulty in capturing tacit knowledge, challenges in keeping information current and accurate, and difficulties in demonstrating a clear return on investment.
Can Kennismanagement help with succession planning?
Yes, Kennismanagement can significantly aid in succession planning by systematically documenting the expertise, processes, and historical context held by experienced employees. This allows for smoother transitions and reduces the risk of critical knowledge loss when key personnel retire or leave the organization.1