4 Knowledge Mapping

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4. Knowledge Mapping

ETL525 Knowledge ManagementTutorial Two

11 December 2008

K.T. [email protected]

Last updated: 10 December 2008


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What is Knowledge Mapping?

• Knowledge mapping is an ongoing quest within anorganization to:

– discover the location, ownership, value and use of

knowledge artifacts; – learn the roles and expertise of people;

– identify constraints to the flow of knowledge;

–

highlight opportunities to leverage existing knowledge.• Knowledge mapping is a practice consisting of

survey, audit, and synthesis.

Source: Grey D (1999)


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What is Knowledge Map?

• Knowledge map is a navigation aid to explicit(codified) information and tacit knowledge,showing the importance and the relationships

between knowledge stores and dynamics.

Source: Grey D (1999)


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What is Knowledge Map? (cont.)

• Knowledge map is “an association of items ofinformation (e.g. process, network, policy,geography, …) preferably visual, where the

association itself creates new, actionableinformation” (adapted from Vail).

Source: Ebener et al. (2006)


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Knowledge Mapping Process

• Knowledge mapping is the process of creatinga knowledge map.

• The process consists of the following steps: – Acquire data (through, e.g. survey)

– Manipulate data (to produce first order data)

– Store data (to form knowledge mapping database)

–

Process data (analysis, aggregation andcontextualization to produce higher order data)

– Visualize data (to produce knowledge maps)

Source: Ebener et al. (2006)


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Contents of Knowledge Map

• A knowledge map – whether it is an actual map,knowledge “yellow pages” or a cleverly constructeddatabase – points to knowledge but it does not containit. It is a guide not a repository (Davenport and Prusak,

1998, p.72).• Example contents of problem-based knowledge maps:

– Intellectual capital guide (to display where the firm‟sknowledge is embedded and likely to grow)

– Implement change in the firm‟s technology (to direct users

to when, how and who will move from the old to newtechnology)

– Accountability tree (to locate who is responsible for whatand when)

Source: Wexler (2001)


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Issues on Knowledge Mapping

• Scope – an exercise for the whole organization or apart of it?

• Timeliness – an one-time initiative or requiring on-going updating efforts?

• Completeness and level of granularity – can allconcerned knowledge be completely mapped? howcomprehensive?

• Design issues – to reduce miscommunication and

increase communication.• Dissemination of deliverables – in the form of written

reports/documents, websites, databases? navigationinterfaces for users? mapping software needed?


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Case study – a steel company

• Kim et al. (2003) presented a case study onbuilding the knowledge map for an organization insteel industry.

•Knowledge map approach to represent explicitand tacit knowledge within an organization.

• Knowledge map with nodes as knowledge andlinks as the relationships between knowledge.

• Constructed a knowledge map of hot rollingprocess, the core process in the steelproduction.


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Case Study – a steel company(cont.)

• Procedures of building the knowledge map: – Defining organization knowledge

• Establishing the knowledge ontology and developing thetaxonomy.

– Process map analysis• Producing process maps based on task flows (business

process).

– Knowledge extraction• Extracting knowledge based on each process defined in a

process map.

• Extraction techniques: interviewing, document analysis,system analysis, knowledge workshop.


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Case Study – a steel company(cont.)

– Knowledge profiling

• Producing a knowledge profile of extracted knowledge.

• Reviewed the knowledge list with domain experts; refined

unidentified and duplicated knowledge.

– Knowledge linking

• Confirming links as found in the profiling and identifying new

links.

• Very helpful in identifying knowledge flow and association.

– Knowledge map validation

• Performing user validation on the created knowledge map,

with structured walkthrough with domain experts.


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References

• Ebener, S et al 2006, „Knowledge mapping as atechnique to support knowledge translation‟, Bulletin ofthe World Health Organization, vol,. 84, no. 8, pp. 636-642.

• Grey, D 1999, „Knowledge mapping : a practical

overview‟. Available online at:http://kmguru.tblog.com/post/98920.• Kim, S et al. 2003, „Building the knowledge map: an

industrial case study‟, Journal of knowledge management,vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 34-45.

• Wexler, M 2001, „The who, what and why of knowledgemapping‟, Journal of knowledge management, vol. 5, no. 3,pp. 249-263.
http://kmguru.tblog.com/post/98920http://kmguru.tblog.com/post/98920

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