Knowledge management to leverage public health knowledge

Description

The paper, Knowledge Management: Background Paper for the Development of a Knowledge Management Strategy for Public Health in Canada, summarizes a literature search and input from key informants to provide recommendations for a knowledge management strategy for public health. This comprehensive resource describes key concepts and approaches to measurement and evaluation, and lists methods and tools for knowledge management.

There are many definitions of knowledge management. The definition selected for this paper is:

"Knowledge management is the systematic process by which knowledge needed for an organization to succeed is created, captured, shared and leveraged" (Clemmons Rumizen, 2002, p.9).

Knowledge management is a key element for facilitating evidence-informed public health. Many public health organizations have accumulated large amounts of data and information, but lack the capacity and infrastructure to fully use this data for analysis and decision-making (Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, 2005). Increasingly, one of the most significant challenges to knowledge management for public health in Canada involves facilitating the sharing of tacit, or informal, knowledge of people working in public health (Goddard et al., 2004). There is a need for a coordinated approach to leveraging Canadian public health knowledge (Kiefer et al., 2005).

This resource consists of the following sections:
1. Introduction
2. History of Knowledge Management
3. Foundation Concepts and Models

• Knowledge Cycle Processes
• Measurement Models
• Implementation Models
• Recommended Models for Knowledge Management in Canadian Public Health

4. Knowledge Management in Canadian Public Health Contexts
5. The "How Tos" of Knowledge Management

• Culture
• Content
• Process
• Technology
• The Importance of People to Knowledge Management

6. Potential Methods and Tools for Knowledge Management
7. Benefits and Challenges of Knowledge Management
8. Evaluating Knowledge Management
9. Implications for Consideration

Steps for Using Method/Tool

Four core components of an organization need to be addressed to develop a Knowledge Management System. People are central to each component, such that fostering capacity building is an essential activity for a knowledge management strategy.

1. Organizational culture- norms and practices can support or hinder adopting a knowledge management strategy. This includes:

• identifying characteristics of an organizational culture that support knowledge management;
• using techniques to develop a supportive knowledge management culture; and
• addressing potential challenges to a supportive organizational culture.

2. Content- data, information, skills and expertise are the content resources of an organization. This includes:

• differentiating between tacit and explicit knowledge;
• collecting content;
• using the content; and
• managing the content.

3. Process- certain activities facilitate creating, sharing and using knowledge in an organization. This involves:

• identifying key roles needed for knowledge management (e.g,. knowledge broker);
• establishing steps in developing knowledge management processes;
• using social networks; and
• developing a timeline to implement a knowledge management strategy.

4. Technology - technology is used to manage data, especially explicit knowledge. This involves:

• clearly defining the scope and requirements of the strategy; and
• identifying and appraising technology products that match your requirements (e.g., capture and store data, search and retrieve data, synthesize information, facilitate sharing and collaboration, solve or recommend solutions, etc.).