.: Article2 - The War on Knowledge, Information & Data To Face Challenges.

1. Introduction
Everyday observation, the market is flustered with a wealth of knowledge. If all of this wealth is combined together, what would it create? A powerful society? We begin to see what makes this. This article looks at knowledge, information and data and what impact and effects it may have on organisation’s out there.

2. The Misuse Of Data & Information
It should be distinguished there can be misuse between 'data' and 'information' which I agree. First instance, if I was not from financial and pharmacy background -they are both the same, but having studied and looking at it from an organisation point of view, it is not! - We begin by looking at data.

2.1. Data
According to Hislop (2005), data is “raw numbers, words and sounds”. Myself see data on its own and not applied would mean raw figure's from fashion industry perspective, as I see no form of conveying message. As a result of this I cannot make structured decision.

Data at all time will exist but have no significant meaning if not applied to the suitable subject area. However, from a different angle -previous experience in the financial industry, I actually understood a table of numerical numbers because there was a meaning to this in that industry. My experience of reconciliation and suspense accounts involved a lot of data work –data was factual for me –performance status. Choo et al., (2000) had the same principle where data are “fact’s and message’s”. [Another example could be list of foreign currencies

Therefore from my side I disagree to Davenport and Prusak (1998) concept of data “provides no judgement or interpretation” and “no sustainable basis of action”. This is because data does provide judgement and I can make an action on the data.

Second example I see for data would be in the first week of lecture workshop: an organisation was formed, 6 members merged where we did not know one another - we were one individual.

2.2. Information
Information to me means establishment of clarity for purpose which has been transformed from data. The extracted data has been transformed to be organised to enable something being told. This was also precedent by Peter Drucker who alleged to believe information is “data endowed with relevance and purpose” (cited in Davenport and Prusak, 1998, p.2).
This could be referred my experience of accounts reconciliation; the organised data allows the user to see the financial performance of an organisation, other area’s such as is the expenditure being controlled properly or what opportunities are available. [As for foreign currencies - the rates figure determines when to process - and remitt the currencies - when bank's buy the currencies back, they need to be processed on to the system. If processed at a later date (as values differ) this may either let them make money or lose money.

Again, linking into the second example above, the 6 individual's communicated with each other where we retrieved and extracted a summary of data amongst ourselves. This now gives understanding and picture -used as a resource. From this I have learnt information is seeking which helps one to shape their view ~ presenting the finds.

Hildebrand (1999) noted “having information at the right time at the right place” (cited in Malhotra, 2000, p.6). An example of experience through recent information is a pharmaceutical manufacturer discontinued a drug: 'procaine 2% injection' which in current work place: the hospital uses as local anaesthetic on patient's (BMA, 2005). I think I had a slight two day delay in receiving this information, but the sooner I knew, the more time I could act on and liaise with appropriate designated staff members.

Based on this information, the validity needed to be verified but also because this drug was no longer going to be available, this meant having to discuss the alternatives which could used as replacement but also taking into account the brands which specific patient’s can only use. To support my statement above, Nasa (2005) paper also exemplifies the same context – “to share and act upon information”.

In financial banking industry, information is vitally important. If wrong information is given out or used, the impact this could have on an organisation may possibly make them loose thousand’s of pounds. (I.e. one extra digit ‘0’ in 10,000 pulls significant value). My conception of information equals time and money. For instance, through observation of an experience there was a mis-interpretation of issues for information and time given from one end to another via communication of processing customer transaction.

This meant payment to another account was delayed which had a big knock on effect on the customer who lost vast sums of money. This issue relates to Kogiut & Zander (1992) because of the “know-how” and “knowing-that”, their view of efficiency (cited in Pettigrew, 2006, et al., p.143). Here the transmission of information to knowledge was lost. One who took the assumption of factual information can set bad image and experience for the customer who will move their money elsewhere, therefore for the organisation side - losing money.

3. What is Knowledge?
My perception of knowledge is generated through experience or learning that is captured, accumulated and memorised in a way someone understands something. This reiterated by Allee (1997) - “knowledge is experience that can be communicated or shared”. It is clear here that she radiates on sharing. One may obtain knowledge through trial and error which myself have experienced. Within the word knowledge there is 5 elements embedded: who? what? why? when? and how?, these are envisioned by Savage (1996).

Knowledge itself contains paramount value; it is like a series of ingredients where one feeds in information. Medication’s for example, when administered; it is absorbed to work for a purpose, similarly information fed in helps to create knowledge, this correlates to Blackler (1995).

In Nonaka and Teece (2001), their theory of knowledge is “justified true belief” with a strong emphasis on justification. However, Argyris defined “capacity for effective action”, there is an importance on action as described in earlier example of procaine injection. In contrast, Davenport and Prasak (1998) states “fluid mix of framed experience, values and contextual information” (cited in Liebowitz, 1999, p.8.4). Based on this, there is a judgemental which is applied to the minds of those.

In this example, it came to mind that knowledge could be visualised to a flight of escalators. Advameg (2007) prompted an escalator is "power-driven", knowledge stored in human minds can also be power-driven but only if one utilises this as guidance. From an organisation point of view, this will be valuable for them, for some - ‘profit’.

4. What Theorist’s say?
Wigg (2000) appears to mention only information and knowledge which he perpetuates upon the fundamental difference; he states that knowledge consists of facts. He expressed “the Internet... knowledge workers can access the latest information on advanced concepts”. This I have to disagree because it will depend on the type of work a knowledge worker performs, for example, my job role entails accessing the Internet to source information but I would not think to find a nurse on a ward browsing and accessing information on the Internet amongst patient care.

According to Malhotra (2000) classified that knowledge is created by combining data and information. This also proceeded by Tuomi (1999) – “data is more than knowledge”. From my perspective I agree to this with earlier reflection from the example of tube stations. However, on another scale I cannot approve whether Malhotra and Tuomi statement is valid because how can one determine that the leveraged data transformed to information can be used as knowledge or vice versa. This is because through analysing the context, one could relate on what the true morale such as “which came first the chicken or the egg?” (Wollard, 2003).

Teece (1998) empirical evidence appears to mention “information and knowledge” as proposition. Skyrme (2008) suggests only knowledge is the key resource to which it can be applied. Nonaka and Teece (2001), for instance focuses on human action only and state knowledge is justified by facts.

In conjunction with guru Aboubakr workshop on Thursday 29th January 2009, his position on KID was “who cares” but to my extent, I disagree because for one to come this far into pursuing onto phd must of required driven knowledge to construct a thesis further and challenging his way through master’s. Not only that, but with the motion thought of ‘who cares’ may apply in retail industry but surely will not work in the healthcare or financial industry as established early.

For example, having the need to know the requirements for a patient such as what medications are they are on, how long have they been taking this, what strength is it? Is the patient brand specific? (This is because not every medication will not work for every patient "due to the ingredients it is made up by" - It is like to say allergy reaction - peanuts or nuts) KID is very important because without knowing this, what happens if a patient is overdosed or underdosed? What happens if a drug is needed who is the first point of contact? I have come across members who relise they have booked a patient in to start chemotherapy on such and such day, but have not realised that they needed a specific type of medication.

Therefore, reinforcement of this, knowledge can be powerful because in agreeing with Ichijo and Nonaka (2007), knowledge appears “to be the critical factor” – organisation’s wants knowledgeable people. But these knowledgeable people as mentioned early will have experience of ‘knowledge’ through trial and error, this relates to Despres and Chauvel (1999) where they discussed the idea on self-correcting systems.

5. AnalysisBy compelling all these analysis together, from my perspective all 3 KID’s are contemplated to formulate the equation (below) regardless to make effective decision making in an organisation. As explained in my earlier example of drug discontinuation, without this information I would not have made another decision such as considering alternatives like lidocaine injection (BNF 55, 2008). I therefore construct this equation:

Data + Information + Knowledge = Judgement

If one of the above is missing, the equation will not work because the reasoning process to me will not be justifiable. To manage this knowledge and wisdom in the healthcare industry is extremely important, similarly, a prime example can be seen in Olla & Holm (2006) paper review but in a space industry context.

By analysing the above section, it clearly shows that knowledge is having to pass through to those that require the information, and without passing on information there is a blockage. The exchange of information - for example, we need this medication, "how long" does it take to come in, or what is the lead time? (2days, 2weeks, 3months?). what is the lifeline of the drug made today? I still do wonder sometimes why staff are inconsiderate: "I have a patient on the operating table, but we do not have this".... I cannot determine whether it is the knowledge planning, if they knew the patient was coming in so did not know they needed this and this...? inform? or is it a sign of not opening the channel of communication and letting other people know? or are they being difficult and not making things easy for other people? or is it a sign of bad practice? or is it: I do not like to 'approach' this person but I can to this other person but not passed on - is it because of the "who cares"? or is it a sign of not wanting to learn? or even is it just the culture?.... is this knowledge? thinking? what are your thoughts?..

As explained in the financial industry example, the fault there was shared across to the whole team members - this is like a learning lesson - but a lesson which is of value - because if it was not shared, this may possibly happen again. But sets a bad image to the organisation.

I also harmonise with Chase (1999), where he outlines “knowledge not being accessible”. Through previous experience, in the banking industry, a new entree is assigned to what is called buddy or mentor to overshadow what they are doing. However, if the buddy is absent, the trainee is unable to build knowledge further; this is avoided by allocating the person to someone else so that they can observe another way of how perform the task. This is what I perceive as tacit knowledge, because of this I deviate to Michael Polanyi subjective notion of skills being exercised without tacit knowledge (Day, 2005).

6. What is Knowledge Management (KM)?
In my context, whatever I aim to do in any tasks, I must need to understand what is required. Take for example, to create and build a website, this requires thoughts on: what is the website based on? What is the style? What colours to match? The theme and tone? How will the layout be arranged? All of these are what constitutes to KM for web design outlook: that is how to make a decision based on these different spheres. This corresponds to Binay (2001) where KM were to assist those answering “what and how questions” (cited in Coakes et al., 2001, p.18).

From my understanding of KM, there are different angles to obtain the philosophy truth. It is about making or producing actionable results which has been nourishly constructed by the human mind to enhance organisation performance as revealed previously (Jashapara, 2004).

By inducing ideas from this article and previous, and applying to Virtual Bubbles, there is a strong need for KM because of the various seekers who want to learn the very basic to highly advanced use of programmes. As seen in the earlier examples of the consequences and impact on or in organisation if not adhered to. Those with different levels of knowledge will have to be captured at the point of observation and see if this could be applied elsewhere. Lastly, there will also be the need to embed the knowledge into our service while in process.

In this sense, all three data, information and knowledge is heavily required. Reason is we need to know which members know what software and the experience levels. Then converting to information, this determines where the weakness lies and time frame schedules but also who do and do not have people or communication skills. These are what refrains or constitutes Virtual Bubbles from being successful.

7. Summary
Minuet information helps to build and characterise knowledge but not enough. Knowledge Management is like playing a game: Chinese whispers – how to maintain the glimpse of word or knowledge throughout. There will always be a war on the true context of data, information and knowledge, but in the end it is war for organisations to retain those knowledge.
We draw conclusion that knowledge management goes around a vicious circle which continuously seeks to obtain the reasoning process - this being difficult to articulate.

Referring back to the above web design example, in order for one to derive to a decision, this would of utilised information and knowledge so that there are justifiable reasons....
Do you agree with me or would you too like to argue your case?

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