11-3. What Are The Major Types of Knowledge Work Systems, and How They Provides Value For Firms?

 Locating and Sharing Expertise
Some of the knowledge businesses need is not in the form of a digital document but
instead resides in the memory of individual experts in the firm. Contemporary enterprise
content management systems, along with the systems for collaboration and social business
introduced in Chapter 2, have capabilities for locating experts and tapping their knowledge.
These include online directories of corporate experts and their profiles with details about
their job
experience, projects, publications, and educational degrees, and repositories of
expert-generated content. Specialized search tools make it easier for employees
to find the appropriate expert in a company. For knowledge resources outside
the firm, social networking and social business tools enable users to bookmark
web pages of interest, tag these bookmarks with keywords, and share the tags
and web page links with other people.
 Learning Management Systems

Companies need ways to keep track of and manage employee learning and
to integrate it more fully into their knowledge management and other corporate systems. A
learning management system (LMS) provides tools for the
management, delivery, tracking, and assessment of various types of employee
learning and training. Contemporary LMS support multiple modes of learning, including
streaming videos, webinar classes, live instruction in classes or online, and group
learning in online forums and chat sessions. The LMS consolidates mixedmedia training,
automates the selection and administration of courses, assembles and delivers learning
content, and measures learning effectiveness.
Businesses run their own learning management systems, but they are also
turning to publicly available massive open online courses (MOOCs) to educate their
employees. A MOOC is an online course made available via the web
to very large numbers of participants. Companies view MOOCs as a new way
to design and deliver online learning where learners can collaborate with each
other, watch short videos, and participate in threaded discussion groups.
11-3. What are the Major types of Knowledge work systems, and how they provides value
for Firms?
 Knowledge Workers & Knowledge Work
Knowledge workers, include researchers, designers, architects, scientists, and engineers
who primarily create knowledge and information for the organization. Knowledge workers
usually have high levels of education and memberships in professional organizations and are
often asked to exercise independent judgment as a routine aspect of their work. Knowledge
workers perform three key roles that are critical to the organization and to the managers
who work within the organization:
1. Keeping the organization current in knowledge as it develops in the external
world—in technology, science, social thought, and the arts
2. Serving as internal consultants regarding the areas of their knowledge, the
changes taking place, and opportunities
3. Acting as change agents, evaluating, initiating, and promoting change
projects
 Requirements of Knowledge Work System
Most knowledge workers rely on office systems, such as word processors, voice mail, e-
mail, videoconferencing, and scheduling systems, which are designed to increase worker
productivity in the office. However, knowledge workers also require highly specialized
knowledge work systems with powerful graphics, analytical tools, and communications and
document management capabilities.
These systems require sufficient computing power to handle the sophisticated graphics
or complex calculations necessary for such knowledge workers as scientific researchers,
product designers, and financial analysts. Because knowledge workers are so focused on
knowledge in the external world, these systems also must give the worker quick and easy
access to external databases. They typically feature user-friendly interfaces that enable
users to perform needed tasks without having to spend a great deal of time learning how to
use the system. Knowledge workers are highly paid—wasting a knowledge worker’s time is
simply too expensive.
 Example of Knowledge Work Systems

Computer-aided design (CAD) automates the creation and revision of designs, using
computers and sophisticated graphics software. Using a more traditional physical design
methodology, each design modification requires a mold to be made and a prototype to
be tested physically. The ability of CAD software to provide design specifications for the
tooling and manufacturing processes also saves a great deal of time and money while
producing a manufacturing process with far fewer problems. CAD systems are able to supply
data for 3-D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, which uses machines to make
solid objects, layer by layer, from specifications in a digital file.
Virtual reality (VR) systems have visualization, rendering, and simulation capabilities that
go far beyond those of conventional CAD systems. They use interactive graphics software to
create computer-generated simulations that are so close to reality that users almost believe
they are participating in a real-world situation.
Augmented reality (AR) is a related technology for enhancing visualization. AR provides a
live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are
augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery. The user is grounded in the real physical
world, and the virtual images are merged with the real view to create the augmented
display.
Virtual reality applications developed for the web use a standard called Virtual Reality
Modeling Language (VRML). VRML is a set of specifications for interactive, 3-D modeling on
the web that can organize multiple media types, including animation, images, and audio to
put users in a simulated realworld environment. VRML is platform independent, operates
over a desktop computer, and requires little bandwidth.
11-4. What are the Benefits of using Intelligent Techniques for Knowledge Management?
 Capturing Knowledge : Expert Systems
Expert systems are an intelligent technique for capturing tacit knowledge in a very
specific and limited domain of human expertise. These systems capture the knowledge of
skilled employees in the form of a set of rules in a software system that can be used by
others in the organization. The set of rules in the expert system adds to the memory, or
stored learning, of the firm. Expert systems lack the breadth of knowledge and the
understanding of fundamental principles of a human expert. They typically perform very
limited tasks that can be performed by professionals in a few minutes or hours, such as
diagnosing a malfunctioning machine or determining whether to grant credit for a loan.
1. How Expert Systems Works

Human knowledge must be modeled or represented in a way that a computer
can process. Expert systems model human knowledge as a set of rules that
collectively are called the knowledge base. The rules are obtained by carefully
interviewing one or several “experts” who have a thorough command of
the knowledge base for the system or by documenting business rules found in
manuals, books, or reports. The strategy used to search through the knowledge base
is called the inference engine. Two strategies are commonly used are:
Forward chaining, the inference engine begins with the information
entered by the user and searches the rule base to arrive at a conclusion. The
strategy is to fire, or carry out, the action of the rule when a condition is true.
Backward chaining, the strategy for searching the rule base starts
with a hypothesis and proceeds by asking the user questions about selected
facts until the hypothesis is either confirmed or disproved

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 Locating and Sharing Expertise

 Learning Management Systems

 Example of Knowledge Work Systems

1. How Expert Systems Works

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