Taxonomy Identification, Study, and Use
KM Systems – Spring 2013
Task: Within an industry or subject field, find a taxonomy that you might employ with a KM effort in an organization within that industry/field. Tell me how you found the taxonomy/thesaurus and the features you think that make it a good choice. Identify (at least) one aspect that you might change.
I chose to think about a Medical Device firm and looked for a taxonomy that might be employed. Using Google Scholar I found an article published in the Journal of Knowledge Management Practice called “Using A Taxonomy for Knowledge Audits: Some Field Experiences”. This article was written by Ravi S. Sharma, Melvyn Chia, Vironica Choo, Eyosore Samuel and in it they show a tabulated Knowledge Taxonomy that was created during the course of their research.
http://www.tlainc.com/articl214.htm
In this taxonomy, I like how the knowledge is broken down into three levels, Core, Advanced, and Innovative with the primary knowledge users/creators listed for each area. In addition, I thought it did a good job in separating all of the players and components of knowledge for the organization with a breakdown of where it fit within the organization (structural, human, and relational). With this framework, it would be easier for effective KM systems to be developed that served the diverse users of the firm’s created/stored knowledge.
On the negative side, I think the taxonomy is lacking in identifying how the organization captures, transfers, and re-uses its knowledge in support of the critical business processes. Another area for potential improvement would be a better mapping of the knowledge ties and relationships between all of these knowledge users/components. Having this might better allow the company to see knowledge relationships that could enhance the business but don’t have any current toolsets or methods identified to support that relationship.
Task: Within an industry or subject field, find a taxonomy that you might employ with a KM effort in an organization within that industry/field. Tell me how you found the taxonomy/thesaurus and the features you think that make it a good choice. Identify (at least) one aspect that you might change.
I chose to think about a Medical Device firm and looked for a taxonomy that might be employed. Using Google Scholar I found an article published in the Journal of Knowledge Management Practice called “Using A Taxonomy for Knowledge Audits: Some Field Experiences”. This article was written by Ravi S. Sharma, Melvyn Chia, Vironica Choo, Eyosore Samuel and in it they show a tabulated Knowledge Taxonomy that was created during the course of their research.
http://www.tlainc.com/articl214.htm
In this taxonomy, I like how the knowledge is broken down into three levels, Core, Advanced, and Innovative with the primary knowledge users/creators listed for each area. In addition, I thought it did a good job in separating all of the players and components of knowledge for the organization with a breakdown of where it fit within the organization (structural, human, and relational). With this framework, it would be easier for effective KM systems to be developed that served the diverse users of the firm’s created/stored knowledge.
On the negative side, I think the taxonomy is lacking in identifying how the organization captures, transfers, and re-uses its knowledge in support of the critical business processes. Another area for potential improvement would be a better mapping of the knowledge ties and relationships between all of these knowledge users/components. Having this might better allow the company to see knowledge relationships that could enhance the business but don’t have any current toolsets or methods identified to support that relationship.