Knowledge and Information Management

This report examines the concept of knowledge management and its importance in the context of organizational assets, using EA Games as a case study. It analyzes the relationship between data, information, and knowledge, the role of individual and organizational knowledge, and the key knowledge management processes required for organizational development. The report also develops a framework for establishing a knowledge management culture and analyzes the contribution of knowledge assets to organizational success.

Knowledge and Information
Management Skills for the
Workplace

Table of Contents
..........................................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
TASK1.............................................................................................................................................4
A. Relationship between data, information and knowledge...................................................4
B. Relationship between individual knowledge and organisational knowledge....................5
C. Analysis and modelling techniques to identify knowledge assets.....................................6
D. Actual and potential knowledge assets..............................................................................7
TASK2.............................................................................................................................................9
A. Requirements to create, store, apply and integrate knowledge.........................................9
B. Importance of intellectual property rights.......................................................................10
TASK3...........................................................................................................................................11
A. Contribution of knowledge assets on organisation..........................................................11
B. Knowledge requirements for the organisation.................................................................12
C. Organisations framework for enabling knowledge sharing.............................................13
D. Improvements to the current framework.........................................................................15
CONCLUSION ...........................................................................................................................16
REFRENCES.................................................................................................................................17

INTRODUCTION
Knowledge management is the process of sharing, creating, using and managing the
knowledge and information of an organisation. Managers have long discovered that information
is the most important asset of the company. Organisation undertaken in this report is EA Games
which is a video game industry founded in 1982 by Trip Hawkins in US and provides products
and services of various games like Battlefield series, NHL series, etc. This report will provide
evaluation of concept and importance of knowledge management in context with organisations
assets. It will determine the key knowledge management process required for organisational
development. And later part of the report will develop the framework for establishing a
knowledge management culture and its contribution on organisation.
TASK1
A. Relationship between data, information and knowledge.
In the information era, knowing the suitable words as data, information and knowledge
are crucial that will help in better understanding the business world (Alexander, 2013). These
three terms are different but yet related to each other. EA Games will understand these terms as
follows :-
 Data: Data is the aggregation of objects, facts or events. It has no reference to space or
time. It is also refereed to as unprocessed information.
 Information: The processed data is referred to as information. The process give meaning
to raw data. From collected data, EA Games can derive meaningful information or
conclusions.
 Knowledge: Knowledge is the result of learning. It is the internationalisation of
information and data. This is the level that permits the use of generic law rather then
collection of information.
Data, information and knowledge are inter related to each other and their functional
relationship can be explained with a DIKW model. EA Games uses DIKW model for better
understanding of the relationship between these three terms.
DIKW Model
DIKW model or pyramid refers to the class of models for representing the relationship
between data, information, knowledge and wisdom. In this model, information is defined in

terms of data, knowledge is defined in terms of information and wisdom is defined in terms of
knowledge. This process transforms the data into wisdom from two different angles that is
context and understanding. In context, one moves from gathering data, then information, leading
to formation of a knowledge and connecting all the terms that is wisdom. In understanding
concept, the model process starts with research, absorbing, doing, interacting and reflecting (The
DIKW model. 2019).
 Data : It is the first step and includes many things and there is no inter relationship at this
stage. When data will be transformed in relevant facts using DIKW hierarchy then it will
reach to one step ahead.
 Information: Data is processed in the information stage. Relationship in the data is
discovered and investigation is done to find accurate answers in the DIKW model.
 Knowledge: This is third step in the process and it answers the questions of specific
measures and information identifies in the above stages. By this, information is converted
into knowledge in DIKW model.
 Wisdom: At this stage, knowledge found in the previous step is applied and
implemented. This is the highest level in the DIKW hierarchy.
Source : DIKW Hierarchy.2019.
B. Relationship between individual knowledge and organisational knowledge.
In present business environment, knowledge has become a key resource. Knowledge
activities are difficult to manage and control because only a part of knowledge is internalised by
organisation while the other part is internalised by individuals. Organisational knowledge is a
Illustration 1: DIKW Hierarchy

type of organization assets to which no worth can be titled (Dalkir, 2013). It is a management
idea, describing an organisation in which people use systems and processes to generate,
transform, manage, use and transfer knowledge based products and services to accomplish
organisational objectives. Whereas, individual knowledge is the aggregation of processes that a
person uses to gather, categorize, store, investigate, regain and share knowledge in their day-to-
day actions. It is a outcome to the idea that knowledge workers need to be accountable for their
own growth and development.
There is a strong relationship between individual and organisational knowledge in EA
Games organisation (Eraut, 2012). As the organisation produces games, they cannot work
without the knowledge of individual. Organisation learns from its individual members and are
affected by individuals either directly or indirectly. The primary rationale of implications of
training and learning activities in organisation is improving organisational performance based on
transferring the knowledge of individuals learned at workplace. An organisation runs with
people's efforts and knowledge and those combination of different people's knowledge in an
organisation results in organisations knowledge. Individuals of EA Games with their knowledge
can innovate the new products and games which will help them attain organisation goals and
company with their knowledge will set strategies and methods to accomplish those innovative
methods and implement them to create a link between individual knowledge with organisations
knowledge.
C. Analysis and modelling techniques to identify knowledge assets.
Knowledge assets are the knowledge in respect of markets, products, technologies and
organisations that a business owns or needs to own and modify its process to generate profits,
add economic value, etc.
KADS Model
KADS is a modelling technique which are used to provide support for high level analysis
and design including knowledge acquisitions. The methodology itself is describes life cycle
model, model of expertise, etc. It also provides methods to perform detailed analysis of
knowledge intensive task and processes (Evans, 2012). It is very useful and crucial technique for
EA Games organisation as this can be used by :-
 Software engineers : Those engineers who are in business of building knowledge
intensive IT systems that needs to satisfy the customer demands.

 Knowledge managers : For them, it offers methods to develop course grained
description of knowledge intensive task within the overall business process as well as
techniques for detailed knowledge analysis, development and storage.
SDCL Model
SDLC model is the another technique which stands for system development life cycle
technique used in system engineering, information system and software engineering which
describes the process of planning, creating, testing and spread an information system (Galliers
and Leidner, 2014). It provides series of step to develop and design software product which is
beneficial for EA Games organisation and it includes activities like communication, requirement
gathering, feasibility study, system analysis, software design, coding, testing, integration,
implementation, operations and management and disposition.
Waterfall model
This model assumes that everything is carried out and taken place perfectly as planned in
the previous stage and it does not consider the past issues that may arise in future phase
(Holtshouse, 2013). This model don't permit to go back to the previous stage and is best suited
when developers have already designed such models.
D. Actual and potential knowledge assets.
Knowledge assets are the basis of creating knowledge resources in the organisation. They
are of four types and are discussed below :-
 Experiential knowledge assets :- They are the ones that are earned through mutual
hands on experiences between the members and the organisations. For example : skills,
trust, love, care, facial expressions, etc.
 Routine knowledge assets :- They are those assets that have become routine and
reflected in the actions and practices of the organisations. For example : know how,
culture, way of performing, etc.
 Conceptual knowledge assets :- They are explicit in nature and are transmitted through
images, symbols and languages. Example: brand equity, concept designs, etc.
 Systematic knowledge assets :- They are type of explicit knowledge which are
systematised and arranged and includes technologies, documentation, manuals, etc.
Actual knowledge assets are those which company already has which are essential for its
efficient working and sustainability (Jones and Sallis, 2013). Potential knowledge assets are

those which organisation is capable of attaining in future for its long term growth and
productivity. EA Games, actual and potential assets are discussed below :-
Actual knowledge assets
As one of the leading companies in its industry, EA Games has various assets that drive
them to thrive in the market place and they are:-
 Strong dealer community : It has built a culture among distributor and dealer where the
dealers not only promote companies product but also invest in training the sales which
increase the knowledge power of sales team and helps them to make understand the
customer about the benefits of the products.
 Innovation: Successful track of developing new products and services through
continuous innovation.
 Skilled workforce : High skilled workforce through successful training and learning
programs. EA is investing huge resources in developing and training its employees.
Potential knowledge assets
As EA Games is one of the biggest organisation in developing video games, it has
various opportunities or potential which it can attain in future and they are :-
 Increase profitability through knowledge : New taxation policy can significantly
impact the way of doing business and will open new opportunities for established player
like EA Games to increase its profitability.
 New customers from online channel : As company has spent big amount of money over
the past years into online platform (Knight and Howes, 2012). This investment will open
new sales channels for EA. In next few years, with knowledge, company can serve better
to its customers using big data analytics.
 Training tools : It can provide products with a line of training tools featuring voice
commands and instructional coaching.
TASK2
A. Requirements to create, store, apply and integrate knowledge.
The goal of knowledge management process is to capture and utilise knowledge
resources and best practices which are great assets for an organisation, to gain a competitive
advantage (Laudon and Laudon, 2016). Managing the flow among individuals within a

organisation can result in increased productivity, manufacturing efficiency and innovative
thinking that can improve organisational practices and lead to a higher level of performance.
Following is the knowledge management process discussed :-
 Discovery: The first step in the process of knowledge management is to determine how
knowledge in the organisation will be discovered (Allee, 2012). There are multiple
sources of relevant data that business have access to, so this step requires an in depth
understanding of the flow of knowledge within an organisation. EA Games organisation
will undergo this step by identifying current knowledge present in the organisation,
interviewing individuals and groups within an organisation, hiring new talents or
consultants, utilising intelligence gatherings, etc.
 Capture: Capturing refers to the structure in which established and new organisational
knowledge will be stored. This step is beneficial for organisation by increasing
organisation structure of the management process. The vast amount of important
business information needs to be categorised. Digital storage is a useful aid for EA
Games organisation as it helps in classifying valuable information, etc.
 Process: Once knowledge has been discovered and captured, it will then be processed. At
this point, EA Games have acquired the information and data which makes the company
knowledge relevant (National Research Council, 2013). Additional analysis,
reorganisation and assessments will be required. This will also establish the culture of
knowledge and developing individuals and teams who will be responsible for making
greatest improvements and innovations in the organisation.
 Share and benefit: Sharing knowledge with individuals within an organisation is the
main reason for adopting knowledge management strategies. It is essential to define that
who will be benefited from the organisations knowledge available and then look for the
ways for individuals to grab it quickly and easily. Managers of EA Games will want
people to participate in training programs to learn how to apply knowledge to business
practices and to understand their benefits.
Requirements to create, store, apply and integrate knowledge are discussed below:-
 Creating knowledge base :- The power to create knowledge is frequently at the internal
organ of the organisation's competitive advantage. It is a continuous transfer,
combination and conversion of different types of knowledge. It is created through

practice, collaboration, interaction and education as various types of knowledge are
shared and converted. It is supported by relevant data and information which is helpful in
taking decisions and serve as building blocks in creation of knowledge.
 Storing knowledge :- Storing knowledge is very crucial in business organisation as it
results in faster accessibility, availability and is easier to operate and maintain. It can be
stored in file system storage, databases, E-mail, websites, etc.
 Applying knowledge :- For applying knowledge in a EA Games, adequate skills and
knowledge will be required to facilitate communication and operations in an organisation.
 Integrate knowledge :- It is the task on identifying the interactions between new and
prior knowledge while incorporating new information. Its requirements includes
formalised knowledge integration as a machine task, developing computational model
and implementing the model as a machine learning program.
B. Importance of intellectual property rights.
Intellectual property is a generic term for the set of intangible assets owned and legally
protected by a company from external use or execution without consent (Pugh, 2016). EA
games organisation by owning intellectual property can realise its worth in numerous ways like
its utilisation internally, for its own processes, provision of products and services to customers,
sharing it with external sources, etc. There are various types of Intellectual property like trade
mark, copyrights, patent protection, etc. They are very crucial element and are accepted by all
over all the world. Importance of intellectual property rights are discussed below :-
 Provides incentives to the individual for new creations.
 Set business differently from competitors.
 Can be used as security of loans.
 Ensures economic growth and advancement in technology sector protection of
intellectual property is important.
 Offers customers something unique and different.
 Ensures accessibility of authentic and original products.

TASK3
A. Contribution of knowledge assets on organisation.
As rising global information society with global efficiency that progressively depends on
creation, management and distribution of information resources over inter connected global
networks like Internet (Robles, 2012). The superior influence on organisation execution is
exercised by the organisation culture with all its components. It ensures success and long term
development of organisations. It has influences on many components like mission and
objectives, policies and procedures, decision making, communication process, etc. For creating a
culture of knowledge in an organisation, it will aim at the following points :-
 Ensures communication process at organisation levels.
 Motivation and reward systems for employees.
 Training and development programs for continuous improvement of employees.
 The system of values promoted at organisation, etc.
Knowledge assets are beneficial for the EA Games as they contribute in accomplishing
organisational goals and objectives in many ways which are discussed below :-
 Enhances strategic decision making :- It enhances the process of decision making in the
organisation and with knowledge assets, EA Games will take improved and better
decisions for growth and development.
 Better information policy:- It helps in making better policies and programs for EA
Games.
 Cost effective services:- This is helpful in providing services which minimises cost and
increases efficiency.
 Helpful in making various innovations:- Availability of knowledge and its uses is
important in innovations and development.
 Reduced redundancy :- It is helpful in minimising repetition of routine task in day to
day operations.
 Better quality of information and services provided.
 Improves profitability:- It is useful in increasing financial position of the company.
 Better communication:- It is useful in flow of communication between different
departments of the organisation.

 Conflict Resolution:- Minimises conflicts within the organisation by coordination the
policies and programs.
 Manages information risk:- This protects the organisation from risk and provide it with
confidence that the technology and information it uses is secure enough to meet its
needs.
B. Knowledge requirements for the organisation.
Knowledge is recognised as the most important strategic asset of the organisation.
Successful knowledge management requires programs more then just technology (Schwalbe,
2015). As knowledge is the facts, information, skills which are acquired through experience or
education. For EA Games, it requires various practices which are needed to be followed for
efficient and smooth working and they are :-
Establishing knowledge management program objectives:- Before selecting any tool,
defining process and developing workflow, proper establishment of organisations objectives will
be made (Secker and Coonan, 2012). For this purpose, identification and documentation of
business problems will be done that needs resolution.
 Preparation for change :- Knowledge is more then just an application of technology. It
includes cultural changes in the employees perception and share knowledge developed
by them. Implementation of knowledge program in EA Games may require changes
within the organisation norms and policies and some people may resist change so for this
purpose organisation will established approach that will help in managing cultural
change.
 Define high level process:- To facilitate effective management for organisation
knowledge assets, organisation will lay out the process and instructions which will have
high level of knowledge management and will recognise the full potential for
accomplishing goals and objectives.
 Determine and prioritise technology :- Technology will be determined and prioritised
by considering the program objectives and process controls criteria (Sokoloff, 2012). It
is imperative to understand cost and benefit of each type of technology. Organisation
before purchasing new technology will determine that whether the existing technology
can fulfil the needs.

 Interpersonal and communication skills :- It includes the ability to express the ideas as
well as listen effectively through oral, visual and written communication. With
globalised economy, they have become necessity. It is required to communicate with
clients, collogues and subordinates.
 Training and development opportunities :- It is important for EA Games to create an
environment which will help individual to learn and grow. They have a LEAP that is
learning, engagement and performance team which provides training and development
programs. They assure that people across the business get the opportunity to access
training courses in a range of areas.
 Skills and knowledge :- As EA Games, makes video games and for this purpose they
require various skills in employees specially those who will be engaged in developing
software (Wiig, 2012). They must have skills and knowledges like c++, java, HTML,
Hive, etc.
C. Organisations framework for enabling knowledge sharing.
Knowledge sharing is the most important element as major functioning of knowledge
management depends on it. It is deliberate exchange of information that helps with gracefulness
and development (Martina, Hana and Jiri, 2012). It is the act of exchanging information between
individuals, team, organisations. EA Games enables knowledge sharing of various types which
are discussed below:-
Explicit knowledge sharing:- This kind of knowledge is based on procedures and
documents. EA Games, with use of IT, will share knowledge at various stages. This kind of
knowledge is useful to organisation in sharing information which can be used to :-
 Import and create documents and multimedia materials.
 Track and manage multiple versions of content.
 Useful in defining workflow tasks.
 Helpful in identifying key users and their roles and responsibilities, etc.
It is also useful in sharing content management information and text mining. Content
management systems are useful in updating, distributing and managing data. They use numerous
indexing, searching and retrieval mechanisms to facilitate explicit knowledge sharing.
Tacit knowledge sharing :- This kind of knowledge is based on intuitions and
experiences. It requires socialisation for sharing knowledge (Cardy and Leonard, 2014). It can

be done through informal networks, creating talk rooms, etc. It focuses on people in the
organisation. In EA Games, IT systems are most important as they support interaction between
people that are at some other location with different time zones.
In other words, knowledge sharing is the most important element for every organisation.
It provides various benefits to the organisation which are useful or effective and efficient
functioning of the organisation. EA Games will use knowledge sharing because of following
points discussed below :-
 Problem solving experiences: By sharing knowledge in the organisation improves
communication among employees. This improves the relationship of the people within an
organisation by sharing and managing information and knowledge and this helps in
solving numerous problems and also minimises chances of conflict.
 Quick decision making : Using knowledge again and again allows people to take
decisions quickly and efficiently (Flynn and et. al., 2013). This is useful in identifying
what organisation and people need and leads to better decision making.
 Stimulate innovation and growth : By managing and sharing knowledge properly,
employees gain access to valuable information and deliver better results which stimulates
innovation and development.
 Reduces the loss of know how : Know how is another crucial factor in every
organisation and it will be exploited and managed properly. Through knowledge sharing,
EA Games can capture explicit and tacit knowledge and minimises loss.
D. Improvements to the current framework.
Current framework of the EA Games organisation can be improved which will help them
in attaining the organisations objectives and goals smoothly and efficiently. For this purpose
following recommendations are made and they are discussed below :-
 Development of search instrument :- If search instrument of the EA Games will be
developed properly, then it will have the potential to bring knowledge that employees
might not be aware of. Knowledge management system of the organisation will need to
have search field that is comprehensive and predictive and at the same time it will be easy
to use and understand.
 Easy to navigate :- Knowledge management system will offer straight forward and
browser based URL which will be easier to organise, accurate and share information.

 Invest in analytics :- Analytics are the only thing in which organisation will invest for
knowledge management system (Valio Dominguez Gonzalez and Fernando Martins
2014). As, KMS is totally dependent on people contributions, dashboard based analytics
will make KMS easier to use and will also make content organisation easier.
 Participation :- Company broad webinars and events could be very helpful here in terms
of initiation the whole cultural shift in attitudes towards knowledge management.
Gamified aspects can be built into KMS to reward top contributors etc. but in the short
term, offering prizes and making knowledge management part of performance
expectations will be essential in state to modify people towards devising endeavour on a
day-to-day basis.
 Analysing external factors :- EA Games will do thorough study on external factors
which includes political, economic, social, technological, legal forces and can affect the
organisation as these factors are outside the control of the business. Organisation can
frame policies which will help in analysing these factors and provide sustainability.
 SWOT analysis :- Organisation will do SWOT or environmental scanning which is
useful in determining the strength, weakness, opportunities and threat. By analysing this,
they can grab the new opportunities and overcome with the threat.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that knowledge is very important aspect in
every organisation. It is useful in managing information and knowledge within an organisation.
In this report, explanation of importance of knowledge management in terms of knowledge
assets is discussed. There is a proper process of knowledge management which is discussed for
effective implementation and execution of various policies and programs. Organisation culture is
very important at the workplace. This report developed the understanding of workplace culture in
order to improve one's ability to function and work within the organisation norms and policies.
Later part of the report has evaluated the various recommendations which organisation can adopt
to function more smoothly and efficiently.

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Online
The DIKW model. 2019. [Online] Available through <https://www.i-scoop.eu/big-data-action-
value-context/dikw-model/>