Knowledge mapping

A knowledge map belongs to the field of knowledge management. A knowledge map gives a schematic overview of the knowledge and skills of the employees in a company or organisation.

Knowledge maps are used to map the available knowledge in an organisation or company. They give information about the location of knowledge (which may be an artifact such as a database, a person or community). Knowledge maps do not necessarily contain material from the knowledge and information base of the organisation itself; rather they contain the meta knowledge about the knowledge base.

Related Types

An Inventory Map shows where and how specific information is stored. The goal is to allow users to readily access material in a simple way.
Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are developed to show information in a geographical context.
Another possibility to show information is a Knowledge Matrix. Depending on the question, it is possible to span the knowledge between two dimensions. The use of “leading differences” (internal/external, new/available, tacit/explicit …) opens different perspectives to the organisational knowledge base and shows trends more clearly.

Requirements

Knowledge is dynamic. Thus, knowledge require regular maintenance. This may require employees to describe their documents with metadata (author, keywords…). Such systems are highly dependent on the willingness of employees to maintain them.

Advantages

There are several benefits for a company to use knowledge maps: It grants a high transparency of the knowledge concerning the following questions

Who has the knowledge?
Where does the knowledge reside?
In which form is the knowledge available?
How much knowledge is available for a specific field?

Points of criticism

Visibility of who knows what can create issues of power and accountability.
Knowledge maps have to be up-to-date.
There may be substantial issues or privacy
Knowledge maps require regular updates and the cost may be too high
There is a high dependence on people being prepared to maintain the system
There may be concern as to job loss or reallocation when a map is created
If a classification approach is adopted then a formal taxonomy is required.

Related fields

References

Böhmann, T. / Krcmar, H.: Werkzeuge für das Wissensmanagement, Report Wissensmanagement, Symposion Publishing, Düsseldorf 1999, p. 82-91
Reinmann-Rothmeier, Mandl, Erlach, Neubauer: Wissensmanagement lernen, Beltz Verlag, Weinheim und Basel 2001, ISBN 3407363761
Wissenskapital, Studienarbeit von Tobias Mueller, Sven Szigeti – HdM Stuttgart