Where Can We Find Knowledge?

Knowledge can be found in many different locations or repositories. They include people, including individuals and groups; artifacts, including practices, technologies, and repositories; and organizational entities, including organizational units, organizations, and interorganizational networks (Becerra-Fernandez and Rajiv Sabherwal, 2015).

KNOWLEDGE IN PEOPLE

A substantial element of knowledge is stored in people. It could be stored either at the individual level or within a group or a collection of people (Felin and Hesterly 2007). KM is embedded in working processes and practiced by each individual at different organizational levels, spanning from the senior‐most to junior‐most personnel.

KNOWLEDGE IN ARTIFACTS

A knowledge artifact is a physical manifestation of knowledge. Where knowledge can reside in a person's mind it can also be recorded and managed as an artifact. These are the basic entities of knowledge management such that any tangible recording of knowledge can be considered an artifact.

KNOWLEDGE IN ORGANIZATIONAL ENTITIES

Organizational entities also store knowledge. They can be considered at three levels (Becerra-Fernandez and Rajiv Sabherwal, 2015).

1. Organizational unit (parts of the organization): such as a department or an office, knowledge is stored partly in the relationships among the members of the units

2. Organization: An organization like a firm or a business unit likewise stores specific knowledge, particularly contextually specific knowledge.

3. Interorganizational relationships: Interorganizational relationships deal with KM projects developed within the firm in order to formalize, store, exchange, and share or create new internal knowledge. This involves going beyond the organizational boundary to extend networks to include business partners and, in turn, to improve performance.

KNOWLEDGE IN COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

Communities of Practice are peer networks of practitioners within an organization, who help each other perform better by sharing their knowledge. For example, a Community of Practice might be set up for electrical engineers, so that engineers can raise issues and problems, and see if anyone in the community can provide insights and suggest solutions. Many of the larger organisations have set up dozens of communities of practice, some of which may have over a thousand members.