Helpless KID: Uses of Terms in Knowledge Management

This article explains the meaning and uses of Data, Information and Knowledge (KID) within knowledge management.

According to Laudon and Laudon (2006), data is a stream of raw facts representing an event occurring in an organization which is, a meaningless and useless presentation of facts unless it undergoes some form of processing e.g. numbers in a cell of a spreadsheet means nothing until it has been processed or defined

Information on the other hand are these raw facts that has been given some meaning or has been processed. Information needs to be timely, meaningful and useful e.g. following the analogy above of numbers in a cell of a spreadsheed, it becomes information when the provider names the cell ‘Friday’s Team Attendance’ for instance. As Laudon and Laudon (2006) suggests “information is data that has been shaped into a form that is meaningful and useful to human beings”

An example of data and information in an organization setting given by Laudon is raw facts collected from a supermarket checkout e.g. 001 detergent 3.50 , processed and organised to produce meaningful information e.g. Item no = 001, Item = Detergent and 3.50 = unit price

Drucker (Unknown) defines knowledge as “information that changes something or somebody -- either by becoming grounds for actions, or by making an individual (or an institution) capable of different or more effective action."

If knowledge is processed data that has been given meaning that make it useful to human beings, then, knowledge, following Laudon’s example, would be to the sales team, knowing when to reorder stock levels of product in an organization.

Supporting my position on the relationship between Data, Information and Knowledge (KID) is Bellinger et al (2004), who suggests there is a linear relationship between data, information and knowledge. Without data information cannot exist and without information cannot exist either.’

Though, I agree with Bellinger et al (2004) that said the is one item that is required throughout the relationship between KID and that is understanding i.e. understanding is needed in data collection as to what data is required, it is also needed in order to transform date into information and the same is true for information to knowledge
However, having gone through lectures/seminars on KID, I have a differing opinion from Bellinger et al (2004) on the existence of a linear relationship between data, information and knowledge (KID). I still maintain there is a relationship between them but this could also be cyclic as data can create information and information, knowledge. From the knowledge created, a new set of data can come to light that needs transforming to additional knowledge. Another view exists that before one can determine the type of data to collect, one needs some information or indeed knowledge of some sort to be efective in the task of data collection. This may further reinforce the cyclic nature or relationship of KID.

Reference:

Bellinger, G., Castro, D., Mills A., (2004). Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom. Systems Thinking

Laudon, K., Laudon, J. (2006) Management Information Systems: Manging the Digital Firm (10th Edition) p14

Drucker, P. (Unknown).Knowledge. The New Realities [online, http://www.skagitwatershed.org/~donclark/knowledge/knowledge.html Accessed on 11 February 2009