Defining Knowledge Management

Knowledge management can be described many ways, but the definition that seems best suited to FHWA is “the process of capturing and sharing a community’s collective expertise to fulfill its mission.” Knowledge management takes advantage of an organization’s most valuable asset — the collective expertise of its employees and partners.

Knowledge management acts something like a library in that it provides a repository for written information on a given subject, but it also tries to make available to the organization as a whole the knowledge that is in people’s heads. This knowledge may be the most valuable of all because it is put in context and it is frequently more extensive and up-to-date and, therefore, more useful for decision-making. In short, knowledge management helps ensure that the right information gets to the right people at the right time to make the right decisions.