It is quite difficult to define the knowledge management unless we don't have a strong idea of what is the knowledge is. Before defining the knowledge management needs to effectively define the term knowledge first, that we will discuss later. But first we can define knowledge management as an activity which has two basic objectives in a business. The first objective is to collect the knowledge that is important for the business and has direct concerns with the business strategy, policy and practice of an organization at all levels. The second objective of the knowledge management s to map the intellectual assets of the organization, making these vast amounts of corporate information accessible and sharing the best practices through the technology that enables above function including intranet and groupware.

Role of knowledge management in the business

Knowledge management has an important role in maintaining a successful business process. If you study you will observe that there is a sound connection between management strategies, practices and business issues with the knowledge management. Knowledge management also affects the different areas of a business including; Change management, Best practices, Risk management, Benchmarking Most of the experts in business class and corporate level view knowledge management as business process reengineering. In the most of the researches in the recent past about business strategies has acknowledged that that information and knowledge are business assets, and that businesses need policies and tools to manage those assets.

Need for the Knowledge Management

There is a lot of debate on the issue that why an organization needs knowledge management. There are plenty of opinions about the methods, paths and objectives of knowledge management systems. Most of the time, need for knowledge management is focused on enhancing creativity and creating new knowledge value — while other programs emphasize leveraging existing knowledge.

There is an increasing understanding that intellectual capital is important for the growth of the organizations and discussion about intellectual capital has proliferated all over the world but few businesses has acted on this understanding. Where companies have take action — and a growing number are doing so — implementations of "knowledge management" may range from technology-driven methods of accessing, controlling, and delivering information to massive efforts to change corporate culture.

What is the real knowledge?

Most of the time the terms information and knowledge are often used interchangeably by business writers. Let's choose a simple definition and get on with it: Knowledge has two basic definitions of interest. The first pertains to a defined body of information. Depending on the definition, the body of information might consist of facts, opinions, ideas, theories, principles, and models (or other frameworks). Clearly, other categories are possible, too. Subject matter (e.g., chemistry, mathematics, etc.) is just one possibility. Knowledge also refers to a person's state of being with respect to some body of information. These states include ignorance, awareness, familiarity, understanding, facility, and so on. In traditional perceptions of the role of knowledge in business organizations, tacit knowledge is often viewed as the real key to getting things done and creating new value. Not explicit knowledge. Thus we often encounter an emphasis on the "learning organization" and other approaches that stress internalization of information (through experience and action) and generation of new knowledge through managed interaction.