Stock and Flow in Knowledge Management

The concepts of stock and flow are often used when dealing with knowledge management. The stock of knowledge would be the level of knowledge of one employee (or even a whole organization) and the flow of knowledge would indicate the amount of knowledge that is transferred between people; the usage of the knowledge in organizing activities.
These concepts -- of stock and flow -- help to give insight on the matter, because they are already common to us because of other areas where the same concepts are used. And we have learned them at school.

Basic electronics is about a current that flows through an electric circuit. This flow is tempered by a certain resistance. And for a certain amplitude of the current -- given the resistance in the network you need provisioning power: the voltage. The resistor absorbs the current and for the same kind of current given the resistance you need more power. The flow (current) and the resistance (stock) operate in a reciprocal proportional way.

The stock and flow concept also is a valid way to analyze economic systems. In economics the flow of money is the (circulation) velocity of money. The Quantity theory of money states that this velocity of money is defined as the ratio of net national product in current prices to the money stock. Or V = (P * Q) / M. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantity_theory_of_money)

In this case the causal relation between stock and flow are less transparent as in electronics.

In knowledge management the relation is perhaps even less transparent...

There, the stock of knowledge is saved on a human (resource) level. Through our lives, we have built up some knowledge and this is stocked. But for the welfare of organizations this stock of knowledge is not the most important. If there is someone in the team who has the capacity to fulfill a certain job but is reluctant to do so, there is no use of this stock (of knowledge).

In parallel with business, your organization would be able to increase productivity only with an increase in the velocity of knowledge (under the assumption that the stock of knowledge remains the same -- you do not hire new employees, nor do you invite external consultants).

This is only true if there is no inflation. And that would be just another topic...

2006 Hans Bool

Hans Bool is the founder of Astor White a traditional management consulting company that offers online management tools. Have a look at some of our free management tools

Reuters - Stocks should rally further next week, if investors get more signs that the economic slump is abating and earnings season does not get off to a rocky start.

Earnathome
How Lose Fat Safely
Forex Learning Online