Capitalizing on knowledge: a novel approach to crucial-knowledge determination

Corporation managers make informed decisions based upon a combination of judgment and knowledge from various departments such as marketing, sales, research, development, manufacturing, and finance. Ideally, all relevant knowledge should be brought together before judgment is exercised. However, determining the knowledge requirements and obtaining pertinent, consistent, and up-to-date knowledge across a large company is a complex process. Crucial-knowledge determination is a complex process: specifically the identification of crucial knowledge and knowledge requirements. In this paper, a methodology is developed for modeling the knowledge requirements and the associated tasks for collecting the knowledge simultaneously. This methodology provides a valuable contribution in knowledge-management systems by defining a major plan for discovering issues-oriented knowledge. One procedure and one heuristic algorithm are illustrated with numerical examples.