FILTERING KNOWLEDGE : CHANGING INFORMATION INTO KNOWLEDGE ASSETS : By Charan Tej

Alain J. Godbout, Godbout Martin Godbout & associates 

FILTERING KNOWLEDGE : CHANGING INFORMATION 

INTO KNOWLEDGE ASSETS 

Journal of Systemic Knowledge Management, January 1999  

presented by: 

Charantej (PA9015) 

Over the years, various attempts at developing a 

comprehensive knowledge management framework have 

identified that one of the key functions in creating 

knowledge assets is the task of selecting or filtering public 

domain knowledge in order to make it relevant to the 

organization. This paper discusses the nature of the 

filtering step in order to define a sound knowledge 

management approach.  

ABSTRACT 

Introduction

Making Sense Out of Data and Knowledge 

Filtering

Systems

Knowledge theory, whether from the psychological, the 

biological or philosophical perspective have one element in 

common: knowledge is acquired through a selection or 

filtering process. Animals as well as person uses a filtering 

process that determines which pieces of information to 

retain. The decision to retain or to reject depends mainly on 

the perception of the relevance of the information in the 

immediate context. In the model, the receiver is described 

as the person who must decide which pieces of information 

to add to the reservoir of knowledge called «knowledge 

base». 

Authority/Creditability

of

Source

of

Information

The receiver is normally better disposed towards 

information that comes from an authoritative source. Our 

individual experience has formed different patterns of 

authority in our system of appreciation. In an organizational 

context, authority is imbedded in the structure, the division 

of work and the jurisdiction. As a result, we tend to 

associate our perception of «knowledgeability» with the 

distribution of authority within the organization.  

.  

Organizational

Biases

 The term bias implies a closed-mindedness outlook that 

prevents someone from judging the situation in an objective 

manner. The key here remains the opposition we tend to make 

between the concept of objective and the concept of 

subjectivity or bias. 

 The organizational biases translates into summary judgement 

whose function is to reinforce our beliefs. Beliefs do not have to 

be truths, they therefore do not qualify as knowledge, but they 

are an integral part of our appreciative system and act as 

filtering agents in knowledge retention 

Corporate

Historical

Context

 we will tend to accept information that reinforces our personal 

experiences. The process is essentially the same as in the case 

of beliefs. The difference lies in the past experience as opposed 

to an interpretative construct. Similarly we tend to reject 

information, regardless of the source, which contradict our 

understanding of history, even more so when it is our own.  

Receiver's

Savvy

Formal education is still a process of acquisition of large 

amounts of information and concepts 

The savvy factor can be seen as the skills of the individual or 

organizations who acts as receiver and conducts the initial 

assessment of the information. A community or a person 

who understands proper research procedures, is better able 

to assess information obtained by surveys. 

Desperation

Factor

For most managers, the reality of management is conditioned by the 

availability of factual data and measurable results.  This is true for 

most persons educated in the Western set of values. As a result, the 

same manager becomes desperate when some crucial information 

cannot be found. Under these circumstances he or she will accept 

almost anything that seems pertinent.  

Filtering

Behaviour

The discussion on human filtering above is intended to 

provide a framework for developing an approach to the 

systematic performance of filtering in knowledge 

management 

Based on observations of best practices, our contention is 

that the design of a formal filtering process will requires 

two steps:  

 The first step consisting of relevancy screening which 

will serves as a means for managing the amount of 

information which will be processed,  

 The second the knowledge appreciation which will 

serve to rank or select within the remaining «relevant» 

information which one correspond to certain quality 

factors.  

Conclusion:

Knowledge

Management

Remains

Human

One of the conclusions that can be drawn from this discussion is 

that the filtering process will continue to require a human 

intervention (at least for the time being). This requirement stems 

from the obligation to make a series of decisions to determine the 

relevance and create added value to the knowledge artefact 

Through a proper screening process, most organizations actually 

build up a knowledge base which, when combined with local 

knowledge production, will provide the competitive edge