The Value of Concept Maps for Knowledge Management in the Banking and Insurance Industry: a German Case Study

Major industrial countries gradually developed from industrialised economies to informationand knowledge-based economies, where people became the most valuable asset to companies due to their abilities and valuable tacit knowledge. Unfortunately tacit knowledge is contained in people’s minds, is difficult to access and therefore needs to be captured so it can be shared amongst employees. Concept maps are such a tool that can gather knowledge from individuals and groups, facilitate the knowledge creation process, function as a discussion and communication tool, and assist in the distribution of knowledge and learning processes within an organisation. In order to evaluate the value of concept map technology, to gain detailed information about the company’s current knowledge management system, the technical infrastructure, and to acquire insight about the possibilities and problems of concept maps, a survey was conducted at a banking and insurance company to determine the employees’ degree of satisfaction with the current knowledge management system; their familiarity with concept map technology; and their willingness to work with concept maps. The results indicated that the employees are not fully satisfied with the current knowledge management system because of its unstructured character. The company’s knowledge workers require, and therefore search for a wide range of knowledge currently spread over a number of different sources. Documents and other sources of knowledge are not sufficiently linked, and do not contain key words or descriptions for complex searches. This influences the acquisition of knowledge and search results negatively. A very positive reaction was thus expressed by employees concerning new concept map technology. Concept maps were familiar to a large portion of the participants, and an even higher percentage said they would use this new technology for knowledge acquisition and distribution. Interviews with several employees and senior managers from the company were also conducted. Insight was gained by applying concept mapping technology to different fields in the company.