How Knowledge Management Tools and Systems May Assist in Creating Innovation in Organizations - Literature review Example

Discuss How Knowledge Management Tools and Systems May Assist in Creating Knowledge and Innovation in Organizations  By Student’s Name Code +course name Professor’s name University name City, State Date (Word Count: 2232) How Knowledge Management Tools and Systems May Assist in Creating Knowledge and Innovation in Organizations  Introduction In today’s business world, Knowledge management tools and systems have become important and competitive resources for business organizations. The aim of knowledge management tools is to make the collected knowledge available in a shared database (Ruggles, 2009 p. 32). Knowledge enlightens the mind of a human being, moulds their attitudes and shapes their behaviors. For an organization to create knowledge and innovation, it needs to have sufficient knowledge management tools and systems. Zheng, Yang and McLean (2010 p. 243) add that leading organizations throughout the globe have institutionalized an innovation culture. There are various knowledge management tools in the market that organizations can choose from according to their needs. The purpose of this essay is to discuss how knowledge management tools and systems may assist in creating knowledge and innovation in organizations. The paper starts by explaining the concepts of knowledge and innovation. The paper then proceeds to discuss how knowledge management tools and systems may assist in creating knowledge and innovation in organizations  The Concepts of Knowledge Management and Innovation According to Rao (2012 p. 14), knowledge is the outcome that is obtained from framed experiences, expert insights and contextual information that provide a background for assessing and integrating new information and experiences. While tacit knowledge is internalized knowledge that one may not be aware of consciously, explicit knowledge is one that an individual is consciously aware of and can be communicated to others (Rao, 2010 p. 23). Knowledge and innovation are inseparable because innovation involves application and transmission of knowledge through the steps of research, development and application. In the 21st century, organizations throughout the world are facing increased need of sharing knowledge through collaborative innovation. Innovations enable organizations to develop according to the changes and requirements of their environment (Vaccaro, Parente & Veloso, 2010 p. 1076). Innovations require the use of new knowledge that is created internally or acquired externally, to improve the performance of systems of work, processes, products and services. Knowledge management, on the other hand, is a body of tools, techniques, methods and values that an organization develops to acquire, develop, share and apply knowledge to provide a return on their intellectual insights (Vaccaro, Parente & Veloso, 2010 p. 1076). The main components of knowledge management are processes, technology, content and people. The people component is regarded as the cornerstone of successful organizational innovation. Knowledge management systems and tools refer to the information technology systems that store and retrieve knowledge, improve collaboration, captures and uses knowledge and locates knowledge sources. Knowledge management tools and systems enhance the process of knowledge management through other ways, such as mining repositories of hidden knowledge. According to Chen and Huang (2009 p. 105), knowledge management is not a technology discipline, although it is enhanced by technology. Knowledge in an organization can be retrieved in three stages, including before, during or after knowledge management activities. Among the many benefits of knowledge management tools and systems is that they assist in building learning organizations by enhancing the learning routine. They allow every employee in an organization to look back and assess themselves, their organization and performance (Chen &Huang, 2009). Tools of knowledge management can effectively manage organizational knowledge in such a way that it can stimulate cultural change and innovation through encouraging employees to voice out their ideas freely. According to Ambos and Ambos (2009 p. 12), innovation is the act of applying new ideas to services and products. Innovation support tools exist that may contribute to the generation of knowledge that is necessary during the process of product design. The evidence of innovation can be witnessed in the entry of new patents and codifications of the designs of existing products. How Knowledge Management Tools and Systems May Assist in Creating Knowledge and Innovation in Organizations  The first important role that knowledge management tools and systems play in enhancing innovation capability of an organization is that they allow an organization to constantly acquire, assimilate, share, and apply knowledge appropriately. The contribution of learning and knowledge towards the survival and success of organizations is more pronounced in environments and sectors where competition is innovation driven and work tends be varied. Since organizations throughout the globe operate in such environments, their survival and attainment of competitive edge is dependent on the recognition of knowledge as a strategic resource that ought to be acquired, shared, and harnessed effectively. In addition, Porter and Kramer (2002 p. 5-16) observe that the attainment and preservation of superior performance than competitors leads to the achievement of competitive advantage which is known to depend on the level of available resources. The use of knowledge management tools and systems is one of the essential features of contemporary organization. Sharing knowledge refers to the exchanging of interests, priorities, problem interpretations and constraints that may bring out views that are fuzzily defined or conflicting. According to Ambos and Ambos (2009 p. 12), some organizations have tried capturing knowledge through incentives such as making the submission of content mandatory and including rewards in performance measurement plans. There are contradictory arguments over whether incentives work or not, on sharing of knowledge. To stimulate or reinforce individuals to participate in activities of knowledge sharing, the use of incentives can be employed during the development stages and actual use of a knowledge management system (Ambos & Ambos, 2009 p. 13). One of the strategies that knowledge management approaches have used to acquire knowledge is the push strategy that involves actively managing knowledge. Different individuals make effort to encode the knowledge, in repositories of shared knowledge, such as databases. Individuals also have the opportunity of retrieving knowledge that other individuals have contributed in the repository. The codification approach to knowledge management can, therefore, be regarded as being effective in retrieval and sharing of knowledge. Another critical role of knowledge management tools and systems is facilitating decision-making processes. By collecting data, managers can gain a wealth of information that can be helpful in making decisions. Processing overwhelming amounts of data and information can be problematic and may hinder the making of high-quality decisions (Yang, 2010 p. 215). Intranet-based systems are some of the most effective knowledge management tools that have been used by organizations to source for information during decision making. Intranets are private networks that benefit from the development of web-based technologies. Intranet-based systems are can be effective systems of knowledge management in organizations because, firstly, web technologies are associated with low costs. The use of intranet may facilitate the sharing of linked and dynamic information (Yates & Paquette 2011, p. 7). Intranets have a hypertext structure that makes navigation between chunks of information easy. The communication within intranets emphasizes internal information and the user has to pull the information. Intranet-based systems of knowledge management may be beneficial to an organization because they reduce information overload, and at the same time, creating important links within the organization and the employees (López-Nicolás & Meroño-Cerdán, 2011 p. 513). The effectiveness of and efficient usage of knowledge management systems is influenced by the values, culture and principles of strategic information management in an organization. The use of knowledge management tools and systems is related to the information management contribution is having on the organizational performance. For example, the use of intranet in some organizations is primarily to access basic information, such as retrieving corporate documents, despite its wide and variety of features. Knowledge information tools and systems are part of an organizational context (López-Nicolás & Meroño-Cerdán, 2011 p. 509). Knowledge management tools can be used to store essential corporate documents. For such organizations, document management can be the first step to further knowledge management. According to Quinn and Strategy (2013 p. 432), paperwork is still a reality. Each document retrieved from a repository can offer a wealth of knowledge and non-structured information that may be useful to the organization. Knowledge management systems such as Electronic Document Management (EDM) systems are examples of important repositories of crucial corporate documents. According to Quinn and Strategy (2013 p. 432), EDM systems are explicit stores of knowledge. EDM systems may provide a more efficient retrieval of documents, offer better security and control versions of the documents. EDM systems have diverse features such as indexing and cataloguing, and they can only deal with the explicit dimension of knowledge. Documents present an efficient way of exchanging clear knowledge that when organized and combined, can lead to new knowledge. In successful organizations, employees and managers exchange memos, reports, and other documents as a way of combining explicit knowledge Ambos and Ambos (2009 p. 12). EDM systems are also referred to as content management tools because they manage the contents of the documents, despite the media document they are available in some of the media documents that could be used to display content of organizational documents are computer reports, video, E-mails, fax, HTML forms, paper, spreadsheets and audio. Knowledge management tools and systems can be used by organizations to share knowledge and innovation within teams that are geographically dispersed. In today’s business world, there is the need for fast decision making. Organizations have to adopt flexible organizational structures, such as work groups that can adapt to the changes brought about by the dynamic environment (Zheng, Yang & McLean, 2010 p. 432). Multinational organizations are faced with the challenge of coordinating workgroups that are geographically dispersed. According to Ruggles (2009 p. 32), knowledge management systems such as groupware are designed in such a way that teams that are working from different geographic allocations can work together effectively. Unlike the intranet, which uses a pull style of communication, groupware utilizes push style whereby the information is sent to the user, instead of the user seeking for it. Groupware is effective because it utilizes community focused (for example e-groups), synchronous (like chat) and asynchronous (like e-mail) tools. Information forms of communication dominate groupware system of knowledge management, whereby people are encouraged to share knowledge (Ruggles, 2009 p. 32). Communities of practice, whereby specialists with a specific domain of knowledge who are dispersed all over the world are best suited to the groupware system of knowledge management. Such specialists can share and exchange their expertise with the aim of discovering solutions to certain problems. According to Zheng, Yang and McLean (2010 p. 243), tacit knowledge is externalized through the use of collective reflection and dialogue. Groupware is effective for expression of tacit knowledge because it allows collaboration and exchange of messages that are not structured. The use of groupware knowledge management tools is effective for a company willing to make investments in technological advancements. For the gradual articulation of tacit knowledge to take place, there should be technological support of visual and sound interaction (Ruggles, 2009 p. 32). With such measures in place, interaction through groupware systems can be termed as being close to a face to face interaction. Writing is, however, the predominant channel of communication in groupware system. Knowledge management tools can be very helpful in organizations that have standardized business processes. Knowledge management tools, such as workflow systems can be used to establish and accelerate the flow of business processes. The systems make sure that the steps are followed as required and they track every activity that is involved in the process (Rao 2012 p. 14). Workflow knowledge management systems, therefore, support standardized business practices. Workflow knowledge management systems make use of explicit knowledge that is contained in the standard process to support the formal codification of the existing knowledge. Knowledge management tools can be used to unmask important knowledge from a mass of complicated operational data. Business Intelligence is an example of knowledge management systems that can be used to reveal hidden patterns, which the user could not have detected (Vaccaro, Parente & Veloso, 2010 p. 1076). Business Intelligence systems help decision makers to make high-quality decisions, based on the essential business information extracted from the masses of operational data. Knowledge management tools used for the purpose of identifying hidden patterns first make use of Data Base Management Systems, where data is stored. The data is then filtered through certain criteria and then moved to the data warehouse. The tools are helpful for businesses because, when the user gains knowledge of the hidden patterns, he can create his queries and make strategic reports. According to Chen and Huang (2009 p. 105), modern organizations are making use of knowledge management tools such as Business Intelligence systems to discover important business trends that they would not have revealed (Vaccaro, Parente & Veloso, 2010, p. 1080). Conclusion From the above discussion, there are various factors that enhance innovation in organizations. Information communication technology (ICT) plays a critical role of managing the knowledge in organizations, which in turn, provides organizations with competitive advantages. Strengthening the knowledge culture is the first step in becoming an innovation driven organization. Thus, organizations must strive to implement innovation determinants in order to provide customers with immediate needs. Knowledge is imperative for organizational success, and therefore, an organization must create, and when required, transfer knowledge. The capacity to create an environment that is favorable to learning and adaptation of knowledge and skills to counter prevailing circumstances faster than ones’ competitors might be the only basis of attaining sustainable competitive advantage. It is evident from the above discussion that organizations should adopt a continuous learning culture in order to stay ahead of competition. 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Vaccaro, A, Parente, R, & Veloso, FM, 2010, ‘Knowledge management tools, inter-organizational relationships, innovation and firm performance’ Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 77(7), pp. 1076-1089. Yang, J, 2010, ‘The knowledge management strategy and its effect on firm performance: A contingency analysis,’ International Journal of Production Economics, 125(2), pp. 215-223. Yates, D, & Paquette, S, 2011, ‘Emergency knowledge management and social media technologies: A case study of the 2010 Haitian earthquake,’ International Journal of Information Management, 31(1), pp. 6-13. Zheng, W, Yang, B, & McLean, GN, 2010, ‘Linking organizational culture, structure, strategy, and organizational effectiveness: Mediating role of knowledge management,’ Journal of Business Research, 63(7), pp. 763-771. Read More