The Important Skill Of The Knowledge Management - Essay Example

Knowledge Management Although leaders can formulate and implement various strategies to optimize the organizational environment, and thereby enrich the workers’ knowledge and career, in some or most circumstances, the leaders in turn can be aided by certain knowledge based ‘systems’. Among the many ‘systems’ that can be implemented or established inside the organization, the Knowledge Management System (KMS) is a crucial one. KM is normally referred to a system, which is established for managing the knowledge needed for the functioning of the organizations. The process of KM formation involves creation, capture, storage and distribution of knowledge or information, needed for the organization during appropriate times. KMS will aid the leaders in the overall functioning of the organization and will provide them a good back up to all their strategies. Actually, these ‘systems’ by backing up the leaders will optimize their performance and it will directly show in the optimum performance of the employees. So, this paper will analyze this theme of Knowledge Management using the article titled Knowledge Management featured in the magazine, The Economist, and how that it is vital for the employee and organizational success. The article starts off with the words by renowned management guru, Peter Drucker, who in 1980’s itself hypothesized that that Knowledge Management will be a key process in future for the optimum functioning of the organizations. “The typical business [of the future] will be knowledge-based, an organisation composed largely of specialists who direct and discipline their own performance through feedback from colleagues, customers and headquarters. For this reason it will be what I call an information-based organisation.” (The Economist).So, Knowledge Management will raise the efficiency level of the leaders, aid them in actualizing an optimal organizational environment and thereby will enrich the knowledge and skill of the employees. Focusing on the importance of employees in the process of Knowledge Management, the article opines that the ‘content’ that is developed and stored in the heads and hearts of the employees need to be optimally used for optimizing organizational functioning. The article further states that the effective knowledge of the workers will become valuable assets or properties for the organization. So they need to be further developed and various forms of that knowledge also need to be preserved through technological means. “They had become properties whose most valuable asset was intangible—the knowledge which exists in the heads and hearts of employees or in formal databases, patents, copyrights and so on.” (The Economist, 2009). The article also points out how this knowledge creation or knowledge base will be useful not only to business organizations but also to National governments. That is, if the National governments also practice Knowledge Management system of creation, capture, storage and distribution of knowledge, it can accumulate National wealth of knowledge, which can be optimally used for various applications. The article focuses on this perspective by pointing out, that British government’s 1998 White Paper on the competitiveness of the nation has stated, “Our success depends on how well we exploit our most valuable assets: our knowledge, skills and creativity … they are at the heart of a modern knowledge-driven economy” (The Economist, 2009). After providing all the background information about the theme of Knowledge Management, the article reaches the ‘business end’ by focusing on the four separate activities of Knowledge Management, which, as mentioned above, are Capturing information, Generating ideas, Storing information and Distributing information Capturing information This is the initial and key process of Knowledge Management because it focuses on the crucial ‘cog’ of any organizational functioning and success, employees. Only if the employees are optimally recruited, motivated to perform and thereby retained in the organization, organization can travel on the path of success. So, as stated by the article, “Companies need to ensure that they are not suddenly bereft of vital information when an important individual moves to another employer.” (The Economist, 2009). Knowledge management Systems are being introduced in organizations mainly to counter or balance the nomadic working lifestyle, which is visible in todays employees. "It has been asserted that employees change their jobs once every two years, carrying with the knowledge they acquired through years of experience in one particular organization" (Abou-Zeid, 2008). This problem or common phenomenon has affected or is affecting many organizations all over the world, irrespective of the segment of industries. This causes both knowledge as well as financial losses to the organizations, as they have to spend time and money to prepare another employee or group of employees to substitute the ones who have left. To avoid this negative scenario, organizations are taking steps to manage the knowledge through knowledge management systems. “To alleviate this problem, KMs main objective is to maximize organizational knowledge sharing, while minimizing knowledge loss" (Abou-Zeid, 2008). So, to manage Knowledge effectively, organizations need its leaders to undertake responsibility and come up with strategies to develop Knowledge Management systems. From time immemorial, the success or failure of an organization or any other human activity depends on the role, the leader plays. If the leader follows a set of traits he/ she can ‘sprinkle’ success on many lives, including the workers in his/her organization. So, challenges relating to Knowledge management can be overcome by exhibiting effective leadership and thereby by implementing effective KM programs. Senior executives are responsible for ensuring that an organization maximizes the value it achieves through one of its most important assets - knowledge (Abou-Zeid, 2008) Generating ideas During the various organizational process and particularly the decision-making processes, one of the approaches the leader and the management could try is, putting for discussion their strategies among the employees, and involving them productively. Top leadership typically sets the tone for the team and provide on-going guidance and direction (Bass, 1985). This strategy will have favorable results, because when employees are given responsibility and expected to give their feedback, they will optimally use their minds to come up with good suggestions and ideas. This perspective of eliciting ideas was discussed in the article, “All employees should be encouraged to come up with new ideas, through ideas boxes or by being rewarded for ideas that make or save money for the company.” (The Economist, 2009).Within this context, leadership can either facilitate or constrain the free flow of information and ideas (Hansen, 2002). Logically, if the workers with responsibility keep on participating in all the important decision making process, they will begin to comprehend all the intricacies of organization functioning. By this way, as part of Knowledge Management, they will utilize their knowledge to come up with effective strategies and feedbacks for the well functioning of the organization. These different views, which will come up formally or informally will be ‘congregated’ and ‘condensed’ into a single or main plan. Different views from maximum persons will give rise to different ideas and the best one of those ideas can be picked up and can be implemented. This way employees will gain maximum confidence, because they will be happy with the thought, that they have put in something purposeful to the groups’ or organization’s decision making process. Integrated product-process development is usually dependent upon the project team having a clear, shared vision, an ongoing exchange of new ideas, and a willingness of team members to constructively challenge assumptions (Kluge, Stein, & Licht, 2001, McManus & Snyder, 2003; Shaw, 1981). Thus, applying a KMS will be a crucial step towards ensuring learning in the organisation top leadership. The system is configured to create a team environment in which team members can discover ways of improving performance. Storing information Every organization will have to safely and optimally manage or store its knowledge base for apt utilization. These knowledge assets will only work as the crucial components, which will aid the functioning of the companies. This storing of knowledge constitutes two parts, first is how to enable easy retrieval of the stored information for the apt utilization of by the organization, and then seconding this knowledge base need to be stored in a safe manner. The article first focuses on how the knowledge base needs to be stored, so it enables easy retrieval. “Data warehouses have to be structured so that the information in them can be accessed by everybody who needs it.” (The Economist, 2009). Providing a perfect and barrier environment to the workers will develop knowledge retrieval in an effective manner. For that the management should initiate new KM methods and if those methods are based on technology, it will surely provide optimum results. With many organizations diversifying physically with units and sister concerns being established at different places, there has to be seamless transfer and retrieval of knowledge for the effective functioning of the organization. In these situations, where physical distances could be the barrier, KMS based on technology will only break that barrier and will help in the retrieval of knowledge base, thereby benefiting the organization in many ways. Among the many technological products, the electronic ones could be bring in immense benefits. At the same time, employees working in will use the technological tools in various ways to complete their works effectively, easily and quickly. But, at the same time, the same employees could use the technological tools, specifically Information Technology products negatively to gain undue advantages for themselves, and thereby cause damages to the organizations. The employees could steal, corrupt, etc the knowledge base by using Information Technology. That is, they could alter or break down the Information Technology products functioning inside the organizations, and also they could ‘bring in’ other tools or threats from outside to disable the technologies used in the organization. “Employees lower down in the hierarchy may take advantage of loopholes that they see in the system. Data theft can often occur by employees leaving to set up a rival company or data is stolen to sell on to rival companies.” (CY4OR). So, the KM process of storing the information or knowledge need to be carried optimally and safely for the effective functioning of the organization without any threats. Distributing information One of the most important benefits of incorporating or implementing KMS inside an organization is the optimization in the knowledge sharing process. Knowledge sharing is defined as the provision or receipt of task information, know-how and feedback regarding a product or procedure‘(Cummings, 2004) and has been tied to a variety of managerial desirable outcomes including productivity, task completion time, organizational learning and innovativeness. This concept of knowledge sharing was discussed by the article in a clear and coherent manner, with the onus on the organization and the leader to initiate the sharing process. “Organisations must encourage the spread of information to others. The hoarding of information has historically been seen as a source of power.” (The Economist).That is, when KMS is implemented, the knowledge follow will be heightened with everyone in an organization from leaders, managers, supervisors to lower level works sharing and importantly gaining knowledge. When the leaders and employees share the knowledge they gained from various sources to receptive individuals, that knowledge will get ingrained in their minds in a stronger way and importantly will also enrich the receptive ones. There are various kinds of factors which may influence knowledge sharing, including the elements of the knowledge itself, such as its degree of articulation and degree of aggregation (Spender, 1996; Blackler, 1995; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). The high value of this benefit is not surprising since a major goal of KM is to increase knowledge sharing (Schwarz, 1994). KM leaders should be KM crusaders, leading the way to knowledge sharing. (Mitchell, & Larson, 1987). But to achieve consistent success, there is need for collective effort, approval, direction and support from the employees. The overall mission of a leader in the world of KM is to learn how to guide the internal marketplace within their organization. By doing this, the leader creates an organization that is a learning team dedicated to meaning, management, and measurement within KM. References Abou-Zeid, ES. (2008).Knowledge Management and Business Strategies. Idea Group Inc Bass, B. M. (1985). Leadership and performance beyond expectation. New York: Free Press. Blackler, F. (1995). Knowledge, Knowledge Work and Organizations -An Overview and Interpretation‘, Organization Studies 16(6): 1021–46. Cummings, J. N. (2004) Work Groups, Structural Diversity and Knowledge Sharing in a Global Organization‘, Management Science 50(3): 352–64. CY4OR. Computer Forensics Companies Can Help with Security Breach. Retrieved April 20, 2010 from http://www.cy4or.co.uk/pr-computer-forensics-security-breach.htm The Economist.(2009).Knowledge management. Retrieved on April 20, 2010 from http://www.economist.com/business-finance/management/displaystory.cfm? story_id=12960225 Hansen, M. T. (2002). 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