Knowledge Management

Knowledge is the product of the professional services organisations. It is the essential element that allows the organisation to operate in its industry sector. The knowledge of the organisation is within the human capital of the organisation, which are the workers. This paper will look firstly at current literature on knowledge and professional services organisations, what this knowledge is how this knowledge can be managed. Secondly the paper will review relevant theories and practices associated with Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) and how these theories and practises can assist in managing the organisation knowledge. Lastly the paper will attempt tie to together knowledge, SHRM and how the use of SHRM can impact on the organisations competitive advantage.

Within the professional services sector, such as consulting, an employees knowledge of the industry in which the organisation operates is important. This knowledge is applied to the problems encountered in order to develop solutions and answers specific to the problems and clients encountered (Teo, Brown et al 2008). This knowledge is also the organisations competitive advantage and must be harnessed as an asset (Razouck etc 2009) to ensure its most effective use. Harnessing or managing this knowledge can be difficult as knowledge in itself is an abstract, complex notion that can be both tacit and explicit and exists at all levels of from the individual to the organisation itself (Thite, 2004).

But what is knowledge? What types of knowledge can be seen in these firms and how can this knowledge be captured and transferred to others. The literature review concerning professional services firms, found that the majority of researchers considered only tac...

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...aching and mentoring junior employees to improve their performance and develop in well rounded consultants.

When all this comes together there is no doubt (need to ensure I have the evidence here) that the transfer of knowledge within and around the organisation wil lead to a competitive advantage. From experience this leads to improvements in employee confidence and ability to discuss topics of concern with clients, clients being satisfied with the output of the consultants and importantly

In the end the linking of KM and HRM will lead to a competitive advantage for the organisation It is the people that have the knowledge and within a PS firm these people provide the source of the competitive advantage (Browning et al, 2009). Without the HRM aspects how will the organisation harness these people and there knowledge to provide this competitive advantage