Strategic Importance of Knowledge Management
Today the world has more and more of free flow of information leading to transfer of knowledge from a person or an organization to others. Whereas this invariably leads to faster development, it also impacts the competitive advantage held by the innovators of processes or technology. It has therefore become strategically important for one and all in business to understand the knowledge, processes and controls to effectively manage the
system of sharing and transferring the information in the most beneficial fashion.
This paper dwells upon definition, types, scope, technology and modeling of knowledge and Knowledge Management while examining its strategic importance for retaining the competitive advantage by the organizations.
What is knowledge?
Plato first defined the concept of knowledge as ‘‘justified true belief’’ in his Meno, Phaedo and Theaetetus. Although not very accurate in terms of logic, this definition has been predominant in Western philosophy (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). Davenport et al. (1998) define knowledge as ``information combined with experience, context, interpretation and reflection''.
The terms ‘‘knowledge’’ and ‘‘information’’ are often used inter-changeably in the literature and praxis but a distinction is helpful. The chain of knowledge flow is data-information-knowledge. Information is data to which meaning has been added by being categorized, classified, corrected, and condensed. Information and experience, key components of definitions of knowledge, are put into categories through the process of labeling with abstract symbols. This allows the process of synthesis to occur more efficiently than when dealing with masses of individual bits of information. Information coded into symbols to make it “knowledge” may be stored both inside and outside the individuals. Thus, knowledge may be stored within a person in his mind or outside the person in books, manuscripts, pictures, and audio and videotapes or discs. However, while only the individual himself may retrieve knowledge stored within his mind, knowledge stored outside can be retrieved by anybody familiar with the storage systems.
In organizations, knowledge is often embedded not only in documents and presentations but also in “organizational routines, processes, practices, and norms,” and through person-to-person cont...
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T.D. Wilson (2002) makes a point of identifying several sources of articles, references and course syllabi with varying takes on knowledge management within organizations. Wilson is convinced that organizations misuse the terminology “knowledge management” and that their activities are more concerned with managing information than with the management of knowledge (Wilson, 2002). Wilson defines knowledge as involving “the mental processes of comprehension” or, as “what we know” and information as the expression of what we know and can convey through messages (Wilson, 2002). By researching the use of the “knowledge management” Wilson conveys that the terms knowledge and information are used interchangeably, which results in an inaccurate application
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A new vocation has developed within corporations that drastically impacts the way companies manage their information and internal knowledge. This position has many titles, but most commonly is referred to as the CKO, the chief knowledge officer. The responsibilities of this position primarily focus on managing unstructured information and internal knowledge. Xerox refers to this raw data as assets, or more formally, “intellectual capital,” “knowledge assets,” or “intangible assets.” Because knowledge management is considered a tactical occupation, Xerox considers the CKO a part of the upper management team. An effective CKO should be able to create an alignment with unambiguous knowledge and culture within a company (Leibowitz, 2002).
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This knowledge is then utilized to make their organisation more effective a (Tannenbaum and Alliger 2000, O'Dell, Grayson jr. and Essaides 1998) and possibly advanced some measure of distinctive competence. Further, the term ‘Knowledge Worker’ was created by management erudite, Peter Drucker as far back as in the 1950s. (Drucker 1968) advanced that ‘Today the centre is the knowledge worker, the man or woman who applies to productive work ideas, concepts and information rather than manual skill or brawn…. Knowledge is now the main cost, the main investment and the main product of the advanced economy and the livelihood of the largest group in the
In most organizations, effective utilization of knowledge increases productivity, creates competitive advantage and, ultimately, improves profits.
From my point of view, Knowledge Management is defined as a learning process of human through collecting information and data from various resources such as experience and books. That information will effect on people’s thinking, attitude, action, and behavior toward something. This field also examined about how people utilize their intangible asset like knowledge and cognitive ability in order to achieve their own goal.
(106) 'Knowledge management means using the ideas and experience of employees, customers and suppliers to improve the organisation’s performance. ' (5) Knowledge management (KM) is best when 'it is in alignment with organizational culture, structure and strategy ' (5). For this reason, the aim of this briefing document is to advise Santander on solutions to potential KM barriers employees may face by discussing three key barriers- culture, technology and leadership.
Rosenberg (2011, p66) defines Knowledge Management as it creates, saves and exchanges information and expertise within communities, organizations and persons with similar interests and needs.
The SECI model, BA model and the like are developed by different knowledge scientists to facilitate the knowledge workers in today’s world. The process of knowledge management involves creation, understanding and suitably applying relevant knowledge As easy as it may sound, for fully harnessing their capabilities, a conducive internal and external environment plays a critical role in any organisation. Any well established and substantiated knowledge management tool can fall apart if it does not get the requisite support of people, technology and
Knowledge management is one of the emerging fields in the research world today. Knowledge Management has gained a lot of attention in the developed world but has attracted a little
Nonaka, I. (1994). A dynamic theory of organisational knowledge creation. Organisation Science. 5 (1). 14–37.
The arrangement of the building blocks is divided into an inner and outer cycle. The outer cycle contains the classic elements of management theory, knowledge goals and knowledge evaluation. These building blocks determine which goals the company wants to achieve and how achievement is measured and evaluated. The inner cycle describes how the company, starting from the knowledge goals, manages to create and save rele-vant knowledge for usage. These building blocks are the knowledge management activi-ties knowledge identification, knowledge acquisition, knowledge development, knowledge distribution / sharing, knowledge utilization and knowledge retention. The building blocks are related to each other and before a measure in one building block is implemented the influences on the other buildings blocks should be considered.