Knowledge Management Learning Organization And Technology

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

INTRODUCTION

It is very difficult to pinpoint an exact time when the obsession of knowledge management started, however managing knowledge is not a new concept; it has been around from the beginning of time. Managing knowledge is practised in each individual’s daily life, like making judgements at the work place based on an individual’s knowledge has helped to catapult progress.

As the economy progresses, where organizations and workforce are knowledge driven, organizations have to radically rethink how to do business; and knowledge management has been considered as a competitive advantage strategy.

WHAT IS KNOWLEDGEMANAGEMENT

Before knowledge management can be understood basic terminologies have to be explained:

Data: In accordance with Davenport and Prusak, data is a group of separate facts about events that are stored in IT systems (Davenport & Prusak, 1998). It does not have any meaning on its own.

Information: Information is processed data, which makes decision making easier. The transformation of data into information is done by adding value. Ackoff (1989) defined information as data that is processed to be useful; provides answers to questions (Ackoff, 1989).

Knowledge: As defined by the dictionary is "an acquaintance with facts, truths, or principles, gained from study or investigation; general learning "(Dictionary.com).

Knowledge

Data Information

VALUE

FIG 1-Showing Data-Information-Knowledge Source: Irma et al (2004)

KNOWLEDGE

KNOWLEDGE

Info

Info System

Data

Use of Info

Decision

Events

Fig 2: Relating Data, Information and Knowledge to Events. Source: Irma. B et al, [2004]

Fig 2 describes how knowledge aids to translate data into information, the knowledge could be stored in an information system which receives data as input and produces information as output. The use of information to make decision requires knowledge, decisions lead to events which cause generation of additional data (Irma, et al. 2004).

There are 2 types of knowledge:

Tacit Knowledge: This is simply knowledge that is embedded in the human mind through experience. Irma, et al (2004), explained it, as knowledge that includes insight, intuitions and hunches; a kind of knowledge that is complicated in means of expression and documenting, hence proves difficulty in sharing.

It has also been defined as hidden and thus cannot be easily represented by means of electronics (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995). An example of tacit knowledge is a technicians’ knowledge of symptoms to look for when trying to repair a faulty TV set.

Explicit Knowledge: These talks about knowledge that has been expressed into words and numbers; it can be shared methodically in form of data. An example is details in a user manual of a smart phone or a book describing factors to consider when deciding to buy a company’s stock; information includes annual reports of the company, financials of the company, memos, etc.

Wisdom: The English dictionary defines wisdom as the ability to use knowledge and make good decisions; sound judgement (English dictionary, 2013). The bible describes wisdom as the spirit friendly to humanity.

DATA

INFORMATION

KNOWLEDGE

WISDOM

DOMDOM

Fig3: Hierarchy of Knowledge [DIKW]. Source: Fatima, (2013).

Management is the act of handling, controlling activities to accomplish set goals. Having that idea at the back of the mind it is right to say that knowledge management is the organisation or handling of activities or information. It is doing what is necessary to get the most out of knowledge resources, classifying and making available important knowledge whenever and wherever it is needed.

OTHER SCHOLAR DEFINITIONS

Knowledge management encourages a built-in way of the recognition, capturing, evaluation, retrieval as well as sharing the organization’s information resources. These resources may include databases, documents, earlier un-captured knowledge and experience in individual workers. (Duhon, 1998)

According to the Bridgefield Group, Inc. Knowledge management is defined as a structure for managing the organizational procedures that facilitate the creation, storage and distribution of knowledge (Bridgefield, 2008). This view suggests that an organization deliberately and comprehensively gathers, organizes and shares its knowledge in terms of resources, documents and people skills.

Malhotr’s says; "Knowledge Management tends to the essential issues of organisation adaption, survival and proficiency in face of increasingly discontinuous change. In essence, it embodies organisational processes that obtain arrangement of data and information processing capacity of information technologies and the creative and innovative capacity of human beings" (Malhotra, 1997). This generally means that knowledge management is a means of solving organizational issues by the use of the combination of technology and knowledge.

Davenport gave a brief and precise definition of knowledge stating that it is the process or practise of knowledge creation, distribution and effective use of specific information (Davenport, 1994).

In a publication by NASA, it was explained that knowledge management is the attainment of desired information to a precise individual or group of individuals at a precise period, and aiding in the creation and distribution of knowledge plus acting in the lead with information with the purpose advancing the performance of NASA and its associates (Holm, 2008). This basically explains that knowledge management encourages teamwork with the sole purpose of enhancing sharing of knowledge. In essence it promotes sharing of knowledge in organizations and this can be used by specific people at a specific time to improve performance and efficiency of the organization.

Xerox prefers the term managing for Knowledge as an alternative of knowledge management and it means creating a successful learning environment that encourages the constant creation, use and re-use of equally personal and organizational knowledge in pursuit of new industry value (Michael, 2001)

Looking at knowledge management from a business perspective, Karl-Erik Sveiby an organization theorist defined Knowledge management as the art of creating value from organizations intangible (competence and relational resources) assets (Sveiby, 2000).

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN KM AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

Knowledge management and information management are two very different terms, many tend to believe that these two are the same but merely viewing the definitions of both there is a distinction.

Although Knowledge Management is a part of information; Information as defined earlier has a far more complex definition then knowledge, thus from the definition of information above it can be said that information management is the classification, construction, gathering and management of information for maintenance and broadcast to individuals when the particular information is needed.

Listed below are some key differences between the two:

Information management is related with both the procedure and addition of value to information whereas Knowledge management is concerned with using the knowledge to make decisions (Choo, 2002)

Information management is the control of information resources of the organization in order to add value both for itself and clients, whereas Knowledge management is the structure for scheming organization’s targets, structure and practices to enable the organization use information to create more value for customer satisfaction.(Choo, 2002)

Basic issues for IM are access, control, accuracy while the issues for KM are Practise, Learning, innovation etc.

COMPONENTS OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Bhatt (2000), identified the three (3) components of Knowledge Management as People, Process and Technology, the author stated that these components are essential for a successful and profitable implementation of knowledge management, though each have different level of importance.

KM

FIG3-COMPONENTS OF KM. source: Bhatt, 2000

People: This requires about 70% of effort for the implementation of a successful knowledge management. It has to do with how the organizations’ manage, develop and release knowledge. Ensuring that there is good leadership and developing organizational structure and corporate culture can encourage people to participate in KM initiatives (Bhatt, 2000).

Process: This is method the people use to build, classify, capture, store, and distribute knowledge. It takes 20% for effective km initiatives. Ensuring the process covers the entire knowledge lifecycle from initial creation through its final phase is very important for creating a proper environment for knowledge sharing. (Bhatt, 2000)

Technology: Databases, software, network, processors, internet, ethernet, etc all constituent technology. It constituents 10% in implementing KM, although it is easiest but it cannot yield full benefits for the organization except it is integrated with the support of the right people and the right processes. (Bhatt, 2000)

ISSUES OF IMPLEMENTING KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN ORGANIZATIONS

Given the uncertainty in today’s business environment study has shown that managers’ when asked about the key concerns in introducing knowledge management in organizations, three (3) primary issues raised were cultural, managerial and technological. (Thoben et al, 2002.)

Managerial: Lack of top management is an issue as it is responsible for decision making, developing the organizational structure and without the appropriate staff the implementation of KM might be unsuccessful. Where an organization does not define these processes properly via creation of proper workflow as well as implementing the high standard of implementation may be detrimental to the organization (Stuart, 2002.)

Lack of Technological Infrastructure: The role of technology or information systems functions in the enablement of collecting, defining, storing and linking data digitally to maintain organizational decisions and enhance performance. The concern here relates to the technical infrastructure and the security of data on the internet (Singh & Kant, 2007.)

Culture: Most organizations are of the notion or opinion that their firms do not need culture; this tends to be an issue as without culture there are risks of poor implementation of KM in such organizations. culture establishes the eagerness of employees to share, create and store knowledge.(Thoben et al, 2002)

ROLE OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

Organizational culture imitates the standards and values to facilitate to guide the activities of the organization and its affiliates; it is an important enabler in organizations.

Schein (1992) supposed organizational culture as a guide of fundamental statements by a specified set as it gains knowledge through learning to handle its problems of external amendments and internal integration.

Organizational culture has many dimensions but according to Denison & Spreitzer (1991) culture is categorized into 2 dimensional spaces, each axis represents contract orientation.

The first dimension is for flexibility and control orientation, the second explains the focus on activities occurring within and outside an organization. The combinations of both scopes describe the four categories of organizational culture:

Group: Emphases on flexibility and internal change of the organization.

Developmental: Emphases on flexibility as well but it is focuses on the outside.

Hierarchical: it focuses on stability of the internal organization.

Rational: focuses on the control of the external organization. (Denison & Spreitzer, 1991)

Flexibility

Focus

Internal Focus

Focus

External Focus

Focus

Control

Focus

Fig 4: Types of culture. Source: Dension & Spreitzer, 1991

Some roles of Organizational culture:

A supporting organization culture helps to motivate employees understand the benefits from KM.

The culture decides the manner employees interact at work; it helps the employees stay motivated.

It promotes healthy competition.

Certain policies in an organization are represented by the culture the organization embraces and these policies guide employees which drives and tracks the employees on the right path considering decision making.

Different culture for different organizations, culture generates a brand name for organizations.

In a case study of the culture practised by google; one of the world’s fastest growing companies established in 1998 employees more than 20,000 people.

Its core culture statements are:

Individuals are the most significant assets.

Wearing a suit does not necessarily mean one is serious; individuals are effective without a suit.

Money can be made legally and following the right ways.

Google’s work environment is very friendly orientated, its head quarters in US include 19 restaurants, free dental care, health centre, etc. the restaurant tables are oval shaped implying, the aim is for people to interact while eating and the underlying assumption is that work and other life should be merged as much as possible. (AHRI, 2010)

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS

The aim of Knowledge Management is to put into practice processes that enhance organizational efficiency and value by improving the ability for knowledge sharing and listed below are some of the benefits that can be obtained:

Employee Growth and Learning- shared knowledge is available, employees can easily gain knowledge by accessing the knowledge database.

Agility and Efficiency- KM is a powerful tool for organizations to empower employees to be more agile in the environment, it helps increase revenues and reduce cost; as it eliminates redundancy and unnecessary business processes.

The result of KM leads to fewer errors and improved communication throughout the organization and better customer service.

Organizational growth- since knowledge is available plus beneficial; an environment of shared knowledge is encouraged, employees can bring new ideas to the table and offer efficient solutions to problems at work and this will help in the growth of the organization and also enhance team work.

CASE STUDY OF KM FAILURE: EURO BANK

An international financial sector that stretches across about 70 nations decisively opted to make use of a variety of KM schemes after one of its prominent customers’ deactivated an account because the individual felt the governing body could not receive incorporated services across braches and countries.

According to the case study, the scheme was projected to rely on intranet technology to broaden the knowledge structure to enable technical transaction in the bank be incorporated. Amongst numerous self-governing intranet schemes that thrived were OfficeWeb, GTSnet and Iweb. OfficeWeb aim was to collectively gather appropriate branch managers in the local branches to initialize a group of users where limited knowledge could be shared liberally (Newell et al, 2001).

The scheme was tactically significant at the time as it possibly could maintain the change towards an added commercial and organisational structure across its branches. GTSnet was proposed to synergise the distinct sources of information across the sector that will enable users acquire information from an incorporated source with transaction services. A lot of financial resources were pumped into the project and it was staffed essentially with exterior IT specialists (Newell et al, 2001).

Iweb was intended particularly for the IT purpose; apart from being an essential depot for information storage, it was projected to be used as a podium for employees to attain plus distribute knowledge mainly in the intranet technology (Newell et al, 2001).

The scheme was funded appropriately with capital as well as technical personnel and hardware resources. In addition, a superior IT expert was assigned to the establishment of standards for the maintenance and repairs of contents on the intranet (Newell et al, 2001).

OfficeWeb was discarded; GTSnet kept outdated data subsequently after its implementation but Iweb was supplementary forth-coming than the other schemes; it however did not maintain knowledge sharing within the IT division.

The core causes for failure are as follows:

As of the time of trial testing of OfficeWeb, the bandwidth of the existing network and server were discovered to be insufficient to sustain and support the network traffic produced (Newell et al, 2001).

Although GTSnet was staffed by external IT experts; but they lacked the appropriate knowledge. That is why it was not capable to achieve sustenance within the organization to merge the technological and business proficiency at the time instigated (Newell et al, 2001).

Iweb was entirely functioning; but was incapable of changing the users’ essential approach towards knowledge-sharing activities. (Newell et al, 2001).

CONCLUSION

KM is very essential in all organizations and even in SME, as long as there is data and employees involved. Knowledge sharing, storage and creation are essential in all aspects of an organization; it is also imperative to note that there are three distinct categorizes of KM failure factors: technology, culture, and lack of managerial/project management.

SECTION B: LEARNING ORGANIZATION

INTRODUCTION

There is a difference between learning organization and organizational learning, this section of the paper will seek to differentiate the two terms, also it will examine distinctions between a traditional organization and an organization that supports learning and finally review the approaches organization implement to implement learning in their structure.

LEARNING ORGANIZATION

To gain proper insight on what learning organization is and what is all about, basic questions need to be asked like, what is learning? What is learning organization?

Learning- is a method of acquiring new knowledge and skills through the gathering information. The ability to learn is possessed by humans and even some machines and this learning may occur as part of education, personal development or training; learning sometimes occurs without conscious knowledge.

Organizational Learning- According to Senge, learning organization is one in which it systematically and collectively learns from its own projects and programmes and from experiences of its respective stakeholders (Senge, 2000). This view implies that a learning organization constantly tries to regenerate new knowledge, it is therefore a place where employees with various tasks at different levels continue to absorb new knowledge.

Another definition of learning organization defined by Love and Heng (2000) is an organization structured to allow learning; having an organizational structure with the capacity to aid learning.

There is a difference between organizational learning and a learning organization and the key difference is that an organizational learning is a construct to describe and explain certain learning processes or type of learning activity while a learning organization is a particular type of organization with particular characteristics.

Learning and learning organization concept cannot be imposed, it requires an internal desire to learn and change. For learning to occur new relationship in organizations are to be developed and this development will introduce a new productive organization profile. A learning organization recognizes the ability and potential of its employees and endeavours to release that prospective, as well as realizing the need to become accustomed to change and also act in response to change.

LEARNING ORGANIZATION VERSUS A TRADITIONAL ORGANIZATION

Rohan (2013) reviewed some features of the traditional in opposition to the learning organization and the table below enumerates the difference between both of them.

Element

Traditional organization

Learning organization

Structure

Hierarchy

Dynamic networks

Transfer of Knowledge

Knowledge lives or remains in employees head’s, when they leave the organization the knowledge goes along with them.

Knowledge is transferred throughout the organization

Strategy

Top down approach where all the thinking is down by senior management; road map.

Everyone in the organization is consulted; learning map.

Change

Acquired knowledge is never put to use. Change is as a result reactions to events

Embraces change and puts the lessons learned to good use.

Learning process

Learning takes place by chance

Learning is planned; instituted learning processes and culture

Distinctive staff skills

Adaptive learning

Generative learning

Measurement System

Provides only financial measures; the basic needs like shelter and feeding

Covers both financial and non-financial measures; tailored to address self respect and self actualization

Table 1: Traditional organization versus learning organization. Source: Rohan, 2013

KEY DRIVERS FOR IMPLEMENTING A LEARNING ORGANIZATION

There are three main of drivers or building blocks for implementing a learning organization and these are mentioned below:

An environment that supports learning- employees in an that support learning tend to learn also by discovering and investigating, the encouragement to implement new things are present. This environment supports considerate re-evaluation as well as complete breakdown of the organizations procedures by employees (Garvin, et al, 2008).

Having the learning culture- a culture which supports learning is essential in the construction of a learning organization, as other culture hinder learning. Several rudiments of the learning culture is the readiness to embrace change, acceptance to disapproval, etc (Garvin, 2003).

Solid learning processes and practices that encourage learning- managers require advanced planning for learning and construct it into definite practices so it occurs by design or plan and not randomly (Garvin, 2003)

STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY ORGANIZATIONS

Senge, in this book suggested that there are five (5) strategic approaches that an organization have to put into practice to develop into learning organizations, these are:

Shared vision- creation of a shared vision that everyone can support, it is critical because it provides the focus and energy for learning. Learning organizations cannot excel without a shared vision not a personal vision but a shared one. (Senge, 1994)

Team learning- is the process of building the ability or skills of a team to generate the results its member’s desire. Team members have to get together to share ideas and knowledge; they are key for learning in organizations (Senge, 1994).

Systems Thinking- It aids in widening people’s perspective of things; the ability to see connections between issues, events and information as a whole or as patterns, rather than as a series of unrelated parts (Senge, 1994).

Personal mastery- employees have to make decisions for continuous learning and endeavour to be a better employee. Without Personal Mastery, individuals and organizations are unable to continue to learn how to create (Senge, 1994).

Mental Models- are the inner images which impact people in their understanding of the world and how they act. This model has to be change to explicit for it to be analyzed and exchanged. (Senge, 1994)

CONCLUSION

A Learning organization is one of the many approaches to management of change; it emphasises the value of employees and the structures and mechanisms which help employees feel valued therefore contribute to the development of their work and of the organization as a whole.

SECTION C: TECHNOLOGY AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

INTRODUCTION

Technology is ever growing and becoming the top revenue for the flow of information in enterprises/ companies; its function as a mechanism in KM cannot be disregarded yet there are suggestions that organizations grow cautious of IT while implementing KM.

This section looks into the function of technology in a knowledge management scheme as well as examining a knowledge management tool.

THE ROLE OF TECHNLOGY IN KM INITITIVES

Knowledge sharing and learning in organizations can take place impromptu; it is, nevertheless, more proficient if organized. The amount of information and knowledge that needs to be captured, stored and shared; the advancement of information makes the use of technology not a choice, but a requirement.

The focus of technology in KM is about more of connecting individuals to share knowledge than collecting the information, although there are tools available that assist individuals in the collection of knowledge.

According to an article by Dr. David, the author explained that technology plays an important part in controlling knowledge and there are application tools such as data mining, text mining, case based reasoning etc (David, 1998).

Technology by itself is not knowledge management however, knowledge management is often facilitated by technology and this technology provides solutions to knowledge management. Basically, technology is used to collect and store knowledge; it aids in enabling knowledge management processes and provides specialist tools.

According to Thinking (2004); Successful knowledge management requires both technology and organizational behaviour. An organization’s knowledge management is the process of technologies used to facilitate the collection, organization transfer and distribute knowledge between employees.

Technology also creates more value to the KM projects as it enhances efficiency, high productivity and aids in the transfer of knowledge across an organization and global infrastructure. It has enabled KM grow as a process within an organization.

Twitter is an excellent example of technology in KM because it helps different people connect with each other to share and discuss about different kinds of things; hereby transfer and acquiring new knowledge.

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE TOOL-DATA MINING

Data mining is best described as a business technology that is used for the extraction of interesting pattern or knowledge from huge amount of data. Data mining is also referred to as knowledge discovery in databases, information harvesting, business intelligence etc

It refers to an approach to Information management employed by managers to absorb as well as enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of their processes; it is a contemporary phrase for business reporting software.

One of the key steps in data mining is the data auditing; this involves putting together, categorizing, normalizing and proper encoding of data. The effectiveness of the data mining algorithm is largely dependent on the quality and completeness of the source data (Hyperion, 2005)

DATA MINING TASKS

Classification: It represents data into explained collections or patterns in reference to customer behaviour, which saves time; as it is technically induced.

Clustering: It clusters groups of similar data together

Link Analysis: It uncovers relationship among data; it has the capacity to plough and examine huge amount of data sets to envisage future developments, which determines the enablement for organizations to make knowledge motivated assessments.

Forecasting: The utilization of notable data to determine the direction of future trends also it is employed by organizations to decide how to assign resources for an upcoming period of time; is the procedure of the creation statements regarding events whose actual outcomes have not yet been observed.

Data mining is often performed on data stored in data warehousing, a key benefit to data mining it’s the ability of improving quality of information for managers to assist them in assessing and improving the performance of business process. An example is the IBM’s intelligent miner for data which is used for sophisticated data mining processes such as segmentation and prognostic modelling.

Fig 5- Data Mining process. Source- www.predictia.es/historia

CONCLUSION

Technology is more of an enabler than a driver; however, for Knowledge Management projects to thrive, the essential technological infrastructure, plus the right organizational behaviour should be implemented. The concept of data mining is simple yet powerful, it enables people discover unexpected information on an unaided basis.