Knowledge Loss And Knowledge Management

Hislop, D. (2013). Knowledge management in organizations: A critical introduction (3rd ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

The superior capabilities of knowledge management systems provide an opportunity for the business to engage the most effective components and recognize the importance of communication to make informed, accurate decisions (McGrath, 2001). This system can organize the company’s knowledge resources, knowledge obtaining, organizing, and applying to make a sound routine the will enforce effectiveness (Niu, 2008). The dynamic function of knowledge management to create, capture, and apply knowledge to achieve an organization’s objective will allow them to be more profitable and successful (Zucker, 1986). In addition to increasing profits, the system can be also used to reduce costs and enhance research and development (DeTienne & Jackson, 2001). With all of these advantages, it would be wasteful for a company to not employ knowledge management. As seen in the Discovery Communications, Inc. example, the company can attribute their new productivity levels and increase in ease of securing documents to the knowledge management system that put into place by Carefree Technology. Like Discovery Communications, Inc., knowledge management is so popular today because companies can collect, process and share knowledge to ignite employees ' creativity which in turn will make the business grow. Wenhong and Jianhua (2009) explained the core of knowledge management is to convert company’s knowledge resources into an increased company

The knowledge loss is unavoidable at every organization. Thus, the strategies for knowledge retention are included not only retaining knowledge but also active knowledge recovery. There are three ways that managers can use for knowledge recovery

The problem for this dissertation study test the challenges associated with creating, capturing and sharing knowledge. Doda (2017) describes this method as knowledge management. This method uses a critical goal of improving learning and performance in an organizational framework. Knowledge management as theory and a model was improved by Dalkir in 2005 (Atieh & Somayeh, 2017).

Within the Army organizations of today knowledge management plays a huge role in the dissemination of information to the unit and it’s soldiers. This is no different for the aviation unit in which I operate. This information can be found in FM 6-01.1, Knowledge Management Operations. It defines knowledge management as the process of enabling knowledge flow to enhance shared understanding, learning, and decision-making. But when the unit was surveyed about their understanding of knowledge management the results were surprising.

"Knowledge management is the set of practices aimed at discovering and harnessing an organization 's intellectual resources. It 's about finding, unlocking, sharing, and altogether capitalizing on the most precious resources of an organization: people 's expertise, skills, wisdom, and relationships. Knowledge managers find these human assets, help people collaborate and learn, help people generate new ideas, and harness those ideas into successful innovations" (Bateman, 2004, p.8-9). One of the most important factors of change in management is the growing need for good, new ideas. Knowledge management is an approach that allows people to produce change. It 's bringing people together and collecting ideas from

Knowledge management is a concept that is widely known in many organizations but despite the concept being around for more than two decades, a universally accepted meaning of the term is yet to be outlined. Knowledge management is a concept that is concerned with the aspect of learning something before putting it into action. The concept is also involved with creating a platform which will allow exploration of new types of knowledge. The created knowledge may then be incepted in the minds of the employees to add value to the products or services they deliver. What is important to note is that as far as KM is concerned, it does not go beyond storing and manipulating data or information. Knowledge transfer to decision makers will need the development of a structured approach to ensure that it is available on demand. When considering the department of labor, you would appreciate the need for implementation of this strategy. Many departments hoard information thus making it tough to access

It has been argued that within the short space of time between defining knowledge management and it becoming a common phrase, many organisations stated one of their main aims as ‘leveraging organisational knowledge’ (Ruggles, 1998). It is with this in mind that organisations must be aware of their knowledge workers, the information they hold and any potential knowledge based changes that may need to be implemented to help their success, or even, survival.

Knowledge management is critical to organizations. According to Gregory R. Wenig, knowledge management is consists of activities from its own experience and from the experience of others, and on the judicious application of that knowledge to fulfill the mission of the organization. In my point of view, I think that knowledge management is performed by organization to appropriately handle, distribute, and transfer assets of knowledge, experience, and ideas from individual

Therefore, since knowledge is very valuable to organisations, it can become a problem when there is a possibility of this knowledge leaving the organisation. Due to the nature of organisational knowledge being mostly tacit and stored in the head of employees, employee turnover can become a serious issue for organisations as that knowledge leaves when employees leave (Beazley H et al, 2002). This phenomenon is known as Knowledge Loss, which is a reduction in organisational knowledge. Knowledge loss should not be mistaken for Organisational forgetting (unlearning) as the latter replaces lost knowledge (voluntary) with new knowledge while the former is not replaced. When knowledge is lost, not only is their (employee) independent knowledge lost, relations relational knowledge with the internal and external social network [fellow employees and customers] (Massignham P, 2008; Parise S et al, 2006).

In a knowledge organization there is little “machinery” or tangible assets other than the employees. Employee competence is the muscle behind the people and the computers.The knowledge that employees bring to the table in ability and competence, if not expertise, must be considered intangible assets.

Also the firm must ensure that the learning of employees is directed in some form regardless of whether the learning is controlled or uncontrolled so that learning is in the best interest of the firm. The correct implemenation and structuring of a knowledge managemnt framework can provide the firm with both a highly skilled competent/profecient workforce but the wrong direction of such a framework or non understanding of skill need/environmental issues can lead to the overall business objectives and company competivness being completely eroded.

As we move from the information age into what Simson, Downe, and Ahmad (2011) call the knowledge age, knowledge is power. Ideally, the power lies with the organizations that are able to leverage knowledge for competitive advantage (Okorafor, 2014). More often than not, however, the power lies with the individual who possess the knowledge; often, that individual develops a sense of knowledge ownership which influences knowledge behaviors (Husted & Michailova, 2002; Peng, 2013; Wang & Noe, 2010). According to Nonaka (1991, p 96), “[i]n an economy where the only certainty is uncertainty, the one source of lasting competitive advantage is knowledge.” The inevitable retirement of the more than 67 million eligible individuals and subsequent loss of employee knowledge, experience, and skills may signify a considerable loss of competitive advantage for organizations (Appelbaum et al., 2012). In an effort to leverage knowledge for competitive advantage, organizations must focus on recruiting new personnel with desirable knowledge skills or abilities and on implementing knowledge management systems (KMS) which capture, share, and use existing individual knowledge.

Knowledge based decisions are influenced by many issues and amongst them is the intrinsic characteristics. According to Stewart (1991), while knowledge is increasingly viewed as a commodity or intellectual asset, there are some paradoxical characteristics of knowledge that are radically different notably. By passing on knowledge to others does not mean that you lose it. Much of an organization’s valuable knowledge walks out of the door at the end of the each day.

Employee turnover creates a significant economic impact when critical employees, especially given the knowledge that is lost with the employee’s departure (Ramlall, 2004). It can further be concluded that employees who remain with the company for longer periods of time contributes to the overall goal of the company and becomes an integral part of the team.