Knowledge Management Systems For More Democratic Organizations

Their solution was to develop a knowledge management portal on the company’s intranet. Good planning is important because the company is a large business. Logging in and inputting data can be challenging if everyone is out on the field gathering information then remembering to input what’s relevant to the current situation.

This chapter reviews the related literature on knowledge management. It is divided into five main sections. The first section presents conceptual framework for the study elucidating key concepts of the study. The second section discusses the theoretical framework where key theories informing the study are discussed. In this section knowledge management theories and models are discussed and linked to the study. Section three reviews a critical review of the existing literature on the subject of knowledge management. In this section empirical studies are interrogated and critiqued to identify important variables which are relevant in this study. The current international knowledge coordination systems and knowledge management best practices will be evaluated. The literature review ends with a discussion of knowledge management critical success factors (knowledge enablers) related to the objectives of this study. The need for top management commitment in knowledge management processes is examined. The effect of organizational

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

While Knowledge Management (KM) is important in any business however, there is no real agreed upon definition. KM is a concept that includes the

Knowledge can refer to a theoretical or practical understanding of a subject. It can be tacit (as with practical skill or expertise) or explicit (as with the theoretical understanding of a subject); it can be more or less formal or systematic. Botha et al (2008) pointed out that tacit and explicit knowledge should be seen as a spectrum rather than as definitive points. Therefore, in practice, all knowledge is a mixture of tacit and explicit elements rather than being one or the other. The most important distinction within KM is between explicit and tacit knowledge. The overload of data is making knowledge management increasingly more important as it facilitates decision-making capabilities; builds learning organizations by making learning routine, and stimulates cultural change and innovation.

Since the mid-1990s, knowledge management has become increasingly significant for business managers and companies. ‘It is broadly accepted that systematic knowledge management is tightly linked with gaining and sustaining competitive advantage.’ (Bogner & Bansal, 2007, p658-6 as cited in Hislop, 2009, p1) The definition of knowledge management is various because of the wide range of this concept and its complexity (Al-Hawamdeh, 2003). For example, the broad definition provided by McAdam and McCreedy (2000, p155 as cited in Hislop 2009, p53) note that: ‘KM relates to the management of anything classified as knowledge’ Furthermore, Hislop (2009, p59)

Call, D. (2005). Knowledge management - not rocket science. Journal of Knowledge Management. (April) p.19-30. [Online]. Available from: http://www.emeraldinsight.com.ezproxy.staffs.ac.uk/doi/abs/10.1108/13673270510590191 [Accessed: 20 November 2016].

Chapter 12 generally discusses the various processes that assist in managing business knowledge. The author of this chapter demonstrates clearly to the readers how knowledge management is closely related to information systems in three unique ways. The author also gives a clear explanation on why data, knowledge, and information should not in any way be viewed as interchangeable in any way. According to this chapter, knowledge is considered to be more valuable as compared to information that is more valuable as compared data due to the level of human contribution that is involved. The chapter on “managing business knowledge” elaborates on the two forms of knowledge that include explicit and tacit categories.

In the contemporary corporate cultural based world, a knowledge management system (KMS) is considered an important element to assist the sharing and integration of knowledge within the organization. An effective knowledge management strategy is capable of resolving knowledge management issue arises at any level in the organization (top management-to-bottom management level). A successful KMS also helps in increasing the overall business performance through ensuring staff performance, project management, organizational change management, quality of deliverables and the satisfaction of the staffs and customers. On the other side a lack of implementation of proper knowledge management system may hinder the performance of the staffs and the overall productiveness for the organization.

Consolidate knowledge for use: as more CoPs form and share their knowledge, information overload and relevance of knowledge become issues. This phase is dominated by the need to impose structure and standards on the core knowledge bases, and to ensure adequate management of the Web, or any other means of linking and accessing the growing knowledge stores. The organisation discovers the need to balance freedom of expression and business focus.

The concepts of knowledge and management have been around for a while. However, the combination of “knowledge management” is quite contemporary (Alvesson, 2001). It is widely accepted that knowledge is the most valuable resources in the modern organizations. Therefore, the sharing of knowledge in organizations is regarded as a significant way of making knowledge play a greater role in organizations. As a result, the capabilities to capture knowledge and manage knowledge have gained a great amount of attention gradually (Geiger, 2012). Accordingly, the occurrence of modern communication technologies, such as internet, intranet, e-mail and the world-wide web, allows for real-time interaction despite the physical distance, laying the foundation for the rapid development of KM (Hanson, 1999).

It has become explicit that knowledge management is not just another fad which has been hyped up by the management consultants and technology vendors. (Remenyi, 2004).It is not facile to implement knowledge management successfully; in as much as it offers. Knowledge management panaceas depending on technology have not produced convincing results considering that more money has been spent. Remenyi went on to say that knowledge management is far more than a technological issue and thus, what is really entailed is a rethink with a prominence on the people side of knowledge management and such approach is the use of a knowledge café.

KM is a discipline that promotes an integrated approach for identification, capture, retrieval, distribution, sharing, use and reuse of information and knowledge assets. Through this discipline, staff, processes and technologies will be aligned to drive the realisable value and benefits of the information provided and knowledge assets and contribute to the organisational efficiency, effectiveness and innovation. Despite the continuing interest among researchers and practitioners on KM, however, KM still remains a mystic to senior executives in an organisation filled with obscure terminologies and often, treated as a marginal periphery.

Knowledge management is defined as the productive handling of information and resources within a firm for best decision-making process (Jashapara 2010). The main objective of knowledge management within an organisation is to enhance performance by empowering personnel to obtain, share and employ their collective information in order for them to make the right decisions when required (Sokhanvar, et al., 2014). Knowledge management entails more than technologies used for tracking or sharing information, it is also about creation of practice, developing trusted content and forming networks within and outside the organisation. In order to understand about an organisation’s knowledge management practice, one needs to understand the organisational structure in which it is found. Some organisation’s culture dictate the manner in which people interact and collaborate as regards to information is handled for the success of the organisation. Such organisations indoctrinate their employees on the value of knowledge and the significance of collaborating with each other. In addition, such organisations have support structures that facilitate this process such as mentorship programs. On the contrary, that do not act on their resources and information because they do not have mechanisms that support networking, collaboration and sharing of information. This consequently leads to a situation of negligence by the employees and to the detriment of the organisation. The paper

Knowledge management is a large term and can mean a number of things. For the purpose of this paper, the definition of knowledge management that I will recognize is the creation, development, and sharing of knowledge and information within an organization. However the problem remains, as well as the topic of this paper, exactly how effective is knowledge management in an organization. Furthermore, the key question that I hope to answer in this paper is how the use and development of knowledge can be managed in an organization. Although there are countless pieces of literature on knowledge management itself, and there have been proposals that link knowledge management to a company’s performance, to this date there are very few papers that attempt to measure the effectiveness of knowledge management within an organization. Overall, my objective of this paper is to compare two separate companies and first, find out how to measure the value of knowledge management, and second, find out how beneficial it is to the organization.