Social Network, Knowledge Management and Innovation at Unilever

What is knowledge? Everyone has acquired some type of knowledge in their lifetime, either if it’s helpful or destructive. People utilize their knowledge for many varieties of things, such as acquiring excellent grades, working at their job or even outwit people they shouldn’t have. Many people misuse the acquirement of knowledge, by generating things they shouldn’t have manufactured. Knowledge can be beneficial as in assisting you reach your goals in life, but also can take you to dark places you don’t want to think about.

Knowledge is much more than the transmitted or acquired information.  It is the awareness and understanding of facts, truths or beliefs resulting from perception, learning and reasoning.

Knowledge is the framework for understanding information and using it to inform judgements, opinions, predictions and decisions – a pyramidal relationship (See diagram 1)

Knowledge is “thinking and critical reflection, rather than reliance on the way things appear to us” (Internet Encyclopedia, n.d., para.

Knowledge: It is information that has been synthesized so that relations and interactions are defined and formalized; Knowledge answers questions of “why” or “how”. It explores options.

In the book written by Nonaka (2000), presented a summary of the ideas that underlie the notion of knowledge: (1) Knowledge is justified true believe; (2) Knowledge is something that is explicit (tacit knowledge); (3) knowledge creation effectively dependent on the context that allows the creation of occurrence; (4) knowledge creation involves five main steps are: a). Sharing knowledge explicitly (tacit knowledge), b) created the concept, c). Justifying concepts, d). Build a prototype, and e). Do the dissemination of knowledge.

Knowledge is the condition of competently doing something with familiarity gained through experience. Defined in simple terms, knowledge refers to the condition of knowing something. If man did not have knowledge there would be no such thing as skyscrapers, automobiles, nor electricity. Every person in society no matter their social class need knowledge in order to survive.

Knowledge is a characteristic of a person that influences the person’s behavioral potential. Since knowledge, itself, cannot be directly observed, it must be inferred from observing performance on a test, e.g. questions designed to determine the beliefs of a person about, say, adding two-digit numbers. Knowledge has been conventionally defined as beliefs that are true and are justified. It is reasonable to think of a ((true)) belief as one that is in accord with the way in which objects, people, processes and events exist and behave in the real world. Also, it is the information of understanding and skills that are gained through education or experience (Oxford Learners Dictionary, 2001).

We cannot deny how big of an impact social media has on our lives now, not only on people but businesses too. It has opened a whole new door to the business world and given them a big opportunity to interact and attract a larger amount of customers. It’s given us a new and faster way of communication by exchanging pictures, stories, news, blogs, online discussions, etc. In exchange businesses have benefited by a long shot just by the click of a button. With the help of the Internet a company no longer is dependent on a particular customer base to survive because now it can reach out to a worldwide audience within seconds. It’s imaginable the countless business attributes of all social media to this day and still is growing. Social media

Social media is capable of connecting a brand with its consumers and discover how they are being perceived, it also has the power to change perceptions and identify the key people within the business network. The unique feature of social media is that it can provide corporations and businesses solutions developed through operating with consumers and stakeholders. Basically, social media serves as a visible connection to one’s corporation and its stakeholders, consumers, suppliers, etc, who each have a defined role within the system to filter and regulate information. As mentioned earlier, the influence of social media is spreading in a proliferative pace that has resulted to an essential transformation in society, technology and business customs.

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.

This paper, therefore, explores, discusses and analyzes the integrated role of Learning organization (as a structural entity) and the organizational learning (as an intrinsic know-how process) that

Knowledge is defined to be facts, information, and skills acquired through experience or education. There are two categories that fall under knowledge; personal knowledge and shared knowledge. Shared knowledge refers to what “we know because.” It can also be defined as communicated and constructed knowledge; within culture, social norms, and semiotics. Personal knowledge refers to “I know because.” An expanded definition of personal knowledge refers to personal experiences, values, and perceptions. Shared knowledge changes and evolves over time because of methods that are continuously shared. It is assembled by a group of people. Personal knowledge, on the other hand, depends crucially on the experiences of a particular individual. It is gained

Organisational learning can be seen as the goal of knowledge management and may be obtained by good knowledge management strategies and processes. By motivating the creation, dissemination and application of knowledge, KM initiatives pay off by helping the organization embed knowledge into organisational processes so that it can continuously improve its practices and behaviours and pursue the achievement of its goals.

Social media creates value to any phase of product development process. It builds a customer-centric organisational structure that increases the interaction and intimacy between the company and its consumer. It has the capability to change the market structures and relations between market participants profoundly (Piller, Vossen & lhl, 2011). Small companies usually prefer social media in NPD to increase its market potentials and resources, stay competitive and be connected with its consumers. Large organisation, similarly, used social media to improve the relationship with the consumers and expand the user community. With social media technologies, companies can easily monitor online communities, develop new communication channels, and enhance their understanding on the customer needs (Rajagopal, 2013). Source of innovation can also be gathered with relatively low investments. The network can even grow bigger when a social user recommends the community platform to another user.