Communication in Business - Dissertation Example

?Knowledge Management and Its Benefits to Business ID Number: 11346206 Module: BBSD541 Research Report Waikato Institute of Technology Hamilton 12 September 2012 Preface The research has been conducted by Muteb Zaylaee to consider learning on knowledge management and its benefits to business for the assignment of Business Communication Report and is due on September 12th, 2012 at 4:00 pm. Executive Summary Knowledge management has become one of the most significant concepts benefitting businesses through the availability of knowledge sharing and better measures of handling information and knowledge. This has proved to be beneficial in achieving the goals of organizations successfully. Competition among business organizations has become intense. This leads to the need for measures being undertaken that can enable organizations to gain competitive advantages over others. Knowledge sharing and management proves to be one such significant measure that can benefit organizations. This is primarily because knowledge management practices enable the employees of an organization to significantly share all necessary knowledge among themselves allowing them to become experts in handling information as well as different situations successfully. Thus the overall functions of the organizations also get served effectively and efficiently. The following research has thus been based on learning about the concept and meaning of knowledge management and the benefits that it has for businesses. This has helped clarify the importance of incorporating knowledge management into management systems. Contents Executive Summary 3 1Introduction 5 1.1Purpose 5 1.2Scope 5 1.3Method 5 2Analysis 6 2.1Knowledge Management 6 2.2Why Businesses need knowledge management 6 2.3Benefits of knowledge management to Businesses 8 2.4Specific Examples of Benefits 9 3Conclusion 10 4Recommendations 10 Bibliography 11 1 Introduction Every organization in order to develop its core competencies and to learn to adapt to the new situations learn to take insights and experience. This ability of the organizations to actually experience and learn from the way they operate is considered as knowledge management. Practiced by organization since last many years, knowledge management actually allows organizations to identify their unique resources, critical functions and core competencies which are considered as essential to understand in order to fully handle strategic operations of the firm. Its significance therefore is of primary nature and organizations benefit from knowledge management because it allows them to learn and to adapt to the new and changing situations easily. 1.1 Purpose The overall purpose of this research is to understand as to what knowledge management and how organizations can actually use it to their benefit. Particularly, this research report will focus upon determining the benefits which can be driven by the organizations by implementing knowledge management practices. 1.2 Scope The overall scope of this research study is limited to the understanding of the benefits of knowledge management to the organizations with a purpose to outline as to how such benefits can be utilized by the organizations. 1.3 Method This research study is based upon the use of secondary sources therefore data gathering tools such as interviews and questionnaires have not been used. It is however, critical to note that credible journals, peer reviewed articles, books and good quality online resources have been used for the purpose of this study. 2 Analysis This section will describe the overall concept of knowledge management, what it is and how it can actually benefit an organization. 2.1 Knowledge Management Knowledge management provides measures and information which can collectively be used by the organizations for better understanding of their processes in order to better utilize them for business purposes. It therefore prepares employees for the better understanding of new ideas and how to utilize them innovatively in order to achieve the organizational objectives. Knowledge management also allows organizations and employees to better respond to different and unique challenges and remain prepared for the future challenges also. (P.sharma, 2005) 2.2 Why Businesses need knowledge management Knowledge management believe to be generating more value for the firms as the new technologies and their capabilities have been able to deliver value which was otherwise not possible. Content management systems, data mining and searching technologies have vastly improved the way organizations now create and deliver more value. This could however been possible only because organizations need knowledge management in order to take advantage of such capabilities and opportunities. (Becerra-Fernandez & Sabherwal, 2010) Various research studies have indicated that the knowledge management must be properly integrated and blended with the business intelligence in order to deliver required value to the organizations. It therefore allows an organization to actually learn from its own experiences and understanding. The source of knowledge therefore is the organization itself therefore particular activities of knowledge management help organizations to acquire knowledge and expertise which help them to understand their own circumstances and learn from past experience. Organizations therefore can easily deal with the issues such dynamic learning, strategic planning as well as decision making. (Davis, Subrahmanian, & Westerberg, 2005) Knowledge management also influences the intellectual assets of the firm and therefore allows organization to better network with the customers. As a result of the learning taking place due to knowledge management, organizations can create more satisfaction for the customers and theoretically can also develop a more profitable business. Knowledge management, in its core, also involves confining, systemizing as well as storing knowledge and experiences of the software engineers and makes them available at the enterprise wide level. This collected information is made available to all the enterprise level and thus creates a cohesive environment in which employees can benefit from the knowledge sharing activities of each other. (Koohang, Harman, & Britz, 2008) To take full advantage of the knowledge management within the organization, the overall motivation of the employees is one of the critical components. To disseminate the benefits of knowledge management across the whole organization and to establish the process, it is critical that employees remain motivated. It is critical that employees should take active part in the establishment of this process and become more aligned towards sharing their experiences in order to help other employees as well as the organization to learn. If employees are not motivated to share, knowledge management may become relatively difficult to manage and organization may not be able to achieve the required benefits from its efforts to manage knowledge across the whole organization. 2.3 Benefits of knowledge management to Businesses Though knowledge management can offer benefits in many ways however, there are three important categories which have been identified to provide most of the benefits. These three categories are: 1. Knowledge 2. Intermediate 3. Organizational The benefits accrued through knowledge are also instant and can be observed immediately as organizations tend to see results in terms of different parameters. Some of the benefits include improved information management as well as enhanced understanding of the knowledge management. This also allows organizations to locate the information relatively faster and decide as to how this information can actually help the organization to achieve its strategic objectives. Intermediate benefits can be achieved when the overall productivity and efficiency of the employees is increased due to effective handling of knowledge and information. It is however, critical to understand that the intermediate benefits can be achieved when the overall knowledge sharing mechanism is effective. Employees need to become more productive in order to show that organization is actually moving into the right direction in terms of managing its knowledge and overall resources of the organization. Organizational benefits however are considered as overall benefits which an organization receives as a result of the proper management of knowledge at the organization wide level. These benefits are also transformed to the organization as a whole when processes adapted as a result of the knowledge management actually adds up to the organization after it properly implements knowledge management tools. 2.4 Specific Examples of Benefits Overall knowledge management within the organizations mostly benefits individuals who search for knowledge and understand that it can be readily available from different sources across the whole organization. Through knowledge management, knowledge is actually categorized within the organization and employees know about the overall significance of knowledge and how to use it, it becomes evident for employees to use available information for the overall benefit of the organization. This factor can also help employees to understand the organization, its policies, processes as well as other employees in more effective manner. (Rollett, 2003) Knowledge management also adds to the capacity of understanding the problems more quickly and uses innovative thoughts to actually solve the problems easily. This is due to the fact that employees know that information is available and have the knowledge to actually use such information to derive solutions for the problems. Knowledge management can also allow new employees to become more effective as they will clearly defined criteria and information required to become more productive in new working environment. By having readily accessible knowledge base, new employees can actually become better prepared to deal with the challenges which may be new to them. Since the sharing of knowledge becomes easier therefore new as well as existing employees don’t have to re-work for each problem. By having access to the knowledge, they would just have to access to the information, they would immediately know what to do under a given circumstance rather than actually reworking on each problem from scratch. (Christensen, 2003) It is critical to note that certain benefits of the knowledge management are directly related with the profitability of the firm. However, some benefits may be relatively difficult to be quantified as organizations. In order to take full benefits of the knowledge management and achieve effective utilization of the intellectual resources of the firm, it is important that knowledge should be shared across the whole organization. 3 Conclusion Above discussion suggests that the concept of knowledge management can help organizations to better utilize their intellectual assets and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the employees. By implementing knowledge management practices, organizations can actually set up shared knowledge processes allows organizations to become more disciplined in finding solutions to their problems. Organizations take advantage of knowledge management at different levels i.e. knowledge, intermediate and organizational however, the level of benefits differs at each level. At the organizational level, organization takes benefit of the knowledge management when knowledge management processes are shared across the whole organization. 4 Recommendations Organizations should learn about the knowledge management and implement it across the whole organization in order to effectively take advantage of the knowledge management processes. The benefits should be made clear to the organizational employees so that they collaborate to the extent possible; otherwise, the success of the process is not possible. Particular research work needs to be conducted by every organization in order to determine why and how knowledge sharing and management can facilitate them in this era of competition. Bibliography Becerra-Fernandez, I., & Sabherwal, R. (2010). Knowledge Management: Systems and Processes. New York: M.E. Sharpe. Christensen, P. H. (2003). Knowledge Management: Perspectives and Pitfalls. Copenhegan: Copenhagen Business School Press DK. Davis, J., Subrahmanian, E., & Westerberg, A. (2005). Knowledge Management: Organizational and Technological Dimensions. London: Springer. Koohang, A., Harman, K., & Britz, J. (2008). Knowledge Management: Research and Application. London: Informing Science. P.sharma. (2005). Knowledge Management. New Delhi: APH Publishing . Rollett, H. (2003). Knowledge Management: Processes and Technologies. London: Springer. Read More