Balancing Act, Importance of Knowledge Management in Business Organization - Essay Example

Balancing Act Introduction The present article is about the use and importance of knowledge management in business organization. The generation of knowledge within the organization and the method to be used for managing has been discussed. Objective of the article The article revolves around the need of knowledge management system and how much it should be used against the business process reengineering. The main objective of the writer is to clarify the extent of the use of the knowledge management and reengineering in the business organization. The writer clarifies the various aspects of the knowledge management. He also stressed upon the usage of the knowledge management in different areas of the business. The writer also tried to find out how much knowledge should be circulated and also weather all the generated knowledge should be circulated among the employees as the norm or the required assistance. The writer tried to find out the usage of the normal processes which are generally used to generate and circulate the knowledge required by the employees. He tried to establish the importance of the knowledge and the process. The main reason for writing the article was to analyze and assess the importance of knowledge management and the implementation of the same in the organization. For any organization restructuring of business process is very important but how this restructuring would be done, what should be the exact process of doing the restructuring and to what extent the restructuring (which is initiated by the top management) should be done with the knowledge management( which is mainly initiated from the employees) and how both the things can be balanced so that the organization is benefited from both the concepts optimally is the most important objective of the article. Analysis The main objective of the authors was to identify the importance of knowledge which is many times generated at the grass root level and managing the same by analyzing the knowledge which has been generated at the grass root level and choosing the most efficient one and circulating it through the process of the organization and the norm or guidelines which could be used by the other employees of the organization. To an extent the authors met their purpose as they have identified and analyzed the reasons behind the importance of the knowledge management. The authors at first analyzed the processes which are generally used to bring any change within the organization. The authors started their analysis by the concept of reengineering. Reengineering is used to reorganize the business process as per the changes the market situations. Then the authors argued that sticking only to the reengineering process to gain competitive advantage cannot lead the company in the long run as this concept has became very common. The authors argued that to gain competitive advantage the company should concentrate on those activities which can add value to the organization and its products and services. They also cited that if the value is created by converting the limitation and the problems into advantages then it would be most beneficial way of bringing change and also gaining competitive advantage. The authors analyzed the various ways in which knowledge can be created and the various situations which could stimulate the process of knowledge creation. The authors also analyzed the different ways and the process by which the knowledge can be filtered and can be used as effective information and the employees can access the same. The authors also used various real life examples to analyze how the knowledge can be managed and can be used by the organization with the help of the formal processes which are laid down by the senior management. Thus to the extent of identifying the importance and the usage of knowledge management and the use of the formal processes, the authors have succeeded in fulfilling their objective. Evidence supporting the argument In the article the authors argued that if the knowledge is managed efficiently then it can add value to the company and can give a competitive advantage to the company. The authors also cited the importance of the official processes which are formed by the management in utilizing the knowledge created among the employees. The argument and the different analysis done by the authors are supported well by the real life examples of Xerox Company. Like, the authors cited the example of Eureka database of Xerox Company which helped the company to save 100 million dollar. This database was created by the employees of the Xerox Company who through the database shared the knowledge which was created through their practical experience. The authors supported the importance of the official channels for the effective management of knowledge by describing the process of creation of Eureka database. The importance of experiments and informal communication was also supported by the various observations done by the authors in Xerox Company. Theoretical perspective The authors wrote the article using many theoretical models. The authors stated the importance of the knowledge management in the business. The argued about the importance of managing the knowledge and utilizing the informal techniques like storytelling and informal chatting during the office hours. The main concepts which have been used by the authors in the article are the concepts of knowledge management, strategic stories and community of practices. Knowledge management can be defined as the process by which organization’s information needs can be identified, managed and can be shared. The information can be in form of database or policy or any document or any procedure or any expert untapped information which any employee has generated while working in the company. It consists of employees, formal processes and technologies which are used in the organization in such a way so that useful information can be generated and can be delivered to the staff that needs it at the correct time. It can be described as the discipline where both the organization and the employees acquire knowledge and also share them (Geisler and Wickramasinghe, 2009, p.4). The organizations should have definite purpose for using knowledge management in business. The main purpose for using knowledge management in the organization is to utilize the present knowledge which the company has and to pool up more knowledge which has been generated by the employees and mobilizing the same within the organization to achieve the organizational objective. It employees who are engaged in a particular work generally posses more knowledge about that work than the manager who is defining the processes and the techniques to be used in the work floor because the employees who are actually dealing with that work faces many times many types of problems which cannot be thought of without actually working on it. There are also some strange problems which are very rare and cannot be thought beforehand. The employees who handle these types of problems are more knowledgeable to deal with it. These types of knowledge which are generated from the day to day activity are managed through knowledge management system (Gao, Meng and Clarke, 2008, p.9). Along with the knowledge management, the authors also used the concept of strategic stories and community of practices. The concept of strategic story deals with the use of storytelling as an effective way of communication. Through stories one can visualize the subject matter which helps to understand the topic more clearly and can be remembered for a long period of time. The third concept, community of practices can be described as the communities or the groups where people share their view on something and at the same time learn different ways in which things can be done and problems can be solved by interacting regularly. These are the informal groups in which people share their experience, mistakes and also the different problems which they faced while working. Business organization can use this concept by identifying these communities, knowing the knowledge developed in these groups and combining the knowledge with that of the organizational goal (Wenger and Snyder, 2000, p.145). Critical evaluation In the article the authors described the importance of knowledge management. They cited the various reasons for which knowledge management should be used in the business organizations. The article focuses on the methods which can be used for generating the knowledge and managing the same. Many concepts like community of practices and strategic stories were also used for analyzing haw the knowledge generated in the organization can be utilized in the business. All these statements were supported by real life examples. The author analyzed the knowledge management without analyzing the technological aspect of the knowledge management. In today’s business world information system is very vital for all activities. Therefore the authors should have included the technological aspect of knowledge management that is the knowledge management system should also have been discussed. The implementation of knowledge management system is very important for effectively managing the knowledge. The article should have incorporated the implementation of the knowledge management system and should also have analyzed the various issues related with the knowledge management system. One of the major limitations of the article is that it does not clarify how the company can balance the reengineering with the knowledge management system which is also one of the objectives of the article. The article mainly focuses on the knowledge management and has ignored the business process reengineering. The article should have analyzed the business process reengineering and how the companies could be benefited from it. Over all, the article fulfills the entire objective except that how the knowledge management can be balanced with the business process reengineering. Changes to be made Over all, the article clearly gives an idea about the knowledge management and its importance for achieving the organizational objective. It has also shown the various ways in which the existing knowledge and the formal organizational structure and also the process can be used for developing the knowledge and at the same time developing it. The article also has some room for changes. First of all, the business process reengineering can be discussed in a more comprehensive way. The need, importance and the limitation of both the knowledge management and the business process reengineering can be discussed in details. A detail comparison of both the concepts that the knowledge management and the reengineering (including the technology which will be used for implementing the concepts in the company) can be done from the point of view of business operations. Also, an analysis can be made on how both the concepts can be established in a balance way which will help the organization in fulfilling its objectives. Conclusion The article clarifies the importance of knowledge management and how it can be developed for the benefit of the organization. The articles does not give a very clear idea on how the organization can use the knowledge management and reengineering simultaneously or otherwise for the achieving the organizational goals. Reference Gao, F. Meng, L. & Clarke, S. (2008). Knowledge, management, and knowledge management in business operations. [Pdf]. Available at: http://www.learnership.co.uk/archive/32.pdf. [Accessed on: September 1, 2011]. Geisler, E. & Wickramasinghe, N. (2009). Principles of knowledge management: theory, practices, and cases. USA: M.E. Sharpe. Wenger, E. C. & Snyder, W. M. (2000). Communities of practice the organizational frontier. [Pdf]. Available at: http://itu.dk/people/petermeldgaard/B12/lektion%207/Communities%20of%20Practice_The%20Organizational%20Frontier.pdf. [Accessed on: September 1, 2011]. Read More