Importance of Knowledge Management - Assignment Example

?Knowledge Management Knowledge is considered as one very important aspect in the effective running of competitive businesses dealing in service and support organizations. Knowledge management systems, on the other side, are very beneficial to organizations as they ensure that customers are satisfied and loyal to the services they get; higher efficiencies are achieved; and improved insights for enhancing services’ and products’ qualities, Broadbent, M. (1988). Knowledge management is concerned with enriching the effective application of organizational knowledge through recommended practices of information management and organizational learning with the main purpose of delivering value to any business. It is important to note that knowledge management, when effectively applied in business operations, gives a clear representation of a quantum shift for a number of business organizations. And so it will be for our case study scenario. Knowledge management is generally a form of implementation expertise-centered management that focuses upon working with human expertise so as to achieve the strategized business advantages, Broadbent, M. (1988). An illustrative diagram of the knowledge management protocols that should be implemented in any organization for effectiveness in information sharing and better communication between organizations’ managers and other staffs members of the organization is shown below. As shown in the above diagram, the cycle of knowledge management system is continuous; capturing management of information flows, capturing of organizational learning exercises, leveraging the organizational knowledge base and working on sustainable business value of the organization at large, Boynton, A. (1996). Considering the given scenario in relation to the theoretical and practical managerial operations, effective knowledge management is evidenced to support a number of implications through the continuous support of appropriate techniques to eliminate any occurrence of any operational inefficiency, and resultantly giving space for organizations to achieve their business values. Among the benefits that come with knowledge management in organizations include: - i. Knowledge management allows each team member of the working force with general/ whole experiences of the organization/ company, organized in the provided knowledge management system to enable for quicker, consistent and confidentiality in the handling of the organizations’ operational and managerial tasks. This therefore means that knowledge management helps to avoid reworks which are known to the managements as costly and common in situations of limited or no knowledge managerial skills. ii. Basing on the work as the main focus, knowledge management has demonstrated the benefits such as increased contact resolutions; decreased rates of escalations; advanced speed/ rates of performing tasks in terms of time utility; and finally, handling of the significant growths in clients related services and their satisfaction without any corresponding increase in the numbers of workers in that relation. iii. Considering situations where a client may wish to reach the management, effective knowledge management are mostly applicable to enable self-service all channels of choice as may be required by most clients. This practice allows clients to frequently get back to using an organization’s products or services, and consequently giving room for the organization’s workforce to highly concentrate on the high-value matters that require recommendable expertise. Case Analysis Organizations with well stipulated knowledge management systems in place have the characteristics of learning their own organizations with well structured and managed information flows and the general organizational behaviors in the areas of leadership, culture, managing people as assets, and both structures and processes. Having discussed the difficulties experienced in our case scenario, the importance of accessibility to and improved sharing of business information, quick dissemination of knowledge among employees, and effective communication roles and collective collaboration among employees and managers will help eliminate the difficulties that were identified in duty allocation. Lack of knowledge management practices was clearly epitomized. This was deduced due to lack of tacit knowledge among other employees. As organizations that recognize and practice knowledge management expectations, this organization under discussion should have organizational responsibilities of work force that are not just focused on the confined traditional or routine job descriptions. It is clear that this organization did not always communicate or share consistent and key information. This is a confirmation that not all work force members had access to the organization’s knowledge. As a result, it is recommendable that the organization’s knowledge management project team should come up with a corporate knowledge map that would capture and make it possible to access rich information sources (knowledge) within the organization. With the implementation of knowledge management practices, the management knowledge is spread among the managers and the general organizational work force to achieve a business strategy that is more competitive through the capabilities and capacities of all employees to be more flexible and innovative in terms of jobs allocated. Conclusion With increase in knowledge at work, richer forms and channels of communication are initiated and made very important. As managers, there is need to know other employees in the organizations or companies, their fields of expertise and nature of the work outputs. This therefore would bring home the understanding that knowledge management, in itself as a practice, requires a total and multidisciplinary approach to all organizational management processes and better understanding of the dimensions of knowledge work. It (knowledge management) should hence be the evolution of good management practices within organizations that are sensibly and purposefully used for everyday’s’ running of organizations. Organizational information politics, which go hand-in-hand with knowledge management, is always set for the purpose of providing deeper understanding of the reasons behind some organizations’ failures and other organizations’ success in their sheer efforts to enhance their knowledge management. In a nut shell, the idea of knowledge management in the aspect of organizational management can be summarized as to be aimed at improving knowledge, knowledge-related practices, general organizational behaviors and decisions, and finally the organizational performances in relation to other organizations. The whole idea of knowledge management rests with a main focus on knowledge processing, refining, acquisition, storage, transfer, sharing and utilization among all recommended members of the organizations; with the set objectives of improving the organizational behaviors, methods of decision making, resultant products and services, managerial processes and good relationships among workers to make it possible for the organization to enhance its overall productivity and performance. References Broadbent, M. (1988) “Information Management and Educational Pluralism,' Education for Information, 2:3, September 1984, 209-227; Broadbent, M. & Koeing, M. "Information and Information Technology Management: Converging Concerns and Literatures", Annual Review of Information Science and Technology 1988. Edited by Martha Williams, Vol 23. Published for the American Society of Information Science by Elsevier, 237-270 Boynton, A. (1996). "Knowledge Management Map", extracted from "Exploring Opportunities in Knowledge Management", Knowledge Management Symposium: Leveraging Knowledge for Business Impact, IBM Consulting Group, Sydney. Read More