The Importance of Knowledge Management for Better Information System Management - Coursework Example

Title: The importance of knowledge management for better information system management Abstract Information system management entails the different strategies, methods, practices and ways that have been laid by a particular organization to represent, create, identify and distribute as well as adopt to the experiences and insights observed in the business on the process of its running (Ankita 23). There are a number of advantages of sharing knowledge in an organization which are as follows. It leads to improved level of creativity at a personal level hence leading to the creation of a room for innovation It leads the organization to a point of realizing economy of scale and so lowering the production costs. It ensures the company maintains consistency in terms of the quality of its services and products. It also enables the organization or the business repeating the mistakes it had committed. Improves responsiveness in terms of competition Improves the business’s process of decision making Introduction In today’s economic status, any business that has to greatly thrive must have a great deal of knowledge management. The process of knowledge management entails the different strategies, methods, practices and ways that have been laid by a particular organization to represent, create, identify and distribute as well as adopt to the experiences and insights observed in the business on the process of its running (John 134). Theses insights enable the business management to come up with the way forward as far as the improvement of the business operations is concerned. It has been discovered that many of the business fundamental are changing at a very great and alarming rate. There is a significant change in the intangibles as well as the tangibles assets which are the core areas all these businesses are deriving their competitive power. One of the greatest requirements for any business to stand in the competition platform is the issue of innovation. Any business that is not carrying out innovation in all of its areas of operations is as good as dead. This is because the technologies and the consumer’s needs are frequently changing meaning that knowledge is a very critical factor as far as the production is concerned. The main aim of this particular paper is to show the current strategies of the knowledge management of Company as well as the ways in which there can be an improvement for the purpose of proper information system management (Hannagan 99). There are a number of things that actually leads to the best management of a company as well as evaluation of its progress. Many are the times changes occur especially in the external environment of the business world which are even unpredicted. And can easily interfere with the running of the business. This is where knowledge management becomes very important because such issues can easily be arrested before they interfere with the business productivity. Discussion/ Conclusion Knowledge management strategy Due to the problems that are facing the knowledge management process of Companies there is a great need for coming up with a strategy that will help solve the problems like (Mullins 233) 1. Setting up a committee for the purpose of knowledge management. This is a group of people that will be bale to review all the laid down issues and also carry out further research to affirm the truth of the matter. The following are the duties of the committees a. To come up with a proper approach as the best tool for promoting knowledge management in the organization b. To give proper support as well as initiate learning, practice and communication c. To offer training to the employees on the issues of knowledge management as well as expose them to the experience of the same. 2. To come up with a strategy that transforms knowledge management into the context of business (Thad 69). This is whereby the committees or rather the people responsible draw a framework that will accommodate knowledge management in the form of the kind of the business the company is involved in. it entails a. Creation of knowledge especially the new areas that are coming up so as to ensure the Company is up to date with any new technology. b. Assimilation or dissemination of the knowledge through connecting the consumers, the employees and the other stakeholders to get to share information, learn from it and then transfer the knowledge to each other. c. Exploitation of the knowledge. This involves the maximum use of the knowledge gained in the process of making decision, solving problems, planning of scenarios and finally the creation of value of the products in the market. d. Review of knowledge. This is whereby the company must ensure all the processes towards knowledge management are business oriented so that the issue of profitability does not get forgotten. 3. Alignment of the value adding and knowledge processes with all of the strategic objectives. There is a very important connection between the cycle of knowledge and the cycle of strategy. The strategy for any Company is to be the best company in the whole world. This means that there is a need to measure the gap that currently exists between the efforts the company is putting to achieve it and the effort that the company must put. The gap that is realized must be transformed in terms of knowledge management. This means that new ways of introducing the knowledge in the form of a business strategy (Salder & Craig 85). 4. Sharing of knowledge, motivation and convergence of learning The knowledge locus and knowledge level are very important factors as far as effectiveness of knowledge management is concerned. There is a need for the structuring of knowledge management in such a way that it will encourage motivation of the workers to share their experiences for the purposes of convergence learning. 5. Reinforcing and rebuilding of the enablers This involves the following a. People and the culture. i. This involves the change of cultures of the top management not paying much attention to the subordinate staff. There should be a creation of such a chance for the managers to get to listen to the lower level of the employees. It is the high time the junior employees get a forum to get to talk about what they think could improve the production of the Company in terms of knowledge management. ii. The process of knowledge management must also be translated into the process of performance appraisal. This is not necessarily in the form of finances. It can be in the form if training and education for the employees so as to encourage the process of knowledge sharing as well as the innovative skills they all have. iii. A common sense in terms of community sharing must be greatly encouraged. This means that there should be a creation of conducive environment for the employees to persuade other to work towards the management of knowledge. Implementation This is the most important part for every organization as far as projects are concerned. This is because without it all is useless. It is a process that represents taking action as per the strategies that are set aside. The following are the steps to be taken to get to the point of knowledge management (Terence 145). All the strategies can not be implemented at once simply because there could be an interruption in the activities of the Company in the whole world. To avoid any slow down and inconveniences to the customers, there is a need for the company to implement the strategies in phases. 1. Short term. To be done between in then first three months. The following are the activities to be done that time a. Setting up a committee for the purpose of knowledge management b. To come up with a strategy that transforms knowledge management into the context of business 2. The medium term (between three and xix months). The following are the activities to be done that time a. Alignment of the value adding and knowledge processes with all of the strategic objectives b. Analysis of the gap c. Updating the IT 3. Long term (between six and twelve months) a. Prioritization b. Learning of the objectives and motivation c. Reinforcement and building of enablers d. Continuous monitoring to ensure the strategies is working. Sustainability of the strategies implemented Implementation alone is not enough. This is because even though a project has been developed and implemented it does not mean that it will meet the expectations to which it was created for. This is where the issue of sustainability comes. Sustainability means the process of maintain the project to ensure it will be effective for as long as possible (Effy 57). It involves a number of things Training. The employees of Company will be trained on a number of things. They will be trained on how to handle the new technologies and the ways in which the technologies are to improve the issue of knowledge management. They will also be trained on the importance of Training the employees especially the management level is to enable them to easily create a link with the lower lever employees so as to be able to share knowledge with them (Peter 80). This will ensure that even the subordinate staff will have a chance to share their opinions especially during the production of films which is very important. Some of theses subordinate employees are very helpful because they are able to mingle with the consumers and get information that is very helpful in trying to cater for the needs of the customers. Evaluation and monitoring is another very important way of sustaining the projects. This is whereby the committee members will be required to carry out an evaluation after every three months to check the effectiveness of the strategies that have been implemented in every department in the company (Thompson & Martin 179). This will enable the Company to come up with a better ways to cover up the gaps that may emerge during the implementation process as well as come up with ways of improving the strategies. Performance indicators The following are the suggested indicators of evaluating the success of the strategies in the Company. Recording the defects messages or reports coming in the company Time reduction in terms of handling the corrective reports that used to come from the consumers before the strategy was put up The amount of all the new innovative technologies and designs that the project applies within the year The feedback coming from the employees as well as the consumers of the products of the Company all over the world. Works Cited Ankita, Bansal. Information System Management. Canada: Gyan Books, 2002. Effy, Oz. Management Information System. London: Cengage Learning, 2008. Hannagan, Michael. Management Concepts and Practice. England: Prentice Hall, 2005. John, Ward. Principles of Information Systems Management. Routledge: Routledge, 1995.  Mullins, Laurie. Management and Organizational Behaviour. New York: FT Prentice Hall, 2005. Peter, Fredrick. The Practice of Management. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2007. Salder, Peter & Craig, John. Strategic Management, 2nd Ed. London: Kogan Page Publishers, 2003. Terence, Lucey. Management Information System. Cengage: Cengage Learning EMEA, 2004. Thad, Benson. Performance and Motivation Strategies for Today’s Workforce: A Guide to Expectancy Theory Application. London: Greenwich Publishing Group, 1992. Thompson, John, and Martin, Ford. Strategic Management: Awareness and Change, 5th Ed. California: Cengage Learning EMEA, 2005. Read More