Importance of Knowledge Management for Lenovo Company - Case Study Example

Knowledge Management Name Institution Affiliation Introduction Lenovo Company is a big private organisation that manufactures phones and other computerised devices and supplies them to various distributors who will in turn sell them to shop owners who are the final people to handle the products before they reach to their potential buyers. Importance of Knowledge Management (KM) The process of generating, distributing, using and managing the information and knowledge of an organisation is referred to as knowledge management (Quintas, Lefrere & Jones1997). Knowledge management is of great importance in an organization, for instance KM plays an important role in the marketing department in Lenovo Company, and to begin with it helps to generate information on the various ways of distributing its products in the available market, It also helps in distributing ideas to various personnel in the department, once there is a wide distribution of ideas in the particular department, idea generation will be very easy therefore the organisation will be able to run smoothly An organisation is able to use the generated idea to its advantage and serve .its customers properly with an objective of meeting its goals which is mainly to make profit, this arrived at through knowledge management Knowledge Management Initiatives For a successful business the knowledge management initiative requires a particular department to know its peoples and be able to clearly define various behaviours that should be changed. An organisation that implements an active knowledge management should enable a considerable payoff, by reducing duplicated work which increases productivity and also controlling the past experiences which will lead to quality improvement and following up customer behaviours which will in turn enhance customer service. For a successful KM there are crucial steps that should be followed, to start with it should understand the key business drivers which is either the revenue or the costs, allow collaboration among the employees and also be able to analyse knowledge by trying to gather and distribute knowledge all over the organisation An effective knowledge management should provide rewards and acknowledgement to every new idea contributions and the process of making the ideas to be of value to the organisation. Lastly knowledge management should be able to break down initiatives into manageable phases. By doing so it will be possible to identify best practises for the organisation. Every phase should be able yield important lessons which will in turn be used in the subsequent phases. Knowledge Creation Process Knowledge creation is all about constant handing over, combination, and translation of the different types of knowledge as users interact, practice and learn. Knowledge is created in organisation when there is a regular practise, collaboration, education and interaction as the various types of knowledge are shared and converted in a particular department. Knowledge Acquisition This refers to the knowledge that a firm tries to obtain from its external sources. An organisation has various sources of knowledge acquisition, these sources can be knowledge acquired from the customers, suppliers, competitors, partners and other expertise dealing with the same department of that particular organisation. Knowledge Management Application Knowledge is viewed as an important basis for competitive advantages therefore many organisations have established suitable knowledge management structures which will in turn enable the organisation be able to outdo its competitor. Knowledge Storage Knowledge is highly recognized as the strategic imperative of organizations, therefore .knowledge being power it should be kept and maintained for the advantage of an organisation. Knowledge is always stored in data form since it is easy to retrieve it when needed. Knowledge management software is a tool that contains a variety which are suited to specialise on the way information is collected, stored and retrieved, this software usually helps individuals and businesses to innovate and build new knowledge. Organisations Achievement through Knowledge Management Knowledge management mainly focuses on organizational objectives such as improving the performance of an organisation Knowledge management has encouraged sharing of information among different personnel in an organisation and this has fostered the growth of the business. The use of software in knowledge management has helped in data preservation and information transfer among individuals in a particular department, this has in turn helped in record keeping an important aspect for the smooth running of an organisation. Knowledge Management Benefits Knowledge management has various benefits to an organisation, knowledge management enables an organisation to make better decisions and also fastens the process of decision making When an organisation is faced with a need to respond to customers, analyse trends, solve problems, create new offerings and also be able to think critically it all needs to look for information to support this activity. The existence of knowledge management makes it easy for the organisation to find the relevant information and resources, Once an organisation has generated an effective process, it will ensure that other departments use that process each and every time a similar necessity arises therefore knowledge management ensures reusing of ideas, documents and expertise and this is good for an organisation since it minimizes rework, averts problems, saves time and also speeds up progress, Knowledge management helps an organisation to avoid effort duplication which helps the organisation to save time and money, this fact helps in keeping the morale of employees up and restructures work (Alavi & Leidner, 1999). Knowledge management plays a role in allowing an organisation to share the learned lessons which is not only about its success but also about its failures for this to be arrived at there must be a culture of reward, openness and trust which are all entailed in the knowledge management. An organisation benefits from the individual skills and knowledge of its various members, the more corresponding the expertise of the team is the greater the power of the team this is as a result knowledge management in an organization. Knowledge management helps an organisation to get the targeted useful information without landing in a pool of emails by helping in communicating the important information quickly and also widely Organisations are consistent in work performance and this is as a result of knowledge management which provides a process of generating, storing and usage of standard procedures to be used routinely by employees Knowledge management provides tools, methods and techniques which act as building blocks which ensures compatibility and improves quality in an organisation An organisation should be able to convince customers to start or continue doing business with it and this can be put into practise by the knowledge management which plays a role in convincing customers and showing them how knowledge is used to their advantage, Knowledge management in an organisation helps in accelerating products delivery to the intended consumers this is due to knowledge sharing and innovations which reduces time for a product or service delivery. Most organisations desire to increase their revenues but this is becoming difficult because many industries are rising and competition is increasing. Knowledge management stimulates innovation and growth which enables the organisation to out shine its competitors hence realising revenue massively. Knowledge Management Enablers in Goals Achievement Knowledge management enablers refer to the main factors that are essential in determining the effectiveness of executing knowledge management in an organisation. These factors are the clear definition of KM, business objectives, top level support financial and non-financial rewards among others Knowledge Management Obstacles A successful knowledge management is facing some obstacles like its inability to share knowledge due to lack of trust and confidence among the employees another obstacle is the inability of employees to put the acquired knowledge into working. Lastly a knowledge management may lack the most valuable knowledge in the organization, this obstacle highly affects the smooth running of a business. Differences between Current and Desired The current KM of a company provides the right information and to the right people whereas the desired KM will not only have to provide relevant provision but should insight guidance for the purpose of decision making Current KM majorly deals with PCs connection but for knowledge management in future it will be able to also connect people who can govern such matters and come up with effective database. Factors to Improve KM Effectiveness I recommend an organisation to major on the following factors for an effective knowledge management. There should be an open organisational culture and employee involvement For an effective knowledge management there should be team work among the employers, employee empowerment, and an information system structure, when all these are determined in knowledge management there will be effective and smooth running of a business. References Alavi, M., & Leidner, D. E. (1999). Knowledge management systems: issues, challenges, and benefits. Communications of the AIS, 1(2es), Quintas, P., Lefrere, P., & Jones, G. (1997). Knowledge management: a strategic agenda. Long range planning, 30(3), 385-391. Read More