The Influence of Knowledge Management on Organizational Business Processes - Coursework Example

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT Name: Course: Professor’s Name University Name City, State Date due The influence of knowledge management on organizational business processes’ and employees’ benefits Scholars define knowledge as a form of justified personal or individual belief. It is a personal belief that differentiates the different people and brings in knowledge to different levels. Knowledge management involves planning, organizing, controlling of people, systems and processes and motivation of different stakeholders in the organization. Knowledge management is done to ensure that the resources in an organization especially the assets are put into maximum usage for effective and efficient output. Assets with knowledge related articles manuals and patents, electronic repositories, employees knowledge and the knowledge held by team that have been working parallel to the organization. Knowledge management involves a number of stages. The first stage entails acquisition of information from all the sources available, and creation and refinement is done to ensure that only the necessary information is left. Transfer, sharing and utilization are the final stages of the processes of knowledge management. The major function of knowledge management is therefore to develop processes, methodologies and systems that support and motivate the people who participate in the knowledge management. Innovation and invention are key drivers in growth and development of most companies in the recent years. Innovation refers to the adoption of new processes, ideas and devices to help improve on a particular issue that needs to be improved. Innovation encompasses a number of factors key among them being ideas, processes, products, services and technologies. The process of innovation is usually triggered by the availability of markets for new products, deficits in the market, need for reduction of costs for goods and services, need to improve on quality of the goods and services provided and an increase in demand for goods and services. Knowledge management provides the company with ideas on the way forward enhance innovation for the purposes of growth and development [Phi111]. Innovation in the view of the organization may be achieved through changes being effected in productivity, quality efficiency, and competitiveness and through the market share. Organizational culture is a key determinant on the performance of the business. Business may adopt innovative practices to aid them in transforming the performance of the company into tangible improvements It is also important to consider a change when it comes to the knowledge management. Change is usually a gradual process irrespective of where it is to occur. However, for a change to occur, it should be profitable to people or have a positive impact on the firm. It should be embraced by the people, and they should see its importance. It should be, however, noted that change is inevitable for any given society and best way to deal with change is to embrace it then identify the means through which they can reduce the negative consequences of the change. He argues that, effective change in an organization should consider resource utilization. Positive change should be as a result of better utilization of the human and natural resources that are available for the business. The employees of most organizations usually exceed the optimal size thus; as a result, the employees rely on others to work, thus the organization does not meet the required output The dissertation is a test of the moderate effects of organizational culture taking on the relationship that exists between knowledge management organizational benefits. The future of most companies is reliant on the knowledge management. It is through the knowledge management that the companies can develop a sustainable competitive advantage. Each organization has its goals, visions and plans which it hopes to achieve in a given time frame. Leadership is particularly a very vital requirement in order for an organization to achieve its set targets. Good leaders in an organization should promote the adoption and implementation of change and innovation. In most organizations, there are leaders that are averse to change and do not support any form of innovation, and there are those who seek the smallest opportunity to adopt changes and innovation in the organization. It takes knowledge management for such available opportunities in an organization to be noted and worked on for future improvements on the organization. For this reason, knowledge management on an organization does not only affect business processes’ and employees’ benefits but also all other stake holders of the firm including the shareholders and the customers [She06]. Areas affected by knowledge management processes In order to identify the areas that are usually affected by the knowledge management processes, it is best to understand the cycle of processes involved in the knowledge management. KM Processes Organizational Processes Intermediate Outcomes The knowledge management processes involved in knowledge management are acquisition, creation, sharing, refinement, storage, transfer and re-use. These are majorly the tasks of the human resource managers as they are usually tasked with the role of creating a vision and ensuring the objectives of the organization are achieved. Organizational processes are majorly based on the objectives of the organization and include innovation, collective learning, individual learning and collaborative decision making. An organization relying only on the organizational processes may not achieve the full potential and thus needs also to incorporate knowledge management processes. Transfer of knowledge into organizational processes can increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the innovation being considered. Knowledge management thus does not only influence business processes’ and employees’ benefits but also all the stakeholders of the organization. Introduction of the knowledge management processes into organizational processes would help bring in improvements into the organization. With knowledge management, the expected outcomes are improved organizational behaviors, improved business processes, products and services and better quality relationship with the customers, suppliers and partners in the organization. Effect of introducing university students into the study sample of AlHosn University faculty and academic staff The sample of Alhusn university faculty and academic staff would have the expected result change with the introduction of university students into the sample. The university students comes in with better techniques as they are better trained on how to tackle problems facing the organization using the most advanced technology advancements. The university students are also equipped with means through which they can adopt to changes that are anticipated in the organization as they are flexible in their activities given that change is always inevitable in any given society [Tho141]. Taking the sample that only the academic staffs in the faculty were selected represents only the normal organizational process. The addition of the university students means that they introduced knowledge management processes into the university’s faculty. The objectives of the university with only the staff could not be achieved as they are always using the same processes and expecting different results. It not possible and as a result, the university has only been experiencing the same results all through their daily activities. Innovations, collective learning and collaborative decision making are objective of the university but with the university alone, they may not achieve the full and expected optimal results. The students in the university will bring in creativity and better understanding of the systems that they have been learning in the course of their module. As a result, the effect would be that there would be a positive change on the expected results. Innovation would be achieved as the university students are young and due to this, they are risk takers which bring in innovation into the system. Equally, the students are usually creative as opposed to the experienced staffs that tend to repeat the same activities all through. With the systems having introduced students into the sample there would result in better organizational results. The expected outcomes from a combination of knowledge management and organizational process are organizational behaviors, decisions, products, services, processes and relationships that exist with the suppliers, customers and partners [Eli04]. Academic and practical contributions of the study Knowledge management is directly related to the organizational performance. Knowledge management involves a number of factors being put into consideration. These factors are acquisition, storage, creation, sharing and implementation. Normal organizational structures usually have already set objectives that aim to encourage innovation, collective learning, individual learning and collaborative decision-making processes. It is, however, hard for the organizations to achieve the set objectives. For this reason, the knowledge management is introduced into the firms with the help of the human resource manager as the head of the knowledge management. With the introduction of knowledge management processes in the organizational processes then the organization expects to achieve positive outcomes [Car02]. The expected outcomes from a combination of knowledge management and organizational process are organizational behaviors, decisions, products, services, processes and relationships that exist with the suppliers, customers and partners. Knowledge management focuses primarily on strategies but the since it is not possible to have all the strategies being implemented by the organization. Businesses must consider revolutionary activities to ensure that they stay in the market. Given the fact that competition is a major problem faced by most companies, it necessitates companies to identify means through which they stay ahead of the others in terms of performance. The business revolution leads to companies trying to be innovative. The businesses continuously try to identify ways in which they can satisfy the demands of their customers. Innovation in this instance is thus achieved through advancing technologies in the company and identifying means to improve the products and services through improved quality, durability and reduced prices. REFERENCES Phi111: , (Philipp & Jens, 2011), She06: , (Shelda, 2006), Tho141: , (Thomas & Christopher, 2014, p. 20), Eli04: , (Elias & Hassan, 2004), Car02: , (Carl, 2002), Read More