Doing Knowledge Management by Firestone and McElroy - Article Example

Knowledge Management Name: Tutor: Lectuerer: Date: Introduction Knowledge management is a trending issue among most organizations. Knowledge Management (KM) can be defined as the process of obtaining, developing, sharing and effectively using organizational knowledge. It is being practiced formally and informally. Different employees have different levels of knowledge that they may have accumulated due to either their specialized education level or their working experience. This knowledge is usually passed to the rest of the employees. The internet has a large amount of information about various careers. This knowledge can easily be obtained and utilized to better the organization. However, the information needs to be converted into knowledge. This article gives a brief summary on an article ‘Doing Knowledge Management’ written by Firestone & McElroy, (2005). Body Firestone & McElroy, (2005), have emphasized the need for knowledge management in their article. The primary reason for the authors emphasizing on KM it's because it enhances knowledge processing in an organization. It is because the employees and the organization need to be guided on how to transform the information they have obtained into knowledge. This aims at getting better quality solutions to improve the worker effectiveness and the bottom line. The article gave KM as a tool to better the organization, the employees and also to solve problems that arise due to inadequate information. In places like health centers, lack of enough information might lead to deaths of patients. For example, a doctor needs patient’s medical history before prescribing drugs to avoid cases of allergy. Figure 1: Showing Knowledge Management 3 tier framework Firestone & McElroy, (2005), in their article “Doing Knowledge Management”, have given the 3 tier framework to show how knowledge management is implemented in an organization and its outcome as shown in the figure 1 above. The three-tier framework is divided into three parts. The first section is the knowledge management environment; the second section is knowledge processing environment, and the third section is business processing environment. Business processing environment is the most crucial since it’s the final stage, and its implementation contributes profoundly to the final results. Business processing environment is divided into two. It includes business processing and business outcomes. The business processing includes the following parts: Business strategies Organizational models Business processes Product strategies Marketing strategies HR Strategies Management handles the business processing. Activities that are carried out in the business processing stages leads to the business outcomes. Business outcomes include profitability, market shares, growth, ethics, and sustainability. Businesses should have a strategy that helps them to manage knowledge and use it to benefit the organization (Alavi, and Leidner, 2001). Proper knowledge management ensures productivity in the organization and the employees improvement. There are two methods that can be used to implement knowledge into the organization. They include; use of electronic devices or through word of mouth. The method to use is mostly determined by the resources the organization has and also the source of knowledge. In some organizations, they prefer to invest in the electronics such as computers and internet connectivity where the employees can access the information they require for their work. However, this method is very expensive to install and maintain. It is because the equipment is expensive to purchase. The machines also require some monthly funding to keep them running such as funds for internet connectivity. The employees may also require some training to be able to extract most of the resources from the electronics. The other method that they can use is to have some of the experienced employees teach the rest of the employees. This is a traditional method of managing knowledge and also the most popular method. It is popular because the experienced employees will be able to pass only the most relevant information and it's also a fast way to improve the skills of the employees. Organizational model is how the organization is structured. The structure of the organization can determine how knowledge flows in the organization (Sanchez, and Mahoney, 1996). Where the organization is large, and there are different departments, the management may put up a resource center. A resource center will have several computers with high-speed Internet connectivity to ensure one gets information at ease. However, in a small organization, the management can create links between the employees for them to learn from each other or the best performing employees. Business processes are both knowledge demanding and knowledge generating. Different departments in the organizations require specialized personals who are supposed to run the operations of the organization. During the running of the organization, knowledge is generated, and it should be passed to the employees who are joining the organization. When there are adequate measures to obtain knowledge and also to pass knowledge across the organization, the organization becomes very productive (Gupta, and Govindarajan, 2000). The product and the marketing strategy are much related in that they are both developed to target the customer. Product strategy involves studying the target customers, understanding them and knowing what they require so that the organization can customize the products to fit their needs. This exercise requires a flow of knowledge into the organization. The business must be versed in various marketing strategy that can be used to reach the customer. These mediums keep on changing due to the influence of factors affecting the final consumers. It is, therefore, necessary for the organization to have a source of knowledge to keep them in line with the trending ways to distribute their information. The Human Resource (HR) department employs new employees into the organization and trains them. The department also manages all the employees issues (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe, and Jackson, 2012). Therefore, the HR strategies should include passing relevant knowledge to the employees so that to ensure their productivity has increased. The business depends on its outcomes for its survival. Profitability is the main aim of every organization. For a business to make profits, the employees must have relevant knowledge to reduce their inputs and increase their output (Bhatt, 2001). The market share is defined as the percentage of the total sales a company has earned in the market over a specific period. The more a business makes sales, the more profits it makes. The business must, therefore, have adequate knowledge about the market, its competitors and the final consumers. All this information is available on the internet, but it requires to be processed so that it can be useful knowledge for the organization. The business growth is part of its success. A business that have taken advantage of the available knowledge grows in size and also market wise. Business and relation ethics are essential in the running of the organization. When the employees relate well, they can easily corporate and be more productive. Business ethics means that there is observance of business policies and practices regarding controversial issues. Most of the employees need to be taught these ethics. These ethics can be written or the non-written rules and regulations of business (Gold, and Arvind Malhotra, 2001). The new employees can learn about them by letting them network with the rest of the staff. Some of them are also available on the internet. The business should be able to sustain itself. The management and the employees should be well knowledgeable on some tips to manage itself. The article “Doing Knowledge management” by Firestone & McElroy, (2005) address the importance of Knowledge Management but it does so in an indirectly. The authors have addressed the importance of KM research through; The use of examples of where it has been implement. Mentioning some other authors who have written about KM research. By mentioning the problems that lead to it being implemented and how it helped solve them. The authors also give it as a competing strategy. The authors have also given the business outcome after adopting knowledge management research. Mentioning that it benefits the employees. The authors have given an illustration about partners’ healthcare in Boston that took the initiative to adopt Knowledge management research. The article explains that the decision to adopt this system was due to the many cases of deaths that was realized by the end of 1998, which was due to the medical errors. Firestone & McElroy, (2005) explains that “There are more than 98 000 deaths each year that are caused due to medical errors.” The thought that those deaths can be reduced or stopped by just having a system that will provide the doctors or medical practitioners patient’s information. The use of this example shows the importance of Knowledge Management. The illustration is also convincing. This article mentions a few authors such as Tom Davenport and John Glaser who had written an article on Knowledge Management research and their findings. The mention of such information makes the readers realize the importance of Knowledge Management research. The authors of the articles have given an in-depth research on how knowledge management can be implemented in an organization. The research shows how different departments in an organization are affected by the system and how it should be used (Brown, and Eisenhardt, 1995). The article has also given some of the benefits that a business can enjoy when implemented well. In figure 1, the article states some of the business outcomes in the three tier diagram. These outcomes include profitability which is usually the main aim of many organizations. Giving these outcomes emphases on the importance of the Knowledge Management research when implemented in an organization. The article also states that Knowledge Management research is being used as a competing strategy among many organizations. Many organizations have adopted Knowledge Management research to enable them be more productive and successful in business. They are also using it to understand the market and their customers so that they can customize their services. Understanding their clients makes them customize their products which make it even easier for the organization to compete with its competitors. This shows that KM research is an important tool that can be used in most organizations to better their chances of surviving in the competition. The employees also benefit from Knowledge Management Research. Employees need to keep on updating their knowledge little by little. For example in the field of technology, things keep on changing now and then. The employees need to be updated so that to be productive and accurate in their work. This is one of those benefits that are mentioned in the article and serves as an importance of Knowledge Management research. Conclusion In future, it is expected that most organizations will adopt KM to better their operations. The organization will need to invest heavily in such systems to be successful. The article “Doing Knowledge Management” contains crucial information on the implementation and use of Knowledge Management. It has also given importance of KM and instance of where it has been successfully used to solve problems. References Alavi, M., & Leidner, D. E. (2001). Review: Knowledge management and knowledge management systems: Conceptual foundations and research issues. MIS quarterly, 107-136. Bhatt, G. D. (2001). Knowledge management in organizations: examining the interaction between technologies, techniques, and people. Journal of knowledge management, 5(1), 68-75. Brown, S. L., & Eisenhardt, K. M. (1995). Product development: Past research, present findings, and future directions. Academy of management review, 20(2), 343-378. Easterby-Smith, M., Thorpe, R., & Jackson, P. R. (2012). Management research. Sage. Firestone, J. M., & McElroy, M. W. (2005). Doing knowledge management. The Learning Organization, 12(2), 189-212. Gold, A. H., & Arvind Malhotra, A. H. S. (2001). Knowledge management: An organizational capabilities perspective. Journal of management information systems, 18(1), 185-214. Gupta, A. K., & Govindarajan, V. (2000). Knowledge flows within multinational corporations. Strategic management journal, 21(4), 473-496. Sanchez, R., & Mahoney, J. T. (1996). Modularity, flexibility, and knowledge management in product and organization design. Strategic management journal, 17(S2), 63-76. Read More