Knowledge Management Principles - Coursework Example

RUNNING HEAD: KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES. Knowledge Management Principles Name Institution Date Introduction It is a reality that in the contemporary world, knowledge is gradually edging out premises as the most essential asset in the business to an extent that words like ideas, knowledge, and intelligence dominate the sales and marketing vocabulary. The realization that sales persons are knowledge employees, perhaps the most overloaded of all the employees, is likewise increasingly dawning on the senior sales executives in several of most forward-thinking organizations. It is actually becoming obvious that the knowledgeable sales persons provide a greater competitive advantage in every level of a sales process. As such, the management of the sales knowledge in organizations is fundamental and cuts across various disciplines as well as departments. Conscious efforts to develop ‘learning organizations’ have further resulted in job titles like Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) where various cross-functional teams have been involved. In a majority of organizations however, lack of cooperation has often been manifested in sales functions, marketing functions, as well as other associated functions where blame game has often domineered. Understanding knowledge and the knowledge management principles, as this paper highlights, is therefore the foremost step in solving issues regarding effective knowledge management in sales. Knowledge management principles Principles are fundamental norms or values representing what are pleasant and positive to individuals, communities, groups or organizations. While more basic compared to policies and objectives, principles govern and serve to determine how right or wrong the actions are. On the other hand knowledge management is all about application of the entire workforce’s collective knowledge to achieve defined organizational goals. In the knowledge management context, organizations have for a long time been determined to unravel sales principles and their applications at the individual, organizational, inter-organizational as well as global levels. This highlights a principle-centered knowledge leadership. This therefore implies turning of the knowledge management principles into a working reality by embedding them into practical and effective knowledge management strategies, techniques, methods, technologies, systems and processes. Some knowledge management principles applicable to a retail environment include: Organizational learning The retail business should be a learning organization just as well as being knowledge driven. A learning organization is that organization able to tap into the individuals’ commitment as well as learning capacity effectively throughout the hierarchy levels. Learning has everything to do with the acquisition of knowledge in retail organizations while knowledge management involves having accessibility to that knowledge and applying it. The main reason why becoming a learning organization is a better decision in the Retail business organization is that learning aids in the achievement or superseding of objectives. However, in the current age of holistic developments in organizations, a consideration on a single perspective alone increases the chances of losing the whole meaning. According to Green et al. (2009), organizational learning is quite fundamental in studying and improving the aspects of the operating environment. Product knowledge is the main bases for sales in retail organizations hence appropriate programs or strategies supporting both learning as well as access. Despite this however, a number of retail organizations are way more than merely learning organizations, hence implying that a focus solely on learning will eventually culminate in the lose of organizational vision as well as its purpose and meaning. In fact, unless it can create a significant influence in meeting the retail objectives, a transition to a learning organization may not be necessary. This follows the fact that in addition to value creation, a learning organization requires emphasis on the measurable results. Knowledge acquisition along with its sensible application is considered as underpinning productivity, proper decision-making, quality, increased sales, innovation, reduced costs, and value creation. The knowledge may typically be presented in retail organizations as revolutionary ideas or competitor knowledge. Likewise, such knowledge could be process knowledge, knowledge of environmental change, knowledge demanding environmental change or knowledge of best practice. Retail organizations can actually use this knowledge to define some new processes Access and engage Access to knowledge is quite vital, but effective management of knowledge also needs not only attention, but also engagement. For achieving attentiveness towards knowledge among the knowledge customers in a retail organization, the knowledge customers must be more active. Active knowledge involvement can be attained by reporting the same to others, mainly through the activities that have their basis on knowledge use, and receiving knowledge by closely interacting with the other knowledge providers. This is specifically essential where the expected message is tactic, as Wright (2005) has noted. Connect and understand Knowledge management gains much benefit from maps in comparison to models, and from markets as compared to hierarchies. While allowing the market to operate, knowledge managers are actually making knowledge very appealing and accessible in addition to observing the knowledge requests by clients, and their specific use of terms. According to Woei (2001), the clients calling for the expert referrals often don’t use similar terms to those used by experts in description of their work. In retail organizations, the connection of the needs of clients to the available expertise is mainly done through retrieval systems effective in online search. Every technical term is used in specific situations and has a number of synonyms. The main aim therefore is to ensure both these terms as well as those that clients use is in a particular single database. Never end Tasks associated with knowledge management never come to an end. Just as financial management or even human resource management, knowledge never gets totally managed. It is never a one-time in initiative but rather a continuous management task. A particular reason for the never ending task of knowledge management is associated with the constantly changing knowledge relevancy. Innovative technologies, customer concerns, approaches to management, and regulatory issues are constantly emerging, according to Green et al (2009). Organizations change strategies, products, organizational structures and service emphases. In the course of evolving their offerings however, retail organizations consider client partners with real businesses difficulties/problems that define the need for the organization’s input. As such, development research has often been conducted focusing on client relationships in order for the products to represent the actual solution in sales performance problems. As such, new managers altogether with new professionals often have new requirements for knowledge. Invest Knowledge management is actually expensive. While knowledge is an asset, its proper management requires an organisation or a business entity in a retail environment to invest massively in terms of money, resources and labour. This also encompasses investments in knowledge capture whereby documents/files are created by retail organizations and transferred to the computer systems. Apart from this, value is also increased in the knowledge by re-packaging and also editing. In the same measure, the information technology (IT) infrastructures for knowledge distribution are developed and individuals educated on the ways of creating, sharing and using knowledge (Maier, 2007). Integrate Effective management of knowledge requires the presence of hybrid solutions whereby human beings and technology are both involved. While computers along with communication are essential in capturing knowledge and knowledge flow, humans serve the distinctive role of information interpretation in a broader context in order to solve existing problems and make better decisions. In order to enhance knowledge management capabilities in the retail organizations, as such, the retail organizations are increasingly reliant on technology strategies that focus on the integration of emerging technologies and the collaboration of human effort. Such technologies are based on a strategy that incorporates fun, fluency and non-computerized practices, while also integrating technology-based solutions with the low-tech features of the sales-knowledge efforts (Capozzi, 2007). Improve Knowledge management implies the enhancing of the work process associated with knowledge. Improvements have to be done to processes involving creation of knowledge, its use, and knowledge sharing. While it is crucial to review and enhance a given knowledge process, individuals should understand that knowledge gets generated, utilized, and shared massively in few given processes, according to Jennex (2008). These processes differ in various organizations and may involve market research, design of a product, and the transaction process. Incase knowledge management is to have real improvements then the given business processes have to be enhanced. Determine rights to knowledge Knowledge management needs knowledge contract. With a lot of knowledge in the head of employees and the current increasing mobility, organizations have to clarify the owner of knowledge and the individuals with rights to worker’s knowledge, as highlighted in Wright (2005). A majority of retail organizations have often considered the employee knowledge as the organization’s property. Various environmental changes create difficulties in such an approach. The employees frequently change jobs and organizations hence also blurring the differences between home and work life. With the increasing value of knowledge as a resource, organizations, including retail organization, should expect to witness increased attention to knowledge management legalities. Conclusion Until recently, the emphasis on the value of knowledge management was unheard of in organizations. Consequently, organizations emphasized on premises as their main assets. However, with the increasing realization of the significance of knowledge in organizations, the whole focus shifted from building as a significant asset to knowledge as the most valued asset superseding the value of other organizational assets. This has undoubtedly led to the development of knowledge management principles including organizational learning, access and engagement, improvement, connection and understanding, investment, integration, continuity, and knowledge rights taking a centre stage in retail management. A hybrid solution, the most notable recent principle, is however currently applied in almost all organizations as technological development continues to prove a better alternative to human effort. Reference Capozzi, M. (2007). "Knowledge Management Architectures Beyond Technology". First Monday 12 (6) Retrieved May 9th, 2013 from Green, A. et al. (2009). In Search of Knowledge Management Pursuing Primary Principles. Emerald Group Publishing Limited Retrieved May 9th, 2013 from Jennex, M. (2008). Knowledge Management: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications. IGI Global: PA. Retrieved May 9th, 2013 from Maier, R. (2007). Knowledge Management Systems: Information & Communication Technologies for Knowledge Management. Springer: Berlin: Retrieved May 9th, 2013 from Wright, K. (2005). "Personal knowledge management: supporting individual knowledge worker performance". Knowledge Management Research and Practice 3 (3) 154–167. Retrieved May 9th, 2013 Woei, T. (2001). Knowledge Management in the Public Sector: Principles and Practices in Police Work. Journal of Information Science, Vol. 27 (5) 310-320. Retrieved May 9th, 2013 < http://jis.sagepub.com/content/27/5/311.abstract> Read More