Knowledge Management and Bottom-up Strategy - Coursework Example

INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH REPORT INTRODUCTION Many organizations have become so multifaceted that their knowledge is disjointed and difficult to locate and share. As a result it becomes redundant and inconsistent. In today’s environment of rapid development, even knowledge that can be shared is often outdated. “Organizations are being advised that to remain competitive, they must efficiently and effectively create, locate, capture, and share their organization’s knowledge and expertise, and have the ability to bring that knowledge to bear on problems and opportunities” (Zack 1999). However, while the need for effectively managing knowledge is felt, there has been almost no research regarding how to do it. Organizations often do not examine the way knowledge is stored, treated or passed on. WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT Knowledge management is defined as “the explicit and systematic management of vital knowledge and its associated processes of creating, gathering, organizing, diffusion, use and exploitation. It requires turning personal knowledge into corporate knowledge that can be widely shared throughout an organisation and appropriately applied” (Skyrme, 1997, as quoted in Corrall, 1999). It refers to the collection of processes that manage the formation, distribution, and consumption of knowledge. Knowledge management is an inventory of an organization’s assets that highlights unique sources, critical functions and possible blockages which obstruct knowledge. WHY IS KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT NECESSARY Knowledge management is necessary to serve customers well and sustain competition. To help business reduce their cycle times, utilization of fixed assets and overhead (people, inventory and facilities), minimize development time, efficiency in customer service, benefit employees, innovation and quality enhancement, capture information, generate knowledge and learn. (Grey 2002). “None of this is possible without a continual focus on the creation, updating, availability, quality and use of knowledge by all employees and teams, at work and in the marketplace” (Grey 2002). The value of Knowledge Management empowers the members of the organization to deal with complex situations and helps in effectively envisioning and creating their future. When there is no managed knowledge, the individual in an organization tackles a problem on his own. However, when knowledge management comes into force, every situation is addressed collaboratively by the entire organization. (Bellinger 2004) INFLUENCES ON KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT There are three practices that have brought the most content and energy to knowledge management. They are information management, the quality movement, and the human factors/human capital movement. (Prusak 2001). Information management focuses on how information itself is managed. The issues that it deals with are in terms of valuation, operational techniques, governance, and incentive schemes. “Information,” here thus means data and structured messages. Broadly speaking, knowledge management borrows some ideas from information management. Information management states that not all information is created equal, that different values are attached to different types of information. Thus it needs to be handled differently. This approach is the foundation of knowledge management today. Organizations employ different techniques and technologies for sharing different kinds of knowledge. The focus is on knowledge use and not just knowledge availability. Information management and knowledge management focus more on the quality of the content and its benefits to the recipient and the organization. The quality movement focuses extensively on internal customers, overt processes, and shared, transparent goals. The most important aspect of knowledge management is to make knowledge visible and therefore developing knowledge processes, process owners, and governance structures are some of the ways that owe a considerable debt to the techniques developed by the quality movement. Finally, human capital focuses on the individual. Knowledge management builds on human capital ideas by helping the organizational leaders to understand the value of human capital; while at the same time help to develop techniques for investing and reaping benefits from it. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY Organizations are facing escalating challenges, due to market pressures and growing competition. Many organizations are now looking to knowledge management (KM) to address these challenges. Such enterprises often begin with the implementation of a knowledge management strategy. The success of a KM strategy depends on how it utilizes knowledge to help address the issues within the organization. The strategy should be able to take into account the key needs and issues within the organization, and provide a framework for addressing these. For example, call centers play an important role in the organizational set up. The role becomes demanding as customers expect the employees to answer within minutes of calling up. Similarly, the employee is closely monitored, and employees work under very high pressure. At the same time there is high staff turnover which also increases the costs of training the new staff. The need for knowledge management becomes utmost important in such situations. These issues adversely affect sales, public reputation or legal exposure if not dealt with efficiently. Another example can be the vast amount of information that Business managers have to deal with. It becomes very necessary to filter out the relevant information that is required to support business decisions. Similarly with rapid organizational changes, the demands on the management staff increase. In such a setting, sound decision making becomes a necessity. This will naturally result from relevant and accurate information. Thus knowledge management plays an important role in overcoming the information needs of the management staff. It will also prove to be helpful in developing coaching skills in managers. For an organization to practice effective KM there should be a strategy in place (Denning 2000-04). There should be a strategy for sharing knowledge. It requires a collective effort on part of all the members of the organization. At the same time, the senior management should make it a point to pursue this strategy of sharing knowledge steadily. This also involves numerous decisions regarding the application of various principles of KM in accordance with the organizational needs which will enhance organizational performance. Various types of content are available for knowledge sharing depending on the needs of the organization. The intent of the organization can be to share know-how, efficient practices, customer information, or knowledge of operations (Denning 2000-04). Thus knowledge sharing program will differ according to the content shared. For instance, in a call centre, the main responsibility is to aptly provide the right information to the customers. Thus customer satisfaction and ways to do it becomes the content that needs to be shared within the organization. At the same time knowledge that is captured should be correct and kept up to date. Along with the content to be shared, particular attention has to be paid to the quality of the content. The content shared should be reliable. For instance, there are customer queries in a call centre relating to recent changes and product releases. It is also important to ensure that the knowledge that the customer is provided with is reliable. The call centre should therefore be up to date with such information. Similarly, the knowledge sharing program should help in adapting know-how to the local context. As local context is often unpredictable in face of rapid development or continuous expansion it becomes important that operators are able to access the knowledge repositories containing accurate and current information. Another element of knowledge sharing program is the audience. There may be internal knowledge sharing programs or external knowledge sharing programs depending on the needs of the organization. Internal knowledge sharing programs typically aim at making the existing business work better, faster or cheaper. This is done by equipping the staff of an organization with higher quality, more up-to-date and easily accessible tools to do their jobs. This adds value for clients and saves costs. For instance a call center employee should be fully trained in the processes so that resolving problems becomes a mechanical act for him. Similarly developing an intranet for the call center containing latest information pertaining to business updates, sales support, pricing details, corporate directions etc, will help in processing customer queries efficiently. Next, the means or channels of sharing knowledge should be in place. There should be an agreement as to how knowledge will be shared; whether face-to-face, or by way of help desks, by telephone, fax, email, collaborative tools or the web, or some combination of the above. In the context of the call center industry this can be helpful in integrating web based technologies wherever possible. A well designed search engine, efficient browsing and navigation methods will prove to be an effective way of locating answers (Robertson 2002). The purpose of sharing knowledge and its role in the development of the organization should be clearly stated and agreed upon. For instance, there can be explicit goals like accelerating speed, decreasing costs, expanding the client base or development. For instance, in a call center, getting customers the information they need is the only goal to be met. Thus knowledge management in this sense can be employed to ensure that the staff has access to accurate, up-to-date, easy to use, and comprehensive information. Agreement on the objectives will also lead the organization to be focused. It will also help in justifying expenditures. BOTTOM UP STRATEGY The bottom up strategy (Robertson 2002) is an effective way to understand the areas within an organization where knowledge management can be utilized. This strategy involves researching the activities of staff involved in key business processes. The results of this research define key staff needs and issues, which are then, dealt with through a range of knowledge management enterprises. With a comprehensive knowledge of the problems, issues and needs within the organization, it becomes relatively easier to appropriate strategies for addressing them (Robertson 2002). First and foremost the key staff groups within the organization are identified. Those delivering the greatest business value, or those involved in the most important business activities. For instance, the call center is the most important staff as it acts as a public face for the company. Once it is taken into consideration, the next step follows. That is, a comprehensive needs analysis activity with selected staff groups is conducted, to identify key needs and issues. These activities may include personal interviews or surveys. The research is then supplemented with data from senior management and organizational strategy documents, to come to an overall strategic focus. Based on these findings, appropriate recommendations are developed for addressing the issues and needs recognized. Then appropriate knowledge management techniques and approaches are implemented. A range of long term and short term initiatives are undertaken. According to the issues identified, these include the following initiatives. As discussed above, building a call center intranet can be an efficient technique. This can be improved by regularly updating it with relevant information. Implementation of coaching programmes for the employees is another element of knowledge management to bring about efficiency. Another initiative is to capture staff knowledge in a documented form. With regards to call center this can be a very effective practice. By documenting the personal needs, appropriate measures are easily taken. Similarly improving policies and procedures regularly will lead to a healthy environment. Implementation of new learning approaches, including e-learning will help the staff to internalize knowledge efficiently. Team collaboration tools and processes also become an effective way of knowledge sharing. Finally, an after-action review process should be established to take into account the validity of the initiatives. References Bellinger, G. 2004, ‘Knowledge Management—Emerging Perspectives’ viewed 21 August, 2007 Corrall, S 1999, ‘Knowledge Management Are We in the Knowledge Management Business?’ viewed 21 August, 2007, Denning, S. 2000-2004, ‘The strategy of knowledge management’. viewed 21 August, 2007 Grey, D. 2002, ‘KM Forum Archives -- The Early Days What is Knowledge Management’ viewed 21 August, 2007, Prusak, L. 2001, ‘Where did knowledge management come from?’ viewed 21 August, 2007, Robertson, J 2002, ‘Developing a knowledge management strategy’ viewed 21 August, 2007 Robertson, J. 2002, ‘Knowledge management for call centers’ viewed 21 August, 2007. Zack, M.H. (1999 summer) ‘Managing Codified Knowledge’ [Electronic Version] Sloan Management Review Volume, 40. No. 4, pp. 45-58. Read More