Knowledge Management Used in the Field of Management Consultancy - Research Proposal Example

Table of Contents Introduction 2 Motivation 2 Research Question 3 Literature Review 3 Methodology 5 Data Collection Method 6 Conclusion 7 Expected Contribution 8 References 10 Introduction The importance of knowledge management is growing and has become an important tool from the perspective of the management. The use of knowledge management can be seen from the increase in different tools that is used by different organizations. Some organizations have been proactive in this field and have been able to use knowledge management very actively especially in the field of consultancy, information technology and other advisory related fields. This still leaves a lot of gap especially in the working of knowledge management being used in the field of management consultancies which needs to be addressed and looked into so that the manner in which it is being used in this field can be understood. This will provide different inputs and will help to identify the mechanism through which the entire process of knowledge management is being used in the development of business solutions to the clients. Motivation The motivation behind conducting this research is that it helps to understand the different directions in which knowledge management has its relevance. Further the topic has been narrowed down to management consultancies will ensure that the entire research works on a single direction and will help to provide important conclusive evidence in the manner knowledge management is contributing towards improving the working style of consultancies. This also provides an opportunity to research and will help to bring forward important findings in different directions and will help to increase the learning horizon. This will help to ensure the applicability of knowledge management in management consultancy firms and the maximum efficiency which will be yielded by sing proper knowledge sharing strategies. Research Question The research looks towards identifying the manner in which knowledge management is being used in the field of management consultancy and the diverse benefit that the organizations using this are able to retrieve. This thereby ensures that the research looks at identifying the different strategies that management consultancy firms look towards using in the field of knowledge management so that the effect of the different strategy that is being used by the business can be identified and the underlying reasons which will help to understand the dynamics and mechanism in this field can be developed. This will thereby help to understand the manner in which the field of knowledge management will be improved and will thereby help to understand the manner in which knowledge management has improved. Further, it will also help to analyze the manner in which both tacit and implicit knowledge has relevance in the working on management consultancies and their role in shaping the performance of management consultancies. Literature Review Knowledge management is a core component in the management consultancy industry as the organization here look towards imparting knowledge and is driven by that. Since, the sell business solutions knowledge management is an important part of their working culture (Sarvary, 1999). This identifies that the fact that management consultancy firms produce and sell knowledge through the process of business solutions. This has made management consultancy forms be known a “knowledge intensive firms because of their unique ability to create and use knowledge in different fields (Alvesson, 1995). The ability to ensure proper manpower and developments in different directions have been the cornerstone based on which management consultancy firms have been able to yield maximum opportunities of providing proper solutions to the clients. To ensure maximum efficiency is delivering proper business solutions it is imperative that management consultancy firms have the ability to look into different insights and have people with the required competence to be able to provide business solutions (Werr & Stjernberg, 2003). This has led towards the development of different framework through which management consultancies work and focuses on knowledge generation, knowledge process and technology (Leonard, 1995). This will help in the development of framework through which better results can be generated by using the different information. This has also been shown in the diagram below To accomplish the knowledge management process management consultancy firms need to follow a process which involves generation, organizing, developing and distribution of knowledge so that better business solutions can be generated and will help to improve the overall working condition of management consultancy firms (Davenport & Prusak, 1998). This has been backed by the use of both tacit and implicit knowledge so that better strategies to identify the different knowledge management tool is developed which will look towards confronting with the different issues and help to bring forward objectives which will improve the process of knowledge sharing (Ackerman and Halverson, 2000). Methodology The research proposes to use both primary and secondary research to gather information. On the primary front the research looks at gathering data from management consultancy firms which will help to understand the manner in which knowledge management contributes towards their development. This source of data collection method will ensure that different consultancy firms are approached and their pertinent data and relevance towards knowledge management is identified. Along with it the method proposes to use secondary data where the research looks towards using past findings of different management consultancy firms and engineering consultancy firms. This will help to back the new studies with the previous studies and will have to understand the impact knowledge management has on management consultancy firms. It will also ensure that the new research is backed by previous studies which will help to increase the relevance of the study and will help to build on the past knowledge. This will increase the validity and reliability of the data as interpretation based on it will be better and sounder. Data Collection Method The data collection method used in this research looks towards approaching the different management consultancy firms. This will be a source of primary data collection method and will be backed by secondary data. In the data collection methodology stress has been laid to ensure that contacts at the different level of management with respect of knowledge management are made. Further in this regard emphasis has been laid to find out the manner in which knowledge management contributes both internally and externally in executing clients’ projects and the relevance it has on their decision making. Further the data collection method can also be viewed as one which is semi-structured and looks towards gathering interviews which are tape recorded and the running commentary of different people at the decision making level. In addition to it focus group strategy is used where the emphasis is evolved around employees. The employees are presented with different situations and pictures based on employee perception regarding the contribution of knowledge management in their company. This will help to provide better inputs and will give the direction based on which better expectations about the future can be organized. It will also help to ensure that employees who provide business solutions perspective on knowledge management is identified which will help to increase the overall efficiency in the use of different strategy for the business based decisions. Conclusion The research will thereby help to answer the questions that have been asked in the research regarding the manner in which knowledge management is being used in the field of management consultancy and the diverse benefit that the organizations using this are able to retrieve. This will also help to identify different framework different strategies that management consultancy firms are using in the field of knowledge management. This will help to find out the underlying reasons which will help to understand the dynamics and mechanism in this field can be developed. This will thereby help to find out the different fundamentals based on which management consultancy firms have been able to deliver better results and will help in the overall improvement of the management working style. Expected Contribution The research will help to understand the manner in which knowledge management has its relevance in the field of management consultancies as it will look toards presenting the different aspect which has been also shown below (Young, 1998) This will help to understand the action that management consultancies have to develop so that a better action can be developed which will look towards analyzing different issues and will present before the clients an appropriate business solution. This research will also imply towards certain important ramifications for the business and will help to understand the manner in which tacit and implicit knowledge is being used by management consultancies as shown below (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995) This will thereby build on the mechanism of understanding the manner in which management consultancies have been able to benefit from the use of different knowledge management strategies and will provide a direction which will help to understand the varied opportunities that management consultancy has by using knowledge management and will help to improve the working of the management consultancies in the future. References Alvesson, M. 1995. Management of knowledge intensive companies. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter Ackerman, S. and Halverson, A. 2000. Reexamining Organizational Memory, Communications of the ACM, 43 (1), 59-64 Davenport, T. H. and Prusak, L. 1998. Working Knowledge, Harvard Business School Press Leonard, D. 1995. Wellsprings of Knowledge: Building and Sustaining the Sources of Innovation, Harvard Business School Press Nonaka, I. and Takeuchi, H. 1995. The Knowledge-Creating Company, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-18.509269-4, 284 Sarvary, M. 1999. Knowledge management and competition in the consulting industry. California Management Review, 95-107 Werr, A. & Stjernberg, T. 2003. Exploring Management Consulting Firms as Knowledge Systems. Organisation studies, 24 (6), 881-908 Young, R. 1998. Knowledger, Knowledge Management, 1 (4), 21-25 Read More