Knowledge Management as a Management Tool - Annotated Bibliography Example

Title and reference of article/Harvard Martesson M, 2000, A Critical Review of Knowledge Management as a Management Tool, Journal of Knowledge Management, 4 (3), pp 204-216 Type of Article Journal Article – Journal of Knowledge Management – Study Paper Purpose of article The aim of this study paper is to highlight the role of knowledge management in the survival of businesses. Focus of content The paper discusses how knowledge management is promoted in our society to maintain competitive strength. Moreover the paper discusses the manner in which organizations retain, develop their employees, provide training and organize them to ensure that their capabilities are used in the right direction. The paper also suggests the inherent problems and presents a literature survey which highlights importance of knowledge management and the manner organizations can achieve those. Thus the study focuses on three phases as knowledge management, knowledge and strategy. Conclusions The study suggests that knowledge management forms a vital part for organization and to ensure maximum benefit organizations need to use it wisely. The following have been suggested to improve the usage of knowledge management Support from the top management so that the information gets converted into knowledge through human brain Improved communication network so that knowledge gets communicated clearly and can be used for growth Allowing employees to be creative which will help in creative ideas from the same information Highlighting the importance of sharing knowledge Having incentive schemes to make employees come with creativity in knowledge time and proper evaluation of every idea. Significance of article The significance of the article is highlighting the manner knowledge management can be used in organizations which is supported by literature findings. The author lays stress on strategy for effective knowledge management highlights the area employees and management needs to work on. Limitation of article The study demonstrates the importance of knowledge management but doesn’t talk about the manner in which tacit knowledge will be transferred into explicit knowledge. Strengths of article The study highlights the manner in which knowledge management can be improved and used in organization is supported by literature studies and extensive findings which increases the relevance of the study and throws light on important areas like downsizing, strategy, incentives, and time frame. Weakness of article The article doesn’t look into resistance from employees which happens in the knowledge management process and also doesn’t look into downsizing to a greater effect thereby not mentioning ways to overcome those. Title and reference of article/Harvard Berten P V & Ermine J L, 2006, Applied Knowledge Management: a set of well tried tools, the Journal of information and knowledge management systems, 36 (4), pp 423-431 Type of Article Research Paper - the Journal of information and knowledge management systems – Technical Paper Purpose of article The purpose of the article is to describe the four tools of knowledge management which have been tried and tested which allows the user to analyze, describe, store, and transmit knowledge. Focus of content The research focuses on the growing trends on knowledge management tools which are widely used today and have become a general tool. Moreover the paper focuses on growing trends towards the tools which were used in academic purposes like intranet and e-learning and the growing concentration towards these tools to transmit knowledge. The research thus focuses on four phases as knowledge management, knowledge economy, intranet and e-learning Conclusions The research suggests that organizations are laying importance to knowledge management as it fulfills the three goals of capitalizing, sharing, and innovating. To enable these goals are achieved organization take the following steps Organization combine the environment and the tools or instruments to ensure innovation Allowing employees understand the tools so that the complex nature of the work gets easily understood Using tools to make the new generation understand the importance of knowledge management after the retirement of baby boomers Significance of article The significance of the research lies in the fact that it highlights the importance of already used and tested tools in academic fields. The importance of this multiplies due to the fact that it has its usage in every field and industry thereby helping organization to use this tools for knowledge management Limitation of article The research paper concentrates on the already prevalent tools to improve knowledge management but ignores the development of new tools that is taking place Strengths of article The research suggest the usage of already tested tools which reduces the fear of failure as it has been applied in all industry and tested thousands of times. Weakness of article The article doesn’t integrate the new development with the old ones which can develop better tools for the future knowledge management. Title and reference of article/Harvard Desouza K C & Awazu Y, 2006, Knowledge Management at SME’s: five peculiarities, Journal of Knowledge Management, 10 (1), pp 32-43 Type of Article Research Paper - Journal of Knowledge Management – Survey Paper Purpose of article The aim of this research is to identify the importance being laid to knowledge management by small to medium scale enterprise as compared to large enterprise that are able to leverage it and identify the five peculiarities practices seen in SME’s. Focus of content The paper discusses on the manner SME’s use knowledge management in their organization which was identified through a study for nine months over 25 SME’s. This study throws light on the different peculiarities seen in SME’s. Moreover the study highlights the success of SME’s that were able to use knowledge management and the growth depicted by them. Conclusions The research carried out over 25 SME’s in a period of nine months shows the importance of knowledge management for SME’s and the peculiarities that was seen in their working environment. They are as SME enhance their knowledge through socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization All SME demonstrated similar or common knowledge which was also present in the employees and was similar SME’s unaware of the knowledge loss when an employee leaves the organization and joins the competitor Lack of resources and funds reducing their external knowledge and look more towards the internal sources SME use people centered knowledge management with little or no reliability on technology presenting them with a method to deal with humans Significance of article The significance of the research lies in the manner in which SME’s differentiates them with the large organization. Despite these the importance to knowledge management being laid by SME’s and the manner they deal with human Limitation of article The research looks into the working of SME towards knowledge management but doesn’t look into problems and suppressors of knowledge management at SME’s. Strengths of article The research suggest the manner SME’s does knowledge management and the importance of people centered knowledge management even in SME’s Weakness of article The study doesn’t look into the intricacies of knowledge management at SME’s as compared to large organizations Title and reference of article/Harvard Araos A P, Barber K D, Hernandez J E M & Eldridge S, 2007, Designing a knowledge management tool to support knowledge sharing networks, Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 18 (2), pp 153-168 Type of Article Research Paper - Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management – Study Paper Purpose of article The aim of this research is to design a tool which facilitates in knowledge management. This tool will help in the achieving manufacturing excellence and will help in the creation of virtual knowledge sharing network. Focus of content The research paper discusses the manner in which the creation of a virtual network will help SME’s. Moreover the tool has been developed for the manufacturing enterprises as inadequate information with the SME’s have reduced their efficiency and this tool will help SME’s in managing projects better and will ensure effective knowledge management. The research thus focuses on four phases as knowledge management, knowledge sharing, learning process and small to medium sized enterprises Conclusions The research suggests that SME’s need to concentrate on improving the manufacturing excellence to be able to withstand completion. The findings are Conversion of tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge through electronic documentation which will improve the control function and help in monitoring Using a software tool for effective implementation of knowledge management throughout the organization Members having space in the software tool where they can upload their projects so that others can read and improve their knowledge before implementing a new project Significance of article The significance of this research lies on the fact that it concentrates on small and medium organization and deals with the manner that can improve their manufacturing excellence Limitation of article The research dwells on tolls for the SME’s in the manufacturing context but doesn’t present a comparison with large manufacturing enterprises to find the differences between the two. Strengths of article The research suggests a framework through which SME’s can successfully implement the tools to increase knowledge management. Weakness of article The research presents the tools for development but it can face obstacle form different areas like employees, suppliers which has not been dealt with. Title and reference of article/Harvard Mphidi H & Snyman R, 2004, The utilization of an intranet as a knowledge management tool in academic libraries, The electronic library, 22 (5), pp393 – 400 Type of Article Scholarly Article - The electronic library – Descriptive Paper Purpose of article The aim of this paper is discuss the effectiveness of intranet in knowledge management Focus of content The paper discusses the manner intranet shapes knowledge management and important findings that can be used in the business world. Moreover the paper looks into three South African libraries as a sampling method to gauge the effectiveness of intranet. In addition to it the findings are compared to literature studies to improve its effectiveness. The paper thus focuses on three phases as academic libraries, intranet and knowledge management. Conclusions The paper suggests the role of intranet in shaping knowledge management and the manner it can improve the effectiveness of knowledge management. The findings are Intranet enables faster transmission of knowledge which helps to make better and faster decisions Intranet has a relevance in academic libraries and plays a role in shaping knowledge management Academic libraries are not able to us the full potential of intranet which is affecting knowledge management Significance of article The significance of this study lies in the fact that it shows the importance of intranet in knowledge management and by comparing with the literature findings the validity and responsiveness of the study multiplies manifold. Limitation of article The study looks into the manner academic libraries use intranet for knowledge management but the sample size is very small to come to any conclusion or evidence Strengths of article The study suggest the manner in which intranet can yield effectiveness in knowledge management and the comparison of the findings with previous literature findings helps to increase its validity. Weakness of article The study looks into the manner intranet has aided towards knowledge management in academic libraries but doesn’t dwell upon the intricacies associated with usage of intranet which might raise certain restrictions. Read More