WEB 2.0 TECHNOLOGIES TO SUPPORT KMS

WEB 2.0 TECHNOLOGIES TO SUPPORT KMS

Knowledge consists of different types, such as know what, know how, know why

and know who. (MA Chatti et al, 2007)

Know What- Know information about the problems they face.

Know How - Through web2.0 technologies like wiki’s and blogs.

Know Why- To gain competitive edge and customer satisfaction.

Know Who- All the employees of an organisation.

Use of Technology for Knowledge Sharing: (Web 2.0)

In any organisation, knowledge sharing plays a key role in the whole development of the organisation. We see that knowledge should be shared and maintained for any organisations overall development. Through proper knowledge sharing we gain competitive edge and customer satisfaction which keeps us in business. So, to help our employees share knowledge they have, we are introducing wiki and blogging to our organisation so that both codification and personalisation strategies can be implemented. These are one of the best platforms to share knowledge and are cheap compared to other technologies.

Technology for knowledge sharing can be explained clearly with a example and some specific problems in that organisation. Let me introduce to you Albion Fabrics for which I with my team have designed a KMS and supported it with the help of Web 2.0 technologies.

Albion is a fabric company whose clients are supermarket chains and they outsource their projects to industries in other countries where the goods can be made cheaper. The problem is Albion’s staff doesn’t have enough knowledge about the industries they work with so it takes a lot of time and the decision taken cannot be judged properly. For this we designed a KMS and supported it with Web 2.0 technologies. We used Wiki’s, blogging to reduce this specific problem.

Use of Wiki:

A wiki is a website where information and knowledge can be stored and every user can contribute to it. Albion’s wiki is only made available for the staff in the intranet where every person of the staff can share their knowledge and experience with particular industries. Wiki works as a repository in our organisation. Each group or individual staff will contribute to the wiki and constant monitoring and moderation will be present to check if the information provided is true or not. We also keep a track record of the all the industries and experiences with each and this information will be available on the wiki. We use wiki as a tool for collaborative environment to make good use of the knowledge we have and form a virtual CoP.

This is effective because it helps the process of codification strategy and wiki is easy to access and with a search engine in it, it helps employees to access information and gain knowledge easily which in turn reduces time for making decisions. But there are some problems with wiki such as anyone using it can upload information which may be untrue sometimes. But this causes a huge problem to the organisation. So here comes the process called “Darwikinism” where unfit sections are culled, edited or replaced which results in high quality wiki. So, a wiki is a simple and user-friendly platform where employees share their knowledge and make it explicit. (www.biomedcentral.com)

This method of sharing knowledge is effective because there is a wide scope for learning, past mistakes won’t be repeated, also works as a centralised organisational unit for organisational learning. FAQ’s can be answered readily and makes knowledge transfer easy.

Google is an example of organisation that use wiki’s and blogs for knowledge sharing. There is a strong sharing culture at Google since the very beginning. Google’s intranet is made of numerous different tools but it is articulated around a big wiki. All employees are pushed to share freely and to learn from each other (the opposite of the company’s interaction with the outside world), no isolated team (no silo), and open communication is the rule. The company tries to hire smart people who are nice to work with, with an open mind suitable with the sharing practices. “Everybody from engineering to sales to folks who sweep the floors can read about and create commentary on anything in database. This is one of the issues that made Google a pioneer in its field of work.

Use of Blogs:

Blogging, a web2.0 technology has become very popular these days. We in our organisation encourage every member of the staff to have their own blog and publish posts about their experiences with a particular industry and its work behaviour regularly so that every employee goes through it, post comments and share their tacit knowledge.

Knowledge workers use blogs to capture and use information, to document individual thoughts, to reflect and to convey with others. This way, some of their tacit knowledge becomes explicit. This way of knowledge sharing is effective because it involves less money and effort. It also helps increasing the communication between individuals and there by resulting a friendly work environment.

In Albion, we think that using wiki’s and blogs give our company and our employees a specific edge that we are currently looking for and also solve our problems like problems regarding the industries . Apart from this using web2.0 also helps solving some of our knowledge management problems with training, staff turnover, thereby creating a friendly work environment with a free flow of knowledge.

Let me make it clear to you by giving a example. Our organisation got a order from Marks and Spencer to get them 10000 pieces of cotton shirts with different designs. The team associated to Marks and Spencer started looking at different industries in India which manufacture good quality cotton shirts. The team looks at other aspects as well such as specifications given by the designer and the capability of the industry to manufacture such kind of shirts. To get all this information, it takes so much time for the team to decide for any particular industry. Now, with the wiki’s having records of every industry it will be easy for them to find the particular industry they are looking for. To know much about the industry and the problem they may face there, the team looks at blogs of other employees who wrote about their experiences with the chosen industry. This way Blogs and Wiki helps the employees and eventually the organisation for knowledge sharing.

References:

MA Chatti, M Jarke, D Frosch-Wilke ; 2007, International Journal of knowledge and Learning

Maged N Kamel Boulos, Inocencio Maramba, Steve Wheeler; 2006, Retrieved on 11 march 2009 from www.biomedcentral.com

Michel Buffa; 2006, Intranet Wikis, Retrieved on 23 march 2009 from www-sop.inria.fr

KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND MANAGEMENT IN ORGANIZATION

KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND MANAGEMENT IN ORGANIZATION

Certain elements are important for an organizations survival and development. One of them is Knowledge Management, which is also the vital aspect in organizations of any kind. Before we go into why Organizational Knowledge should be managed and how it is done, we should know what organizational knowledge is? Organizational knowledge is the knowledge possessed and used by the organization as a whole to gain competitive advantage and customer satisfaction. Organizational knowledge can also be defined as the sum of the knowledge possessed by the employees, knowledge workers, the management and the knowledge available to them through experience of the organization which is justified. But Bhatt (2001) totally disagree with my definition of Organizational KM. He says that Individual knowledge is necessary for developing the organizational knowledge base; however, organizational knowledge is not a simple sum of the individual knowledge. Organizational knowledge is formed through unique patterns of interactions between technologies, techniques, and people, which cannot be easily imitated by other organizations, because these interactions are shaped by the organization’s unique history and culture.

Organizational knowledge management is the process where knowledge is created, gained, managed, moderated, distributed and utilized collectively among the employees of an organization. The main steps of organizational knowledge management are creation, managing and distribution. Knowledge can be created or gained in different ways. There can be different ways an organization can acquire knowledge. They can be attained by focusing on issues such as why we have gained a project or why have we lost it, current features of the market, observing competitors and most importantly knowing who knows what.

Nonaka I (1994) says that there are four modes for knowledge creation and knowledge can be created when it goes from tacit to explicit. Socialization, Externalization, Internalization and Combination are the four steps where knowledge can be created in an organization. In these processes Knowledge flows in every form i.e.: from tacit to tacit, tacit to explicit, explicit to tacit and from explicit to explicit. Stephen McLaughlin (2007) explains more about how knowledge is created and shared.

Knowledge Transfer Mechanism	Desired Outcome	Impact
Tacit to Tacit	Innovation	Creative thinking, cross-organizational team-working, improved team-working, and the generation of new knowledge
Tacit to Explicit	Standardisation	Standardise data formats, common understanding of presented information
Explicit to Explicit	Control	Dissemination of information across organisation, better (centralised) decision making based on accessible information, improved access control of information, data manipulation
Explicit to Tacit	Empowerment	Better real-time (distributed) decision making based on accessible information, improved data analysis

I see that certain factors such as organisational culture, work environment and time plays vital role in knowledge creation process because knowledge is created by knowledge sharing. According to my opinion new knowledge is created by ones’ personal interpretation of the information gained. This knowledge can be useful for organisational development. Apart from this knowledge can also be created via social networking both on a personal and organisational level.

Knowledge gained will be useless if not managed properly. There should be certain knowledge management strategies which should align with the organizations core strategies, objectives and its culture. These strategies are to be customized based on the organizations basic needs. An organization should have its own Knowledge management system which supports its Knowledge management strategies. We should design the knowledge management systems by keeping in mind the sources of knowledge we have in our organization. They are the employees, expertise, experiences, etc, .The knowledge from all the sources should be integrated, its quality tested and justified. It should be in such a form so that it can be readily used whenever necessary.

We can also employ suitable tools such as IT, web 2.0, etc to support these systems and can be made available to each and every employee of the organization.

One good example for this will be one of the success stories of KM in Siemens sharenet . The backbone of ShareNet is an intranet that facilitates knowledge transfer by allowing for three processes: the capturing; developing; and reusing of knowledge. The system covers two types of knowledge: Tacit and Explicit. ShareNet helps people to access the required knowledge at the any time. The updating of the knowledge base involves a continuous self-assessment and conscious focus on the process. So employees are encouraged to reflect on the sales process post and ask “which knowledge would have been useful at the beginning?” and “What source materials would I have needed?” The answers to these questions can be used to ensure re-use of valuable knowledge. But, the system is only as good as the knowledge within it and one of the main tasks was to assure the reliability and value of the content in ShareNet. Another task was to motivate people to actively share knowledge. These problems should deal to achieve the main goals of ShareNet: saving time, reducing costs, increasing quality, increasing sales and increasing profit. (Bernhard BN and Francesco C, 2003)

So I can conclude by saying that Organisational KM is very important and gives good competitive edge and customer satisfaction to a organisation when used effectively.

REFERENCES:

· Bhatt G D, 2001; KM in organisations: Examining the Interaction between Technologies, Techniques and People.

· Ikujiro N; 1994; A Dynamic Theory of Organisational Knowledge Creation: Organisation Science; volume-5; number-1

· McLaughlin S; 2007; Managing Knowledge for Success, Engineering Management; Retrieved on 1 April 2009 from www.theiet.org/management

· Bo B Nielsen and Ciabuschi F; 2003; Siemens Sharenet: Knowledge Management in Practise: Business Strategy Review, volume-13, Issue 2, pp 33-40

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Knowledge management is gaining more and more attention now- a- days. It has become one of the important factors for an organisations growth because knowledge has become an organisational asset. So, what is a Knowledge management system? A Knowledge management system is an information system used to share, process and integrate the knowledge in an organisation. A KM system is the integration of knowledge acquired, shared and the technologies which support them. Through proper KM system the face of the organisation changes. KM systems can be tailor made or we can even adopt the best practises.

As we all know Knowledge Management is the process of creating, acquiring, processing and sharing knowledge in an organisation, a KM system is used to support this process in a particular way such that knowledge will be available at any time for every staff of the organisation. While designing a KM system, a organisation should bear in mind its clear and specific goals and its strategy to achieve them because they have to align with the KM strategies in the system. Knowledge flow in an organisation involves two strategies. They are personalisation and codification. Knowledge flows in a personal level or codified level or both depending on the structure and culture of the organisation. The major challenge of managing knowledge is less its creation and more its capture and integration (Davenport, 1997). According to Davenport new knowledge creation is not so important, he emphasizes on capturing knowledge from others expenses and experiences. Integration of knowledge that is available from different sources and making it more meaningful is important in a KMS.

Knowledge is of limited organizational value if it is not shared. The ability to integrate and apply specialized knowledge of organizational members is fundamental to a firm’s ability to create and sustain competitive advantage (Grant, 1996). Grant specifies that there is keen need for expertise in an organisation and knowledge creation happens through integration and application of specialised knowledge which gives the organisation competitive advantage. But in my view, if I am concerned I don’t agree with either of the authors because knowledge creation is very important in my view and new ways of doing a work gives a organisation the needed competitive advantage and I dont think that only through expertise does knowledge creation occurs. Knowledge will be tacit in every employees mind. It is the principle of the KMS to make it explicit and by integration does new knowledge is created.

Culture of an organisation is important for any KMS to work efficiently. The culture should be in such a way that there should be no hierarchies and work environment should be open and the flow of knowledge and information should be free. From the view of the culture-based perspective of knowledge management, managers associated knowledge management with learning (primarily from an organizational perspective), communication, and intellectual property cultivation. Some suggested that the information/technology component of knowledge management was only 20% of the concept whereas the cultural and managerial aspects accounted for the bulk of the issue. (Alavi M and Leidner D E, 1999).

Knowledge Management system provides continuous learning in an organisation where lessons learned are related to problems that the employees may face certainly, FAQ’s, and the solutions will be given by their colleagues and expertise who are experienced. An ideal KMS should have a good CKO, knowledge workers, repositories of knowledge, friendly environment in the organisation so that knowledge flow will have no barriers and there should be support of Information Technology so that knowledge can be made available to every employee in an organisation at any time. An ideal KMS should have all these characteristics and their goals can be achieved through proper support of Information technology or any other user- friendly technologies.

I found my argument identical to Davenport et al (1998) where he specified some factors which contribute to knowledge project success. They are

· Technical and organisational infrastructure

· Standard flexible knowledge structure

· Knowledge friendly culture

· Multiple channels for knowledge transfer

· Senior management support

Thus Knowledge Management systems play a vital role in giving the company the required features and making all its employees knowledgeable and helping in gaining competitive advantage and customer satisfaction.

REFERENCES:

1. Davenport, T. H. (1997), Knowledge Management at Ernst and Young,1997, http://knowman.bus.utexas.edu/E&Y.htm

2. Grant, R.M. (1996), ”Prospering in Dynamically-Competitive Environments: Organizational Capability as Knowledge Integration", Organization Science, pp. 375-387.

3. Alavi M and Leidner D E. (1999), “Knowledge Management systems: Issues, Challenges and benefits”, Communication of AIS, volume 1, article 7.

4. Thomas H D, David W De L, Micheal C B (1998), “Successful Knowledge Management Projects”, Sloan Management review, Winter