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