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UNIT 2

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

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Stages of Knowledge ManagementProcess

The process of knowledge management is universal for anyenterprise.

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Step 1: Collecting

This is the most important step of the knowledgemanagement process.

If you collect the incorrect or irrelevant data, theresulting knowledge may not be the most accurate.

Therefore, the decisions made based on such knowledgecould be inaccurate as well.

The data collection procedure defines certain datacollection points.

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Step 2: Organizing

The data collected need to be organized. This organizationusually happens based on certain rules. These rules aredefined by the organization.

As an example, all sales related data can be filed togetherand all staff related data could be stored in the same

database table. This type of organization helps to maintaindata accurately within a database.

If there is much data in the database, techniques such as'normalization' can be used for organizing and reducingthe duplication.

This way, data is logically arranged and related to oneanother for easy retrieval. When data passes step 2, itbecomes information.

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Step 3: Summarizing

In this step, the information is summarized in order to take

the essence of it. The lengthy information is presented intabular or graphical format and stored appropriately.

For summarizing, there are many tools that can be used

such as software packages, charts (Pareto, cause-and-

effect), and different techniques.

Step 4: Analyzing

At this stage, the information is analyzed in order to find

the relationships, redundancies, and patterns.

An expert or an expert team should be assigned for thispurpose as the experience of the person / team plays a

vital role. Usually, there are reports created after analysis

of information.

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Step 5: Synthesizing At this point, information becomes knowledge. The results

of analysis (usually the reports) are combined together toderive various concepts and artifacts.

A pattern or behavior of one entity can be applied to

explain another and collectively, the organization will have

a set of knowledge elements that can be used across theorganization.

This knowledge is then stored in the organizational

knowledge basefor further use.

Usually, the knowledge base is a software implementationthat can be accessed from anywhere through the Internet.

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Barriers to Knowledge Management Lack of top management commitment: Top management is

responsible for each and every activity at all the levels of theorganizations. It is instrumental in development oforganizational structure, technological infrastructure andvarious decisions making processes which are essential foreffective creation, sharing and use of knowledge.

Effective knowledge creation and sharing require long term

commitment and support from top management in recruitmentand retention of right people.

Lack of top management is the most critical barrier for asuccessful KM implementation, particularly in knowledgecreation and sharing. It is also responsible for identifyingorganizational strength and weaknesses as well as analyzing theopportunities and threads in the external environment.

The top management has to conceptualize a vision about whattype of knowledge should be developed and used into amanagement system for implementation.

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Lack of technological infrastructure: As most of the issues of KMare culture based, the role of technology cant be overlooked.Lack of technological infrastructure TI) is one of the barriers inimplementation of KM. TI provides a stronger platform to KM

and enhances its impact in an organization, by helping and

leveraging its knowledge systematically and actively. The wide

varieties of technology such as business intelligence, knowledgebase, collaboration, portals, customer management systems,

data mining, workflow, etc., support KM activities and the

selection of appropriate technology improves the performance

of businesses. TI enables collecting, defining, storing, indexing

and linking data, and digital objects in order to supportmanagement decisions. It is able to overcome the barriers of

time and space. It also serves as a repository in which

knowledge can be reliably stored and efficiently retrieved.

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Lack of methodology:KM is a group of clearly definedprocesses or methods used to search important knowledgeamong different KM operations. Despite top managementcommitment, organizational structure and technologicalsupport, KM may fail due to lack of methodology.

Successful KM implementation requires a set ofmethodology. Methodology defines each and every activitywhich is going to be held during the KM implementation. Itis necessary for enhancing KM implementation. Manyauthors have suggested the step-by-step methodology forKM implementation. But even though, when it comes toreal implementation, they fail. Organizations have tounderstand those guidelines and transfer them accordingto their context.

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Lack of organizational structure: Business organizations shouldadopt an organizational structure (OS) which matches and

supports its strategy. OS includes division of labor,

departmentalization and distribution of power which is

necessary to support the information and decision process of

the organizations. It is defined as the specification of jobs to be

done within an organization and the ways in which those jobs

relate to one another. OS needs to support the knowledgetransfer and must contribute towards creation and reuse of

knowledge for the successful implementation of KM in the

organizations. It must be capable enough to administer the

knowledge related activities. Creating an organizational

structure to manage knowledge is by no means enough for thesuccess of KM, but it is an important ingredient of success. Lack

of organizational structure can discourage the KM activities

which certainly hinder the prospect of KM in the organizations.

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Lack of motivation and rewards: Organizational goals cant beachieved unless organizations integrate the concept of

motivation and rewards to its employees. Motivation can be

provided through recognition, visibility, and inclusion ofknowledge performance in appraisal systems and incentives.

The motivation could be either intrinsic or extrinsic. Rewarding

and recognizing an employee with tangible form for their

knowledge sharing efforts is extrinsic motivation while intrinsic

motivation is intangible nature. Employees share theirknowledge easily when motivated. It is critical for sharing of

both types of knowledge tacit as well as explicit knowledge. Lack

of motivation and reward system is also a barrier because it

discourages people to create, share, and use knowledge. Without

the establishment of organizational reward and recognition

systems, it is very difficult to align the KM and business needs of

the organizations.

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Staff Retirement: Staff retirement is the major barrier in the KMimplementation. Many organizations are facing lot of problems

due to expertise retirement. If any employee retires from

his/her job, it is very difficult to get a substitute of that level.

His/her experience and expertise will be lost by the

organizations. Organizations are less vigilant about protecting

their human intellectual capital. Organizations need to focus on

knowledge retention and its transfer into their business processmanagement. According to Accenture, one out of four

organizations makes no effort whatsoever to capture the

workplace knowledge of retirees, and a further 16% of

organizations expect retirees to have an informal chat with

colleagues before leaving. Thats more than 40% of theorganizations have no formal processes for retaining expertise.

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Lack of ownership of problem: Lack of ownership ofproblem is another issue which proves to be a barrier for

KM implementation. Due to the lack of ownership of

problem, no employee is ready to take up the jobs unless it

has been properly assigned. This situation is basically dueto absence of culture in the organizations. Employees are

not ready to take the responsibility of unassigned jobs.

This situation makes difficult to nurture the KM

implementation in the organizations.

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KNOWLEDGE WORKERS

A knowledge worker is anyone who works for a living atthe tasks of developing or using knowledge. For example, aknowledge worker might be someone who works at any ofthe tasks of planning, acquiring, searching, analyzing,

organizing, storing, programming, distributing, marketing,or otherwise contributing to the transformation andcommerce of information and those (often the samepeople) who work at using the knowledge so produced.

Knowledge workersare workers whose main capital isknowledge. Typical examples may include softwareengineers, architects, engineers, scientists and lawyers,because they "think for a living".

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Knowledge Worker Roles

Knowledge workers bring benefits to organizations in a varietyof important ways. These include

analyzing data to establish relationships

assessing input in order to evaluate complex or conflicting

priorities identifying and understanding trends

making connections

understanding cause and effect

ability to brainstorm, thinking broadly

ability to drill down, creating more focus

producing a new capability

creating or modifying a strategy

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Retaining Knowledge Workers

The shortage of knowledge workers makes employers

concerned with attracting and retaining these employees.

In order to hire and retain knowledge workers, employers

may offer higher salaries, attractive work environments,

and continuing educational opportunities. Employers takeactions designed to attract and retain knowledge workers

by creating a free-agent community, respecting knowledge

workers as new bosses, and providing growth

opportunities. In a free-agent community, employees havethe freedom to choose their work methods and work in the

environments in which they function best.

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Treating knowledge workers as the new bosses means that

management operates as a facilitator rather than as a

controller of work. This gives knowledge workers the

autonomy they need to complete their work as they see fit.

Employers make work attractive and rewarding byproviding growth opportunities, such as those that are

associated with ongoing training and development, special

assignments, and rotation of jobs and job responsibilities.

In such ways, employers attempt to address the knowledgeworker shortage.

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How Can Motivate KnowledgeWorkers?

Knowledge workers must have the intellectual capabilities to

acquire the skills discussed above. Such intellectual capacities

include those concerned with the understanding, recall,

processing and application of specialized information. Persons

who perform knowledge work must possess the abilitiesneeded to acquire appropriate communication skills and to

learn how to figure out where and how information can be

located. Knowledge workers are able to learn how to read and

write at postsecondary levels and to perform abstractreasoning. They also have the intellectual capacity to

understand the value of acquiring and maintaining the

knowledge and skills needed to accomplish their work.

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Shapiro (1985) provides a handy list of ways to motivate a

knowledge worker:

Recognize accomplishment

Provide flexibility and autonomy

Be available for support

Give responsibility and accountability Show how tasks fit the big picture

Encourage self-established goals

Allow for intrinsic rewards

Individualize supervision

Provide feedback immediately

Set tasks that allow for experience of accomplishment.

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KNOWLEDGE CAPITAL VSPHYSICAL CAPITAL

KNOWLEDGE CAPITAL Knowledge

Capital/Intellectual Capital

is intangible, perceptiveand an extremely

subjective phenomenon

whose measurement and

compensation is an

extremely difficult task.

PHYSICAL CAPITAL Physical Capital such as,

manufacturing assets,

money etc.., are tangible,quantifiable and

measurable and could be

priced based on some

standard or the other.

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FORMS OF KNOWLEDGE CAPITAL

Human Capital: The primary source of knowledgecapital is the intellect. The potential of the individual

and that of the team he may be working with are the

means by which organizations could thrive in a

competitive environment.

Organizational Capital: The capabilities of theorganization, made up of codified knowledge from all

sources (knowledge bases, business processes, and thetechnology infrastructure) the shared culture, values

and norms.

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Intellectual Capital: The relationship among humancustomer and organizational capital that maximizes the

organization's potential to create value which is ultimately

realized in some form of wealth.

Customer Capital: The strength of the customerrelationship, superior customer perceived value, increasing

customization of solutions