Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies: Boom and Bust and Business Models
A New Haven for Western Capital Ever since the opening up of the global economy in the 1990s, several hitherto Third World countries in Asia and Africa began to liberalize and integrate themselves into the global economic system. This meant that there were more chances for entrepreneurs in these countries and from abroad to flourish […]
What are Employee Training Manuals ?
Employees need to be trained on a regular basis to acquaint them with the latest developments, technologies, softwares and make them ready for unforeseen circumstances. Employee training manuals are small handbooks which are given to employees by training managers for their future reference. Employee training manual should include relevant information which would help employees enhance […]
How Managers Can Handle Performance Reviews with a Mixture of Tact and Firmness
The time of the year when managers and employees alike look forward to is the Appraisal season where they are judged and ranked on their performance over the last cycle. While some organizations have half yearly appraisals, others have yearly appraisals and the timing depends on how the organizational HR policies view the process of […]
Negative Effects of Social Capital
Although social capital has been defined in several different ways by different experts, however, most commonly it can be called as the outcome of social relations. It not only comprises of financial benefit but also includes expectative benefits that are derived from the cooperation between various groups and individuals. The major difference between the financial […]
Theory of Human Resource Development (HRD)
This module covers the HRD function in organizations from a wide variety of perspectives. At the outset, after the introduction to the module in the previous article, it is time to look at some theoretical perspectives about the HRD function. When the field of management science and organizational behavior was in its infancy, the HRD […]
Knowledge management is the systematic capture of insights and experiences to enable an organization to identify, create, represent, and distribute knowledge. The insights and the experiences of individuals in the organization comprise the knowledge that is created in the organization and is embedded in the form of practices and processes.
Knowledge Management is an organizational function that concerns itself with the capture, storage, and dissemination of the knowledge that is inherent in the organization by using software or a Processual tool to capture, store, and disseminate knowledge. The objective of knowledge management is to enhance organizational competitiveness, improve performance, the sharing of lessons learnt, and the continuous improvement of the organizational processes. Typically, organizations have well-established tools and software to capture, store, and disseminate the learning’s that accrue because of the organizational processes.
Companies like 3M, Pfizer, and Infosys are thought to the world leaders in KM. This is because they have a clear set of guidelines for capturing knowledge after every project or product that they rolled out. For instance, these companies have guidelines for project managers to publish the learning’s that have accrued after a project and upload them into the KM system. Further, the bottom line imperative for a successful KM system is that employees should have a sharing mindset instead of an exclusivity mindset. What this means is that the employees must be willing to share their insight and knowledge with the other employees.
Apart from this, to actualize a successful KM system, hierarchy and barriers to sharing of knowledge must be eliminated. What this means is that a culture of openness must pervade the organization with no impediments to the flow of knowledge through the organizational arteries.
As discussed above, many organizations consider KM integral to their core processes. Indeed, KM has become so widely prevalent in organizational discourse that it is rare to find a large organization without a KM system in place. Further, the existence of a KM system has become necessary for organizations to achieve the SEI-CMM certification. Moreover, there is recognition that a KM system is necessary in order not to “reinvent the wheel”. What this means is that learning’s can be used to avoid duplication of work, and eliminate redundancies in the organizational processes. Apart from this, a KM system improves organizational communication and loosens up the rigid walls between different functions in the organization. Finally, a KM system is needed to ensure that past mistakes form the stepping-stones for future success.
As Francis Bacon said, Knowledge is Power. Hence, the sharing of knowledge is integral to an organizations’ success and this is the rationale and driving force behind having a well functioning KM system. In conclusion, this article has set the context for the subsequent exploration into the various dimensions and aspects of KM across the world and the resultant increase in competitiveness and strategic advantage.
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