How important is Knowledge Management for businesses?
by Verena Veneeva
Knowledge is a philosophical concept defined by Plato as a belief supported by
an account or an explanation (Blair, 2002). Under the context of knowledge-view
of an organization, the definition suggests that knowledge comes from firm's
increased ability to make use and sense of available information to create value
for the shareholders (Leiponen, 2006). There has been a significant growth in
the knowledge-based school of thought, which suggests that generating and
retention of knowledge can have positive effects on the firm's performance (Di
Mattia & Scott, 1999). To manage this intangible asset to leverage firms for
benefits is considered to be its core capability. Knowledge management (KM) has
been aimed at capturing, integrating and using existing organizational knowledge
and consequently creating a knowledge asset that can be a source of sustained
competitive advantage in the long run (Brooking, 1999; Havens & Knapp, 1999).
The revolution in the KM came with the rise of technology and there has been a
misconception of linking IT with KM although it just facilitates the process
(Papers4you.com, 2006).
The literature has divided knowledge into two major categories depending upon
its nature to be codified for the use in a KM system. The structured and
systematic knowledge that can be described in formal language and easily
communicated and shared through formal means qualify for the explicit knowledge
type (Elizabeth, 2001). It has been established that such knowledge is easy to
codify in the form of databases and is seen as a base resource because of its
inherent nature of easy imitation by other organizations. The other form of
knowledge which has gained tremendous importance is the automatic collective
behavior and is called tacit knowledge (Richard et al, 2001). Tacit knowledge,
according to Sajjad et al (2005), comprises of mental models, values, beliefs,
assumptions and perceptions which are deeply entranced into the intellectual
capital of an organization. It has been suggested that tacit knowledge is faced
with an apparent dichotomy i.e. the feature of inimitability that make it a
source of sustained competitive advantage also makes it hard to capture and
share within the organization to gain the potential benefits.
Therefore it can be concluded that the elusive asset of knowledge, where
provides an organization with capability to undermine competition also proves to
be a challenge to leverage itself (Papers4you.com, 2006). Any organization
should not only look at the 'best practices' in the field but should customize
each approach to its own unique culture and requirements to be able to
successfully use KM.
References:
Blair, D.C. (2002), "Knowledge management: hype, hope, or help?", Journal of the
American Society for Information Science and Technology 53(12), 1019-1028
BROOKING, Annie (1999), "Corporate Memory: Strategies for Knowledge Management",
Intellectual Capital Series London: International Thomson Business
Di Mattia, S. & Scott, I. A. (1999), "KM: hope, hype or harbinger?", Library
Journal, 15 September, 122(15), p. 33
Elizabeth A. Smith, (2001), "The role of tacit and explicit knowledge in the
workplace", Journal of Knowledge Management; Volume: 5 Issue: 4; 2001 Research
Paper
Havens, C. & Knapp, E. (1999), "Easing into Knowledge Management, Strategy and
Leadership", 27(2), p. 4
Leiponen, Aija (2006), "Managing Knowledge for Innovation: The Case of
Business-to-Business Services", Journal of Product Innovation Management,
May2006, Vol. 23 Issue 3, p238-258
Papers For You (2006) "P/M/440. Tools of knowledge management", Available from
http://www.coursework4you.co.uk/sprtmgt8.htm [22/06/2006]
Papers For You (2006) "P/M/325. Knowledge management: definition of the
concept", Available from Papers4you.com [21/06/2006]
Richard T. Herschel, Hamid Nemati, David Steiger (2001), "Tacit to explicit
knowledge conversion: knowledge exchange protocols", Journal of Knowledge
Management; Volume: 5 Issue: 1; 2001 Research paper
Sajjad M. Jasimuddin, Jonathan H. Klein, Con Connell (2005), "The paradox of
using tacit and explicit knowledge: Strategies to face dilemmas", Management
Decision; Volume: 43 Issue: 1; 2005 Conceptual paper
About the Author:
Copyright © 2006 Verena Veneeva. Professional Writer working for
http://www.coursework4you.co.uk
.
Source of this article:
www.goarticles.com
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