Knowldge management.
...h the material assets with logic and emotion. Their knowledge-sharing attitude affects the performance of the company. If this attitude has to be enhanced, the management must first of all start appreciating their views and opinions. The manager ahs to say 'thank you, John', without your support this problem would not have solved'. This has to be done again and again. Not once in a while. Manager cannot achieve what he want unless he knows how to deal with their emotions. The key to their treasury of knowledge is to induce personal bonding. Manager should see that they have the key with them. Employee will also come up with his best if he sees that he has a friend with him and not a work-oriented boss. Then, he would anything for his friend. This environment will be highly suitable for knowledge building and sharing activities. The company will also have to make efforts to preserve their intellectual capital, which is in the form of patents. It vies firm a sustainable advantage over its competitors. The fact that huge amount of investment goes into research and development and patent-building activities indicate its importance. The management of this knowledge requires company management support. How to preserve it and get the most out of it will decide the future of the company. Every year thousand of patents is filed U.S. always has a significant portion of it. This fact is reflected in their better economic conditions as compared to other economies in the world. This is something to learn from U.S. The knowledge building must get priority over other things in business. The companies now conduct training programs to enhance creativity within the employees. They are induced to think creatively. This type of knowledge generation has become extremely important. Because a new and practically implemental idea gives firm a great boost. It can literally kill the competition. Of course it is not an easy thing. The company has to make efforts to make employees think on their feet. The freedom to experiment with the existing set up is something, which most employees want to do but cannot do because of management orders no to play with existing set up of plant. Creativity asks for risk. A failure in an attempt can cause a monetary loss. Should the companies allow it? The answer should be 'Yes'. Because, if it clicks, then there is nothing like it. An employer must see that their thinking people think creatively and not routinely. Creative knowledge will become a weapon if dealt with care. Recently companies like HLL, Indian airlines have asked their people to remain absent for a certain period. It is to reduce the administration cost. But the effect of not having people at workplace is something, which should be ascertained. these are people who have gained knowledge about the company after working for it. The effect of a lack of decision-making at workplace by these people who are asked to remain absent might get reflected in the balance sheet later. The move can backfire. Similarly, the effect of downsizing and outsourcing to increase efficiency can also prove to be fetal. Companies need to think on these issues first before taking such a decision. They just cannot allow their knowledge pool to remain absent for the purpose of reducing the administration cost. The real measure of company's wealth lies in the kind of people who manage it. The shareholders of the company give more importance to the abilities of the people who are involved in management cadre. This is because they want knowledgeable people with right attitude to govern their company. They expect from them a work, which will give them maximum return. In other words it's the knowledge capital, which they value most. In future with increasing competition it will be assuming a greater importance. The onus will be on management to apply their knowledge for the benefit of the company. In order to gear up the process of knowledge management the company must identify the key knowledge resource within the company. The company should prepare its own organizational map, wherein it will be clear to find out the key personnel who can be contacted for the guidance. Such a map will be beneficial for the people working within the company as well as for the people who are external to the organization. Currently no company has a map with person's name and his knowledge capital written side by side. it is not a bad idea to have such a map posted on the entrance of the organization. While hiring people the organizations has to see whether the person has a knowledge and necessary attitude to support the knowledge building and sharing culture of the organization. The human resource department now cannot employ traditional methods of recruitment. The test before selection has to be such that the person selected possess knowledge building and sharing attitude. If it's not done in that way, then it might prove to be the destroyer of the entire knowledge management attempts. The person should be well equipped with all the knowledge about group dynamics. It is extremely necessary because institution is really created not by individuals but by relationship between them. All the interaction and forces among group members have to be such that they support the idea of knowledge building and sharing. A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO KM SYSTEMS We live in a post-industrial society where knowledge is being increasingly recognized as a primary source of wealth. Today, economies that can efficiently exploit its knowledge resources are increasingly doing better than those that have abundant natural resources but lack in such skills. But in broad terms, it is a complex task to compare it with conventionally better understood physical sources of wealth. The immense changes in the social and economic environment caused by technology and globalization have enforced organizations worldwide to make overwhelming changes relative to thei9r purpose, strategies, even structures in order to adapt, survive and succeed in the 21st century. Organizations need to become ot only wired, retooled and networked; they also need to change both the extrinsic elements of the company-products activities or structures-and their basic intrinsic way of operating-values, mindset, even their purpose. Organization must learn very fast in order to adapt to rapid environmental changes or they simply will die. Today's organizations have little choice but to become 'learning' institutions since one of their principal purposes will have to be expansion of knowledge that comes to reside at the core of what it means to be productive. In the words of Zuboff, learning is the new form of labor. Learning must take place as an ongoing by product of people doing their work. An organization should have the powerful capacity to collect, store and transfer knowledge and thus continuously transform itself for corporate success. Technology can be well utilized to optimize both learning and productivity. The knowledge subsystem involves the acquisition, creation, storage, transfer and utilization of knowledge. These components are briefly described as follows. Acquisition involves collection of existing data and information from within and outside the organization via environmental scans, use of Internet, staff suggestions, etc. Creation is the new knowledge that is created through problem solving, innovative programs and conversion of implicit knowledge to explicit knowledge. Storing is the coding and preserving of valued knowledge for easy access by any staff member. Transfer and utilization refer to the mechanical, electronic and interpersonal movement of information and knowledge throughout the organization as well as its application and use by members of the organization. These element are ongoing and interactive instead of sequential and independent. Only by developing and implementing systems and mechanisms to assemble, package store and distribute the fruits of its thinking will a company be able to transform its knowledge into corporate power. For practical application of the concept of management of knowledge, we classify knowledge into the following types as knowledge of: • What information is needed. • How the information must be processed. • Why the information is needed. • Where the information could be found. • When the information is needed. In developing the knowledge based system, it is important to recognize the different distinctions and values of these types of knowledge and where they fit in the hierarchy and needs of the organization. We have already discussed the various elements of a well-organized the different distinctions and values of these types of knowledge and where they fit in the hierarchy and needs of the organization. We have already discussed the various elements of a well-organised knowledge system. We now consider a comprehensive systems approach involving these elements viz. acquisition, storage, analysis, sharing and application of knowledge, for the management of corporate knowledge through technological support. For organization to manage their knowledge effectively and efficiently, each of these five components must be ongoing and interactive. The management of knowledge must be continually subjected to perceptual filters and proactive and reactive activities. A model of a knowledge system with an emphasis on technological aspect is considered here. ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE A typical organization today requires huge amount of information to be able to carry out its day-to-day tasks. Only through careful application of suitable technology can the needed knowledge be gathered. The technology selected depends upon how the data or information would later be retrieved by people using it. Knowledge storage systems may be classified according to the following factors: • Objective of work • Expertise of users • Use of information etc. Organizations may acquire the information form internal or external sources. Knowledge created in the organization also needs to be acquired for subsequent use. Employee's expertise, memory and assumptions etc. Comprise of that category of knowledge termed as tacit knowledge. The tacit sources are usually difficult to communicate and explain. But their use often results in measurable, tangible benefits to the organization. In manufacturing firms for example, the workers who spend most of their time on the machines may acquire knowledge about its performance and operating characteristics that may not even be catalogued in the manufacturers manuals. Even in service firms, a large benefit may be derived if the employees' insights into , for example client behavior, likes and dislikes are effectively harnessed. Excellent companies like Mckinsey & company etc. have derived huge benefits from this practice. No organization however good, can gain control of all the effective practices and good ideas. The phenomenal rate of change ensures that it is absolutely imperative for the organizations to have synergies between external and internal sources of knowledge. Organization don't need to invent what others have learnt to do well. The various ways that this information can be roped in may be: • Benchmarking form other organizations. • Hiring consultants • Monitoring economic, social and technological trends • Collecting data from customers, competitors etc. Apart form the afore mentioned techniques of gathering knowledge, the third resource lies in its creation. Knowledge may be created in various ways. There may be ingenious innovation or painstaking and elaborate research. According to Wigg, it can also come from "ability of people to see new connections and combine previously known elements through complex inductive reasoning. The knowledge created through problem solving, experimentation etc. falls in this category. STORAGE OF COLLECTED KNOWLEDGE: Vast advances in the field of computers have led to a dramatic increase in the storage capacity of today's information storage systems. The concept of date warehousing is not today. Comprehensive knowledge repositories, the computer based storehouses of expertise, knowledge, experience and documentation in which knowledge is collected, summarized and integrated across all information sources are emerging in organizations across the world. The first generation data warehouses are being replaced by much cheaper UNIX systems. Web technologies like JAVA, CGI, and ORACLE etc. have also emerged. The problem is not so much of physical substrates for data storage as of knowing what data and information to document and store so that it does not leave with a leaving employee. Some general guidelines to data storage may be given as follows: Capabilities of employees, consultants and advisors of the organization : This knowledge will serve as a pointer to people or institutes for specific capabilities required. For example, who knows OOP, who has worked with client A before etc. Lessons learned form typical reiterative or specific cases may be documented. The information of what worked in a similar earlier situation may serve to understand the current situations better. Past experience can thus be leveraged to assist future causes. Continuously updated company profiles and news from commercial and public sources about competitors and suppliers, call reports from sales people etc may also be documented. Company's technologies, inventions, data, publications and processes, strategies and cultures, structures an systems, organized routines and procedures etc must be documented. Information cannot be simply stored and retrieved and expected to be of great help to the organization. The vast amount of information available to and about a single company is sufficient to inundate...