Abstract
The essay will focus on summarizing two articles that focus on the topic knowledge management. The essay introduces the topic by explaining the need fro organizations to have knowledge management mechanism.
The introduction also explains why knowledge management is important in modern day professional management of organizations. Furthermore it also introduces the two type of knowledge: tacit knowledge, the type of knowledge acquired through experiences and explicit knowledge, the type of knowledge explained in books.
It also explains why and how the organization leadership should be at the forefront in establishing knowledge management mechanism. Furthermore the role of employees, who should be actively involved in seeking as well as sharing it amongst themselves as well as with fellow employees, is clearly explained. The two articles clearly state the reasons why knowledge sharing is important for organizational success.
Furthermore the role of leaders in the entire process clearly explained. However the articles fail to explain the process of gathering and classifying knowledge for easier utilization by organizations. Furthermore they only identify only one type of knowledge: tacit knowledge, thus ignoring other types of knowledge.
Introduction
Knowledge management is a growing discipline among organizational management experts (Davidson 1996). Reports indicate that organizational success does not only depend on the type on knowledge that organization have but also on how the organization manages and utilizes that knowledge. As such management professionals have to ensure that they create a knowledge data base for their organization.
This knowledge library becomes a very valuable resource for all employees. If the knowledge management process is simple the organization is assured success (Bontis 2002). Furthermore there are two main types of knowledge sources: professional gurus as well as knowledge in books. While it is easy to manage knowledge in books, professional gurus must be treated with respect so as to feel compelled to share the knowledge they have. Thus knowledge management becomes the key for organization success.
Main Theme
Knowledge management is the key to a successful organization in modern management. The way an organization manages its knowledge determines the level of success achievable. Efforts’ to manage knowledge in organizations are the functions of the organization leadership. Organizational managers need to deliberately devise efficient methods to gather as well as share relevant knowledge with all employees. Thus mean that there is need to create a user friendly information library fro organizations.
Furthermore employees have to take initiative to acquire knowledge from professionals’ experts especially retiring employees in a respectful way. This would ensure that the gurus feel respected enough and thus compelled to share the knowledge they have. Such forms of knowledge transfer ensure that both tacit and explicit knowledge is transferred for profitable utilization (Collins 2010).
Strengths
Knowledge management involves sharing available information with all the employees of the organization. This means that leaders must make a concerted efforts to ensure that all the knowledge that is require is available for use at the time and place where it is needed. Whereas knowledge sharing primarily the function of organization management.
Employee must also be actively involved in the process. Employees have the responsibly to proactively tap in the tacit knowledge base existing in professional gurus. The need to respectfully search is exemplified in the case of the two Indian brothers, Ram and Lakshman. While Ram was very respectful to the cruel king in requesting for knowledge Lakshman was rude. The result is that the cruel king was compelled to share his wisdom to Ram and ignored Lakashman.
The act of managing knowledge involves the development of a clear process of sharing available information. The process involves having the necessary mechanism to ensure that knowledge spreads easily across the organization (Handzic 2007). This means that organization leadership has to organize for strategic meetings to download knowledge. The meetings will also involve employee sharing whatever knowledge they have to other employees.
Weaknesses
Existing knowledge must be sought. This literature does not highlight the effective ways to seek this knowledge. It also only identifies only one source of knowledge: retiring professionals. Furthermore, knowledge is not just useful to any situation in the organization. Effective knowledge management also requires the classification of that knowledge into related genres (Seipel, 2005). In addition knowledge gathering is also an important part of the knowledge management process.
Conclusion
Any successful organization goes beyond the acquisition and use of the latest technological application to acquire the best human resource. The organization would not be successful if it does not provide its human resource with the right information to aid their professional undertakings.
As such organizations must not only acquire relevant knowledge but also ensure that that knowledge is effectively distributed amongst employees. Furthermore employee must also be encouraged to share the knowledge they have with other employees. Organizations must also be able to tap in the knowledge that exist in retiring professionals’. These professional are among many other sources of knowledge’s that an organization can utilize.
List of References
Bontis, N. (2002) world congress on intellectual capital readings. Massachusetts: Butterworth-Heinemann
Collins, H. M. (2002). Tacit and explicit knowledge . Chicago: University Of Chicago Press
Davidson, Mike. (1996).The Transformation of Management, Massachusetts: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Handzic, M. (2007). Socio-technical knowledge management: studies and initiatives. London: IGF Publishing
Seipel, D. (2005). Applications of declarative programming and knowledge Management. Berlin: Springer