Knowledge Management System in Public and Private Sectors Report

Technology

Today the organizations exist in a competitive environment due to the incessant emerging of new firms and their inclination to achieve success in the global market. Such conditions made the companies pay more attention to their knowledge assets, as they are the primary source of wealth and the basis of excellent performance.

In this way, the field of knowledge management (KM) became popular among public and private sectors. The increase of interest attracted many researchers and professionals who wanted to find out the best methods of knowledge creation and sharing. They also wanted to get to know how to protect the knowledge and what systems and technologies to use to omit possible losses. Prosperous organizations always have proper practice for managers to utilize the experience of the employees for the companies’ benefit.

According to Uden et al., KM is “managing the corporation’s knowledge through a systematically and organizationally specified process for acquiring, organizing, sustaining, applying, sharing and renewing both the tacit and explicit knowledge of employees to enhance organizational performance and create value” (548). To implement KM, the company is to take into consideration such things as:

• KM strategy. It will be a plan of how to maintain KM.
• Organizational culture. It affects KM on the basis of employees’ interaction.
• Organizational processes. They enable the introduction of KM.
• Management and leadership. They are required to implement additional roles such as knowledge managers and brokers, etc.
• Technology. It enhances the processes of knowledge share, etc.
• Politics. They deal with KM from the perspective of time and money.

Thus, it occurs to be clear that the implementation of such complicated concept can be streamlined by dint of utilizing technologies. That is why the organizations refer to the KM system. It is “any kind of IT system that stores and retrieves knowledge, improves collaboration, locates knowledge sources, mines repositories for hidden knowledge, captures and uses knowledge, or in some other way enhances the KM process” (Frost par. 4).

KM systems are used by the employees in the decision-making process. Thus, they gather the information that might be needed (including best practices, reports, and other documents) at first and then can share their experience and use the experience of others.

So KM system maintains and enhances personnel’s collaboration and interaction. It serves as storage for all essential information. The fact that it is one of the IT technologies ensures that the process of search is simplified and takes less time. It also underlines the acceptance of innovations, for which the employees are preparing.

The total cost of ownership includes the costs needed to buy software and hardware, develop it and restore, expenses for the training required to teach the staff how to utilize the technology or to a hire new team.

However, after the implementation of this technology the expenditures of the organization are likely to reduce. Moreover, the systems and applications are different, which means that the company can choose the one it can effort. The categories of the KM systems include the following (“Knowledge Management System & Technology”):

The organizations decide to maintain KM systems as they want to make their personnel work as a whole and share common ideas. The implementation of the KM usually has at least one of three main aims but, as a rule, they are combined. These are:

• To show the knowledge as a concrete element and underline its role in the company with the help of hypertext tools, etc.
• To create a knowledge-intensive culture. It can be done only if the organization encourages the employees to share their knowledge. Thus, they are to be proactive and not only react to the innovations.
• To develop a knowledge infrastructure. It includes the connection between the personnel and all needed tools for their interaction and cooperation (Alavi and Leidner 114).

To operate KM systems, the company is to implement needed application. All documents related to the organizational management are to be upload to create the storage. Then, when some issue occurs, and the personnel are not sure how to solve it, they can refer to this storage to find out what was done previously.

Moreover, it is possible to use the experience of other institutions if they are in free access. The departments and individuals can transfer the knowledge to each other utilizing a particular application, which allows them to make well-grounded decisions and enhance the working process.

KM system has a range of advantages. It empowers the staff, as utilizing this technology they will be able to streamline the working process and make a greater contribution to the organization. On this basis, the personnel will be more satisfied with their job. It makes the business more competitive, which allows gaining more profit by enhancing the services and increasing customer satisfaction.

As the KM system produces the data that is used to make vital decisions regarding the organizational management, it should be flexible to meet all demands. The employees prefer to use this technology, as it is easy to navigate and saves the time needed to find appropriate sources of knowledge. For the KM system to be beneficial to the company, it should be needs-driven and targeted at the core objectives.

Still, many researchers including Akhavan, Jafari, and Fathian claim that KM systems only provide the opportunity to share knowledge, which does not mean that the employees will actually do this. They also defined the failure factors that make this technology ineffective. They are:

• Lack of familiarity of top management with dimensions of KM and its requirement.
• Selecting an unsophisticated and inexperienced person for leading KM team.
• Improper selection of knowledge team members.
• Wrong planning and improper forecasting for the project.
• Lack of separate budget for knowledge management project.
• Organizational culture.
• Lack of support and commitment of top management.
• Resistance against the change.
• Inability of KM team for distinguishing organizational relations.
• Nonconformities between current systems and new systems (Akhavan, Jafari and Fathian par. 25).

As a rule, those who create technologies and those who use them are different people. Therefore, “firms are faced with the issue of fit between IT systems and organizational practices, as well as with acceptance within the organizational culture” (Frost par. 12). That is why the discord between the experts’ views exists, and they have not come to the agreement.

It seems that the very technology is advantageous, and the issue deals with the human factor. It means that before the implementation of any changes the personnel is to realize that the process is likely to face a range of difficulties that are to be solved as quickly as possible. Thus, decent adoption and utilization of KM system is sure to be beneficial for any organization.

Literature Review

The majority of KM initiatives refer to IT, as its implementation enables the companies to store, retrieve and transfer their knowledge. Of course, IT is not a panacea, and technologies cannot be utilized to cope with every possible issue of KM, but they can surely support it.

Examples include “finding an expert or a recorded source of knowledge using online directories and searching databases; sharing knowledge and working together in virtual teams; access to information on past projects; and learning about customer needs and behavior by analyzing transaction data” (Alavi and Leidner 114).

Companies that are operating in different spheres can use KM technologies. For example, those related to construction industry use IT to communicate and transfer knowledge. Thus, a firm reduces the time needed for the project implementation and gains an opportunity to base new projects on previous experiences, which enhances the quality of the product, encourages innovations and increases customer satisfaction as well as the profit of the company (Egbu and Botterill 129).

An organization uses KM systems to code their best practices so that they can be transferred to the personnel for enhancing decision-making, to design directories that gather all knowledge related to the working process and networks. Internal benchmarking, for example, is the KM system that can be used to share best practices previously performed by the organization.

In this way, the insurance company, which realized that its income was reducing, applied such technology to base their decisions on best knowledge and increased profit. According to one of the surveys conducted to find out the value of KM systems, almost 75% of responders believed that it was impossible to retrieve their firm’s knowledge while nearly 70% noticed that the same mistakes were made several times.

Such data proves that the creation of corporate directories is not just a whim but a necessity, which will be beneficial for the company and its employees. For instance, Chrysler realized that their experts needed a network that would allow them to communicate and designed Tech Cul. The application let them create collective knowledge and share it.

The online interactive forum is utilized by Buckman Laboratories to gather the customers’ comments and adapt to their needs as well as competition in the field. Ford also examined their working process and found out that with the help of KM systems they spent less time on knowledge sharing and reduces the delivery delay from almost 2 months to 2 weeks (Alavi and Leidner 115).

Zyngier claims that the majority of the organizations utilize intranet to share knowledge (9). This technology is easy to maintain and is accessible only to the personnel, which ensures that other people will not enter the network and retrieve their information. The system is to be targeted at the firms’ objectives to be beneficial. It should provide the access to different sources of knowledge to be a basis for the implementation of KM strategies.

Many researchers point out that KM systems can be used by the UAE public sector as well. They are said to increase responsiveness and make citizen participation in policy making processes more successful. According to the survey “54% of respondents stated that they systematically use data warehouse and data mining tools to foster knowledge storing and sharing, 49% use Dubai Government Intranet for knowledge sharing and communication, and 47% systematically use other online collaboration tools” (Biygautane and Al-Yahya 22).

Boumarafi and Jabnoun questioned representatives from 49 public and private organizations in the UAE and found that there is “a significant relationship between knowledge management practices and improvement in performance measures such as efficiency, customer satisfaction, decision-making, quality and financial benefits” (236).

Application

The Habtoor Leighton Group is a well-known construction company that deals with engineering and infrastructure services, building, rail operations as well as import and export of oil and gas (“Habtoor Leighton Group” par. 4). Today more than 20,000 people work there to provide the customers with innovative solutions. Every year the organization gains almost 25 billion dollars. A part of it, Al Habtoor Leighton Group (HLG), is located in the UAE.

HLG is a leading organization in the market; however, it also face issues, which affected its performance and income negatively. In 2011, it was engaged in a range of disputes that led to enormous losses. The main causes of such events are claimed to be “failing to meet project milestones” and poor level of documentation (Baker and McKenzie par. 4-6). This issue occurred to be so crucial that the experts predicted that it will take HLG several years to recover.

A range of loans and improvements is the only thing that could save the company from closing off contracts and help to recover the payments. Considering this issue, we conclude that the maintenance of KM on decent level would let HLG prove their point of view and win the disputes they set. That it was the implementation of KM systems is of advantage for this company.

It is vital to apply KM technologies step by step so that no gaps occur, and all possible issues are predicted. Frost underlines that successful implementation of KM tools consists of:

• Adoption:
  • Influenced by design: Innovation characteristics, fit, expected results, communication characteristics.
  • Not influenced by design: Environment, technological infrastructure, resources, organizational characteristics.
• Acceptance
  • Influenced by design: Effort expectancy, performance expectancy.
  • Not influenced by design: Social influences, attitude towards technology use.
• Assimilation:
  • Influenced by design: social system characteristics, process characteristics.
  • Not influenced by design: Management characteristics, institutional characteristics” (Frost par. 17).

Thus, the organization is to evaluate its work and find out the organizational objectives for the technology to be oriented on them instead of its primary functions. Special personnel can be hired to assess current knowledge needs and communication, etc. The results will show what systems are needed.

On the basis of available information, the need for a database and network for the employees can be seen. It is the best variant, as it entails numerous improvements for HLG. The intranet can be used as a basis for interaction and include the storage for data.

A thorough cost-benefit analysis is sure to prove that the structure of the system for the firm of such size will be rather complicated. Hundreds of users are to be able to enter the application and use it every day. That is why the issue of privacy and security is to be considered. The employees are to be warned that they are the only people who can use the tool for work purposes. IT team is to have more access to track and check the information and to prevent problems. For the system to be accepted, the employees are to attend training.

They will be taught how to use new tools, and their benefits will be explained. The IT team that already works at HLG can be involved in this, or new employees can be hired for a short period. Of course, upkeep and training costs will be rather high but they will be paid off in spades soon.

The design of a network and a forum where the employees will communicate is to be done by IT specialists, but the personnel can be involved in the gathering of information for the database. It is thought that the involvement will make them treat the change positively. As HLG failed to prove their point due to the poor documentation, the workers will be explained the necessity to organize all data correctly and encouraged to upload it to the storage.

Thus, if the issue will occur again, the information will be available and decently presented. As the personnel, will use the database themselves, they are likely to do everything appropriately.

Quick and simple access to the storage will save time previously utilized by the workers to find the information that might help them with the current project. They will not make the same mistake several times because it will be very easy to find a sample of the similar project. The best practices will be used and enhanced to please the customers and win their support.

IT technologies used for KM also reduce the costs spent on paper, ink and related products. They save the time previously needed to work with numerous paper documents. Online storage is better than CDs, as it can hold more materials and cannot be easily broken. Moreover, the content can be updated and changed to be relevant and fit the needs of the organization.

As the main problem faced by IT technologies used for KM deals with the human factor, it should be thoroughly considered. The leaders are to prove and convince the employees that the implemented changes are advantageous for them and the organization. The personnel are to be willing to share their knowledge and to refer to the experience of the colleagues. Due to the issue that took place in 2011, they are likely to realize the necessity of alterations and accept it so that the possible resistance will not be crucial.

Utilizing KM systems the employees will see that they can cope with the projects quicker. As they will be performing the documentation according to certain standards, they will pay more attention to the details and memorize a greater amount of the information. Thus, while working on a new project, they will make it on the basis of a similar one, which can be found by entering the keywords.

As the completed work will be reconsidered, the employees are likely to find the gaps in it and design a range of improvements. The innovation based on this process will increase customer satisfaction and make one refer to HLG again, which will significantly increase the company’s profit.

To see that the organization manages knowledge appropriately, the model that is used to evaluate the efficiency of KM is to include such levels:

• Level-1: The knowledge is shared amongst the organization employee;
• Level-2: The shared knowledge is documented;
• Level-3: The documented knowledge is stored;
• Level-4: The stored knowledge is accessible, can be retrieved and used easily (Arif et al. 102).

As it is seen, proposed KM systems presuppose all mentioned levels of KM. Thus, their utilizing will let HLG prepare to restore its reputation and get back in the swing. This technology will not only help to cover the losses but also ensure that the organization will win possible future disputes.

Discussion

KM systems are advantageous for any organization if they are decently implemented. The surveys proved that the companies fail to utilize this technology successfully because their employees were not aware of the advantages of KM. If the workers do not realize why corporate knowledge is essential, they are not willing to share the information and search for the experience of their colleagues, which can help them to make a right decision or provide a solution.

Considering HLG and the problem they faced in 2011, we can see that this organization occurred to be not able to manage its knowledge in the right way and faced problems on this basis. As it successfully worked for several years and became the leader in the market, it is obvious that they maintained their activities regarding KM. Still, the existence of the gap, which led to the failure, is undeniable.

The advantage of IT technologies for KM is that they provide an opportunity to create massive storage and update its content. HLG did not cope with this utilizing their previous strategy, so we designed a case study that showed how the firm can use new KM systems. On the basis of literature review, we applied commonly used data storage and network to HLG to see how they would benefit. It turned out that the complete implementation of the KM systems can bridge the gap that the company had.

Thus, if it referred to this technology earlier, the losses might be even prevented. Today the implementation is likely to improve the performance by simplified access to the resources that contain the information, which can be used as the basis for a new project. Moe attention will be paid to the documentation that was not good enough previously. The personnel will become more motived and will enhance their performance.

Summary

Nowadays the organizations need to deal with high competition to become the leaders in the global market. That is why, they started to pay more attention to the KM as a source of best practices and previous experience. Technological development allowed to utilize IT to gain the most benefit from the corporate knowledge.

A range of applications was created for the companies to store and share their knowledge in the acceptable way. Unfortunately, the success of the technology does not depend on its design only. The human factor is the major issue that prevents the companies from using KM systems to improve their performance and increase profit.

Many representatives of public and private sectors show the lack of understanding of knowledge potential. Still, as many of them realize that referring to their previous experience they can reduce the number of repetitive mistakes, the companies have a chance to implement changes successfully. In this way, the losses faced by HLG can be covered relatively soon.

The company is not only to explain the employees the value of the knowledge and the necessity of its proper documentation, storage, and share but also to provide special training for the personnel to have no technical problems. New network and database will allow them to communicate and search for needed information.

So it can be said that the organization that utilizes KM systems can unify its staff and enhance its performance. The time needed for project design, and implementation will be reduced substantially due to the possibility to find a range of similar cases in no time. By dint of it, customer satisfaction will also improve, which will be reflected in the company’s profit.

Works Cited

Akhavan, Peyman, Mostafa Jafari and Mohammad Fathian. “Exploring Failure Factors of Implementing Knowledge Management in Organizations.” Journal of Knowledge Management Practice. 5.6 (2005): n. pag. Tlainc. Web.

Alavi, Maryam, and Dorothy Leidner. “Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management Systems: Conceptual Foundations and Research Issues.” MIS Quarterly 25.1 (2001), 107-136. Print.

Arif, Mohammed, Charles Egbu, Ola Alom and Malik Khalfan. “Measuring Knowledge Retention: A Case Study of a Construction Consultancy in the UAE”. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management 16.1 (2009): 92-108. Print.

Baker, Richard, and Nick McKenzie. Leighton Faces Huge Financial Black Hole in Middle East Joint Venture. 2013. Web.

Biygautane, Mhamed, and Khalid Al-Yahya. Knowledge Management in the UAE’s Public Sector: The Case of Dubai, 2011. Web.

Boumarafi, Behdja, and Naceur Jabnoun. “Knowledge Management and Performance in UAE Business Organizations”. Knowledge Management Research & Practice 6.3 (2008): 233-238. Print.

Egbu, Charles, and Katherine Botterill. “Information Technologies for Knowledge Management: Their Usage and Effectiveness”. ITcon 7.1 (2002): 125-137. Print.

Frost, Alan. KM Tools, 2015. Web.

Habtoor Leighton Group 2015. Web.

“Knowledge Management System & Technology” 2015. Web.

Uden, Lorna, Francisco Herrera, Javier Perez and Juan Rodríguez. 7th International Conference on Knowledge Management in Organizations, New York: Springer, 2012. Print.

Zyngier, Suzanne. The Role of Technology in Knowledge Management: Trends in the Australian Corporate Environment, 2001. Web.