Defining the right knowledge management is never easy, for the search of the perfect means of distributing information, which, one must admit, is quite unrealistic even once the most recent technological advances are deployed to analyze both the inside and outside factors.
Developing the right approach towards the knowledge creation, acquisition, distribution and processing, however, is still vital for an organization’s proper functioning, which the example of the Ting Shao Kuang Art Gallery shows graphically.
According to the recent research, in the light of the on-coming knowledge audit, the gallery faces a threat of failing at providing the proper facts related to the cultural and industrial aspects of the organization’s life. However, with the proper evaluation of the Ting Shao Kuang Art Gallery’s assets, one can possibly define the optimum knowledge management strategy for the gallery to follow.
The desired outcomes of the specified strategy presuppose the improvement of the relationships within the organization in the first place. According to what the research says, the employees prefer treating each other with suspicion and, therefore, do not trust their colleagues with the specifics of their pieces of work, as well as the individual tacit and explicit knowledge, which they acquire in the process of handling their own tasks.
As a result, there is a considerable lack of cohesion between the actions of the employees, which is triggered by the lack of essential information concerning a certain aspect of the work.
Hence, it seems that the most desirable outcome of the knowledge management strategy, which is going to be implemented, is an increased transparency of the organizational information and, consequently, the overall informational transparency within the Ting Shao Kuang Art Gallery as the guiding principle of the organizational culture.
In addition, it is anticipated that, after a series of changes within the organizational environment in Ting Shao Kuang Art Gallery, the production processes are going to be improved a notch, which will, in turn, lead to greater incomes and better productivity.
When thinking of the proper knowledge strategy that can possibly be recommended in the given case, one must keep in mind that not only external, but also internal factors are to be taken into consideration, since the lack of efficacy in sharing knowledge obviously stems not from the intrigues of the rival companies, but from the tension within the Ting Shao Kuang Art Gallery.
Therefore, it will be required to incorporate the strategy that can help bring the company together, re-establishing corporate values, reorganizing the principles of knowledge management process and, thus, reinventing the frame of mind of Ting Shao Kuang Art Gallery employees.
With that in mind, it would be a good idea to consider the knowledge management strategies that aim at bringing the mini-society of employees together. For the given purpose, such strategy as KM Road Map may be considered. There is no secret that all existing knowledge management strategies that have been created by now include four major stages, i.e., knowledge acquisition, capture and/or creation, and sharing (Dalkir).
Nevertheless, KM strategies differ according to their focus. According to the existing nomenclature, knowledge audit that has already been conducted can be considered only the basic check for the inconsistencies within the organization, while the KM strategies with the focus on the organizational behavior and corporate culture will be required further on.
At present, it seems that the KM Road Map will be the optimum solution for the Ting Shao Kuang Art Gallery at present. According to the existing descriptions, the given strategy is known as the tool that helps “cover a three- to five-year period, outlining the key priorities for each year” (Dalkir 257).
Therefore, the given KM strategy will allow for a better understanding of the organization’s priorities, thus, making it clear where the Ting Shao Kuang Art Gallery went wrong with its actions towards shaping the organizational management.
While the chosen knowledge management strategy will help with the issues within the Ting Shao Kuang Art Gallery, it will also solve the current business problems, since, according to experts, it answers such question as “How will the organization manage its knowledge better for the benefit of the business?” (Dalkir 257).
That being said, one must admit that the choice of the knowledge management strategy for the Ting Shao Kuang Art Gallery depends on a variety of factors, starting with the specifics of the corporate culture, which needs proper definition at present, up to the specifics of its body, i.e., the mechanics of the processes within the gallery, which take place on the organizational level.
In the light of the current organizational strategy, however, a more transparent strategy of knowledge management can be advised. Once every single bit of information will be accessible to every single employee in the gallery, it can be expected that the knowledge distribution will be more efficient and, therefore, the production processes within the gallery will be improved.
Based on the outcomes of the recently completed knowledge audit, the given strategy is bound to fix the issues concerning the knowledge sharing process within the Ting Shao Kuang Art Gallery.
It is important that, according to the results of the knowledge management audit, the Ting Shao Kuang Art Gallery needs create a database for storing the information concerning the exhibits, as well as the rest of the data concerning the organization.
It is important to keep in mind, however, that the creation of a database alone will not solve the problem; without the introduction of a specific system of knowledge sharing, the given proves will never be conducted properly and, therefore, the current knowledge management system will fail once again.
The creation of database and, therefore, the implementation of the KM Road Map strategy is bound to fix the issue concerning the knowledge sharing problem by making the processes within the Ting Shao Kuang Art Gallery more transparent and, hence, providing better knowledge sharing opportunities.
Once the database where the Ting Shao Kuang Art Gallery information is going to be stored has been created, it will be required to provide free and easy access to the database for every single employee. By making such changes, the Ting Shao Kuang Art Gallery will be able to obtain the necessary information without the need to consult any other sources.
The benefits of the KM Road Map strategy also concern the sphere of interpersonal relationships within an organization, which is especially important for the Ting Shao Kuang Art Gallery in the light of the recent audit results, which have shown that the organization lacks cohesion between the work of its departments and trust between its employees.
While the creation of databases will provide a temporary solution by offering the employees a way to acquire information directly from its source, the introduction of a completely new idea of knowledge sharing that will be based on mutual trust, as well as the creation of new corporate values and company culture, will shape the organizational behavior of the employees, thus, making the atmosphere in the workplace less tense.
With the help of the KM Road Map, one will be able to develop the management plan that will last for at least a year, which is especially important for the Ting Shao Kuang Art Gallery, since the latter has been showing the signs of instability since recently, according of the report.
Judging by the aforementioned, the objectives of the chosen KM strategy can be split into two major categories, i.e., the change of the corporate climate and the improvement of knowledge acquisition, processing and application scheme.
Taking a closer look at the specifics of the Ting Shao Kuang Art Gallery and the way in which its elements interact, one can come to the conclusion that the following objectives must be achieved for the key strategy implementation:
Improving the corporate climate:
- Informing the employees on the upcoming changes in the company’s policy on information and knowledge management process;
- Providing the necessary training for the employees to be able to handle the new databases and operate within the new knowledge management system successfully;
- Defining the roles that each member of the company is going to play in the new knowledge management process;
- Stressing the significance of the community priorities by transforming the individual tacit knowledge into community explicit knowledge;
- Introducing new corporate culture standards and a new model of organizational behavior based on transparency and mutual trust.
Enhancing efficient knowledge distribution and sharing:
- Creating a database where the key information is going to be stored;
- Allowing the access to the database only to the trusted members of the company;
- Changing the assigned supervisors of the database information in a specified period (e.g., every two months);
- Updating the information regularly so that the data concerning the most recent paintings should be available;
- Including the resources for sales representatives into the database;
- Splitting the information in the database according to the styles of the artworks, the authors of the paintings, the time slot on which the artwork was created, etc. for better information management;
- Specifying the categories of styles, including the postwar art, modernist art, contemporary art, etc.
It can be concluded that the chosen KM Road Map strategy will prove efficient after several months of its application. The choice of the period is predetermined by the scale of the changes that need to be made for the strategy to be applied.
It is necessary to keep in mind that the introduction of new knowledge management strategy and the creation of a database will require specific software, reorganization of the existing information, its classification and conversion into digital data, etc. However, once the strategy starts working, the attitude of the employees is bound to change, which, in its turn, will result in a massive surge of performance efficiency.
Works Cited
Dalkir, Kimiz. Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice. New York, NY: Elsevier Butterworth–Heinemann, 2005. Print.