Knowledge ManagementDecision Making

"It's in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.“- Anthony Robbins

"People say I'm indecisive, but I don't know about that." - George Bush

OUTLINE

• Knowledge Management Overview• Challenges and Concerns in Knowledge

Management• Levels of Decision Making in Business• Decision Making Cycle• Does different culture have different

Decision Making Styles?• Link to other Knowledge Management

Topics• Summary• References

Knowledge Management Overview

Knowledge Management FrameworkKnowledge Management Cycle

between people and assets

Challenges and Concerns in Knowledge Management

Tool

Process

People

Knowledge Management Impact on Decision Making

1. An aim of KM is to ensure that the right knowledge is available in the right forms to the right entities at the right times for the right costs.

2. Decision making is a knowledge-intensive activity with knowledge as its raw materials, work-in-process, by-products, and finished goods.

3. Computer-based tools employ various KM techniques to represent and process knowledge of interest to decision makers, including descriptive knowledge, data, information,procedural knowledge algorithms, and reasoning knowledge.

4. There are multiple useful techniques for managing knowledge in the course of making a decision.

5. Proficiency in KM is increasingly important to the competitiveness of decision makers as we rapidly move into the global knowledge society.

Levels of Decision Making in Business

Decision Making Cycle

Does different culture have different Decision Making Styles?

• Western culture– Tend to dis-embed objects from context– Memory for objects not strongly influenced by the context in which the

object was seen– Tend to be more individualistic– Ideal reasoning is logic and should be free from contradiction

• Eastern culture– Tend to view objects within a field– Memory for objects is more strongly affected by the context in which

the object was seen– Tend to be more collective– Contradiction may be embraced and compromise tend to be pursued

Link to other Knowledge Management Topics

•Culture

•Innovation

•Personal Knowledge

•Reflective Practice

•Codification

•Mental Models

•Leadership

•KM Models

Summary

•Knowledge management plays important role in Decision Making

•Different cultures have different decision making styles, especially between western and eastern cultures.

•Decision Making model could be applied to facilitate business working models. For example, management may wish to emphasize formal codes of ethics in some countries arid moreinformal ones in other countries (Vitell S, Nwachukwu SL, Barnes J, 1993)

References• Martakus, Kanelis, 2007, Information, Management and Decision-Making

• Wilson, Snyder and Daugherty, 2008, Decision Making in Action: Applied Knowledge Management

• Vitell S, Nwachukwu SL, Barnes J, 1993, The Effects of Culture on Ethical Decision-Making: An Application of Hofstede's Typology, Journal of Business Ethics, 12:753-760

• Kanter RM, Corn RI, 1994, Do Cultural Differences Make a Business Difference? Contextual Factors Affecting Cross-cultural Relationship Success, Journal of Management Development, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 5-23

• Khera Inder, 2001, Business Ethics East Vs West: Myths and Realities, Journal of Business Ethics, 30:29-39