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Transcript of HOw to build Productivity
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KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
INTRODUCTION:There has been a discussion going on about knowledge work,
knowledge-intensive firms and the critical role of organizational competencies.
Knowledge in organizations is considered to become an increasingly important
source of value creation and competitive advantage for them. Therefore the creation,
sharing and protection of knowledge are crucial to the success of a modern
organization. Especially knowledge-intensive organizations depend upon the
generation, utilization and uniqueness of their knowledge base. The analysis ofthese issues deserves the attention of researchers, and in these discussions, the
necessary attention should be given to the role of HRM in KM.
Organizations nowadays also undergo organizational changes, changes in
leadership and employee roles. They use information and communication
technologies in order to enable a quick flow of information, and to improve their
performance. The growing role of innovation also shows the need for looking at
human resource management from the knowledge perspective.
Why are professional service organizations the right organizations
to be studied in connection with knowledge management and human resource
management?
The answer can be found in the typical characteristics of professional services.
When we try to understand the knowledgedevelopment processes, insight is more
likely to come from studying knowledge intensiveservice firms than from traditional
firms for they employ mostly people with higher education, and they depend very
much on their ability to attract, mobilize, develop and transform the knowledge, and
they also depend on the way of the value creation and knowledge delivery by these
employees. Services are based on a professional assessment by experts involved
and, partners may be personally held legally responsible for potential liability claims.
They create value for their clients.
The aim of this paper is to show certain aspects of the relation between knowledge
management and HRM theory and practice. In accordance with this aim, this paper
highlights different issues, insights and findings which can have significant
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implications for the management of human resources in organizations in the
knowledge era
A) KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT:
Intellectual capital and related knowledge need to consciously manage to best
developed and leverage their potential value to the organization. The field of
knowledge management is little more than 10 years old. Kael Wiig, a consultant and
A1 specialist, is one of the fields most prominent advocates and most likely the
probable founder of knowledge management movement. He coined the term at a
1986 conference in Switzerland sponsored by the United Nations- InternationalLabour Organization.
Knowledge management is a systematic, explicit and deliberate building, renewal
and application of knowledge to maximize enterprise knowledge related
effectiveness and returns for its knowledge assets.
Knowledge management is the formalization of an access to experience, knowledge
and expertise that crew new capabilities, enable superior performance, encourage
innovation and enhance the customer value.
Critical importance of knowledge management in organization:
We have seen the industrial age to be eclipsed by the information age between 1960
and 1990. And then, during the 1990s, the knowledge age has emerged to
supersede the information age. Much of the value added work in enterprises today is
primarily knowledge-based and there seems to be no end in sign to this trend. For
example, the work of the following functions or departments is nearly totally
knowledge-based.
Customer service
Information system
Finance
Hr / Administration
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Management
Even in the manufacturing, where there is a physical product, much of the work
revolves around computer-aided and manufacturing (CAD/CAM) work flow
management and just in time scheduling and deliver.
Knowledge management process:
Knowledge management is considered an important part of strategy to use expertise
to create a sustainable competitive advantage in tomorrows business environment.
Beckmans has proposed comprehensive eight-stage process for knowledge
management---
a) Identify stage,
b) Collect stage,
c) Select stage,
d) Store stage,
e) Share stage,
f) Apply stage,
g) Create stage and,
h) Sell stage.
The identify stage determines which competence are critical to success. For
example, every organization needs robust knowledge about its customer needs and
expectations, product and services, finance, processes management, employees
and other organization and environmental aspects. Then the related strategic and
knowledge dominants are identified. Knowledge dominants are specialized subject
matter areas where recognized experts can demonstrate superior performance. Nextthe existing levels of expertise in the workforce are assessed for each knowledge
domain. Once the gap between existing and needed expertise are determined, the
domain, experts can be constructing education programmes and performance
support system to improve expertise level.
The collect stagedeals with acquiring existing knowledge, skills, theories and
experience needed to create the selected core competences and knowledge
domains. In order to be useful, knowledge, expertise and experience must be
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formalized by making it explicit. In addition, practitioners should know where and ow
to purchase the needed knowledge and expertise in the form of database and
expert system. In order to acquire expertise, valid knowledge sources should be
identified. For example, employee suggestion programmes, domain experts and best
practices database might provide a valuable source of knowledge.
The select stage takes the continuous stream of collected and formalizes
knowledge and assesses its value. Is their insight within the acquired information? Is
this piece of knowledge already in the organizational memory? Is the acquired
knowledge a new plausible domain theory that needs to be added to the knowledge
repository? Clearly dominant expert must access and select the knowledge to be
added to the organizational memory. Without a strong filtering mechanism, the
corporate memory will be nothing more than tour of sable. Where the valuable
nuggets of knowledge are lost in sea of informational data. However, it is important
that, a diversity of viewpoints from multiple dominant experts is represented where
appropriate. Initially, one framework should be selected as the basis for organizing
and classifying knowledge to be stored in the knowledge repository.
The store stagetakes the nuggets of knowledge and classifies them and adds
them to the organizational memory. This corporate memory resides in different forms
of human minds, on paper and electronically. Knowledge in human minds needs to
be made explicit and formalized in order to be useful. Knowledge mist be organized
and represented into different knowledge structure within a knowledge repository just
as the data and information are organized and represented in differing types of
database. Much of this knowledge can be represented in electronic form as expert
systems.
The share stageretrieves knowledge from the corporate memory and makes it
accessible to use. The workforce makes their needs and personal interest known to
the corporate memory which then automatically distributes any incoming new
knowledge to its subscribers either electronically or on paper. In addition,
individuals, groups and departments often share ideas, opinions, gossip, knowledge
and expertise in meetings. It is crucial that the potentially valuable portions of these
communications, discussions, arguments and collaborations are made available to
the capture stage of knowledge management process, for example--- differing points
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of view and their ratio should be captured as part of any decision-making process as
well as the method used to reach the final decision.
The apply stage retrieves and uses the need knowledge in performing tasks,
solving problems, making decision, researching ideas and learning. In order to easily
access, retrieve and apply the right pieces of knowledge at the right time in the right
form more than a query language is needed. Integrated Performance Support
Systems (IPSS) Uliuslow and Bramer are being used by leading organization too
greatly increase the performance and capabilities of knowledge workers. First to
easy the access, natural classification systems need to be built for browsing or
retrieving knowledge. To retrieve just the right knowledge the system is required to
understand the users purpose and content. To receive the knowledge at the right
time requires a proactive system that monitors the users action and determines
when it is appropriate to intervene in the form of a job or training module. Users can
easily customize the format in which knowledge is presented. Finally, users can
request reference, advisory, testing and certification modules for the same.
The create stage uncovers new knowledge through many avenues. Such as
observing customers, customers feedback and analysis, casual analysis, bench
marking and best practices, lesson learnt for business re-inquiring and process
improvement projects, research, experimentation, creative thinking and automated
knowledge discovery and data mining. This stage also covers how to elicit
nonverbal, unconscious knowledge from domain expert and turn it into documented
formal knowledge.
New source of knowledge and insight are formalized and captured by knowledge
management process and made available to users who need the knowledge.
An eight stage may be added, that is, the sell stagein which new product and
services are crafted from the intellectual capital that can be marketed external to the
enterprise. Before this stage is possible, considerable maturity should be attained in
the other seven stages.
There appears to be two paradigms for knowledge management. The one that has
the greatest currency at this point is concerned with managing information contained
in some kind of repository or other, be that a set of electronic database, a professors
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collected lectures or company archives going back 37 years stored in stable that
nobody dares to dispose of because of fear of law suit. The archival paradigms are
well represented in corporate processes management consultants expertise, and a
variety of tools.
Second paradigm for knowledge management has to do less with the administration
of existing information than with the creation of new knowledge of the known
practices of construction of the work scopes where knowledge is generated.
There is the knowledge of management of knowing rather the management of
knowledge. Another productive way of thinking about the role of tools in knowledge
management is to consider what shorts of knowledge and knowing practices are
readily available in a organization are easily identifiable, and attract in general the
greatest efforts.
Knowledge management and the links to HRM:
In an era where competitive advantage is perceived to be linked to knowledge,
considerable interest in knowledge management continues to be the trend. Given the
broad scope and interdisciplinary nature of KM, this interest spans traditional
functional and professional boundaries ranging from IT professionals, to
accountants, marketers, organizational development and change management
professionals. A notable common feature of this widely divergent activity is an
emphasis upon knowledge work, knowledge workers and the nature of knowledge
within organizations. While this debate at times results in professional turf battles, it
may also lead to new opportunities for collaboration across traditional professional
and functional boundaries. One potentially rich area for collaboration is that between
that emerging group of professionals, who irrespective of training or title, have as
their number one priority a focus on management of the knowledge resource in
organizations and the more established and functionally embedded group of HRM
professionals. Indeed, interest in the relationship between KM and HRM has
increased over recent years as both KM and HRM have grown more sophisticated
and complex.
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While it can be argued that there is a reasonable consensus on the nature and
scope of HRM, its components and principles, this is not the case where KM is
concerned. Accordingly, before one can undertake an analysis of the relationship
between the two areas, it is necessary to state as clearly as possible what is
understood by KM. Much of the literature of KM continues to reflect a techno-centric
focus, similar to that of information management, which in essence regards
knowledge as an entity that can be captured, manipulated and leveraged. This is a
limited and ultimately hazardous perception. Critical to any realistic understanding of
knowledge and its incorporation into the management of organizations, is awareness
of a range of views on the concept, which includes perceptions of knowledge as an
entity (akin to information), as a resource, as a capacity and as a process. For
present purposes, it is important that knowledge is viewed as a social creation
emerging at the interface between people and information and especially within
communities engaged in communication, knowledge creation, knowledge sharing
and learning. From an operational perspective, KM can be described as the
systematic processes by which an organization identifies, creates, captures,
acquires, shares and leverages knowledge.
For instance, while knowledge in itself may be difficult to manage, all the related
technologies, structures, instruments, stocks, flows and even people are susceptible
to a range of management disciplines and activities, including accountability and
control. Given that these activities largely concern intangibles, it is important to think
of management in a post-industrial context, with implications for organizational
structures, resources, cultures and strategies, management styles and the roles and
expertise of staff. When this is coupled with a focus on sustainability, the level of
complexity only increases.
In terms of the HRM function, the rise of the so-called knowledge economy has had
a major impact, with a considerable shift from HRM as a bureaucratic personnel
management operation to the development of discrete HRM functions over the past
few decades. This has been accompanied by the integration of these functions to
support competitive advantage and a more strategic thrust. Having said this, a
considerable number of experts in the area warn that HRM faces extinction if it does
not respond to changes brought about by the shift from a traditional to a knowledge
based economy. Unable to add value under these conditions, the HRM function is
perceived to be under extreme threat. It has been suggested that one way for HRM
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to reinvent itself is through its contribution to effective linkages between human
capital management and knowledge management within organizations.
The rapid growth of technology has led to an economy where competitive advantage
is increasingly based on the successful application of knowledge. Knowledge, with
its intangible aspects, is becoming a defining characteristic of economic activities, as
opposed to tangibles such as goods, services or production processes. The rise of
the knowledge economy has seen a proliferation of information and communication
technologies, coupled with greater organizational complexity, the growth of virtual
and global organizations and rapid change. This in turn requires drastic change
within HRM to respond to changing demands of the knowledge economy. Traditional
HRM functioned under narrow operational boundaries; in the knowledge economy
the role of HRM needs to expand, looking both within and outside the organization.
The traditional focus on managing people has been broadened to managing
organizational capabilities, managing relationships and managing learning and
knowledge. The emphasis on discrete HRM practices is also broadening to a focus
on developing themes and creating environments conducive to learning, as well as
to the acquisition, sharing and dissemination of knowledge within organizations. A
revitalization of the HRM function to respond to the demands of the knowledge
economy and to develop linkages with KM requires major changes across four key
areas:
a) Roles,
b) Responsibilities,
c) Strategic
d) Focus and
e) Learning Focus (see Figure 1).
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Figure 1: Mapping the Relationship Between KM and HRM
Roles: In the knowledge economy, organizations will need HRM that is
characterized by a new set of roles that can assist in generating and sustaining
organizational capabilities. These new HRM roles are those of human capital
steward, knowledge facilitator, relationship builder, and rapid deployment specialist.
The human capital steward recognizes the value of intellectual capital, must ensure
that human capital is available, effective and that it will grow in value; this means
brokering the services of knowledge workers. The knowledge facilitator places
emphasis on learning and development, the effective management of knowledge,
and creating environments conducive to knowledge creation, sharing and
dissemination. The relationship builder focuses on creating and sustaining networks
and communities of practice, of joining together people in various parts of the supply
chain in new ways. The rapid deployment specialist faces the challenge of rapidly
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structured across individual capabilities, organizational capabilities, and knowledge
architecture. The role of the HRM professional will then focus on integrating
individual, team and organizational learning for the benefit of both customers and
shareholders. HRM can play an important role in creating and developing the
organizational capabilities that form part of contemporary KM strategies geared to
creating wealth from intellectual capital while maintaining a commitment to
sustainability imperatives.
Learning: A pivotal aspect of life in the knowledge economy is the need for
learning. The emphasis on discrete HRM practices is broadening to a focus on
developing themes and creating environments conducive to learning, as well as to
the acquisition, sharing and dissemination of knowledge within organizations. This
includes creating and sustaining learning environments and nurturing communities of
practice. The new role for HRM includes managing intellectual capital and
developing human capital within the organization. There is the need for a strong
emphasis on constant renewal, or revitalization of the organization. Fitz-enz views
human capital as the only active asset within the organization. In referring to the four
human capital domains of acquiring, maintaining, developing and retaining, Fitz-enz
views the development aspect as unique in the sense that only people can be
developed. The development domain holds the key to achieving organizational
change, growing individual and team capabilities and creating value while
simultaneously attending to sustainability imperatives.
Knowledge, Skills, Competencies, Expertise:Employees can carry
out their tasks only if they possess the necessary knowledge, skills and
competencies. This is why one of the obvious tendencies in HRM is competency
development and management. Knowledge, skills, expertise are major factors to be
considered at the hiring process, career development and annual performance
evaluation. The demand also increases the recruitment of staff which reflects the
consumer and client base of the organization (e.g. diversity).
Organizational framework to support knowledge management:
In organizations which have no separate unit for knowledge management in the
organization, we usually find three organizational units which are responsible for the
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coordination of KM efforts and activities. These units are the HRM-department, the
library and the IT-department. They can work together well if their responsibilities are
clearly stated. Obtaining and storing knowledge is the responsibility of the library. For
employees to have access to knowledge the right technological background must be
provided, which is the task of the IT department. The HR leadership provides the
human factor required for knowledge creation and sharing (Table 1).
Organizational
unit
Function Tasks
HR
department
Provides the human factor
and organizes theintellectual capacity.
Hiring process,
psychological tests,evaluating annual
performance, career
management program,
competency management.
IT
department
Facilitates communication. Assuring internal and
external communication,
providing dataflow
between departments,
between the organizationand other organizations,
providing technology for
the storage of documents.
Library
Functions a knowledge
source.
Supplying information,
gathering and analyzing
data, special training.
Table 1: Organizational units supporting knowledge management.
Organizational culture as enabler of knowledge processes:
A supportive, collaborative organizational culture is important from the perspective of
knowledge creation and sharing. Characteristics of this culture are change,
innovation, openness and trust. If we look at the organizational culture the starting
point should be the value system of the organization because knowledge-oriented
organizational culture is a value-based culture. The main values which have an
impact on the development and are critical elements of a knowledge-oriented
organizational culture, are: quality, knowledge, skills, competencies, expertise,
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knowledge sharing, and innovation. The successful utilization of employee
competencies is the base of
an organizations quality performance, which is why personal competencies also play
an important role in the value system of an organization with knowledge-friendly
culture. In connection with this, we have to consider people, processes, technologies
and supporting structures. It depends on several factors, how important knowledge,
or learning in the organization is, or if the organization has a learning culture. These
factors are the following: defining the place of learning and knowledge in the
organization, the way individuals and the organization as a whole learn, and the
facilitation of learning in the organization (Figure 2).
This means that the organization has to have appropriate philosophy, knowledge
oriented mission. In the organizational philosophy learning, and organizational
knowledge creation they must have the place they deserve, which leads to the
individual improvement of employees, and at the same time contributes to the
fulfillment of organizational objectives.
A similar approach to knowledge processes can be seen at Stonehouse who
stresses the role of the value system of the organization among the characteristics of
a learning culture, attitudes, motivation (learning has great importance,
empowerment of the individuals enhances challenging existing systems and
facilitates experiments, and trust is a base for improving knowledge). Mutual trust is
a background for employees to openly formulate their ideas in front of their
colleagues, and to try those out. A key to successful knowledge management is that
the most successful organizations develop their knowledge oriented culture not by
changing the existing organizational culture, but by adjusting their knowledge
management projects to the existing organizational culture (Davenport et al. 1998).
3.
Individual learning
Organization
Mission
1.
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Staff
Resources
Figure2: Characteristics and framework of a learning culture.
Skyrme and Amidon presented a model for knowledge sharing organizational
culture, presenting three organization levels: organization (enterprise) level, work
group (team level), and the individual (Figure 3.). Organizational enablers are the
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framework, which have been created by the top management with the aim of
knowledge creation and knowledge sharing. From these elements, culture seems to
be most important, however is tightly connected to efficient knowledge leadership.
Another important factor is organizational structure: knowledge sharing functions
better if organizational structures are more informal and more flexible.
Organizational Enablers
Leadership Structures Cultures
Physical
settings
Figure 3: Factors of the development of a knowledge culture.
The success of changes depends on the effectiveness of the four pillars (building
connections, team building, physical setting, and HR policies). For a successful
knowledge management the knowledge of individuals, the members of an
organization is crucial, so this gives the basics of the model. Individual and
organizational learning can be faster and can be facilitated by information and
knowledge sharing, if openness and trust are characteristics of organizational
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culture. Thus challenging, discussing and improving the present practice and
processes are supported. If we want to have people working for an organization who
are ready to share their knowledge with other organization members they have to be
motivated, and this again can be supported by an organizational culture, which
acknowledges risk taking, and which does not take mistakes for a failure but as a
chance to learn something. Knowledge-based activities need employees with
commitment to knowledge-related activities.
The role of the human factor in knowledge processes:Although
in successful knowledge management an important precondition is the abolishment
of organizational hierarchy; and although supporting structures help carry out a
successful knowledge management, it is the human factor which plays the major role
because knowledge management is basically a human-intensive activity.
Knowledge workers: Knowledge work means the creation, transfer, transmission
and utilization of knowledge. Between these processes there is a permanent
relationship. A tight cooperation between the different units of an organization
supports the creation of new knowledge. In connection with knowledge work, in the
field of knowledge management a trend can be observed. In earlier history of
knowledge management organizations treated their knowledge assets like their
physical assets, and placed them in knowledge repositories. This huge amount of
knowledge requires professional improvement of knowledge work.
For this, creative knowledge workers are needed. This suggests that in the future the
role of knowledge work and knowledge workers and also that of technologies, which
are used by knowledge workers in their carrying out tasks, will grow.
Who is a knowledge worker?Knowledge workers are people, who as a primary
aspect of their work create knowledge, share it with other people or use it to make
decisions or to act. To this category of the labor force belong 30% of all employees
(research scientists, ITengineers, strategic planners, doctors, lawyers etc.).
Owners of the knowledge are experts, and they are good qualified people with a lot
of experience. Their most important power base is their expertise. Their power
position is especially strong if they are the owners of knowledge which is importantfor the organization, and which is not substitutable knowledge. These factors have
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an impact on their behavior, often in contrast to the aims of knowledge management
and of the organization.
North identifies five categories of people working in a knowledge-based organization.
The first group is the group of the so called professional staff, the experts, who carry
out professional assignments under the leadership of middle level leaders, and at the
same time they learn continuously themselves. They play an important role in
shaping the image of the organization, and they have an impact on the customer
satisfaction. It happens often that many knowledge workers are employed by the
same employer for example by an accountancy firm. All these knowledge workers
use their own knowledge, skills and experience. At the same time, however, they
also use the synergy which is the result of the cooperation between them and their
colleagues, the complex processes and procedures which have been developed by
the firm, and the collective knowledge within the firm. These people could be self
employed knowledge workers, but they decide to work together with other people as
part of a larger organization as employees.
Knowledge workers and knowledge entrepreneurs are middle level leaders, who
know market potentials and solve customers problems. Middle level leaders play a
key role in the knowledge transfer, for they usually have been working for the
company or organization for a longer period of time, and they enjoy the trust of their
superiors (upper level managers) and also that of their colleagues. They have
connections to the customers, and are motivated to changes and to initiate new
things (North 2002). They play a central role in synthesizing the tacit knowledge of
professionals and that of upper management and in making it explicit. They integrate
it into technologies, products and systems, and take care of knowledge conversion.
Upper managers are visionaries and context builders, who recognize market
chances and build knowledge supporting framework, particularly through supporting
systems. They facilitate knowledge development and knowledge transfer. They are a
pattern for other people. Professionals, who carry out their activities in the fields of
information and communication, are information brokers and infrastructure
managers. Since knowledge workers use and produce information, the quality of
their work is influenced by the accessibility of information sources that they need, or
the relevant information. It also depends on how fast they can get the information
they need. In this situation it is the supporting employees who can help. They work in
secretarial offices, telephone centers, or in Back Office and support the work of other
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colleagues. The organizational framework and other supporting features enhance
that organization members take part in the knowledge processes, so everybody can
contribute to common success. Each group of knowledge workers shall well defined
tasks (upper management, middle management, IT workers, supporting workers,
experts); if they are loyal to the company, they strive for its best.
Role of the leadership: In the knowledge transfer of an organization,
leadership plays the most important role through motivating knowledge sharing in the
organization. This often concerns the motivation of employees to transfer knowledge.
In order to build trust and to decrease tension within the organization colleagues
need to have space for their activities. Most of all in creative processes they should
be allowed to make mistakes (Miller 1999), because it is a chance to learn at the
same time, to learn from failure. Measures aimed at trust building, a higher degree of
freedom, and people with diverse professional background make an ideal base for
team work. Task of the leadership is not only to ensure the framework for a
knowledge-friendly organizational culture, but to take part in knowledge processes
as well. Knowledge workers not only need good processes and technology, but also
an organizational structure which does not impede them.
Knowledge communities:An important aspect of a knowledge oriented
culture is where everyone thinks together for improvement and better performances.
This can be achieved through successful team-work, as teams give the right
framework for people to concentrate on the problems they have to solve. Knowledge
and learning are a crucial part of the success of organizations. A variety of
information and communication technology can be used to support learning in
knowledge communities. For the actions in this field, the involvement of
management is necessary, because the support of effective learning and knowledge
sharing in and between communities involves everyone in all job roles (Barrett et al.
2004, 10). Knowledge communities are connected by common interests and goals
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and work on achieving a common performance. The term knowledge communities
is used, on one hand, for learning in communities with voluntary participation, and
learning in communities with a more managed membership and, on the other hand,
for learning within the same community and between communities. They work
together and use their knowledge for the goal of developing and selling a new
product or improved service. Because there are people together from different
organizational units they play an important role not only in the creation of new
knowledge but also in the organization-wide knowledge communication.
Commitment and motivation:A major challenge nowadays involves the
ability of an organization to collect as much explicit knowledge as possible. However,
there can be a discrepancy between what is rational at organizational level
(contributing to the shared knowledge) and what is rational at the individual level.
Flexibility of general knowledge and skills is important both to the employer and the
employee. Management consulting firms, for example, often emphasize the
importance of developing specific models and approaches which cannot easily be
used in other firms. It is important that a knowledge worker likes his job, because
otherwise, if he leaves the organization, it will not be easy to replace him. Particularly
the creativity of colleagues in key positions can have a positive impact on the
organization. This is why managers motivate their employees to share knowledge by
implementing knowledge management systems and incentives structures. However
research demonstrates, that employees are mostly intrinsically motivated and they
prefer incentives like acknowledgements and personal development over higher
salary. The kind of knowledge management system used by the organization, also
affects preferences for the intrinsically motivated incentives. Rewards which
encourage individual knowledge sharing, are: salary increase, promotion,
acknowledgment of contribution, increased reputation in the organization, gaining
status as an expert, professional and personal development. Neither the extrinsically
motivated incentives nor the kinds of incentives which are usually assumed to be
effective, work at motivating knowledge sharing. People prefer intrinsically-motivated
incentives, such as colleagues acknowledgment and respect, improved reputation,
and the possibility of professional or personal development. These findings make
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sense, for an employee can increase his or her value by being positively positioned
as a trustworthy source of knowledge in the organizations.
One of the most important characteristics of the knowledge worker is effective
communication. Well documented and organized information carries less impact if
there is diminished communication involved. In order to accomplish communication
skill building, among others the following solutions should be considered: Closely
mentoring individuals that struggle to communicate effectively but show promise as
effective knowledge managers, or ensuring strong formal education for those
individuals involved in knowledge management. Effective communicators should be
put in positions where they manage knowledge. Moving knowledge from tacit to
explicit has a synergistic effect on the organizational communication the more
people create, the more can be shared among knowledge workers.
Fairness and commitment:In connection with commitment and motivation
the issue of fairness has to be addressed. It has been a highly discussed issue in
law and society for a long time. Nowadays it has become a popular topic in
organization theories as well. There are several fields in human resource
management where these issues arise over and over again: fairness practiced
during recruitment, the distribution of work among employees, fairness of
remuneration, bonuses, or of advancement. Fair process is very important in the
knowledge-based organizations the success of which is highly dependent on the
trust, ideas and commitment of colleagues. The problem is that most of the
organizations declare that they want to support creativity and innovation processes,
but they forget to apply fair process to reach this goal.
The reason can be that leaders find it a threat, because delegation of competencies
might diminish their authority. Procedural justice is not a decision based on
consensus or democracy in the work place. It means the engagement of employees
by asking for their input and using it during decision making processes.
Engagement is a good way to communicate the respect of management towards
employees and towards the ideas of employees. Fair process also means
explanation. Management has to make clear what considerations lead to a certain
decision. Explanation also assures people that their ideas, their input into the
decision have been heard and considered by leaders; and employees trust the
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management even if their ideas have not been accepted. Fairness also depends on
the formulation of clear expectations: people have to know, how they can contribute
to the performance of the organization, and vice versa; if employees dont trust their
leaders, they can be obstacles to the performance of the organization. Nowadays
this issue is even more important than earlier because knowledge-based
organizations depend more than traditional companies on the commitment of their
employees.
A challenge for todays organizations is that an organizational climate is to be
developed which helps people offer their creativity and expertise to the organization,
and this is a precondition for a fair process.
B) VIRTUAL ORGANIZATION:
In industries where organizations are required to be more adaptive in todays
environment and if flexible organizations are thought to be more appropriate
structures, then it follows that there should be a focus on implementing in-house
flexible components. Flexible or dynamic, organizations are said to have internal
structures and capabilities to facilitate responsiveness and adaptability to changes in
economic and market conditions, changes in government policy and employment
legislation, unemployment, development in technology and methods of production,
competitiveness and removal of skill boundaries.
Organizations have several options in considering flexible work practices that include
flexi time, part-time work, job-sharing, and home-based working. Organizations face
several operational influences in attaining increase in their responsiveness to
changes, both internal and external. One of the most important issues is determining
the extent of control or the amount of autonomy the organization must possess some
procedures that enhance its flexibility to avoid the state of rigidity and simultaneously
have some stability to avoid chaos.
The ready availability of information networks, e-mails, and portable telephones is
seen as accelerating the virtuality of work. A virtual organization is a network of
cooperations made possible by ICT, which is flexible and comes to meet the
dynamics of the market. In this way the virtual organization gains benefit with regard
to the traditional hierarchical systems. This new form of organization emerged in
1990, known as modular organization, network organization or digital organization.
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up with dispersed members who never or rarely come face to face. Here people
communicated online using links like WAN, video conferencing or e-mail.
The concept of virtual teams has gained considerable attention in recent years.
Within global organizations, the virtual team involves collaboration and teamwork
between geographically and temporarily separated workforces. Such collaboration
may also extend beyond the organizational boundary, linking partners in joint venture
and contractors who are in various locations. Emergency information and
communication technologies such as groupware, Internet and desktop video
conferencing systems are seen by global organizations as facilitating such
collaboration to enable the workforce to share knowledge and expertise. Virtual team
working is potentially necessary fir global organizations. It requires trust relationship.
Research findings suggest that personalized trust relationship is essential for
continuous virtual team working. Such personalized rust relationships are normally
established through face-to-face interaction and socializations. The use of
information and communication technologies appears to be inadequate for
establishing, reproducing such trust relationships owing to their inability to provide
access to the basic stage of participants activities.
The three primary factors that differentiate virtual teams from face-to-face teams are:
Absence of preverbal and nonverbal cues.
Limited social context.
Ability to overcome time and space constraints.
The advantages provided by such teams are as follows:
It saves time, travel expenses and eliminates lack of access to experts.
Teams can be organized whether or not members are in reasonable proximity to
each other.
Firms can use consultants from outside without incurring expenses for travel,
loading and downtime.
Virtual teams allow firms to expand their potential labour markets enabling them
to hire and retain the best people regardless of their physical locations.
Employees can accommodate both personal and professional lives.
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Dynamic team membership allows people to move from one project to another.
Employees can be assigned to multiple, concurrent teams.
Team communication and work reports are available online to facilitate swift
responses to the demands of a global market.
The disadvantages of virtual teams are: the lack of physical interaction-with its
associated verbal and nonverbal cues-and the synergies that often accompany face-
to-face communication. In paraverbal and nonverbal cues we use voice, eye
movement, facial expressions, body language which help in better communication
but are not available in online interactions. Virtual teams are able to work even if they
are miles apart allowing people to work in teams who never get a chance to meet
each other face-to-face. Despite these drawbacks, virtual teams are growing in
popularity. GroupWare, computer-based systems explicitly designed to support
groups of people working together, enables virtual interactions.
Features of virtual organization:
Without information and knowledge, workers in virtual workplaces becomeemasculated and effective. Fortunately technology and enlightened management
practices can ensure that this does not happen. The technology that keeps the
organization going is a seamless web electronic communication media.
Technology:New technology has transformed the traditional ways of working.
In particular the works of computing and telephony are coming together to open up a
whole new range of possibilities.
Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) will bring a new revolution to the desktop. CTI
has traditionally been used in all call centre applications.
E-mail integration:Integrating SMS (Short Message Service) into the existing e-
mail infrastructure allows the whole organization to take advantage of SMS products
such as Express Way.
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Office system integration:SMS technology can greatly enhance the existing or
new office system, e.g., Phone message can be sent via SMS rather than returning it
in a message.
Voice mail alert: SMS technology added to the existing voice mail system
builds an effective method of receiving voice mail alerts.
Mobile data: This enables a laptop to retrieve information anywhere throughthe mobile phone network. Mobile data communications revolutionize where and
how work is done. In the past corporate information has been inaccessible from
many places where it is needed.
The ability to link your laptop to your mobile phone means that you can remainconnected to your own virtual office from anywhere.
Types of virtual organization:
There are three types of virtual organization characterized by varying degrees of
virtuality.
The telecommunicating companies are at one extreme where the employees work
from their homes. They interact with the workplace via personal computer connected
with a modem to the phone lines.
Examples of companies using some form of telecommuting are Dow
Chemical, Xerox, Coherent Technology Inc.
The second type represents those that are characterized by the outsourcing of
most/all core competences. Outsourced areas include marketing and sale, human
resource, finance, research and development, engineering, manufacturing,
information system, etc. Virtual Corporation does one or two things extremely well.
Nike considers product design and marketing to be its core competences. Nike relies
on information technology as a means for maintaining inter-organizational
coordination with outsources.
The third type is completely virtual. It has metaphorically been described as a
company without walls that is tightly linked to a large network of suppliers,
distributors, retailers and customers as well as to strategic and joint venture partners.
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Examples of completely virtual organization are the Atlanta Committee for the
Olympic Games (ACOG) in 1996 and arguably the development effort of the PC
by IBM.
Emerging HR issues in virtual organization:
The HR issues such as recruitment, development, and socialization processes are
forms of management control. These inputs control and regulate the antecedent
conditions of performance, ensuring that the employees skills, knowledge, attitudes,
values and interest match those of the employing organization.
At the organizational level of analysis, the virtual organization is a loose web of
individuals, capital and technologies which may operate in amalgamation as a
flexible organization form. It involves project-focused collaborative networks
uninhibited by time and space. Driven by the necessities of globalization and
knowledge-based competition, it is staffed by knowledge workers brought together
under short-term market relationship. It operates without apparent structure (the
removal of traditional hierarchies does not remove structure in terms of power and
resource control), has ever-changing boundaries and dissolves as soon as a project
is completed.
In a virtual organization there are loose connections of highly proficient people who
are left to do their own thing in order to produce world beating products or services.
The shift towards virtual organization is associated with a fundamental re alignment
and reordering of jobs. Knowledge-based jobs are assumed to require greater skills,
have greater variety and offer more potential for a high quality of working life (QWL).
The positive side is that there is greater job autonomy and more financial stabilitybecause of the reduced commuting, launches and clothing costs. This is backed by
increased working hours; a perceived increase in performance; less work-related
stress and changed social relationship as barriers between the home-work interface
dissolve.
The negative aspects as involved in teleworking have been linked to psychological
well-being. They are increased reutilization; longer hours and increase in perceived
work demands, poorer physical working conditions; less social support from work;
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poorer social position; and fewer career opportunities. Moreover, in a virtual
organization highly skilled workers work. The jobs are variable and of short term.
People have to be multi-skilled and if they are in more than one functional area they
are valuable to the organization. This enables them to share information quickly and
assimilate them in a manner that facilitates quick decision and improves their own
ability to function.
A) LEARNING ORGANIZATION:
Of late, both academicians and writers of the most recent management books and
articles have identified people as well as knowledge as determiners of organizational
competitiveness. Pfeiffer (1994), for instance, argues that effective management of
people including developing and empowering people, sharing information, creating
self-managed teams, and training people are important determiners of competitive
advantage. Senge (1990) draws widespread attention to the notion of the learning
organization in his management best seller, The Fifth Discipline. Thus, much of the
focus of OD has been on encouraging commitment and participation by people
throughout the organization.
The earliest reference to the term learning organization in literature are probably
from 1978, when Argyris and Schon published Organizational Learning: A Theory inAction Prespective. The term learning Organization by Peter Senge (1990) may
also be understood as the continuous testing of experience, and the transformation
of those experience into knowledge-accessible to the entire organization and
relevant to its core purpose.
A learning organization can be defined as an organization that practices
organizational learning. Conversely, organizational learning is the distinctive
organizational behavior that is practiced in a learning organization. Thus, the two
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terms are effectively synonymous but there is difference in the nuance that should be
pointed out. Learning organization is an entity while organizational learning is a
process , a set of actions. Organizational learning is something the organizations do;
a learning organization is something the organization itself is. Denton, John (1998)
has developed a model of the creation of a learning organization. It shows the role of
six antecedents in creating first the opportunity and then the desire for organizational
learning.
Characteristics of learning organization:
A learning organization is one that is able to change its behaviors and mind-sets as a
result of experience. This may sound like an obvious statement, yet many
organizations refuse to acknowledge certain truths or facts and repeat dysfunctional
behaviors over and again. Examples include the number of times restructuring
initiatives are repeated because the previous attempt did not achieve the desired
outcomes or the failure of mergers and acquisitions to meet initial objectives.
Although there may be some metrics that can gauge and evaluate learning in an
organization, this discussion will offer an alternative perspective, not about how to
measure outcomes, but more about how to create learning environments that
facilitate the achievement of specific or of multiple, related objectives.
Such environments tend to promote learning and leadership at all levels (distributed
leadership) and they are likely to make the organization more accountable for its
actions as individuals tend to accept more readily responsibility for their actions.
Organizations, both in the private and public sectors that have adopted this approach
find that individual responsibility increases to a significant degree and accountability
becomes clearer and stronger. They also find that they develop true distributed
leadership (Maguire & McKelvey 1999), as everyone is a responsible agent working
towards a shared vision, exploring possibilities and taking initiatives that
nevertheless fit well into the overall strategic direction. Learning organizations
achieve this through a strong network of relationships and peer support (rather than
pressure). Enabling learning environments inform business strategy by taking
advantage of distributed intelligence throughout the organization; they fully engage
internal and external stakeholders by responding to issues identified by
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stakeholders; they change the behavior of the organization through mindset and
attitude change in individuals within the organization; and, finally, they help to
integrate sustainability thinking into the culture of the organization.
All human organizations are complex and one way of understanding their
characteristics is through complexity theory. The following characteristics are those
of complex learning organizations and are based on research with companies in both
the private and public sectors undertaken by the Complexity Group at the London
School of Economics, UK, over the past 12 years.
Organizational learning (OL) is more than individual learning and arises through the
interaction of individuals in groups and teams of different sizes. What is
characteristic of OL is that it is an emergent process in the sense that its outcome is
not predictable and it is more than the separate contributions of individuals. (The
principles of complex systems shown in italics are discussed in Mitleton-Kelly 2003)
OL needs the right environment to thrive, one that allows time for reflection on past
actions and outcomes and is prepared to accept some unpalatable truths and one
that is not a blame culture in the sense that mistakes are unacceptable. Such an
environment makes a distinction between mistakes that are the result of
irresponsibility and lack of forethought and those that are genuine explorations of a
new idea or a new way of working. If individuals and teams are encouraged to be
innovative then they need to explore alternatives and to take thoughtful risks. But not
all the experiments will succeed. For one to succeed many need to be tried. The
failures are not mistakes, they are legitimate explorations of the space of
possibilities, as part of the search to find new, innovative products, procedures, ways
of working, etc.
CONCLUSION: The aim of this article was to describe some aspects of knowledge
managements elements and HR. Focus was on human resource issues, which are
relevant from the perspective of supporting learning and knowledge sharing in
organizations, involving the hiring and selection processes, performance
assessment, recognition, and other fields of human resource management. It was
outlined that specific organizational structure, culture and behavior facilitate KM, and
that new roles are required for HRM. We can say, that basic cultural values influence
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the way in which an organization treats knowledge and the way it cares for the
learning processes, how organizations members communicate knowledge, how they
transfer it internally and externally. We are certain that effective learning and
effective knowledge transfer are beneficial for all those involved, because it can
result in a competitive advantage for the organization. Forming the necessary
framework is the task of upper management and the leaders in the different
organizational units, especially through ensuring a climate that allows effective
knowledge transfer in the organization. Not only the actors of the knowledge
processes (different groups of knowledge workers, communities, management and
employees), but also the basic value elements of a knowledge based culture, such
as, knowledge, knowledge sharing, innovation, quality, and their connection to KM
play a role in how knowledge processes are managed in an organization.
Reference:
Pattenaker, Biswajit.Human Resource Management. Delhi.
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www.actkm.org/userfiles/File/.../WHICKER_Leanne.ppt
www.infibeam.com/Books/.../hr-knowledge-era/9788131420720.ht...
www.hindu.com/edu/2003/12/29/stories/2003122900060800.htm
www.peoplepower.com/pdf/HR-Focus.pdf
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