Knowledge Management: Strategies and Practices

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Knowledge Management
Conclusion
References

Introduction

Knowledge management refers to the “strategies and practices that are used by organizations to identify, create, represent, distribute and enable adaptation of insights and experiences” (Frappaolo, 2006). The insights and the experiences represent knowledge. In the context of an organization, the knowledge can be embedded in the various management processes or it can be embodied in employees.

Knowledge management as a field of study emerged in the early 1990s (Frappaolo, 2006). It was later adopted as a management function that focused on creating competitive advantages by indentifying and modeling valuable information. In the twentieth century, knowledge management evolved in response to technological advancement.

Thus new concepts such as knowledge bases and expert systems were adopted. At the beginning of the twenty first century, knowledge management was emphasized at the employee level in order to improve their competence and productivity. The concept of knowledge management has been adopted due to the following reasons. First, it aims at providing the knowledge that is required in product development (Scarbrough & Swan, 2001). Second, it helps organizations to manage their intellectual resources effectively.

Finally, it enables the organizations to understand the business environment. Besides, it enables workers to acquire the ideas and experiences that are relevant to their responsibilities. Thus the competitive advantages that are associated with knowledge management include the following.

First, it enables firms to “leverage the expertise of their workers” (Frappaolo, 2006) in order to achieve their strategic goals. Second, it facilitates innovation and learning within the organization. This leads to increased efficiency and productivity. Finally, the new ideas or information helps in shortening the product development cycle. This enables firms to develop new products within the shortest time possible.

Knowledge diffusion refers to the “adaptation and application of knowledge” (Frappaolo, 2006) within and organization. Thus it refers to the degree to which knowledge management is undertaken within a firm (Scarbrough & Swan, 2001).

In order to manage knowledge effectively, a firm needs to have the resources such as modern communication technology and a culture that promotes learning. However, this has always been a challenge to most organizations. Thus the problems associated with knowledge management include the following. First, organizations find it difficult to create a culture that promotes sharing of knowledge. Second, it is usually very difficult to present the new knowledge in a language that is understandable to all workers.

Third, the process of “identifying, modeling and representing” (Scarbrough & Swan, 2001) knowledge requires talent. However, such talent is sometimes difficult to find in the labor market. Finally, the loss of knowledge has been inevitable as employees who posses the knowledge retire at an early age.

Knowledge Management

Knowledge Accumulation

This refers to the process of identifying, modeling and making use of new knowledge (Frappaolo, 2006). Thus it involves the use of various mechanisms and procedures to collect valuable information. Such information can be obtained from within the organization or from external sources.

Knowledge accumulation depends on research and development as well as organizational learning. The process of knowledge accumulation has enabled Ubisoft to understand the needs of its customers in order to develop products that meet their expectations (Ubisoft, 2011).

Absorption Capacity

Absorption capacity refers to the ability of a company to acquire and use external knowledge. It is influenced by three factors namely, knowledge assimilation, knowledge acquisition and knowledge transformation (Frappaolo, 2006). Knowledge assimilation refers to the process of incorporating the acquired knowledge in the organization’s processes such as marketing.

Knowledge acquisition refers to the ability to obtain the knowledge while transforming it relates to the ability to effectively apply the knowledge in solving problems. At Ubisoft, the absorption capacity has been increased through research and development in order to facilitate both product and process innovation (Ubisoft, 2011). This means that absorption capacity is the link between the acquired knowledge and innovation within an organization.

Knowledge Protection

This refers to the process of controlling access to information. Knowledge is considered to be a strategic asset and thus it must be protected by limiting its availability to competitors. The rationale behind knowledge protection is that it helps in avoiding the loss of the usefulness of knowledge by restricting its distribution.

This means that the protected knowledge will be unique to the owner and this helps in maintaining the competitive advantages that accrue from it (Frappaolo, 2006). Protection of knowledge can be done through registering patents, obtaining copyrights and registering trademarks. Strategies such as lead time, secrecy and use of complex process can also be used to protect knowledge.

Protecting knowledge through secrecy involves formulating polices that guide the disclosure of sensitive information. Lead time on the other hand focuses on creating competitive advantages ahead of other firms in an industry. Ubisoft uses complex processes in production and marketing in order to prevent other firms from copying its strategies.

Problems of Organizational Culture

Knowledge management is highly influenced by the organizational culture since such cultures affect the behavior of workers (Frappaolo, 2006). The success of knowledge management depends on the elements that constitute the corporate culture of a firm. The elements include “trust, learning, collaboration and formalization” (Frappaolo, 2006).

These elements promote acquisition, assimilation and sharing of knowledge. Thus an organization that does not promote the culture of learning and collaboration will experience difficulties in managing knowledge. Ubisoft promotes the culture of learning in order to manage its intellectual resources effectively.

Leveraging Knowledge

This refers to the strategies that can be used to influence the use of knowledge in order to maximize its benefits within an organization. This can be done by creating several knowledge management applications.

This helps in promoting efficiency and effectiveness since each application solves a particular problem. Besides, a flexible system that enables an organization to incorporate emerging ideas in its operations can help in leveraging knowledge.

IT as an Element of Information System

Information technology is an integral part of knowledge management. This is because it facilitates the process of acquiring knowledge through research and development (Tseng, 2008). Besides, it facilitates safe storage of information that forms the basis of knowledge acquisition. At Ubisoft, IT has been used to develop knowledge bases that captures the human knowledge and stores it in a computerized system (Ubisoft, 2011). Thus the stored knowledge can be retrieved and used automatically to solve various problems within the firm.

Conclusion

The above discussion shows that knowledge management is an integral part of management in the modern economy. This is because it promotes the creation or acquisition and assimilation of the knowledge that informs the decisions that are made by managers (Frappaolo, 2006).

Thus the benefits of knowledge management include creation of competitive advantages and innovation. The problems associated with knowledge management include difficulty in developing a culture that promotes learning and sharing of knowledge. Therefore organizations should focus on effective knowledge management strategies in order to boost their competitiveness.

References

Frappaolo, C. (2006). Knowledge management. New York: John Wiley and Sons.

Scarbrough, H., & Swan, J. (2001). Explaining the diffusion of knowledge management. British Journal of Management, vol. 12 (3) , 345-403.

Tseng, S.-M. (2008). The effects of information technology on knowledge management. Expert Systems with Applications, vol. 35 (2) , 150-200.

Ubisoft. (2011). Strategy. Web.

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