Knowledge Management: An Organizational Need

                                                                                          -Ashish Baniya Chhetri

What if when any people in the organization leave the Job? Is there any loss to the company if any people who have dedicated his/her years to the company leave the job?  And question arise how the company have utilized person for the company success and how much the person have done to the company’s success? Is there any valid data, records or proofs that can be utilized by the company after the person leaves the job? I think, “No Company is there that keep such records”, so organization need proper management of Human Minds and absolutely the Knowledge Management.

Now question arise what Knowledge Management (KM) exactly is? Is it just managing knowledge and sharing experience of any staff to their colleagues. No, it is not just managing knowledge. Then what is it? Knowledge Management (KM) is a managing technique to efficiently manage knowledge in an organization that comprises of construction, compilation, collection, collation of knowledge generated within the organization (and external sources) in a Knowledge Repository (KR), organize the knowledge so constructed in the organization in such a way that it is easily accessible to all those in an organization, who need it, on time by setting a tools, including the computer system that facilitates ease of accessing the KR as well as building and maintaining it.

Knowledge Management helps in capturing, developing, sharing and effectively using organizational knowledge in multi-dimensional and multi-disciplinary approached to achieve organizational objectives by making the best use of technology. Many large companies, public institution and non-profit organizations have resources dedicated to internal knowledge management efforts, often as a part of their business strategy, information technology or human resource management department. Several consulting companies provide strategy and advice regarding Knowledge Management to these organizations.

Knowledge Management efforts typically focus on organizational objectives such as improved performance, competitive advantage, innovation, the sharing of lesson learned, integration and continuous improvement of the organization. Knowledge Management efforts overlaps with organizational learning and may be distinguished from that by greater focus on the management of knowledge as a strategic assets and focus on encouraging the sharing of knowledge. It is an enabler of organizational learning.

Knowledge Management efforts have a long history, for instance on-the-job discussion, formal apprenticeship, discussion forum, corporate libraries, professional training and mentoring programs. Behind the second half of the 20^th century, when the use of computer system tremendously increased, specific adaptation of technologies such as Management Information System (MIS), Human Resource Information System (HRIS), Knowledge Bases, expert system, Knowledge repository, Group decision support system, intranets and computer supportive work have been introduced which added more values to the Knowledge Management.

In course of KM in 1999, the term Personal Knowledge Management was introduced which reflect that the management of knowledge in individual level. This reflect the key lesson that people and cultural norms which influence their behavior are the most crucial resources for successful knowledge creation, dissemination and application; cognitive social and organizational learning processes are essential to the success of Knowledge Management Strategy, and measurement benchmarking and incentives are essential to accelerate the learning process and to drive cultural change. Thus, Knowledge Management Program can yield impressive benefits to individuals and organizations if they are purposeful, concrete and action-oriented.

Now talking about pioneers in Knowledge Management back to 1982, General Electric (GE) has collected all customer complaints in a data base that supports telephone operators in answering customer calls. GE has programmed 1.5 million potential problems and their solutions into its system. Similarly, McKinsey and Bain & Co., two management consulting firms have development “Knowledge Databases” that contains experiences from every assignment including names of team member and client reaction. Every team must appoint a “historian” to document the work.

Giving a glance to benefits of Knowledge Management (KM), it is beneficial especially in both social and business segments. An effective KM program should help a company leveraging the assets and provides improving customer services by streamlining response time, boost revenues by getting products and services to market faster, enhancing employee retention rates by organizing and recognizing the value of employees’ Knowledge and rewarding them for it, streamlining operations and reducing costs by eliminating redundant or unnecessary process.

In conclusion, Knowledge Management (KM) role is to connect knowledge owner to the knowledge seekers. The knowledge of one is transferred to the mind of the other so that a new decision can be made or situation can be handled. KM provides a means to capture and store passing knowledge and broker it to the appropriate individuals. Thus, present day’s organizations, large or small, gather vast amount of knowledge during the course of their operation. This knowledge remains in the minds of organizational members conducting the operation-be it research, design, development, manufacturing or service. This wealth of organization knowledge disappears when these person leave the organization. The effects of losing organizational knowledge is especially noticeable and can have far reaching implications when people occupying important positions such as chief of Design or Chief of Marketing leave since all the knowledge they gathered over long years of experience is lost permanently to the organization , along with them. A significant amount of time must be invested in relearning and reinvesting the work processes. Most organization do have some manual system of compiling knowledge to create a corporate memory but they have not been effective mainly due to difficulties in careful organization and accessing of the compile knowledge. Computers have not played a significant role in this area, till recently, having mainly concentrate in the data processing field; obviously due to faster payback period for the money invested. However, things are changing and this field is receiving due attention from developers and organization.