How Important is Knowledge Management for Businesses?

Knowledge is a philosophical idea defined by Plato as a popular credence supported by an account or an basis (Blair, 2002). Under the context of knowledge-view of an organization, the definition proves the current knowledge comes based on data from firm's increased ability to build use and sense of around info to craft value for the shareholders (Leiponen, 2006). There has been a extensive growth in the knowledge-based school of thought, which suggests that producing and retention of knowledge can undergo positive effects on the firm's performance (Di Mattia & Scott, 1999). To manage this intangible asset to leverage firms for benefits is considered to be its core capability. Knowledge management (KM) has been aimed at capturing, integrating and using existing organizational knowledge and later creating a knowledge asset that can be a source of sustained competitive advantage in the long run (Brooking, 1999; Havens & Knapp, 1999). The revolution in the KM came with the rise of technology and there has been a misconception of linking IT through KM although it just facilitates the process (Papers4you.com, 2006).

The literature has divided knowledge to two major categories depending upon its nature to be codified for the use in a KM system. The structured and systematic knowledge the current can be described in formal language and clearly communicated and shared for the duration of formal means qualify for the explicit knowledge type (Elizabeth, 2001). It has been established so these kinds of knowledge is easy to codify in the form of databases and is witnessed as a base resource because of its inherent nature of easy imitation by other organizations. The other craft of knowledge that has gained tremendous importance is the automatic collective behavior and is identified tacit knowledge (Richard et al, 2001). Tacit knowledge, according to Sajjad et al (2005), comprises of mental models, values, beliefs, assumptions and perceptions which are deeply entranced into the intellectual capital of an organization. It has been suggested too tacit knowledge is faced surrounded by an discernable dichotomy i.e. the feature of inimitability that make it a source of sustained competitory advantage also makes it hard to capture and share within the firm to appreciation the potential benefits.

Therefore it can be concluded which the elusive asset of knowledge, where provides an organization with capability to undermine competition also suggests to be a challenge to leverage itself (Papers4you.com, 2006). Any organization should not alone look at the ‘best practices' in the field but might customize every system to its own unique culture and arrangements to be able to successfully use KM.

References:

Blair, D.C. (2002), “Knowledge management: hype, hope, or help?”, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 53(12), 1019–1028

BROOKING, Annie (1999), “Corporate Memory: Strategies for Knowledge Management”, Intellectual Capital Series London: International Thomson Business

Di Mattia, S. & Scott, I. A. (1999), “KM: hope, hype or harbinger?”, Library Journal, 15 September, 122(15), p. 33

Elizabeth A. Smith, (2001), “The role of tacit and explicit knowledge in the workplace”, Journal of Knowledge Management; Volume: 5 Issue: 4; 2001 Research Paper

Havens, C. & Knapp, E. (1999), “Easing into Knowledge Management, Strategy and Leadership”, 27(2), p. 4

Leiponen, Aija (2006), “Managing Knowledge for Innovation: The Case of Business-to-Business Services”, Journal of Product Innovation Management, May2006, Vol. 23 Issue 3, p238-258

Papers For You (2006) "P/M/440. Tools of knowledge management", Available based on what i read in http://www.coursework4you.co.uk/sprtmgt8.htm [22/06/2006]

Papers For You (2006) "P/M/325. Knowledge management: definition of the concept", Available from Papers4you.com [21/06/2006]

Richard T. Herschel, Hamid Nemati, David Steiger (2001), Tacit to explicit knowledge conversion: knowledge exchange protocols Journal of Knowledge Management; Volume: 5 Issue: 1; 2001 Research paper

Sajjad M. Jasimuddin, Jonathan H. Klein, Con Connell (2005), The paradox of using tacit and explicit knowledge: Strategies to are dealing with dilemmas”, Management Decision; Volume: 43 Issue: 1; 2005 Conceptual paper

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