“In the end, the location of the new economy is not in the technology, be it the microchip or the global telecommunications network. It is in the human mind – Alan Webber”
Many organizations invest in technologies and pay little attention to their internal knowledge (those resident in their people). Processes and work are organized along functions and organizations are very satisfied with making profits. As long as the money was available, anyone could leave or be replaced. If only organizations paid more importance to how the individual knowledge of the staff can be tapped into, shared and used for competitive advantage. Petter Gottschalk[1] defined Knowledge Management as “a method to simplify and improve the process of sharing, distributing, creating, capturing and understanding knowledge in a company”. Though data and other “how to” information may be documented in user manuals, training documentations or self-guided CD ROMs, organizations stand to benefit when the carriers of these knowledge are motivated to share their knowledge with coworkers. In the words of Peter Drucker, “information is data endowed with relevance and purpose”. Of what purpose is data archived in central databases, intranets, or other repositories if they cannot be effectively utilized to achieve or help in the achievement of a purpose. The expert and efficient use of data and information in itself is my idea of knowledge.
In the final analysis, every organization sells its knowledge. Consultants provide expert advice for business owners to implement, businesses use their knowledge of a particular market to develop brands to serve them, a franchisee buys a franchise, a superstore takes advantage of urbanization, an educational institution develop a training program for busy executives, and the list goes on. In all these transactions, Knowledge (one way or another) is exchanged for cash or other means of gratifications.
Some organizations have carefully utilized technology to help them codify and preserve knowledge for sharing and reuse. Some have a carefully gathered knowledge stored as data in a database while others have a network of experts in place to drive this effort. Directories of such experts are kept and made accessible for people within the organization to benefit from. Organizations like General Motors, Toyota, IBM, Shell, Accenture and various industrial giants have tapped into the knowledge of their people and are benefiting from such investment. Upon satisfactory performance, most organizations have integrated their knowledge networks, expanded and exploited them to maximal benefits. Such gains have been documented in white papers; presented at various business seminars, cited as case studies and even distributed as the organizations best practice and body of knowledge. The knowledge networks often called Community of Practice usually start as a group of people who meet on a regular basis to discuss common issues. These self-governed and informal groups offer voluntary membership. Because of their nature they are not best to be used as a replacement for organizational training initiatives, though members often benefit mentoring and coaching.
Knowledge within an organization is an asset that needs to be managed and exploited for organizational and competitive advantage. The cost of hiring a new employee for whatever position is usually more than the monetary value attached to the position. The new employee would need time to adjust to organization, its internal working and other cultures, all these cost time and may not be cheap at the end of the day. Hence, it is imperative for every organization to take advantage of this vital asset and make the best use of it while it is still available. While latent skills may not be easy to teach, structures can be put in place for its transfer. With well-managed workplace knowledge, processes can be improved upon, harmonious workplace relationships can be forged, positive alliances can be formed for organizational and competitive advantage and even waste can be further minimized. This, in itself is another strategy that could affect the overall bottom line (make more profit, become competitive, etc) for the better.
[1] Petter Gottschalk 2005: Strategic Knowledge Management Technology
No comments:
Post a Comment