ASSIGNMENT 2

implementing knowledge management is difficult in organisations as many
employees are afraid of sharing their knowledge. Based on your
organisational behaviour knowledge and theories that you are familiar with,
suggest ways to encourage team members to share their knowledge. Why do
you think your suggestions would be effective?


Knowledge Management develops systems and processes to acquire and share intellectual assets. It increases the generation of useful, actionable and meaningful information and seeks to increase both individual and team learning. In addition, it can maximize the value of an organization's intellectual base across diverse functions and disparate locations. Knowledge Management maintains that successful businesses are a collection not of products but of distinctive knowledge bases. This intellectual capital is the key that will give the company a competitive advantage with its targeted customers. Knowledge Management seeks to accumulate intellectual capital that will create unique core competencies and lead to superior results.

There are many definitions for KM. It can be known as ‘a process where organizations have formulated ways in the attempt to recognize and archive knowledge assets within the organization that are derived from the employees of various departments or faculties and in some cases, even from other organizations that share the similar area of interests or specialization’ (Joseph, 2001). Besides, knowledge can also be defined as ‘the process of transforming information and intellectual assets into enduring value. It also connects people with the knowledge that they need to take action, when they need it’.

Knowledge management acts something like a library in that it provides a repository for written information on a given subject, but it also tries to make available to the organization as a whole the knowledge that is in people’s heads. This knowledge may be the most valuable of all because it is put in context and it is frequently more extensive and up-to-date and, therefore, more useful for decision-making. In short, knowledge management helps ensure that the right information gets to the right people at the right time to make the right decisions.

Large organizations know a lot of things, but they don’t always know what they know. Consider this scenario: You’re a specialist in construction technology, and you work in a field office of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). A civil engineer at a state department of transportation calls you, requesting information about Superpave™ asphalt mixture design. You know FHWA has plenty of information about Superpave. But where is it? How do you find it? Whom do you call?

The situation is complicated by the fact that knowledge about Superpave exists in a number of forms. Some pavement experts at FHWA have been following Superpave developments ever since the technology was introduced. A good-practices paper was written to document one state’s experience. Several university researchers have written journal articles about the effects of the environment on Superpave asphalt mixtures. How can you be sure, even if you identify one or two sources of expertise, that you’ve done more than scratch the surface of the available information?
That’s the kind of problem faced by thousands of organizations — thousands of times a day — and it’s the reason for the development of a concept known as knowledge management.


In traditional organizations, knowledge tends to flow along organizational lines, from the top down. But that pattern seldom results in making knowledge available in a timely fashion and where it’s needed the most. In organizations with managed knowledge, information can flow across organizational lines, reaching the people who can use it in ways that best promote the organization’s goals and that enhance service to the customer at the same time.
How this happens can be understood by examining the four basic elements of the knowledge management cycle: find/create, organize, share, and use/reuse. Under “find/create,” especially as it operates in a transportation organization, knowledge is gained through a variety of means, including publications, conferences and meetings, project experiences, research, and industry expertise.


In the next step in the cycle, “organize,” the knowledge is filtered and catalogued, and links to the outside are created. Then the information is shared for wide availability, making use of high-tech computer tools such as the Internet and other techniques such as conferences, journal articles, and the natural communication channels created in a collaborative work environment.
To help carry out the “organize” and “share” functions in a specific community of people having a common interest, many experts recommend a knowledge manager. This person has the task of soliciting good practices, indexing and cataloguing new information as it comes in, and serving as an information broker by assisting people to obtain the information they need. The knowledge manager can also serve as an advocate for knowledge-sharing practices within and beyond his or her specific community of practice.


The final stage of the knowledge management cycle, “use/reuse,” involves both informal contacts and access to reports, good practices, success stories, and other forms of communication, including exhibits, demonstrations, and training sessions. Much of this knowledge can be made available to a wide audience through the Internet. This is the step in which knowledge is applied and reapplied to solve real-world issues, such as building better bridges, operating roadways more efficiently, and improving highway safety. Of course, these results are then captured as part of the lessons learned for use as the knowledge cycle begins again.

To implement knowledge management, how much does an organization need to change its culture? Some people believe that a wholesale transformation is required in the way people work and act, but this is largely a myth. The fact is that successful knowledge management programs work with organizational cultures and behaviors, not against them. That’s one reason Mark Youman of American Management Systems, a firm helping FHWA in its early knowledge management efforts, prefers the term “knowledge-sharing.”
“I try to emphasize that this is not an end in itself, but a set of tools and practices that can be used to further the organization’s goals. Knowledge-sharing is not a new goal for FHWA, but a way the agency can achieve the goals it has laid out in its corporate management strategy,” Youman said.

There’s no question that human nature and certain aspects of the corporate culture of organizations, including federal government agencies, can interfere with the smooth operation of a knowledge management program. Some individuals are proprietary about the knowledge they possess, believing that their advancement and status depend on their demonstration of unique or exceptional knowledge. Some managers fear a loss of control if their departments’ knowledge is made available to others. Some staff members feel, at least initially, that they are required to make an extra effort to share knowledge without deriving any benefit from the process. And some supervisors are uncomfortable with the idea of staff members spending time on knowledge-sharing rather than completing traditional tasks.

To a certain extent, these problems are addressed through open communication about knowledge management and its benefits. Nevertheless, there’s also a need to take a new look at how people achieve recognition and rewards in organizations that practice knowledge management. Often, this cultural change occurs as a direct result of the process of implementing knowledge management.

“People begin to realize that by sharing knowledge, they become recognized as people who have expertise in particular areas,” says Youman. This can be formalized through official recognition of people who have made outstanding contributions to knowledge-sharing.

People frequently ask how long it will take to implement knowledge management at FHWA. Knowledge management is not a project that begins and ends, but an ongoing and evolving change in the way an organization operates. Additionally, knowledge-sharing can grow across organizational boundaries and could encompass cooperating organizations, including AASHTO, TRB, and state and local transportation agencies. For another, there’s really no way to predict what technological advances will empower us to do, and we will continually find new directions to explore.

What’s most exciting about our effort is that it puts FHWA in a position to be a major beneficiary of what has been termed the “knowledge boom.” Organizations of all kinds in all sectors of the economy are waking up to the fact that what they know — more accurately, what individuals within these organizations know — is not only of immense value, but it is crucial to their success in this era in which information is a primary product.

The transportation community is made up of people of outstanding ability, experience, and professionalism. By improving the way we create, share, and gain access to these experiences and the accompanying knowledge, knowledge management will enable us to raise the level of expertise throughout the community to the mutual benefit of all participants.

references

http://www.bain.com/management_tools/
http://www.tfhrc.gov/pubrds/novdec99/km.htm