The Significance of Information in Decision-making

Discuss About The Artifacts In Knowledge Management Research.

Early in the morning I woke up at 6 and went for a walk.  Secondly I went to the library to collect my books for the next semester. Thirdly I went to meet a friend of mine who is living in next lane. Fourthly, I decided to make breakfast for myself. Lastly, I decided to go for a bicycle ride in the evening.

The information involved in taking first decision was the health benefits for me.  The information that morning walk will give me energy for the rest of the day and will address my high blood pressure encouraged me to take such decision. My next decision was based on the data that only three days are left for my next semester and I need to study hard for attaining good marketing. Moreover, when I was informed that my old school friend is living in next lane, I framed the third decision and went to meet him. Furthermore, I have taken classes for cooking continental dishes early this year. Therefore, I decided to apply my knowledge by preparing continental breakfast for myself for the first time. My last decision was framed on the basis of the information related to the health benefits arising out of regular cycling such as improved joint mobility, decreased body fat levels and strengthened bones (Victoria State Government, 2017).

These decisions would have significantly affected by the lack of pre-existing data, information or knowledge. In case I did not have information regarding health benefits of going for a walk early morning, I would have wasted my time by acting lazy. Secondly, the lack of data regarding the exact days left for the next semester would have encouraged me to further delay my studies which would have resulted in my failure in the semester. Due to this, my final grades would have significantly affected. Moreover, my large social circle helps me in acquiring information regarding most of our old friends. If such information would have not been provided to me then I would have missed to meet my best friend of school days as I did not had his contact details or address earlier. Meeting him has substantially reduced my stress has made internally happy. Furthermore, lack of knowledge regarding how to cook continental food would have forced me to prepare boring breakfast. Lastly, if I did not had information that my excess body fat can be easily reduced and joint mobility can be easily improved than I would have used my scooter instead of a bicycle. This would have also contributed to the increasing levels of pollution and have not contributed to my health (Zsambok & Klein, 2014).

KM technologies used by Kilmore International School

The Kilmore International School is a high school which is non- denominational, independent, coeducational boarding and day school for students who are academically motivated. However, this high school makes the use of knowledge management (KM) and takes the benefit of information technologies (KM technologies). Such KM technologies assist the Kilmore International School by focusing on knowledge management instead of information processing.  It is conceptualized in the high school as strategic management activities which assist the teachers in the collection of information or making the use of knowledge resources of organization for the purpose of carrying out their tasks and teaching effectively (Fernandez & Sabherwal, 2014). The knowledge management practices significantly contribute in capturing, codifying and distributing knowledge in high school with the help of applying information technologies or human interaction in order to make it shareable by all the teachers (Soto- Acosta & Cegarra- Navarro, 2016).  Knowledge management helps Kilmore International School by way of strengthening the knowledge sharing culture and building collegiality into the school organization.  It helps in boosting the knowledge management and provides intelligence for making the efficient use of infrastructure (Cohen & Olsen, 2015).

The KM technology currently used by Kilmore International School include artificial intelligence (AI) technologies that supports databases, enterprise resource planning systems, management information systems and decision support systems (Power, Sharda & Burstein, 2015).  This provides the proper reporting channels to the school authorities with the help of databases and supports effective decision making. Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies also provide security to a great extent in the storage of data. It assists in avoiding confusion and chaos by specifying the degree of control in advance. The data related to students is properly managed with the help of artificial intelligence technologies. The security of the data related to students and teachers is facilitated through granting access to the knowledge management system only to the authorized person.

They can be significantly improved by simplifying the techniques in order to make it understandable by junior employees as well.  Moreover, the KM technology needs to be cost effective so that its implementation does not result in heavy losses for Kilmore International School. The cons associated with the theory of artificial intelligence should be cut down and it should be made capable of addressing all the knowledge management requirements of the high school. It should also provide regular updates for meeting the emerging requirements (Botha, Kourie & Snyman, 2014).

Improving KM Technologies

The transfer of tacit knowledge can be made in two different ways. One is socialization and other is converting it into explicit form through the process of externalization and then transferring it to the recipients who further convert it into tacit form with the help of internalization process.

Socialization provides the integration of multiple streams for the purpose of creating new knowledge. With the help of socialization, tacit knowledge can be directly transferred to another person (Mariano & Awazu, 2016). Socialization also allows organizations to gain new knowledge from its outside boundaries with the help of interaction with the suppliers, customers and stockholders.

It becomes difficult when knowledge is to be transferred to a number of persons as this is not possible with the help of face- to- face meeting. Joint activities are required for socialization such as informal conversations, meetings, etc. in order to help the individuals for acquiring knowledge. Socialization in case of community of practice becomes difficult as they are dispersed geographically (Evans, Dalkir & Bidian, 2015).

Externalization assists the individuals with the help of conversion of tacit knowledge into explicit forms, which can be effortlessly understood by the rest of their group. Internationalization facilitates the conversion of explicit knowledge into tacit knowledge.

Externalization is considered to be a difficult process. This is due to the fact that there is difficulty in the articulation of tacit knowledge. The accomplishment of externalization takes place with the use of metaphors which may sometimes create difficulties. It is a long process where conversion is required from explicit form to tacit form (Edwards, 2015).

For the purpose of transferring knowledge from one person to another, socialization is recommended.  This will facilitate a face to face meeting which could involve a session of question and answers between the sender and receiver of knowledge. It will create a synthesis of tacit knowledge across individuals and will provide an overview of the thinking of others. It will make an effective transfer of knowledge and will enable another person to take action on it.

For the purpose of transferring knowledge from one person to 100 other individuals in different parts of the world, exchange approach is recommended as it focuses on explicit knowledge sharing. Such approach is useful for communicating or transferring explicit knowledge among, organizations, groups and individuals. This will facilitate the sharing of printed reports which can be transferred to different parts of the world. The process of internalization and externalization will help in capturing the tacit and explicit knowledge respectively.  In the process of exchange, the knowledge will be transferred by one person in a document to others (Becerra- Fernandez, Leidner & Leidner, 2014).

Ways to transfer tacit knowledge

However, in case of community of practice in which the members are dispersed geographically but make regular communication for the purpose of discussing mutual interests, the process of socialization can also be adopted.Knowledge management impacts the overall performance of the organization. Such overall performance also results in the enhancement of learning of employees from external sources and from other employees. It also assists to facilitate effectiveness, innovativeness, and efficiency of the process of organization.  The direct impact of knowledge management is concerned with revenues and costs and can also be linked to the strategy or vision of the organization. Such direct impact is measured in terms of return on investment (ROI) (Webb, 2017).

The above analysis is completely incorrect. It is true that there is a decrease in the ROI of the organization from 10 percent to 5 percent at the year of system implementation but it does not mean that the knowledge management system should be uninstalled.

Knowledge management can affect the overall performance of the organization either directly or indirectly. Direct impact occurs when the knowledge is utilized for creating innovative products that generate profit and revenue or when the business strategy is aligned with the knowledge management strategy. Here the direct impact is not visible in the return on investment but it does not mean that there is no positive impact of knowledge management (Geisler & Wickramasinghe, 2015). Here the impact on the organizational performance is indirect. Indirect impact of knowledge management on the performance of the organization comes about with the help of activities that are indirectly associated with the strategy, vision, costs and revenue of the organization. This is due to the fact that the use of knowledge management is made for the purpose of demonstrating intellectual leadership within the industry. It could also be the result of knowledge usage for gaining a beneficial negotiating position with respect to partner organizations or competitors (Reich, Gemino & Sauer, 2014).

Though the return on investment is reduced but still there are some strengths of the knowledge management.  Such intellectual leadership gained by the organization within the industry has the capability of enhancing the customer loyalty. Knowledge management would have also resulted in sustainable competitive advantage which will be visible in the return on investment after some time and will provide the capability for developing and exploiting intangible and tangible resources better than the competitors (Birasnav, 2014).

Impacts of Knowledge Management on Organizational Performance

The weaknesses include that such indirect impact of knowledge management on the organizational performance cannot be easily associated with the transactions and therefore cannot be measured. The reduced ROI visible from the financial records of the organization will have negative impact on the investors.

The uninstallation of the knowledge management system should be cancelled and some corrective measures should be taken which will result in increased ROI. The indirect impacts will slowly and gradually lead the organization towards increased ROI but the organization should also improve its ability to create and leverage product related knowledge along with the knowledge related to the managerial resources across business, and    customers. Innovation should be introduced in the products by utilizing the knowledge which will subsequently increase the ROI of the organization (de Vasconcelos, Kimble, Carreteiro & Rocha, 2017).

References

Becerra-Fernandez, I., Leidner, D.E. and Leidner, D., 2014. On knowledge, knowledge management, and knowledge management systems: an introduction. In Knowledge Management (pp. 17-24). Routledge.

Birasnav, M., 2014. Knowledge management and organizational performance in the service industry: The role of transformational leadership beyond the effects of transactional leadership. Journal of Business Research, 67(8), pp.1622-1629.

Botha, A., Kourie, D. and Snyman, R., 2014. Coping with continuous change in the business environment: Knowledge management and knowledge management technology. Elsevier.

Cohen, J.F. and Olsen, K., 2015. Knowledge management capabilities and firm performance: A test of universalistic, contingency and complementarity perspectives. Expert Systems with Applications, 42(3), pp.1178-1188.

de Vasconcelos, J.B., Kimble, C., Carreteiro, P. and Rocha, A., 2017. The application of knowledge management to software evolution. International Journal of Information Management, 37(1), pp.1499-1506.

Edwards, J.S., 2015. Business processes and knowledge management. In Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Third Edition (pp. 4491-4498). IGI Global.

Evans, M., Dalkir, K. and Bidian, C., 2015. A holistic view of the knowledge life cycle: the knowledge management cycle (KMC) model. The Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management, 12(1), p.47.

Fernandez, I. B. and Sabherwal, R. 2014 . Knowledge Management: Systems and Processes. RoPros and Cons of Socializationisler, E. and Wickramasinghe, N., 2015. Principles of knowledge management: Theory, practice, and cases. Routledge.

Mariano, S. and Awazu, Y., 2016. Artifacts in knowledge management research: a systematic literature review and future research directions. Journal of Knowledge Management, 20(6), pp.1333-1352.

Power, D.J., Sharda, R. and Burstein, F., 2015. Decision support systems. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Reich, B.H., Gemino, A. and Sauer, C., 2014. How knowledge management impacts performance in projects: An empirical study. International Journal of Project Management, 32(4), pp.590-602.

Soto-Acosta, P. and Cegarra-Navarro, J.G., 2016. New ICTs for knowledge management in organizations. Journal of Knowledge Management, 20(3), pp.417-422.

Victoria State Government. 2017. Cycling – health benefits, [Online]. Available at: https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/cycling-health-benefits [Accessed on: 20 April 2018].

Webb, S.P., 2017. Knowledge management: Linchpin of change. Routledge.

Zsambok, C.E. and Klein, G. eds., 2014. Naturalistic decision making. Psychology Press.