The Concept of Knowledge Management

Knowledge management is the practice of producing and managing knowledge and using it for further growth of the organization. It is the approach through which the organizations optimally use their knowledge so that it can maximize their productivity. The knowledge management refers to the multidisciplinary approach in which the organizations use their current knowledge to achieve the organization’s objectives. In the contemporary times, knowledge management has become quite significant to achieve the objectives of the organization. The knowledge management encompasses several disciples such as business administration, information technology and organization policy. The knowledge management is focused on achieving the organization’s objectives by increasing the competitive advantage and innovation capabilities of the organization. In knowledge management, knowledge is considered as a strategic asset and used for the development of the organization. The knowledge management emphasize on sharing knowledge so that the knowledge is created and used for the benefit of the organization (Bernard & Tichkiewitch, 2008).  

Sultan Qaboos University is the first university which was founded in Oman. Today, it is one of the largest and most advanced Universities in Oman. The university is also leading in conducting several research and innovation in the country. The university has also implemented a large number of IT systems for the management of Research and Research related facilities in the setting. These systems are used for capturing various research related information so that the research facilities in the organizations remains advanced. The University also has a system for the registration of the post-graduation students in which all the students who have applied for the admission are registered. It also has a large system for the conference management. The university employs a large number of temporary staff members. These staff members of the organization handle the IT related operations and manage the IT infrastructure of the organization. However, since these employees are temporary, a significant amount of the information collected by them is lost when they leave the organization. Therefore, it is important that the organization develops an effective system which captures the information from these temporary workers so that the operations of the organization can be streamlined. It is important that the organization develop a knowledge management system which has specific variables such as documentation of the current IT system of the organization and the documentation of the guidelines to use the information system. The knowledge management system should also focus on the common issues faced by the IT system and how the organization cans fix these issues. The knowledge management system should also assure that all the information obtained in the implementation of the IT system in the organization is stored in a depository so that it can be used in future.

In the recent times, there has been a lot of research related to the knowledge management. The knowledge management refers to the use of information for improving the performance of the organization. If an organization is not managing its knowledge effectively, it reduces in the loss of power and the loss of competitive advantage for the organization. The Sultan Qaboos University should also implement a knowledge management system for the management of the organization’s information effectively.

Knowledge Management in Research

The knowledge management can be defined as the process of transmitting the correct information to the proper person whenever he needs it. The knowledge management is not a complex activity; however, it is strongly associated with the corporate strategy which defines which knowledge is important, where knowledge exists and establishing the organizational functions. There are several aspects to the knowledge management such as knowledge creation, knowledge sharing and the storage of the information. It can be critiqued that the objective of the knowledge management is not to manage the organization’s knowledge but to generate value and leverage from it (Firestone & McElroy, 2012).

The knowledge management is a crucial part of research activities. In research centers and universities, it is important that the organizations maintain the current or the acquired knowledge to facilitate research in the organization. It is also an essential tool in the innovation process and knowledge creation. The knowledge management has a positive and strong tool to facilitate research in an effective manner. The knowledge management works as a catalyst in the flow of information in the research process. However, the knowledge management is substantially different from the information flow. The knowledge management assists in the information flow; however, it is different from the information as it focuses on the management of information to maximize its potential and use within the organization. In research activities, knowledge flow is associated with the innovation and information sharing.

As stated above, knowledge management is defined as the process which includes identification, dissemination, selection and storage of information with the help of certain tools and techniques. There are six stages in the knowledge management life cycle. These stages are knowledge capturing, knowledge codifying, knowledge storing, knowledge applying and knowledge disseminating.

In this life cycle, the first phase is called knowledge capturing. In this phase, the business organizations identify the potential source of knowledge in the organization. Different methods are used to elicit knowledge from the potential sources such as experts, documents and the past projects. The knowledge managers of the business organizations identify the information source such as the electronic depositories or the printed reports or guides which can work as potential knowledge. This stage is also called knowledge creation stage. In this stage, the knowledge is created with explicit or tacit means. The explicit knowledge is available in electronic format or reports and can be easily stored. The tacit knowledge is not stored anywhere but it is kept in the mind of people.  Capturing tacit knowledge is important because it can be easily lost. It is also important that knowledge is transformed into explicit knowledge so that it can be easily shared with the other employees of the organization.

In the knowledge management lifecycle, the second stage is knowledge coding. In this stage, the captured knowledge is made interpretable and accessible. It also encompasses techniques which can convert the tacit knowledge into explicit or in a usable form. It organizes the knowledge into accessible form so that it can be easily accessible by the authorized personnel.

Knowledge Management Life Cycle

In the knowledge management lifecycle, the third stage is knowledge storing wherein the collected knowledge is stored in data repositories, organization’s database and documents for further use. In business or educational organization, the knowledge is stored in a repository. In this stage, it is determined when and where the knowledge is shared. This stage contributes to the organization and sharing of the knowledge within the organization (Liebowitz, 2001).

The fourth stage of knowledge management life cycle is knowledge application. In the knowledge application, the coded knowledge is used and the outcome is reviewed for the success. In this stage, the acquired knowledge is applied to new situations.

The next stage is knowledge sharing. In this stage, the management of the organization makes strategies to share the knowledge within the organization. The knowledge is shared and so that it can be accessible by different employees of the organization.

The sixth stage in the knowledge management lifecycle is knowledge creation, in which new knowledge is created using the existing knowledge.

The knowledge management tools are an integral part of the knowledge management process. These tools contribute to the effective management of the knowledge. In the present, a large number of tools are available in the market which can be used for the knowledge management (Ruggles, 2009). The primary tools which can be used for the effective knowledge management is document management system and the libraries, social network sites, voice calls and the communication data, building knowledge clusters and advanced searching tools for the knowledge (Maier, 2007).

In the present research, it is proposed that the organization will create knowledge management tool for the University. In this regard, the requirements for the development of the tool can be divided into two groups, namely, software requirements and the hardware requirements. In the research, a few software tools will be required to develop the knowledge management system. The knowledge management tools will be required to establish the system in the University. Other than that, the organization will also need hardware tools for the implementation of the system. The hardware requirements of the system will be directly associated with the bandwidth and the amount of knowledge required to be stored in the repository. The organization also needs a backup server along with the powerful high-end server to support the knowledge management system. Each phase of the knowledge management life cycle requires specific tools and methods which can be used for knowledge creation, knowledge storage and knowledge sharing.

In this phase, the knowledge is created and identified to establish a knowledge repository. This phase will begin with the documentation of the knowledge. In the present system, two systems used for the knowledge management are research management system and the conference management system. The required information can be attained through the personnel of research and the conference department. The previous records of the employees can be taken for further information. The employees who are about to leave the organization should present previous meeting logs and other important information held by them so that the knowledge management system can run smoothly in their absence (Koenig, 2012).

In the knowledge management process, the knowledge gathered from different sources is stored in a depository. The previous stage is the input to the storage phase. In this stage, the captured knowledge, created knowledge and the stored knowledge are disintegrated so that they can be stored in an effective manner. If the knowledge is already stored in the repository, then it is discarded. The medium of storage is also determined according to the knowledge type. The tacit knowledge is stored in an informal manner such as records, presentation or the video format. Contrary to it, the explicit knowledge is stored in codified form with the help of documents (Max Evans, 2014).   

In this stage, the knowledge acquired from different sources is shared and disseminated. There are several methods and tools to share the existing knowledge. The primary tools for sharing the knowledge are storytelling, mentoring and coaching. In storytelling, the professional people tell a story about themselves or about a specific interesting experience. The mentoring is the process in which the learning takes place through senior junior association. The senior employees of the organization assist juniors in learning the technical skills and organization process.  The coaching refers to the process of employee development with the help of coach. The coaches have their attention towards employee development and his needs. In the knowledge management practices, it is imperative that the knowledge is disseminated within the organization. There are several means of knowledge dissemination such as portals, emails support, search engines and blogs.

The knowledge application refers to the process of using the acquired knowledge for the benefits of the organization. In this process, the knowledge acquired from different resources is applied on the work processes of the University. It involves the acquisition of knowledge from people, books and computers. The knowledge can be specific (related to some specific organization problem) or generic. Therefore, the acquisition of the information is difficult. There are several factors which may impact on the actual acquisition of the knowledge. These factors are lack of time, refining the knowledge, dependency on single source, inability to collect tacit knowledge of the organization and communication issues between the experts and the knowledge creator (McDermott, 2002).

The primary aim of the knowledge management practices is establishing easy access to the employees. If the employees will be able to easily access the knowledge they will be able to use it effectively for different purposes. Several times, the workers are unable to use stored knowledge due to lack of understanding. Therefore, it is important that the knowledge is stored in its simplest form (Kucza,  2001).

The knowledge application begins with a search question. The associated person looks for solution and knowledge so that the problem can be solved. In the application of knowledge, three persons are required, producer, intermediary and the re-user. The producer is a person who documents or collects the knowledge. On the other hand, intermediary is a person who makes the knowledge reusable by classifying and decoding it. The end-user or the re-user is the person who may use that knowledge to solve his problems.

In the present case, the University needs to apply an appropriate knowledge management framework to address the knowledge management practices of the organization. In the below section, a knowledge management architecture is presented. The University can design a similar system as the architecture can support a large number of tools.

The proposed system for Sultan Qaboos University should have several characteristics. Firstly, it should be able to empower the staff members of the organization by assisting them in working faster and in an efficient manner. The knowledge management practices should also focus on the development of application in the educational and the research field. The system should focus on addressing the specific needs of the organization and increase the overall productivity of the organization. Other than that, the organization should also focus on developing a system which focuses on the research related activities in the organization. All the knowledge sources inside the University including the tacit knowledge should be investigated and linked to the knowledge management system. The knowledge management system should be easy to navigate, flexible and should gave the ability to be easily configured to the external changes. The system should be reliable and provided consistent and accurate information to the employees. The system should also be capable of accepting information in various forms such as documents, audios, videos and other knowledge formats. There are several types of knowledge management system such as intranet-based system, electronic document management, workflow and groupware. It is important to choose the knowledge management system according to the needs of the organization (leilajannati, 2010).

The system thinking is important in the knowledge management. According to system thinking, each system comprises of subsystems and each subsystem can assist in knowledge management. System learning is not associated to storage and listing of important information but is assures that meaningful information is created to increase the understanding of the people. The enhancement of the knowledge increases the innovation capabilities of the organization and can assist the University in increasing the knowledge. The application of system thinking in knowledge management is related to the accumulation of information related to the events, processes and states associated with the knowledge management of the organization.

After the implementation of the system, the information collected through it is needed to be analyzed. The organization needs to know the existing set of knowledge and the knowledge resources. The flow of knowledge is also an important critical success factor in the research centers and the Universities.

Importance of Knowledge

It is important to obtain tacit knowledge to drive the innovation capabilities of the University. The knowledge management system must be able to acquire knowledge from the research management system, other research related system and conference management system. If the knowledge is acquired from such systems then if one of the developers leaves the organization, knowledge management will not be an issue. A new recruit will also be able to learn and gain experience from the knowledge provided from the senior developer of the organization (Carvalho, 2001).

The future knowledge is required if any changes are required in the system. If there is an issue in the current system then the organization will need to make changes in the current system.

Conclusion

The knowledge management system is important in an organization to maintain the research and innovation capabilities of the organization. In the present research, a knowledge management system has been proposed which can contribute to the research and development capabilities of the organization. A knowledge management system has been proposed in the research which aligns with the knowledge management needs of the organization. In addition, the knowledge management life cycle is used to explain different steps of the knowledge management system. It is recommended that the organization differentiates the valuable knowledge from general knowledge to increase the efficacy of the system. In the present, the organization does not possess any active strategy for knowledge management. There should also be regular meetings and knowledge sharing events to increase the efficiency of the knowledge management system.

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