Szkoła Główna Gospodarstwa Wiejskiego
Summary
Academics and business professionals are currently showing a significant interest in understanding the management of knowledge and the roles to be played by information and communication technology This paper explores the concept of knowledge management. The paper provides data related to one of the key researched topics in knowledge management. The research was done in 511 small and medium enterprises in Poland. Questionnaires were administered to managers. According to presented research the small and medium enterprises don’t put enough attention to knowledge management.
Keywords: knowledge management, SME, Poland 1. Introduction
The role of knowledge as the key source for competitive advantage in enterprises has become very important. The idea that knowledge can be managed is fundamental to the related notions of the knowledge-based business, the learning enterprise and the management of intellectual capital. The recent interest in these overlapping concepts reflects important phenomena which enterprises have to deal with, such as perceptions of increased competition, rates of change and market turbulence. Enterprises are hence looking for new ways to remain in business or compete effectively. One crucial way to achieving effectiveness is to recognize or rediscover assets the enterprise already has but is not utilizing to their full potential.
The article is concerned with knowledge management processes that will ensure sustainable competitive advantage in an enterprise. It investigates what is the level of knowledge management in small enterprises and how managers within the enterprise perceive it.
2. Definitions of knowledge and knowledge management
A useful way of arriving at a definition of what knowledge is can be achieved by differentiating it from what it is not. One of the most common distinction in the contemporary knowledge literature is between knowledge, information, and data. Data is a set of discrete, objective facts about events. Information is a message, usually in the form of a document or an audible or visible communication. As with any message, it has a sender and a receiver. Information is meant to change the way the receiver perceives something; to have impact on his judgement and behaviour. Knowledge is broader, deeper, and richer than data or information. Knowledge can be understood to emerge from the application, analysis, and productive use of data and/or information. In other words, “knowledge can be seen as data or information with further layer of intellectual analysis added, where it is interpreted, meaning is attached, and is structured and linked with existing systems of beliefs and bodies of knowledge[8]”.
In organizations, knowledge often becomes embedded not only in documents or repositories but also in organizational routines, processes, practices, and norms. Knowledge is a mixture of various elements; is fluid as well as formally structured; is intuitive and therefore hard to capture in words or understand completely in logical terms. Knowledge exists within people, part and parcel of human complexity and unpredictability[10].
Organizations possess two kinds of knowledge: external and internal. External knowledge reflects awareness of regulations, competition and market trends, as well as the ability to anticipate a market. Internal knowledge includes an understanding of core competencies, know-how, strengths, weaknesses and lessons learned from past experiences[5].
M. Alavi and D. Leidner[1] note that knowledge may be viewed from five different perspective:
- state of mind perspective, emphasizing knowing and understanding through experience and study;
- object perspective, defining knowledge as a thing to be stored and manipulated; - process perspective, focusing on knowing and acting;
- condition perspective, emphasizing access to knowledge;
- capability perspective, viewing knowledge as a capability with the potential for influencing future action.
These different views of knowledge lead to different perspective of knowledge management: - IT perspective, focusing on the use of various technologies to acquire or store knowledge
resources[4]. As knowledge is viewed as an object, knowledge management should focus on ensuring that explicit knowledge, available in the form of knowledge items, is widely accessible across an organization.
- Socialization perspective, focusing on understanding the organizational nature of knowledge management[6,3]. Knowledge management should focus on supporting the processes of sharing, creating, and disseminating knowledge.
- Information system perspective, focusing on both IT and organizational capability and emphasizing the use of knowledge management systems[12,14]. The right knowledge management strategy should be put in place to develop and nurture core organizational competencies, and create intellectual capital.
There are many definitions of knowledge management, for example K. E. Sveiby defines it as[13]: “The art of creating value from an organization’s intangible assets.” For KPMG knowledge management is “A systematic and organized attempt to use knowledge within an organization to transform its ability to store and use knowledge to improve performance”[9].
According to E.M. Awad and H.M. Ghaziri[2] knowledge management is a newly emerging, interdisciplinary business model that has knowledge within the framework of an organization as its focus. It is rooted in many disciplines, including business, economics, psychology, and information management. It is ultimate competitive advantage for today’s firm. Knowledge management involves people, technology, and processes in overlapping parts.
3. Knowledge management strategy
If knowledge management is to thrive, organizations must create a set of roles and skills to do the work of capturing, distributing, and using knowledge. Organizations often use one of two strategies of knowledge management: codification strategy or personalization strategy.
Codification strategy relies on gathering information and knowledge in computer systems where employees can use it. Personalization strategy depends on contacts between people and direct transfer of knowledge. Computer systems are treated as a tool enabling such contact. The comparison between these two strategies is presented in the table below.
Table 1. Comparison of codification and personalization strategy Codification strategy
Giving high quality consulting services relies on codified knowledge
Strategy Type
⇔
Personalization strategy
Solving customers’ strategic problems thanks to experts’ knowledge Repeated use
Repeated use of once worked out solutions. Use of large consultant group. Concentration on high incomes.
Economical model ⇔
Experts knowledge
Unique solution adjusted to specific activities of customers. Use of small group of consultants. Concentration on maintaining high margins.
People - documents Developing electronic knowledge management tools which enable gathering, codification and transfer of formal knowledge in the forms of documents, reports.
Kind of strategy for knowledge management
⇔
People - people
Creating network which connects people and enables knowledge sharing.
Big investment Information
technology ⇔
Moderate investment
Employment of highly educated people with master’s degree.
Intensive group training
Human resources ⇔
Employment of highly educated people with MBA title. Intensive mentoring training Source: Hansen M., Nohria N., Tierney T., What’s Your Strategy for Managing Knowledge?, Harvard Business Review, March – April, 1999.
In the codification strategy the firms do big investments in information technology, which enable them to gather, codify and transfer the formal knowledge into documents and reports. In the personalization strategy the firms have moderate investment in information technology, they are more interested in sharing knowledge between people.
The research shows that the best results have organizations which concentrate on one of these strategies (codification or personalization) and treat the second as supplementary.
4. The process of knowledge management
Knowledge assets are the knowledge regarding markets, products, technologies and organizations, that business owns or needs to own and which enable its business processes to add value and generate profits. Knowledge management is not only about managing these knowledge assets but managing the processes that act upon the assets. These processes include: localization, acquisition and development, transfer, codification, and usage. These processes are often concurrent and not always in linear sequence.
Knowledge localization includes all activities which indicate, where knowledge exist. Knowledge acquisition and development includes the knowledge acquired by an organization as well as that developed within it. Knowledge transfer is transmission of knowledge (experience, lessons learned, know-how) and use of transmitted knowledge. Knowledge codification is the capture of knowledge so that it can be re-used either by an individual or by an organization. The aim of codification is to put organizational knowledge into a form that makes it accessible to those who need it. If knowledge management is to thrive, organizations must create a set of roles and skills to do the work of using knowledge .
Organizations need to establish teaching and dissemination standards for their business to enable them to manage their knowledge assets better. They are required to meet the following conditions:
- promote the importance of knowledge management and the awareness of how knowledge management is to be achieved within, and across, operational divisions,
- create an awareness of a framework to achieve knowledge management,
- develop a skill base of personnel to enable them to facilitate the development, use and sharing of the organization’s knowledge assets.
5. Knowledge management in small enterprises in Silesian Province in Poland
In the questionnaire which was done in 368 small enterprises operating in markets of the Silesia province, the attitude to knowledge management was researched[11]. An analysis were performed on the 15 items for the each element of the knowledge management process. Each item was based on a five-point scale, from “very low” to “very high”.
After summing the point in every process the enterprises were divided in four groups (A, B, C, D). To group A were numbered enterprises which have from 61 to 75 points, to group B from 46 to 60 points, to group C from 31 to 45 points, and to group D from 15 to 30 points (table 2).
The place in group A means that the process of knowledge management is in very good level. The strategy used in these organization in proper way support a knowledge management. The place in group B means that knowledge management process is good, but there are some week points which should be improved. The place in group C means that there are some aspects of knowledge management process but it is not enough, so the changes should be made. The last group D show that there is no activities supporting knowledge management.
Table 2. Division of enterprises
Knowledge management processes A 61-75 B 46-60 C 31-45 D 15-30 Localization of knowledge 10,87% 65,22% 23,64% 0,27% Acquisition and development of knowledge 11,41% 41,85% 38,86% 7,88% Transfer of knowledge 10,60% 60,33% 27,72% 1,36% Codification of knowledge 12,77% 44,84% 32,61% 9,78%
Usage of knowledge 39,13% 44,57% 13,59% 2,72% Source: Author’s research
6. Summarizing
According to the research the small enterprises should changed a lot in knowledge management processes. For example the place in class A almost in all process (apart from usage of knowledge process) got about 10-12% investigated enterprises. In group B there is a better situation, but this means that this enterprises has week points, which should be changed. A lot of enterprises are in the group C or D, which showed that they should changed a lot.
In an idea knowledge management oriented organization there would an established organizational memory which would store knowledge assets. There would be browsers, information processing agents and knowledge processing agents to support the use of the organization memory. There would be automated, flexible workflow support to assist the knowledge worker. All this would appear seamless to the knowledge workers, i.e. it would be part of their everyday work to ensure the knowledge was shared and updated. It is important that knowledge-based organization progress their knowledge management initiatives. This means: ensuring the organization start to explicitly identify their knowledge assets and knowledge management related processes, ensuring that the organization starts to control and manage theses assets and processes, ensuring that professionals in the organization are aware of the importance of the organization’s knowledge assets and are aware of existing knowledge management related processes.
Bibliography
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Joanna Olga Paliszkiewicz joanna_paliszkiewicz@sggw.pl
Katedra Ekonomiki i Organizacji Gospodarstw Rolniczych, Wydział Ekonomiczno – Rolniczy Szkoła Główna Gospodarstwa Wiejskiego
