Title Head: KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
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Introduction
Many organizations have started to facilitate knowledge sharing (KS) aimed at sustaining the pressure of having to remaining competition in the modern business environment. Knowledge management has become common practice and as such any company that wishes to have a competitive edge over others much adopt this desirable management practice. It is true that in the future managers will need to possess knowledge management skills so as to be considered for their position. Technological knowledge is the most desirable skill for any workforce and employers must be taken through knowledge management courses in order to be able to manage the skills that they possess in a better way. It is through this that organizations will survive the current global changes in which knowledge has become the most valuable asset in the business sector. Many authors in business have given their contribution on the way firms can remain competitive in the current business wars and yet have sustainable competitive advantage but very few have given the issue of knowledge a lot of attention. In a bid to understand the impact of knowledge management to firm management, six journal articles have been chosen for their relevance on the subject and their study and analysis will shed more light on the subject and help any aspiring manager steer their future organizations to sustainable competitive advantage while enjoying satisfactory performance.
Below is a list of six articles which are very useful to the study on knowledge management and how it relates to the performance of an organization. They are in an annotated bibliography form.
Apple-Meulenbroek, R, ( ). Knowledge sharing through co-presence: added value of Eindhoven. The Netherlands.
Available at: www. Emeraldinsight.com/0263-2772.htm
This journal is useful as it helps in understanding the subject of knowledge management by finding suitable measures for use by facility managers in proving the importance of emphasizing building of employee behavior and its importance in organizational performance. The book sheds more light on the subject as it gives a study on knowledge sharing between various people and tries to show that it actually influences innovation. The journal helps in understanding why innovation is the most preferred characteristic in modern management. In the methodologies and approach it is very explicit on how to share information in order to get the desired innovation in order for the business to have a competitive advantage in the modern market. Methods of analyzing data are explored and the journal offers statistics as an example to demonstrate hot this can be done. It is a journal that can greatly help in managing knowledge as well as sharing it and it is very useful to the subject as it bears accurate information. The journal also offers vital reverences for further reading to facilitate a better understanding of the subject through further reading on the subject.
Boumarafi, B. Knowledge Management Approach to Performance: a United Arab Emirates Experience.
The book deals with the issue of knowledge management and how it is becoming the preferred subject of study in many academic institutions. The book explores the importance of the subject in empowering organizations in the UAE; hence the importance of the book as it gives invaluable information on Knowledge Management in a practical way by giving empirical evidence, which is very rare to get. It investigates the effect of organizational infrastructure, organizational culture, management support, technical infrastructure, reward as well as vision clarity concerning organizational performance touching on efficiency, decision-making, customer satisfaction, financial benefits and quality of work. Using this book will help get first hand information about the situation on the field as it contains data collected from general managers, IT managers, functional managers as well as chief knowledge officers from private and public sector business companies. The data is very accurate and reliable as it is analyzed using valid statistics, whereby results indicate that the implementation of knowledge management dimensions in UAE follow this study. The knowledge management dimensions are identified as responsible for performance with the exception of reward. It notes that emphasis is shifting from industries that were material-based to those that deal with know-how and skills. It is identified that know-how industries are capable of sustaining competititve advantage which is also long-term. The book helps in identifying that brainpower or the employee’s’ intellectual capital is very essential for businesses. It helps explore the aspect of globalization and the way it dictates the use of this technique especially during this era of extreme business competition.
Cricelli, L & Grimaldi, M, ( ). Knowledge-based inter-organizational collaborations.
This book has been identified for its relevance to the topic as it tackles the complex processes of management and production with reference to the ways organizations are evolving as it notes that competition has forced many companies to focus their attention to some internal as well as external resources that help them remain in competition. It identifies that companies have started retrieving resources in order to improve performance. Companies have started to adopt ways of remaining competitive such as external relation system, partnerships, partnerships and collaborations that are inter-organizational. The book evaluates the impact knowledge has on relationships in the aspect of inter-organizational collaborations. It helps in making suggestions on the conditions that are needed in order to improve knowledge management especially in various inter-organizational collaborations that are knowledge based. It also helps in suggesting approaches that can be used in achieving this objective. By using design or methodology approach, critical factors concerning success of networked organizations are defined. By using the findings, network managers apply theoretical network in adopting the knowledge management strategy as well as process that is most favorable. In terns of originality or value, the book helps in iden6tifying a theoretical network that can be used in arranging inter-organizational collaborations by putting them into a schema of innovative classification basing them on their cognitive, structural and strategic aspects.
Donate, M. j and Guadamillas, F, (2010) The Effect of Organizational Culture on Knowledge Management and Practices and Innovation: Research Article.
Available at: www.interscience.wiley.com
The paper is very useful to the topic as it makes an analysis of the differences between some knowledge management (KM) practices and organizational culture. It is very practical in the results that are given as they are technological. It shows the relationship between technical knowledge and performance in several organizations and is perfect guide for managers as it can guide them improve on the company’s performance in this age of serious competition. Knowledge management is given priority and results of sample organizations show that this management practice is the most effective in ensuring that organizations are competitive in the global market. Organizations that have not been quick enough to embrace the change into this practice tend to fare much worse in the global market and can not have a competitive edge over their rivals who have knowledge management practices. The article is very useful in understanding the implementation of this practice which is the main subject of study.
Marques, D. P & Simon, J. G. The effect of knowledge management practices on firm performance: Journal of knowledge management.
This journal has been chosen fro its important information concerning how knowledge management practices are linked to an organization’s performance. It contains very useful information which has been obtained by conducting empirical studies into the relation between knowledge management and the performance of the concerned firms. The results are very useful and accurate as the study was carried out on 222 companies and as such they are very reliable. The journal is crucial to the subject as the statistics obtained indicated that organizations which obtain better performance are the ones that have adopted the practice of knowledge management. It acts as a study guide for aspiring managers concerning having a competitive edge over rivals in business by adopting the desired knowledge management practices. The authors demonstrate that through knowledge management the performance of the organizations improve by a big percentage. This can be used in improving the performance of organizations which have largely remained stagnant or are on the bridge of collapse.
Moorthy, S & Polley, D. E, (). Technical knowledge breadth and depth: performance impacts.
In this article, the two authors help the reader to understand the importance and impact of knowledge sharing by exploring the ways in which performance of organizations is affected by the breadth as well as technological advancements of the knowledge their workers possess. The journal achieves this by doing an empirical investigation through sampling manufacturing firms so as to obtain accurate and reliable information. Patent data of the firm is used in measuring the independent variables. The journal has three hypotheses which are developed and tested nthrough the use of reliable multivariate regressions. It can be very useful in determining the importance of reliability and alternative industry in improving and controlling performance within modern organizations. The effects of technical knowledge are analyzed as a form of performance measures. The journal sums it up with a conclusion that technically knowledge matters more than the stock that a particular company may have. It further sheds more light on the topic as it states that it is through technical knowledge that managers are able to reinforce. In their planning models, corporate managers are required to evaluate the company’s breadth and depth in technological knowledge. It identifies that developing technological are the impotence.
Conclusion
Given the rate at which management practices are changing, it will be extremely difficult to achieve any meaningful performance in the absence of knowledge management. Managers need to be armed with knowledge management skirls in order to steer their companies to greater success. Research into management practices in several companies have clearly shown that it is only through knowledge management that companies can achieve sustainable competitive advantage over their rivals in a business atmosphere where the company with the best management practices performs better than its competitors. Many managers have been hesitant to adopt this new method of managing the workforce and instilling the most desired skill for the modern-day business but in the near future no serious company that wishes to remain in business will be able to do without knowledge management.