Identifying skills gaps and improving decision making
Knowledge management in simple words can be defined as the collection, sorting, gathering, utilizing, and sharing of collective knowledge within the organization to achieve organizational goals and maintain harmony.
The importance and role of knowledge management grew immensely in present-day organizations. One of the most important roles that they play is the identification of skills gaps, the knowledge documents of every employee when analyzed show the gaps in their skills. In modern times, every industry is cutthroat and the winners will be the ones with better decision-making. With appropriate knowledge assistance on market factors or employees in general the organization can take better decisions which will allow them to be successful. Knowledge management maintains privacy and provides safety to the information by improving the data security for the company. It also helps in improving communication which in modern times is more important than anything else. Over time this improves culture as this allows people to know each other more which develops trust and leads to another importance of knowledge management that is increasing the efficiency in work and effective performance as a team.
The Choo sense-making model focuses on making the knowledge and assistance in decision making. This model studies how the specific knowledge is selected and provided to the organization for their performance. The model has three areas that are interconnected that is sense-making, knowledge creation, and decision making (Mohajan, 2017). As per the model the decision-making is done based on searching for various alternatives or satisfactory options rather than looking for an optimal solution. Weick’s sense-making model believes that individuals’ performance can be improved with knowledge management of well-structured organizations. The model takes a social psychology perspective to function and connect other management and organizational theories. The model states this process of knowledge-making focuses on the confusion, and ambiguity in an organization and utilizes information or knowledge to make sense of why it is happening so that the challenge can be solved (Omotayo, 2015). As Weick states that sense-making is not possible in human consciousness but happens due to intuition. The basic difference between these models and the Boisot model is the perspective each has. Boisot believes in differentiating data and information and extracting good information however the other two models focus mainly on making sense of the information’s purposes and where it can be used and how effective it can be (Strunga, 2015). That model believes that data cannot be used unless it is sorted and structured. If the information can be structured then it becomes good information that can be diffusible for the company goals which will be absorbed by the organization. This model believes that a dynamic KM model is always required to be present in the organization as it must constantly improve. They treat the good information as an asset however the other models treat knowledge or information as a utility towards the understanding situation and not direct support or usage to the organization.
Organizational culture has a deep impact on management and its way of working. It is not only the behavior that is impacted however the perspective of the employees and other factors are impacted as well. In this scenario the primary role that organizational culture is that it creates the assumptions or perspective that people may have towards the requirement or purpose of knowledge management and whether it is something that even requires managing. Culture will determine how effectively the knowledge will be used. Culture of an organization impact two parts in terms of knowledge management one is the readiness to collaborate and trust between employees (Martins et al., 2019). At the same time, knowledge management can help employees in becoming synchronized with the culture of the company. When new employee joins the workforce they are given clear concise details on the values of the organization and the culture they maintain. Culture also makes sure that knowledge management becomes a strong structure and becomes a continuous process as employees will continue to dedicate themselves to gathering information and cleaning the data to make it usable perfect knowledge that can be useful for the organization.
Privacy, data security, and communication benefits
Various tools and techniques can be used to share knowledge amongst the various members of the organization. The first technical method is to use digital tools such as the various dropbox software, transfer or Google drive, and many more where key knowledge can be stored in the form of text files or multimedia and this can be accessed by the organization’s employees to share knowledge the usage of the state of the art knowledge sharing tools are always effective and no information is lost (Girard & Girard, 2015). Even something as simple as face-to-face meetings where the leadership may explain the mission and vision of the organization and other factors is an effective technique of imparting knowledge. Establishing knowledge-sharing habits is another technique that creates a habit that makes the entire process automatic for the employee (Chang & Lin, 2015). A better onboarding process and enhancing the training practices. Knowledge management’s purpose can be fulfilled only if the new employees can become a part of the culture and can contribute and collaborate to the cause. A mentor can be assigned to groups of new hires which will empower them or give them the confidence to speak up and interact more (Baslom & Tong, 2019). Tactical tools that can be effective other than mentoring are shadowing and storytelling. The overall idea is to increase communication and increase the frequency of knowledge sharing not will that make knowledge sharing better but also it will develop the communication skills of the employees within the organization.
The business structure of the company or the industry in general and the culture of the nation ultimately influence the way a company will handle knowledge management or give the magnitude of importance. The nation involved in the scenario in Saudi Arabia has a different culture that will have an impact on the methods. Saudi Arabia’s culture believes in a strong following of the hierarchy as they have a high power distance rating hence communication or in this case sharing of knowledge management may not be free-flowing (Bolisani & Bratianu, 2018). The requirements can be to have better technological infrastructure and to have or implement a culture where the hierarchy can be more flexible and open to all levels of employees. They also do not prefer uncertainty at work or in life so they may not be open to the knowledge sharing matter as they will tend to not be spontaneous and not share much. Changing certain aspects of the culture can be done to make knowledge management more effective the first thing being communication to follow structure but also to reduce rigidity so that knowledge is shared amongst all. The second thing that can be done is to use better technological tools and inter-organization interfaces that will make knowledge sharing smoother and more efficient (Intezari, Taskin & Pauleen, 2017). The main problem faced by the Saudi Arabia organization is that a huge part of their workforce is located in different nations as in they work remotely, especially in the IT industry and Analytics industry in general. The distance itself becomes a barrier in communication which later creates a challenge in knowledge sharing. Due to the pandemic or in some cases the nature of the contract may prevent employees from being physically present in the office. This cannot be resolved by making the employees come to Saudi Arabia as that they may be a breach of contract and most employees may not want to travel hence may leave the job so enough video meetings and sometimes informal meetings that can be organized to catch up with the everyone in the organization and this could lighten up the atmosphere and make knowledge sharing possible.
Reference
Baslom, M. M. M., & Tong, S. (2019). Knowledge management (KM) practices in education and learning: Establishing a knowledge economy in Saudi Arabia. Humanities and Social Sciences Letters, 7(1), 1-9.
Mohajan, H. (2017). The impact of knowledge management models on the development of organizations.
Bolisani, E., & Bratianu, C. (2018). The emergence of knowledge management. In Emergent knowledge strategies (pp. 23-47). Springer, Cham.
Chang, C. L. H., & Lin, T. C. (2015). The role of organizational culture in the knowledge management process. Journal of Knowledge management.
Girard, J., & Girard, J. (2015). Defining knowledge management: Toward an applied compendium. Online Journal of Applied Knowledge Management, 3(1), 1-20.
Intezari, A., Taskin, N., & Pauleen, D. J. (2017). Looking beyond knowledge sharing: an integrative approach to knowledge management culture. Journal of Knowledge Management.
Martins, V. W. B., Rampasso, I. S., Anholon, R., Quelhas, O. L. G., & Leal Filho, W. (2019). Knowledge management in the context of sustainability: Literature review and opportunities for future research. Journal of cleaner production, 229, 489-500.
Omotayo, F. O. (2015). Knowledge Management as an important tool in Organisational Management: A Review of Literature. Library Philosophy and Practice, 1(2015), 1-23.
Razmerita, L., Phillips-Wren, G., & Jain, L. C. (2016). Advances in knowledge management: an overview. Innovations in knowledge management, 3-18.
Strunga, A. (2015). The integration of virtual learning communities into universities’ knowledge management models. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 197, 2430-2434.
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