Knowledge Capturing Process in TPG Telecom
Question:
Prepare a report analysing current knowledge management systems in their organisation or one of their choosing.
In the business organizations, Knowledge Management (KM) is considered as a major system for the enhancement of knowledge within the organization. KM refers to the process of the systematic management of the organizational knowledge assets in order to create value and to meet various tactical and strategic requirements of the businesses (Hislop, 2013). KM process of the companies includes some specific steps like initiatives, processes, strategies and systems for sustaining and enhancing the storage, sharing, creation and refinement of organizational knowledge. It can be observed that KM is an important tool for achieving the organizational goals and objectives (Holsapple, 2013). Thus, it is essential for organizational managers to carry on the KM process in the most effective way. The main aim of this report is to make an analysis of various aspects of the KM process of a particular business organization. For the purpose of this report, TPG Telecom Limited is selected.
The process of capturing knowledge is considered as one of the major processes in the system of KM. With the help of various knowledge capturing processes, organizational managers are able to convert tacit knowledge in explicit knowledge. It implies that the process of knowledge capturing make the resident knowledge in the mind of the employees available for the business enterprise. It indicates the importance of knowledge capturing process. In case of TPG Telecom, it can be observed that the company uses some specific techniques in order to capture knowledge in their business organizations. The company uses two sub-processes in order to capture organizational knowledge. The first process if called Externalization process and this process helps to capture the knowledge of the employees of TPG so that it can be documented (Mahroeian & Forozia, 2012). Under this process, the employees of the company are encouraged to express their ideas to images of words, concepts, fugitive languages and visuals so that they can be recorded by the company. In addition, the company uses the process of deductive as well as inductive reasoning in order to capture organizational knowledge. The second process used by the company is Internalization process that helps the employees in acquiring tacit knowledge. This can be considered as traditional method for nature capturing (Wang & Wang, 2012). Apart from these two methods, the company uses the process of Storytelling as a mechanism for capturing knowledge. In this context, it needs to be mentioned that the process of storytelling is becoming more popular among the companies for capturing knowledge.
The above discussion shows the knowledge capturing process in TPG Telecom. However, it needs to be mentioned that the company has to face some major challenges while capturing organizational knowledge. Rather, it can be said that there are some major infrastructure gaps in the organization that create obstacle in the knowledge capturing process. It is required for the business organizations to have a separate team or separate personnel responsible for capturing knowledge in the companies (Liebowitz & Frank, 2016). However, the absence of this particular aspect can be seen in case of TPG Telecom. The company has assigned the responsibility of capturing knowledge to some of the higher level personnel of the organizations, but they have a negligent attitude towards the process to capture knowledge. It is required for the business organizations to arrange different types of sessions so that the employees can express their views, concepts and ideas. However, in case of TPG Telecom, these sessions are organized very often. Thus, this aspect can be recognized as a major gap for the company in the process of knowledge capture. Apart from this, it is also required for the employees of the companies to participate in the process of knowledge capturing for their own as well as the organizational good. However, it can be spotted that the employees of TPG Telecom are less enthusiastic to participate in the knowledge capturing process (Fuller, 2012). This is another major gap for TPG Telecom in the process of knowledge capturing. On an overall basis, it can be said that there is an infrastructural gap in the company regarding knowledge capture.
Challenges in Knowledge Capturing Process
In the process of KM, the Knowledge Management Systems play an integral part. Knowledge management system refer to any kind of IT system used by the business organizations for the proposes of strong and retrieving knowledge, improvements of collaboration, for locating the sources of knowledge, repositories for mines for hidden knowledge and many others. In case of TPG Telecom, it can be noticed that the company use the process of Data Warehousing and Data Mining as they KM systems. The process of data warehousing states that the quality of the decision of the management largely depends on the quality of the provided information. Under the process of data warehousing, TPG Telecom uses a centralized system for storing the organizational data. The main motive of string data is to use them for various organizational purposes. Data warehousing contains data and information for the performance measurement of the company (Kimball & Ross, 2013). Another major KM system used by the company is data mining. The main motive for the implementation of data mining is to provide the management with their required data. It implies that the tool of data mining is used to search stored data fort specific patterns so that the management of the company get new insight of various organizational issues. Moreover, data mining system provides great assistance to the data-driven decision support system (DSS) of the organization (Witten et al., 2016). Thus, the above discussion shows that TPG Telecom uses data warehousing and data mining as their KM systems.
At the time of managing the knowledge management systems, TPG Telecom has to face some of the major KM related challenges. Some of these challenges are discussed below:
- At the time of KM, it is essential for the company to provide proper security as it is needed for the sensitive and confidential information to be shielded. This is a major challenge for the management of TPG Telecom to provide security to the important information of the company.
- Another major challenge for the company regarding KM is to motivate people to overcome cultural changes so that the culture of learning, sharing, changing and improving can be implemented in the workplace. For better KM system, the organization should be ready to accept changes for good (Wiig, 2012).
- KM system allows the organizational people to emerge as a voice of power by expressing their knowledge and ideas. Due to this, the emergence of many leaders can be seen in the organization that can lead to conflicts in leadership. Overcoming these conflict issues is a major challenge for the management of the company.
- Keeping the information relevant is another major challenge for the management of TPG Telecom. The acquired data from data warehouse must be able to answer the asked questions of the management (Durst & Edvardsson, 2012). These are the major challenges of KM systems in the company.
The above discussion shows that TPG Telecom has adopted an effective KM model for their business. It also needs to be mentioned that there are certain loopholes in the KM model of the company. Thus, for improving the existing KM system in TPG Telecom, it is recommended to the company to adopt the KM model of Gamble and Blackwell.
Figure 1: KM Matrix by Gamble and Blackwell (2001)
(Source: Supyuenyong & Swierczek, 2013)
The above figure shows that there are four stages in this particular model. In the first stage, the job of the management is to locate the sources of knowledge within the business organization as locating the knowledge sources is an important aspect of this model. In the second stage, the responsibility of the management is to organize the acquired knowledge for the assessment of organizational strengths and weaknesses so that their relevance and reusability can be judged (Supyuenyong & Swierczek, 2013). The next step is socialization that helps the management of the companies in using different techniques for sharing knowledge within the organization to whoever needs them. The last stage is internalization. In this step, the management of the companies internalized the knowledge (Zin 2013). It can be seen that this model has four simple stages that help in effective knowledge management. In addition, the management of the companies has to face fewer challenges in this model. For all these reasons, it is advised to TPG Telecom to implement this model.
Conclusion
The above discussion shows that KM plays an important part in TPG Telecom for managing knowledge. As per the above discussion, the company uses two processes for capturing knowledge; they are Externalization and Internalization. However, some major infrastructure related issues are there in the knowledge capturing process of TPG. As a part of KM system, the company uses the systems of Data Warehousing and Data Mining. Some of the major challenges in this are data security, data relevancy and many others. For all these reason, the company is recommended with the KM Model of Gamble and Blackwell that has four stages like location of knowledge sources, organization, socializes and internalize.
References
binti Zin, A. Z. (2013). Requirement for knowledge sharing behavior: A review of empirical findings. Journal of asian scientific research, 3(6), 517.
Durst, S., & Runar Edvardsson, I. (2012). Knowledge management in SMEs: a literature review. Journal of Knowledge Management, 16(6), 879-903.
Fuller, S. (2012). Knowledge management foundations. Routledge.
Hislop, D. (2013). Knowledge management in organizations: A critical introduction. Oxford University Press.
Holsapple, C. (Ed.). (2013). Handbook on knowledge management 1: Knowledge matters (Vol. 1). Springer Science & Business Media.
Kimball, R., & Ross, M. (2013). The data warehouse toolkit: The definitive guide to dimensional modeling. John Wiley & Sons.
Liebowitz, J., & Frank, M. (Eds.). (2016). Knowledge management and e-learning. CRC press.
Mahroeian, H., & Forozia, A. (2012). Challenges in managing tacit knowledge: a study on difficulties in diffusion of tacit knowledge in organizations. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3(19).
Supyuenyong, V., & Swierczek, F. W. (2013). Knowledge management process and organizational performance in SMEs. In Dynamic Models for Knowledge-Driven Organizations (pp. 77-98). IGI Global.
Wang, Z., & Wang, N. (2012). Knowledge sharing, innovation and firm performance. Expert systems with applications, 39(10), 8899-8908.
Wiig, K. (2012). People-focused knowledge management. Routledge.
Witten, I. H., Frank, E., Hall, M. A., & Pal, C. J. (2016). Data Mining: Practical machine learning tools and techniques. Morgan Kaufmann
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