Principles of Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurs need to follow some basic principles which would serve as guidelines and beacons for their success. Based on the research conducted over a period of three years and by interviewing more than 150 entrepreneurs, noted author and management expert, Bill Murphy came out with a book about entrepreneurship which was published by Harvard Business […]
Why Software Employees Face Significant Occupational Hazards and Addressing Them
Why Occupational Hazards are Not Limited to Manufacturing Firm Employees Alone Historically, manufacturing firms and those firms engaged in construction and jobs involving operation of heavy machinery and the like were thought to have significant Occupational Hazards or the dangers to employees on the job. Occupational Hazards, as the name implies, are the risks to […]
Approaches to Job Design
Job design is the next step after job analysis that aims at outlining, and organizing tasks and responsibilities associated with a certain job. It integrates job responsibilities and qualifications or skills that are required to perform the same. There are various methods or approaches to do this. The important ones are discussed below Human Approach […]
The Managerial Challenge: Using Early Warning Systems to Spot Signs of Trouble
The Managerial Skill of Spotting Trouble Early All managers, whether they are in sales and marketing, operations, finance, or human resources, or for that matter project manager, have to have a set of skills and attributes that would stand them in good stead. Apart from the technical skills and the soft skills such as communication […]
Informational Training Methods
Informational training methods are basically used to teach facts and figures and for developing a change in attitude. There is a one way communication between the trainer and the trainee that involves the transfer of information without many deliberations. New policies, programs, code of conduct are transferred using informational training methods. Lectures, audio visuals, self […]
The previous articles in this module introduced the term knowledge management and presented some real world examples of how knowledge management works in contemporary organizations. This article examines the ways and means to build a successful knowledge management system and the process by which essential components of the knowledge management systems can be designed and incorporated.
To take the example of the famous Indian IT major, Infosys, the company and its founders have an abiding commitment to knowledge management as is exemplified in their assertion that their key assets are their people and that their brand derives its value from intellectual capital.
Towards this end, Infosys has a highly successful knowledge management system in place that is vertical as well as horizontal in design and approach. It is vertical because it covers all the components of the traditional hierarchy driven organizations and it is horizontal because it incorporates the entire gamut of divisions and groups in its ambit.
The key aspect about the knowledge management system is that it does away with hierarchical boundaries meaning that all employees are treated equal in the creation, sharing, and dissemination of knowledge.
In other words, any employee at any level can contribute and any employee at any level can participate in discussions and knowledge sharing with those higher or lower in the hierarchy.
The second aspect of a successful knowledge management system is that it must make the preservation and furnishing of project artifacts mandatory which means that project managers have a responsibility to upload the project documents into the knowledge management system upon completion of the projects. In this way, discipline and a structured system of knowledge dissemination as well as a rigorous method of sharing and distributing of knowledge is assured.
The third aspect of a successful knowledge management system is that the employees who give more than they take must be rewarded for their contributions to the knowledge management system and the rewards system in place in the organization must have incentives for employees whose contributions are valuable.
Further, a successful knowledge management system would also enforce strict quality control wherein the documents submitted to the portal are checked for accuracy and reliability and only those that are found to match the quality standards are accepted.
Moreover, the key aspect here is that there must be both voluntary and mandatory participation wherein employees are required to contribute a certain amount of time compulsorily and above that, it must be made voluntary.
The real purpose of a successful knowledge management system is to avoid redundancy and to prevent duplication of effort. After all, who wants to reinvent the wheel and spend time doing things that has already been done by others in the organization.
Hence, a successful knowledge management system would not only help the employees avoid redoing work but also introduce synergies because of complementary activities that can be taken from the system and supplemented with work that is specific to the project.
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Content Aggregators vs. Subscription Services in the Field of Knowledge Management
February 12, 2025
Benefits and Advantages of Self Learning for Students, Professionals, and Everyone
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