Reference no: EM133529069

Knowledge Management

This assessment is designed to assess the knowledge of implementation of a knowledge management solution utilizing emerging tools for stages of knowledge management.

Learning outcome 1: Conduct research on emerging tools and techniques for the stages of knowledge creation, acquisition, transfer and management of knowledge and recommend the most appropriate choice based on expert judgement on the practical needs.

Learning outcome 2: Apply and integrate appropriate KM components to develop effective knowledge management solutions.

Learning outcome 3: Independently design a usable knowledge management strategy by application of key elements of a good knowledge management framework and by incorporating industry best practices and state of the art tools such as OpenKM or other emerging technologies.

Answer the following question based on a case study given overleaf

Give your views on implementation and challenges of knowledge management at a company based on five distinct stages of knowledge management:

Stage 1: Advocate and learn

Stage 2: Develop strategy

Stage 3: Design and launch KM initiatives

Stage 4: Expand and support initiatives

Stage 5: Institutionalize knowledge management

Case study:

This discussion outlines the adoption and implementation of knowledge management within the Sigma Bank. In 2010, the Bank recognised that it had a very high exposure to loss of knowledge on departure of key staff. This was mainly due to two factors: recruitment of staff from a limited global pool of specifically skilled labour, and an average length of service of more than nine years during which time staff members accumulated an extensive knowledge of the Bank and its operations. In response to this and other challenges, the Bank embarked on an ongoing knowledge management program. The Bank invested significant resources into the program and from an initial corporate vision developed a knowledge management framework that led to the identification of potential areas of improvement within the organisation. The resulting knowledge strategy encompassed several key initiatives, the most significant of which was the goal of changing the organisational culture. Other initiatives included the consolidation of the Bank's contact management into a single system, a review of the existing document management system, and information mapping. To date, while some initiatives have been achieved, others remain to be done. The challenge for the Bank now is to move from structured to unstructured processes for knowledge management and maintain the knowledge management focus while balancing available resources. The Bank must also consider how best to progress initiatives without necessarily attaching a specific knowledge management label and identify ways to move ongoing development of knowledge management strategies to the next level.

There are still several strategies that have not yet been put into place. Although the review of the document management system is partially completed, the introduction of a potential solution is seen to be one that will potentially meet some resistance. The Bank will approach this with the insight gained from previous initiatives and with the experience of knowing that while the road may at times be difficult, the view from the other side is generally better.

There has certainly been progress made in terms of recording past decisions. This has mainly been achieved by targeting individuals developing an e-mail-centric organisation whereby the majority of discussions and debate are captured in threads within e-mails. This has proved successful to date, but moving forward, there may be less use of e-mail and so the Bank will need to initiate alternative approaches to formalise some of the processes.

There are also a number of legacy systems operating within parts of the organisation, such as Human Resources. The integration of these is being addressed in the single point of access activity. At this point, the project is still largely in the stages of trying to understand exactly what is the boundary and scope of the project.

The Bank is also investigating the idea of "yellow pages," a system of identifying those within the organisation with specific expertise. The context of the system will be somewhat wider than other systems in operation in that the extent of the experience will relate not just to that of the person's job but in terms of their wider experience.

An ongoing challenge for the Bank, like several other organizations', is that of continuing to meet the ongoing business demands with the level of available resources. In that environment, keeping knowledge management in the forefront is a challenge and needs to be achieved through practical initiatives that can demonstrably provide tangible and/or strategic benefits. This requires commitment from within the organisation as well as ongoing communication. In the Bank's case, it looked on knowledge management as a sunk investment and focused on getting acceptance to the framework. Once this was completed, it provided a reference point for the specific initiatives that could be looked at in terms of how well they delivered against the framework.Culturally, the Bank is at an interesting crossroads. The organisation is becoming wary of what might be termed as "consulting labels." As the organisation's awareness of knowledge management concepts has increased, the term "knowledge management" has become a less favoured label. As a result, one of the challenges for the Bank is to progress the knowledge management initiatives but package them differently.There is also a need to move the Bank's ongoing development of knowledge management strategies to the next level. To date, a best-practice-based approach has provided a good framework for the Bank. However, one school of thought for ongoing evolution is to explore the more unstructured process for developing knowledge management strategies. Embracing complex adaptive systems theory, this approach can be used to create a sense-making model that utilises self-organising capabilities to identify a natural flow model of knowledge creation, disruption, and utilisation.