Knowledge management is a powerful tool for the world of work, since it enables the experience of employees in an organization to be captured in such a way that it serves to solve problems and make sound decisions.
knowledge-management-paul-itaiIts importance is such that the leakage of critical information should be avoided. Many times a collaborator has generated processes that facilitate the tasks or optimize them, however they are never described in any manual or transmitted to others, so when this collaborator leaves, he takes all that knowledge with him, which can give him extra value to the company. You should never forget that it is extremely important to collect all that information.
This collection arises from the collection of the data, in which an overview is taken to later turn them into a methodology, which serves as a guide for all those who begin to carry out some work within the company. It is extremely important to point out that this information is not always generated within the company, it can also be obtained outside it, however, this requires greater efforts, which should not be left lightly, because knowledge is what It gives power to both the management levels and their subordinates, in this way decisions are made more efficiently and consciously.
Below are various tools that can help facilitate such management, as well as general aspects of Knowledge Management.
Definition
Knowledge management is the process by which an organization facilitates the transmission of information and skills to its employees, in a systematic and efficient way (Archanco, 2011)
When speaking of knowledge management in organizations, it is done by referring to processes or situations that allow the transfer of knowledge or experiences of a person or group of people to other people who belong to the same company. The main problem is that the human factor is always difficult to deal with or manage, so transmitting your knowledge by sharing it can be extremely difficult. Managing the information and skills of certain collaborators in order to transmit it to others sounds difficult to do, even more so when these characteristics are usually considered as intangible.
It is important to point out that this information and skills may not be exclusively detected or generated within the company, but may come from outside it. This perspective is important since generally, the majority of companies identify knowledge only with the information and internal skills that they believe are within their reach.
That is why most of these companies focus their efforts on channeling the information and skills they already possess, focusing on internal communication processes, through the implementation of systems such as CRM, ERP or CMI. It is not something that is considered negative, however it is done in this way because it is much easier to control the volumes of internal information than external information that is outside the organization, which is more difficult to find, search, select and organize..
Types of knowledge
Tacit
All knowledge that is part of the mental model of people is known as tacit, that is, they arise from personal experience and involve intangible factors such as beliefs, values, intuition, their points of view and judgments, which therefore they cannot be structured, stored or distributed.
| Experiences | Beliefs | Values | Reviews | Intuition |
It is for this reason that tacit knowledge is extremely complicated to manage, even on many occasions even its owner does not know that he owns it, but it is not for that reason less important since at the same time it is the most likely to generate any competitive advantage. it is sustainable over time, since a mental model is practically impossible to imitate due to competition.
Making a comparison, explicit knowledge is much more easily processed by a computer team, distributed to collaborators electronically (through some platform) and stored in a database, however, the very nature of tacit knowledge makes it difficult processing and distribution. In order to carry out its treatment it is necessary to transform it into concepts that everyone can understand and assimilate, that is, it is necessary to find a way to turn it into explicit knowledge.
Various doubts may arise about the treatment of knowledge, mainly when dealing with those of a tacit nature, but it must be understood that tacit knowledge can be transformed. This transformation (from tacit to explicit) allows organizational knowledge to be built, as shown in the following diagram:
The tacit knowledge of each individual is taken as a starting point (in particular and later in groups).
Step 1 Socialization. From unspoken to unspoken. It should start with the creation of an interaction field. This field allows group members to share their experiences and mental models, thereby transferring tacit knowledge from one person to another.
Step 2 Exteriorization. From tacit to explicit. It starts from a dialogue or collective reflection that supported by an appropriate analogy allows members to state their hidden tacit knowledge (because they possess it but are not aware of it), this should facilitate the collection of knowledge.
Step 3 Combination or association. From explicit to explicit. It begins with the distribution by networks of newly created knowledge and existing knowledge from other sections of the organization, thus enriching and crystallizing into new knowledge, in the same way it can be used to create products or services.
Step 4 Internalization. From explicit to tacit. It serves as feedback of the new process and that originates from learning by doing (through experience).
With all this, each time the cycle is turned around, new knowledge is generated, thus increasing organizational intelligence.
The result is a spiral that spreads every time more and more collaborators participate. This is a key piece in the organizations learning model.
Explicit
It refers to all the knowledge that can be structured, stored and distributed, which includes grammatical expressions, mathematics, specifications, guides or tutorials, procedures (for example in the form of manuals) and information stored in databases. Such knowledge can be easily transmitted from one individual to another.
Internal Knowledge Management
As mentioned earlier, as many companies focus on channeling their efforts to manage the knowledge within the organization, this limited vision can have serious repercussions for the company.
For example, on a ship where the captain only has information regarding the available level of fuel, the activation of the engines, the weight of the cargo and some systems, he could not avoid a disaster, since he would not know the weather conditions, otherwise you have radar to detect other ships or you don't know the direction of the tides you cannot prevent and take action before threatening situations occur.
Bringing this analogy to a company where only internal knowledge management was performed, the danger would be similar. This is due to the fact that the rest of the entities in their market (clients, consumers, competitors and suppliers) act outside the organization and if they do not have the knowledge of what these entities do or want, the operations will end up yielding the Step to delays and failures. It should not be forgotten that companies need to generate profits, that come or are produced outside the organization.
That is why the vast majority of companies have distribution channels and suppliers that transmit this knowledge to them, in recent years it has gone even further because they have technological surveillance systems and competitive intelligence that provide them with the information necessary to detect what is happening in your market.
The management of internal knowledge allows to know the state of the company, that is, in what specific situation it is, the needs for cash, cash flow, raw materials, reorder points, and even the necessary marketing techniques to be able to position a product depending on the circulation of potential customers.
Skills and Information
It is evident that collaborators are at the center of knowledge management. What interests the organization most is its skills and information. These two components are basic when considering the knowledge management process.
On the one hand, the management seeks or tries to promote knowledge via:
- Training programs mentoring programslanding protocols for new employeesinformation systems such as Intranets etc…
But on the other, employees who have that knowledge are reluctant to share it, because in some way it detracts from their bosses and exposes them to more risks. No one likes to have their merits and efforts appropriated. And less if instead of a reward it can lead to punishment.
Many times in daily work it is frequent to meet colleagues who were elusive when explaining how they had managed to perform a function or even refused to give details on how to solve a critical problem in time.
This type of behavior is normal among technical profiles, primarily, but also among managerial staff who on many occasions refuse to share information with their peers, due to the constant power war that is generated or even due to private interests.
External Knowledge Management
The management of external knowledge serves to know what is happening in the market, the needs of the clients, who really provide profit to the company, as well as the opportunities and threats that are being formed.
For this, there are different tools that can make integrated management more efficient.
Information technologies
The new information and communication technologies greatly facilitate management work in the organization. The simple existence of relational databases, e-mail, digitized manuals, among others, facilitates the tasks of storing, structuring and distributing knowledge, however, many people may think that regarding tacit knowledge there are no computer systems that support management processes, which turn out to be critical for the organization.
Tacit knowledge management can and should be supported by ICT, only in this case they have a different nature than conventional ones. In the market they are found as collaboration software, social software or collaborative tools.
Some of the electronic collaboration spaces are:
- Workplace (for example IBM Lotus Quickr). Social software (for example, IBM Lotus Connections). Instant messaging systems (for example, IBM Lotus Sametime). Virtual boards.
These types of tools allow the information technology environment to focus on relationships between individuals and on improving internal communication processes, which are two key aspects of tacit knowledge management.
The following figure represents the difference between the ICT tools applied to the management of explicit and tacit knowledge.
In this way, the way of understanding the management tools that apply to different types of knowledge is simplified. On the one hand, hard data must be stored by means of text processors in the form of manuals, blogs, among others, while Tacit knowledge is shared through tools that make collaborators feel less pressured (social networks) and that can be personalized to obtain specific data.
Tools
It is essential to think about solving the speed of information circulation between the different areas of the organization or of the employees, there are no magic solutions to solve the problem of knowledge management today. However, it should be avoided that the pace is accelerated by trying to meet an objective in the way that least delays work, the appropriate speed of collection and distribution makes collaborators see it as natural to share their information and knowledge, in addition to finding more motivated to share their discoveries.
It is necessary to have systems that facilitate the power to share and transmit information, without it being anonymous to the disseminator.
Once the environment has been improved, the speed with which information circulates and the ease of sharing it among team members can be accelerated, since the predisposition of colleagues to share information first and then knowledge has been considerably improved.
Below are low-cost (or free) tools to be used by small organizations:
Yammer
It is a social network for business created by Microsoft, defined as a social intranet, which like Slack drives the productivity of all members of a team through collaboration.
As part of the Microsoft ecosystem, in its advanced versions it allows integration with SharePoint (Microsoft's solution to build knowledge intranets for organizations).
Features
- Fluid and spontaneous real-time communication Increased productivity and employee satisfaction Reduced number of emails to send and read Reduced number of meetings Encouraged natural collaboration between employees Improved team cohesion
In short, it allows putting knowledge management into practice and consolidating it within your organization, however, it has difficulty integrating with the rest of an organization's applications due to compatibility.
Slack
Slack is an application that threatens to destroy email, as it is used for real-time communications designed for any type of company, regardless of its size. The novelty of this tool is that it allows you to create public and private channels and send private messages to your team members.
Features
- Share and attach any type of file. Search the different channels to find information between what has already been shared. Historical access of files and conversations Search by keywords. Follow-up of conversations between members of different teams (must be public on that channel).
Slack works as a social network where employees share what they deem appropriate on each channel. This makes it a great tool for sharing knowledge, helping to create a virtual knowledge center for the organization, improving productivity.
It has integration with other applications and tools such as Dropbox, Wuderlist, Zapier, Zendesk or Googledrive, so the ease of saving files in the cloud is a value addition.
Confluence
It is a knowledge center for teams, which serves as a collaboration tool since it is designed to share, create, and store documents that facilitate teamwork.
It has the advantage of being able to integrate into the company's servers, it allows creating multiple channels for the different departments of the company to be able to work centrally. It provides a structure and organization to make it easier for users to find information and collaborate. An addition of great value is that it is designed to incorporate Addons popular.
It is important to mention that the process of implantation of technological tools becomes more complex the larger the organization, however, this should not prevent them from being used, it can start on a small scale and then expand it to all areas of the organization.
Business Intelligence
It is all the strategic and analytical information that a company collects, manages, predicts and monitors to facilitate decision-making. It was refined and supported by analysis. Advanced analytics uses structured and unstructured data, historical and other records, collected in real time.
It should be noted that:
- Confidence in data is growing exponentially, as virtually any data application requires analytics or BI to extract meaning and subsequent action. Related automation capabilities have evolved, as have data discovery tools, cloud services, and how to exploit Big Data. Trying to simplify the process use of BI for the inexperienced public, improving their self-service possibilities, with the positive effects that this implies for the internal organization.
| Exponential growth | Automation capacity | Process simplification |
New business intelligence technologies focus on the end user. To take advantage of these advances to generate value through knowledge, it is necessary:
- Facilitate accessibility to end users. Prepare for changes in mobility. Prioritize the alignment of technology objectives with those of the organization.
In order to carry out it is necessary to carry out
| Changes in infrastructure | Work automation | Technology implementation |
Changes in infrastructure
Current advances in workload automation and discovery tools, however, have contributed to a decline in the centralized environment in favor of a more agile one, which gives users greater autonomy and decreased latencies.
Automate workload
Business intelligence automation tools pave the way for simplifying business intelligence. Queries and reports can be accelerated thanks to self-service with the appropriate technology configuration, end users can make queries almost in real time using both Big Data and data from conventional sources.
Implement technology
Advances associated with cloud, mobile and data discovery tools dramatically increase the movement toward simplifying business intelligence to access query results on demand and from anywhere.
Thesis proposal
Implementation of technological tools (ICT) to be able to manage the empirical knowledge of farmers in the state of Veracruz.
General objective
Collect and administer the empirical information of farmers in the central area of the State of Veracruz using software to determine the proper management of crops and to make improvements in the application of pesticides, insecticides and fertilizers.
Thanks
I thank my family for their support at all times, my mother and father for giving me everything in their power so that I can achieve my professional and personal aspirations.
In the same way, the teaching staff of the Orizaba Technological Institute, who have given me the necessary tools to be a competent professional.
To CONACYT for the opportunity to study in one of the careers certified for its quality that will allow me to raise the name of my nation and my city tomorrow.
Reference sources
Archanco, R. (September 25, 2011). What is knowledge management. February, 2018, from Papeles de Inteligencia Website:
LOGICALIS team. (September 03, 2015). Business intelligence: what it is and predictions. February, 2018, from LOGICALIS Website:
blog.es.logicalis.com/analytics/inteligencia-empresarial-que-es-predicciones
Archanco, R. (January 06, 2016). 3 tools to share knowledge in your organization easily, quickly and efficiently. February, 2018, from Papeles de Inteligencia Website:
Salesforce team. (August 2013). What is CRM? February, 2018, from Salesforce Latin America Website:
Albarracín, S. (July, 2016). Explicit knowledge vs tacit knowledge. February, 2018, from ainia, technology center
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