Introduction

Knowledge Management (KM) has been a major area of concern to many organizations.  Most organizations fail to utilize fully the knowledge they possess for optimum performance. It is believed that full knowledge utilization will lead to improved organizational performance. Organizational learning and knowledge management are essential to improving the performance of the organization (Strati, 2007). Organizations have a challenge of identifying the knowledge gap and act accordingly. The question of what, why and who are the main areas of concern in the KM and OL. Nevertheless, knowledge management and organizational learning have been instrumental in filling knowledge gaps in organizations.

Summary

Organizational learning is complementary to knowledge management and is used together for the overall improvement of the organization performance.  For proper integration of the two concepts, one must understand what are knowledge, KM processes and the goals of knowledge management systems. Knowledge is classified as either tacit or explicit where the former inhabits in the minds of people, and the latter is in a form of words, sentences, documents and organized data in computer programs. It is argued that most knowledge is tacit in nature is usually underutilized. Some of this knowledge is embedded in business processes, activities and relationships created over time leading to continuous improvements.

Knowledge management requires understanding of the processes and goals to improve the overall performance of the organization (Spender, 2008). The processes involve acquisition, creation, refinement, storage transfer, sharing and utilization of the created or acquired knowledge.  This helps in ensuring that knowledge related assets are improved and efficiently utilized. The goals and processes in KM should be integrated for improved organizational performance. Goals of KM is leveraging and improving the organizational knowledge for better performance.

Corporate managers are essential to KM success since they lay foundations for the implementation of the created and acquired knowledge. Knowledge management is a social process where transmission of knowledge from the experts to non-experts is through social groups, teams, and networks (Engestrom, 2007).  KM process is people intensive and less technology intensive. Knowledge application towards the improvement f the performance mainly relies on the employees’ knowledge about the best way to do their jobs.  Knowledge held by teams who have been working on focused problems and knowledge that is embedded in the organization’s products, processes, and relationships.

The KM processes are more important as compared to knowledge accumulation. The process ensures the notion of continuous improvements in the performance of the organization. Organizational learning is critical to the KM process and realization of KM goals. The process provides that the written policies, prescribed machines settings, and quality control limits for efficient performance (Renzl, 2006). Knowledge management processes help in innovation, collaborative decision making and individual and collective learning of the people in an organization.KM process leads top intermediate outcomes of better decisions, organizational behavior, products, services and relationships all of which lead to improved organizational performance.

Knowledge can either be created or acquired through organizational learning and knowledge management. Acquisition refers to a situation of searching for the recognition of and assimilation of potentially valuable knowledge from outside the organization. KM strategies are either through codification or personalization. The codification is through an electronic document for re-use economics while personalization is through the development of a network of transferring knowledge from people to people.  Communication information systems and knowledge management systems are interdependent where there is extensive use of computer-based subsystems.

Critique

The definition of knowledge management and organization has not been conclusive as described from the article. According to the theory of Argyris & Schoen 1978, organization learning has a lot of emphasis on the relationship between cognition and behavior. Both cognitive and behavioral change is prevalent in organizational learning (Spender, 2008).  Miller, 96 defined organizational learning as a process of change in individual and shared thought and action that is affected and embedded in the institutions of the organization. Individuals and group learning become institutionalized, organizational learning occurs, and knowledge is embedded in non-human repositories such as routines, systems, structures and strategy.

The study also fails to capture how knowledge management is used as a tool for the competitive organizational edge. Organizational knowledge is an essential firm resource and a source of competitive advantage. Organizational knowledge competitive advantage is rooted in research on the resource-based view of the firm (Engestrom, 2007). The knowledge management substantially explains the organizational advantage over the firm’s markets. The definition of knowledge has also been very limited to tacit and explicit knowledge. The author fails to define exhaustively what knowledge is and the available types of knowledge. For instance, positivists define knowledge as the result of systematic analysis of experience in a knowable reliability. It is argued that reality and knowledge are constructed from the sense of impressions. Others have defined knowledge as a process of knowing several researchers.

Tacit knowledge is obtained through the mind either by reflection or anticipatory learning.  Knowledge is also obtained through the body by doing experimental learning and continuous practice (Strati, 2007).  Knowledge and learning are the content of the learning process.  The only distinction between knowing and knowledge is that knowledge is cognitive, including the facts and capabilities already known while knowing is mainly behavioral.

The author also describes knowledge management as human intensive rather than technology intensive. However, knowledge management is heavily leveraged in information technology. There is extensive use of technology with some of the notable KM tools being intranets, electronic document systems, data warehousing, yellow pages catalogs and decision support systems (Spender, 2008).  Increase technology is critical to improving the performance of the organization.

Application in enterprises

As discussed in the study, knowledge management is an essential competitive tool for an organization. This means that organizations must lay strategies to improve knowledge and performance of the organization. Codification and personalization of the acquired knowledge are highly applicable to the modern enterprises. It is important to understand the organizational culture that promotes knowledge and overall performance of the organization (Renzl, 2006). It is imperative to note that the corporate culture greatly influence knowledge related behaviors of individuals and teams in the organizational unit.

The knowledge management model is considerably applicable in the modern entrepreneurship. Refinement of either tacit or implicit knowledge is essential in the enterprise. Explication and codification of knowledge must be organized into an appropriate format and evaluated according to a set of criteria for inclusion into organization’s formal memory (Chia & Holt, 2008). Explicit knowledge needs only to be formatted, assessed and selected to fit the organization’s needs.

Organization of KM is also another important aspect likely to be employed in a hypothetical enterprise. Use of the Chief Knowledge Officer to head the KM is critical for the effective performance of the organization.   The suggestion by the author to use the communication linkages among various groups in an organization are of great importance to KM set up of the organization (Spender, 2008). Understanding the organizational culture of knowledge and utilizing acquired knowledge is essential for enhanced organizational performance. Extending KM to multiple organizations such as suppliers, partners, and customers leads to enhanced performance. Communication networks and systems are necessary for the improved performance of hypothetical organizations.

Areas of further research

Although the author has explored the concepts of knowledge management and organizational learning, there are still areas of further study. The issue of intellectual capital (IC) is worth exploration because it is interrelated with organization learning and knowledge management. It is important for us to understand how IC, OL, and KM fit together and how they affect the performance of the organization (Renzl, 2006). To understand this relationship, it is imperative that we understand the intellectual capital and how it is related with knowledge evaluation and team performance.

It is essential that we understand the difference between knowledge management and intellectual capital management. Intellectual capital is defined by some authors as knowledge while others have defined it as more than knowledge (Spender, 2008). Learning and knowledge have been used interchangeably in the intellectual capital analysis. Intellectual capital is concerned with internal structure, external structure and the human capital in their analysis. However, it is worth understanding that the idea of tacit and explicit knowledge in the intellectual capital varies from one author to another. For instance, according to Bontis, intellectual capital is mainly composed of tacit knowledge (Strati, 2007). On the other hand, authors such as Ross et al. have seen the contributions of tacit and explicit knowledge as balanced in intellectual capital. There has also been significant disagreement in the inclusion of the intellectual property in the intellectual capital analysis.

Another reason IC analysis is critical is to understand the contradiction of the idea that IC and knowledge are equivalent concepts versus the idea that IC is much more than knowledge.  The argument on IC being more than knowledge is the fact that it has non-financial and intangible organization assets that represent the gap between the market value and book value of the organization (Engestrom, 2007).  There is an argument that the concept of goodwill that is an essential asset of the organization is a part of the intellectual capital. Customer loyalty and organization’s brand are also components of IC, which are not knowledge.

There has been a disagreement on the classification of knowledge since some authors assert that reputation is knowledge and emotions held by individuals about a product or organization. Others have expressed capital as knowledge embedded in external links to the firm such as customers (Spender, 2008). The varying definition of intellectual capital makes it a viable topic of further study. Some have defined it as knowledge, and knowing capability of social community and this knowledge can be converted to value. There are claims that IC has knowledge embedded in the organization’s structures and processes as well as human knowledge. A study would be essential to proving such claims and identify the organizational relationships and external stakeholders. It will also help determine the intangible assets of an organization and how they relate with OL and KM.

References

Chia, R., & Holt, R. (2008). On Managerial Knowledge. Management Learning, 39(2), 141-158. doi:10.1177/1350507607087579

Engestrom, Y. (2007). From Stabilization Knowledge to Possibility Knowledge in Organizational Learning. Management Learning, 38(3), 271-275. doi:10.1177/1350507607079026

Renzl, B. (2006). Introduction: Organizational Knowledge, Learning, and Capabilities. Management Learning, 37(2), 139-141. doi:10.1177/1350507606064511

Spender, J. (2008). Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management: Whence and Whither?. Management Learning, 39(2), 159-176. doi:10.1177/1350507607087582

Strati, A. (2007). Sensible Knowledge and Practice-based Learning. Management Learning, 38(1), 61-77. doi:10.1177/1350507607073023

Do you need an Original High Quality Academic Custom Essay?