Knowledge Management Models and the Role of Organizational Management

MGT403-Assignment 3
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Question 1
Knowledge management is crucial in organizations today as it builds a wealth of legacy information. By capturing and storing knowledge and experiences, an organization creates a centralized location that is available and often updated as employees experience new knowledge and experiences (Hebibi, Raimi & Milićićević, 2019, pp. 118-120). As a result, a company eliminates the information gap on all that it has done, its values, missions, philosophies, and challenges they have overcome, which would create a knowledge gap.
Knowledge management advances decision-making processes. According to business experts, data is the new ‘oil’ that drives organizations’ performance and success. The quality and speed by which making decisions is effectively done are by having access to the knowledge held by the entire organization (Hebibi et al., 2019, pp. 118-120). Thus, through knowledge management, one can access opinions, expert advice, and experiences of different individuals within the company about a particular issue in question, which helps make intelligent, informed, and aligned decisions.
Successful innovation increases with knowledge management. When a company prioritizes knowledge management, it significantly increases its chances of realizing successful innovations. Knowledge management fosters acquiring current knowledge from the market, competitors, industry leaders, and experienced employees (Hebibi et al., 2019, pp. 118-120). With such insights readily available, a company embraces new market trends and makes informed decisions that align with current needs, thus, staying ahead of others and improving their performance.
Question 2
The Choo and Weick’s Sense-Making KM Model of 1998 states that organizations in the know utilize information tactically through sense-making, knowledge creation, and decision making. These interconnected practices play a pivotal role in advancing an organization’s vision, creating knowledge, and commitment to creating knowledge up to the highest level. According to Choo and Weick (2017, pp. 3-4), sense-making is the lasting guarantee that organizations will acclimate and continually prosper in a complex and dynamic environment by seeking and interpreting appropriate information that leads to their understanding of clients’, suppliers’ and competitors’ changes, trends, and situations. Knowledge creation is a process of creating or obtaining, managing, and processing information so a company can acquire new knowledge through organizational learning, thus, cultivating new abilities and capacities, products, and services while also improving the existing ones. In decision making, companies must settle on options they consider best and possible and implement them by observing the company’s strategy (Mohajan, 2017, pp. 3-4).
           Choo and Weick’s knowledge model differs in that Boisot’s model is founded on the idea of “Information good,” which varies from a physical asset. According to him, information and data are different in that information is extracted from data by using one’s expectations and prior knowledge. Boisot also observes that the easier it is to structure data and converts it into information, the easier it is to diffuse it. The less structured data, the more diffusible it becomes (Sensuse & Cahyaningsih, 2018, pp. 80-82). In contrast, the foundation of Choo’s model is on the concept of “knowledge organization,” where organizations utilize information from sense-making, creation of knowledge, and decision-making perspectives. According to the model, knowledge creation is of utmost importance, and it should be developed to the highest level possible as through it, knowledge management develops (Mohajan, 2017, pp. 3-4).
Question 3
Organizational culture plays a meaningful part in knowledge management in the following ways. It provides the basic building blocks for an organization. Organizational culture determines the values, trust, expectations, and practices that guide how an organization works. Through it, employees develop mutual trust, cooperation, and learning from each other, ensuring that all knowledge is captured and shared (Prystupa-Rządca, 2017, pp. 156-158).
Organizational culture fosters a learning culture, which is paramount in knowledge management. According to Prystupa-Rządca (2017, pp. 156-158), a knowledge-oriented culture is one of the most fundamental driving forces for the successful application of knowledge management. For employees to constantly acquire, store and share knowledge and experiences paramount to their jobs, they must continually learn. Continued learning develops through a culture that encourages the continued search for knowledge and experience about one’s job. Managing company knowledge becomes more manageable with such a culture as everyone is always ready to learn.
In addition, it promotes productivity. When knowledge is effectively harnessed and shared, it can h...