Tutorial 5 - Knowledge Management

Tutorial 5

Question 1:

Assume you are one of the high ranked executive in your organization. Briefly outline any 3 ways to nurture human capital in your organization.
There are many ways in which an executive can help to nurture human capital in the organization such as firstly, they should recognize the community of practice and their importance such as being able to capture their existence, appreciate their significance and know that they are able to increase the organizations quality and productivity, that they are the assets of the organization.

Secondly, as an executive, I can give them the resources that they need such as provide a convenient platform for them to perform their jobs especially in terms of resources such as the funds for Research and Development, rewards for their performance, comfortable and conducive working space, the proper and updated technology and infrastructure.

Thirdly, I must be able to facilitate all their needs without over-pampering them; to provide them with the proper leadership to monitor and create awareness to build a culture for a good community of practice, to create a bond with them without trying to lock in their intelligence.

Question 2: Briefly describe with your own explanation any TWO factors that indicate readiness towards KM.

In Knowledge Management there are number of facilitating factors required imperatives effort to succeed. Among the factors are scanning imperative and the knowledge champion.

The scanning imperative is the first facilitator for successful KM whereby organization has to ask three questions about their organization. These questions can help to determine whether such a scanning imperative exists in the company. The first question is ‘Does your company truly understand the environment in which it functions? What is the type of environment that your organization engaged with?’ Company has to know the environment which surround their organization such as whether it is dynamic which is keep on changing or stable which is rigid. For example if you involves in education sector we can say that it is more stable than if you involves in tourism sector. The company also needs to know whether the environment is uncertain or tight with competition such as the banking sector which is very uncertain and unpredictable environment.
The second question is ‘Does your organization gather information about practices and conditions outside the organization?’ Here we say if the company has ever observed and examined the current external trends and situation, the company has fulfilled the second question. Examples of current trends are the number of competitors and the current market preferences.
The last question is ‘Is there awareness about how your company’s internal operations compare with those of your competitor?’ This question can be measured by looking at the company’s effort to do any comparison or benchmarking with other companies in the same business. The comparison is in term of work practices, methodology, product and services. For example is General Motor and Daimler Chrysler.

Next organization has to look at their knowledge champion. Champion in KM is refers to the supporter of the KM system. Organization must have strong supporter that know the rationale on why you must have KM in the organization. Organization cannot have only one person that understands KM, but everyone in the organization must understand the rationale of having KM system. New ideas and methods suggested by employees at all levels have to make it into the design. Organization also needs champions from different functional areas due to the highly cross-functional nature of corporate knowledge. These champions will define the vision and everyone else in the company need to support, agree on, refine, or even challenge it. The knowledge champion is important as they the one who going to make the KM effort become a reality.