What exactly is knowledge management and how does it apply to IT?
Knowledge management is traditionally defined as a set of rules and principles in accordance with which information is acquired, transferred, processed, distributed, and utilized by employees and members of a specific organization. While the given definition is rather loose, it still allows for embracing the multilateral nature of knowledge management fully. Basically, knowledge management can be viewed as rules and guidelines concerning the retrieval and use of information.
The IT field opens a plethora of new and incredibly enticing opportunities for knowledge management. Seeing how information technologies provide new and improved ways of acquiring, storing, processing, and distributing data, IT plays a major role in knowledge management evolution as a set of useful strategies and tools. According to Oz, with the introduction of IT into the realm of knowledge management, it becomes possible to enhance the functionality of a certain knowledge management strategy, therefore, improving the production processes, as well as facilitating better cooperation between the representatives of different departments (Oz 223).
Therefore, knowledge management is quite easy to define and use as a basic system for structuring the company data. The choice of a specific knowledge management approach hinges on a range of factors, data availability and the strategy for its distribution being the key ones. As long as the strategy of information management is chosen in accordance with the organization’s specifics and serves to provide the latest data, store it securely and arrange it conveniently, an organization will be able to use the attained data to its benefit.
Do you need to implement an incentive system to get people to input data into the KMS?
Changing the principles of data management is never easy; with the introduction of new technology into the production process, the latter is often slackened since most employees are reluctant to use the new tools, fearing that they may make a mistake. As a result, the necessity to include incentives and encouragements for using the new tools into the company’s policy emerges.
I used to work with a team of eleven people and, therefore, am aware of the issues related to KMS. As a rule, it takes a lot of effort to acquire specific data; hence the employees’ reluctance to share the data, which they spent so much time searching for, appears. Thus, the staff should receive both encouragements (appraisals) and financial incentives for using the new tools successfully and using the data tools for the company’s benefit. More importantly, it will be required to encourage the staff financially for active information sharing (Oz 208).
Managing a transfer of the company from one knowledge management system to an entirely new one is never easy. It is crucial that the new KMS should be integrated into the mechanism of the organization and that the idea of knowledge sharing should be the basis for the KMS system to be founded on. Seeing how most employees are unwilling to share the information, which took them a lot of effort to retrieve, it will be required to encourage the staff for distributing the data actively. As a result, the necessity to introduce incentives becomes obvious.
Works Cited
Oz, Effy. “Business Networks and Telecommunications with information.” Management Information Systems. 6th ed. Stamford, CT: Course Technology Publishing. 2009. 193–230. Print.