Many organizations around the world are shifting towards intelligent approaches to doing business. This follows the realization that knowledge is an important and invisible asset, which may be used, to achieve desired goals in an organization. The established Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) within an organization assist in key decision-making processes (Ali Al-Busaidi et al, 2010). The magnitude of knowledge held by an institution depends on the amount of information contributed by individuals. Hence, knowledge sharing is imperative in knowledge management. The capacity of an institution to share and use knowledge among various organs and individuals in operational activities is considered a unique business strategy (Haas & Hansen, 2007). The church as an organization is not exempted from applying modern management practices to improve service delivery. The Believers in Christ Church International effectively manages knowledge through technology to achieve its evangelical mission of reaching out to the world through the gospel.
Knowledge sharing is the distribution of information between individuals in an institution. For effective management of information, the Believers in Christ International spend one-third of its annual budget on information and communication upgrade programs. It has an elaborate information-gathering mechanism both at the individual and institutional levels. The church promotes sharing of information amongst the congregation through an established culture of openness and trustworthiness. The church information system captures and stores data relating to Christians, various groups, converts, baptized, youths, the wedded couples, the sermons, the readings, bible quotations, plans, budget, and finances. The network administrator assigns adult members of the church login password to the church’s database. The networked information infrastructure facilitates easy access to real-time information about the church activities by the congregation through the website. The system supports the interactive engagement of the visitors to the church website. In addition, the site is customized to allow users with insufficient information and technology skills to retrieve relevant information with minimal difficulties.
The management of Believers in Christ church secured an air time valued at $20 million with the leading television channel in the country. The Sunday mid-morning service is aired live on Citizen Television. The Pastor in Charge invites inspirational evangelists to deliver soul-touching sermons, which are livelily beamed all over the country. As a result, many Christians view the program for spiritual healing and motivational purposes. Viewers with various personal problems send messages or call the studio to request special prayers. The media team record and publish the clips of service proceedings in the church blogs to attract comments from internet browsers. Then the management analyses the opinions which have been posted on site, with a view of, instituting various positive changes. This structured form of knowledge sharing makes it easy to integrate newly gathered information into the system for reuse.
The application of knowledge in managing organizations is indispensable. Institutions rely on knowledge for the planning and execution of functions. Organizations must allow the free flow of ideas from internal and external sources. This stimulates creativity and innovation. The worth of knowledge lies in its combined aspect (Fong, 2006). They contributed and stored knowledge forms the institutional memory, which may be used, for future references. The knowledge management strategy is responsible for growing members of Believers in Christ Church. Currently, the ministry has branches in three continents namely; Asia, Africa, and America. The sharing of church information has enabled it to find donors who are currently financing various church projects.
References
Ali Al-Busaidi et al. (2010). Sharing Knowledge to a Knowledge Management System: Examining the motivators and the benefits in an Omani organization. IBIMA Publishing. Web.
Fong, Boh Wai. (2006). Mechanisms for sharing knowledge in project-based organizations. Elsevier. Web.
Haas, Martin & Hansen, Morten. (2007). Different Knowledge, Different Benefits: Toward a Productivity Perspective on Knowledge Sharing in Organizations. Insead. Web.