Importance of Transfer and Knowledge Management

Question: Discuss about the Importance of Transfer and Knowledge Management. Answer: Introduction Knowledge management refers to the process of colleting the necessary knowledge from the knowledge resources. Management of the knowledge is also essential such that the right information could be accessed and used at the right time. It could be argued that, the most vital resources of the enterprises in todays world, is the collective knowledge that is in the minds of the employees as well as customers. The lack of usefulness of the same data among the various groups of people and the causes of such variance has been highlighted in this assignment. Moreover, the role of the organizational structure and organizational culture has also been mentioned. The importance of the use of knowledge management in the local hospital has also been discussed. This assignment also highlights the importance of the use of explicit knowledge while collecting data about a car to be bought. Thus, the overall importance of the knowledge management is presented in this assignment. The same data set is often considered useful for a group of users, while the same information is useless for another group of users. This is because, the relevance of information among the people varies widely. Data mainly comprises of facts and observations. The same facts and observations vary in importance and usability among the different set of people. For example, the sales figure of a restaurant is important for the manager, as the profitability of the restaurant is reflected in the numbers (Becerra and Sabherwal 2015). However, in case of a customer of the restaurant, the sales figures have no relevance. Thus, data and observation varies in importance among the people. However, though the data and observations vary in importance among the various group of people, yet it could be termed as knowledge (Geisler and Wickramasingh 2015). This is because knowledge has various forms. Knowledge could be viewed as a state of mind, as practice, as object and access to information (Becerra and Sabherwal 2015). Knowledge as a State of Mind: This view of knowledge is highlighted as a state of a person, as viewed by the beliefs of an individual. This belief differs from one person to the other, yet, it is considered as knowledge. Thus, the information that is useful to one person and unimportant to the other is also considered as knowledge (Woods and Cortada 2013). While considering buying a new Holden Commodore, it is essential to gather adequate knowledge. The knowledge could be gathered using online reviews, blogs related to cars, the official website of Holden Commodore as well as from friends and family members who have been using the cars of the same brand. While gathering adequate knowledge about the Holden Commodore, the basic knowledge of the technology used by the car, along with the mileage given by the car is to be gathered. Moreover, the driving experience to the long term users are also used as a source of knowledge (Becerra and Sabherwal 2015). While collecting and gathering information about the Holden Commodore, explicit knowledge about the car is used. This is because, explicit knowledge refers to the knowledge that is definite and is expressed in numbers and words. For collection of knowledge, tactic knowledge is not used. This is because; this style of knowledge relies on intuitions and insight rather than figures (Rodrigues et al. 2016). Moreover, while collecting data, the numbers of happy users are also taken into consideration. Thus, explicit knowledge is used. The management of knowledge in the organizational context, consists of knowledge management infrastructure (Jones and Sallis 2013). These components are organizational culture, organizational structure, information technology, physical environment as well as the common knowledge. The roles of organizational culture and organizational structure are discussed in details. Roles of organizational culture The organizational culture highlights the guidelines that are to be followed by the members of the organization. One of the most essential challenges faced is the issue that the management is non-technical in nature (Jimnez et al. 2014). The challenges also include lack of time of the employees, for knowledge management, the current culture of the organization does not support effective knowledge management, lack of understanding of the knowledge management, the lack of the ability to measure the financial benefits of knowledge management (Becerra and Sabherwal 2015). In order to enhance knowledge management, the organizational culture plays an essential role. The organizational culture needs to support the knowledge management as well as understand the importance of knowledge management (Holsapple 2013). Thus, if the culture of the organization does not permit knowledge management, then, knowledge management is not done effectively. The management of knowledge is also dependent on the structure of the organization. The traditional culture of flow of data does not encourage effective knowledge management. However, the decentralization or flattening of the organizational structure and elimination of the organizational layers encourages good knowledge management (Jones and Sallis 2013). For example, organizational structure with larger groups encourages knowledge sharing and efficient knowledge management (Becerra and Sabherwal 2015). Moreover, emphasis on leadership, rather than on management enhances knowledge management. The communities of practices facilitate a large group of people, rather than small limited groups. This increases the number of people sharing knowledge with each other, thus enhancing the chances of deliver of useful knowledge (Lai et al. 2014). The process of community of practices provides access to the external knowledge sources, along with the internal knowledge sources. The external stakeholders of any organization, such as, the suppliers and the customers, provide greater knowledge to the organization, rather than the internal stakeholders of the organization (Jones and Sallis 2013). The community of practices is able to facilitate various workplaces along with the local hospital. The ways in which the community of practices assists the local hospital are as follows: Exchange of knowledge: The exchange of knowledge is facilitated by the community of practices. The doctors and nurses of other local hospitals could be invited and the exchange of ideas and knowledge are done effectively, to enhance the present practices of the hospital (Hislop 2013). Incorporation of new technologies: With the community of knowledge, incorporation of new technologies is also incorporated in the local hospital. The community of practices among the doctors might facilitate the use of new technologies, thus improving the treatment facilities of the patients (Jones and Sallis 2013). Enhancement of services: The new ideas and knowledge exchanged among the people enhances the services of the local hospital. Thus, community of practices is effective as well as efficient (Becerra and Sabherwal 2015). Overall improvement: With new ideas being exchanged and knowledge gained, the overall improvement of the local hospital takes place. Thus, the community of practices is effective in overall enhancement of the local hospital, highlighting the areas of improvements. Conclusion The importance of effective knowledge management has a significant role to play in enhancing the organizational working. The usefulness of the knowledge management has been discussed in details. Moreover, the differences among the usefulness of a data to one group of people and the uselessness of the same data to another group of people have been highlighted in details. Moreover, the use of explicit data and its importance has also been mentioned in this assignment. Knowledge management and the role of organizational structure and organizational culture has also been highlighted. Thus, it could be concluded that knowledge management is essential and needs to be practiced effectively. References Becerra-Fernandez, I. and Sabherwal, R., 2015.Knowledge management. Routledge,. Geisler, E. and Wickramasinghe, N., 2015.Principles of knowledge management: Theory, practice, and cases. Routledge. Hislop, D., 2013.Knowledge management in organizations: A critical introduction. Oxford University Press. Holsapple, C. 2013.Handbook on knowledge management 1: Knowledge matters(Vol. 1). Springer Science Business Media. Jimnez-Jimnez, D., Martnez-Costa, M. and Sanz-Valle, R., 2014. 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