In
this modern era, there is a stiff competition in the business market.
Organizations need to manage and develop their knowledge
frequently if they want to be sustainable in the long run. It is vital for
every business to know how to create and disseminate knowledge, and what factors facilitate these processes.
Knowledge is an invisible force that helps firms to
gain a competitive advantage over its competitors. Organizations usually
utilize technology in order to help in the knowledge
management processes. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is an enabler that supports knowledge management within the organizations.
Jawadekar has defined ICT as a set of technologies and
tools used to communicate, and to create, disseminate, store, and manage
information and knowledge (Jawadekar,
2011). Besides supporting the knowledge
management processes, ICT also change the structure and how the organizations operate in order to achieve efficiency. For example, ICT allows an employee of Philips to use the
internet to adjust a television assembly line process in the Flextronics
factory in Guadalajara (Reinert, 2012). The invention of the internet has made it faster to produce televisions in
Philips firm. In this essay, I would like to discuss how ICT supports the knowledge management processes and how it affects the
organizational management.
To
begin with, ICT has helped a lot in knowledge
management which composed of three main processes: knowledge generation, knowledge transfer/sharing, and knowledge
codification and storage (Susana Perez et al). Knowledge generation can be defined as the process by which the
firms obtain information from either outside or inside
the company (Lee and Hong 2002; McCann and Buckner, 2004). The purpose of knowledge generation is to create new contents,
replace, validate, and update the firm’s knowledge
(Alavi and Leidner, 2001; Bhatt, 2001). A lot of new information has been created as a result of the development
of ICT. For example, an information system helps the company to gather all the
data and processes related to its customers in order to create
customer knowledge. Nowadays, Individuals and
firms can easily get access to both external and information through the use of
technology. People can
learn and create new knowledge by accessing to new
information. Knowledge transfer is the process of moving knowledge to needy locations, individuals, groups,
teams and inter-organization, and intra-organizations (Jawadekar,
2011). Transfer of knowledge usually supports by a number
of technologies like Intranet, Groupware, Web portals, and Video conferencing.
ICT transfers knowledge into a data bank and to
an employee or a group of employees. ICT seems doess not help much in sharing tacit knowledge as in
sharing explicit knowledge. In this way, the more
tacit the knowledge, the harder it is to capture and transfer. Even though ICT
does not help much in sharing tacit knowledge, it still plays an important role
in assisting the disseminating of tacit knowledge. As a result, ICT has helped
a lot in the process of sharing knowledge between
individuals. ICT has been utilizing as the main tool in coding and storing
explicit knowledge. Software engineers have
developed a variety of programs in order to code knowledge
and store it for later use such as Wikis, Databases, and Intelligent agent. Tacit knowledge is quite difficult to
code and store by utilizing technology as it resides within each individual. It requires years of practices and learning by doings in order to create tacit knowledge, so it is not easy
to understand and code tacit knowledge. Nonetheless, ICT still can
partly help in coding and storing tacit knowledge. In this respect, ICT has
invented Yellow Page, which is
a database of experts created for the user to access (Jawadekar, 2011). It provides a way to code
employees and employers by profile and knowledge,
so other employees can reach them to get knowledge.
As we can see, ICT is an enabler in coding and storing both tacit and explicit
knowledge. Besides aiding in knowledge management
processes, ICT has also been a main source that connects tacit and explicit
knowledge in the four phases of knowledge
management life cycle: socialization, externalization, combination, and
internalization. In the socialization process, technology tools facilitate
individuals to communicate with each other through online communication. People
can save a lot of time for travelling as they do not have to travel to meet
with each other at one place; they can communicate virtually through the
internet. However, people should also keep in mind that they cannot rely
heavily on technology in the internalization stage as this process is mainly supported by direct interaction with people. Clearly,
there is a real need for ICT in the socialization process. For externalization
process, a set of technology tools such as expert networks, collaboration
services, and data and knowledge discovery can
help companies to convert tacit knowledge into
explicit knowledge. These tools of technology allow experts/knowledge workers
to share their experiences and knowledge, and
coincidently, learn from each other through documents, figures, and information
that available within the companies. Technology helps
in translating tacit knowledge of people into readily understandable forms.
Without ICT, the externalization process would not exist. A number of technologies have been used to
support the combination process and sub-processes
within this process. The
sub-processes within combination process consist of three stages: capturing and integrating, dissemination, and
editing or processing. Little or more, ICT has supported all the three
subsidiary stages within the combination process. For example, companies use knowledge
repository programs like document and content management tools in order to
capture and integrate explicit knowledge into a system. ICT has been use
pervasively in the internalization process of knowledge
management life cycle. Many organizations have
used virtual way in order to convert explicit knowledge into organization’s
tacit knowledge during the internalization process. Employees can easily learn
new concepts or methods through virtual situation. According to Susana et al,
ICT has indirectly influenced the structure of the organization which leads to the emergence of new, more
flexible organizational forms (Susana Perez et al). There is a relation between
technological development and the appearance of new, more flexible organizational
forms which suitable to cope with the rapid change in the business environment
(Barley, 1990; Malone, 1997; Robey et al., 2000). ICT decreases the level of
hierarchy within the organization which makes it
becomes flatter and more flexible (Dewett
and Jones, 2001). Organizations can make decisions and solve problems faster
than before as a result of the development of technology. Nowadays, employees
can approach each other and their employers easily whenever they want due to
the reduction of vertical (hierarchy levels) and horizontal (functions)
barriers as a result of ICT development. ICT facilitates information, ideas,
and knowledge to flow throughout the organization which also results in increase the chance
to create new knowledge. As a result, ICT indirectly
decrease the levels of hierarchy within the organizations and allow information, idea, and knowledge to flow rapidly throughout the firms.
In conclusion, ICT is the main catalyst that supports
knowledge management processes which include: knowledge generation, knowledge
sharing, and knowledge codification and storage. Without the presence of ICT,
it would be hard and take a long time in order to create, share, and code and store
knowledge. ICT facilitates individuals to access both internal and external
information. Tacit knowledge is very difficult to capture and store in
comparison to explicit knowledge as this type of knowledge can only create through
learning by doings and it also requires years of practices. ICT can only partly
help the tacit knowledge management processes, so firms should not rely heavily
on technology and assume that technology can store and capture all of the
information for them. ICT should only be used as an aid to capture and store
information. Still, organizations need knowledge workers in order to work
together with technology in order to create, capture and store knowledge.
Besides assisting in knowledge management processes, ICT also acts as an
enabler that connects tacit and explicit knowledge in the four phases of
knowledge management life cycle: socialization, externalization, combination,
and internalization. ICT provides technology tools that facilitate the
conversion of tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge and vice versa during those
four processes of knowledge management life cycle. New and more flexible
organizations have been emerged as a result of ICT development. The ICT has
flatten the organization structure which in turn reduces the time spend on making
decisions and solving problems within the organizations. From all the above
discussions, we can say that ICT has helped a lot in knowledge management and
also indirectly changed the structure of the modern organization.
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