Four Pillars Of Knowledge Management Case Study

Q1. The four pillars of knowledge management are leadership, organisation , technology and learning. An university named George Mason has an information technology department that uses knowledge management for saving time, increasing workplace efficiency and reusing knowledge. Since it is a technical environment, millions of data is processed including student information, salary information, grades etc (Agee, A). In addition, they need to convert the tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge. For instance, tacit knowledge would be employee comments, experience from current, retiring and past employees. Explicit knowledge at their information technology department is manuals and employee handbooks. So, to successfully manage knowledge, …show more content…
Managers work independently. Thus, they are reluctant to the concept of knowledge sharing. This is because managers know the value of their knowledge . Consequently, they are scared if someone will misuse it for personal gains.To solve this problem, they created a climate would be shared openly.They achieved this by recognizing and rewarding employees who shared knowledge. In effect, this helped to cultivate the climate. Also, they had weekly discussion meetings where managers and even performances to explain them about the benefits. The managers learned key benefits on integrating g knowledge management in their daily activities. The article states that the Pillars provide a clear set of expectations and resources for developing skills for management positions to which they aspire( ). This was essential for the technology department because capturing the knowledge residing in the minds of employees so that it be easily shared across their organisation happened solely due to the …show more content…
But It is important to also share the challenges experienced , since similar might have been experienced . So, all the staff must be involved to accelerate the process of innovation. This is called collaboration due to effective knowledge management system. When it comes to technology, knowledge management takes away the myopic view of challenges. For instance, Mick Pearce developed a functioning office in Harare, Zimbabwe without any air conditioners for firm named Old Mutual(BIOMIMETIC ARCHITECTURE). This example shows the knowledge received from copying termite mounds. This is also innovation through knowledge management. This occurred due to thinking beyond their experience and asking other to derive new methods. Knowledge management speeds up when there is open innovation. This means innovation is occurring everywhere in the organization and not just in the research labs. In addition, firms can and should use external as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market to advance their technology. For instance, firms today are able to get rights to access the intellectual data of other firms and use it to their benefit. This process is much faster compared to developing a product from scratch. An organizational unit 's absorptive capacity also affects its business