Strategies For Knowledge Management In Infrastructure Business – Protasco Berhad

Purpose of knowledge management

Discuss about the Formulate Strategies for Knowledge Management.

Any business always has a plan to increase its capacity and to serve a wider market.  Many companies formulate strategies that will increase their competitiveness in the market as well as increase shareholders wealth. With the dynamics of the economy, it is essential for every business to manage the knowledge available in the industry.  The diffusion of awareness in the market has become vital for the competitiveness and survival of different organizations. Moreover, different organizations view knowledge as an intellectual asset while others consider knowledge as a different commodity that cannot add the firm any value.

They describe knowledge as a product that cannot be consumed and it cannot be lost if transferred to a third party. Additionally, they argue that knowledge is abundant in the business world and cannot be termed as a scarce resource. In the modern world, knowledge can be acquired from different sources including the internet and journals which have abundant. With the dynamism in the market labor, intensive manufacturing companies are slowly giving way to the knowledge-based organizations (Dalkir & Liebowitz, 2011).  This has been propelled by the need for the organization to reduce the cost of production and to improve the quality of goods produced. Any organization in the knowledge age is an organization that can easily learn, remember and act according to the information available to them and the level of skills present. In light with this, this study will illuminate on the importance of managing knowledge in the infrastructure development oriented business of Protasco Berhad (PB). It will also investigate the effect of knowledge advantage the application of the SECI model to the different businesses carried out by PB.

Hislop,(2013) defined Knowledge management as a process designed to help in the identification, capturing and documentation of the company’s intellectual property or assets so as to increase its competitiveness and performance in the industry.  He further added that knowledge management is composed of two critical activities which include the capturing and documentation of individual knowledge and the dissemination of the knowledge in the organization. On the other hand Dalkir & Liebowitz, (2011) defined knowledge management as the administration of the organization intellectual assets with the aim of creating more value and meeting the strategic requirements set by the organization. He also adds that the process many consists of other factors such as the initiative, strategies, processes and the systems that  promote the assessment, storage sharing and the creation of knowledge.

Specific knowledge

Management of knowledge is composed of three different components. These components include people processes and technology. The process includes knowledge distribution, content management retrieval of information and implementation of projects (Perry & Bernard, 2014). To ensure elimination of ambiguity, the process should be made as simple as possible to enable easy understanding by the employees of the organization.   Knowledge management also draws some of its components from various fields such as organizational science, logistics, and computational logistics as well as cognitive science.

Moreover,   knowledge management can also be traced back to fields like communication studies, information and library science and education and training. There are two types of knowledge that managers can use in the making of different decisions. They include the tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge (Holsapple, 2013). The tacit knowledge is difficult to comprehend as well as to put it in words, drawings or text. Additionally, this type of experience can adapt to new and exceptional situations thus promoting the sharing of vision and transmission of culture.  Explicit knowledge, on the other hand, represents information that has already been transferred into other tangible forms including, audio recordings, images, and texts.

The technological part of knowledge management is essential for the provision of a forum where knowledge can be shared and secure management of the documents present in the enterprise. Additionally, technology also supports collaboration and workflow in the business.  These components are essential and provide a secure and central space where customers, employees suppliers, and the partners can share knowledge,   exchange information and guide each other in practical decision making in the organization (Sian Lee & Kelkar, 2013).

To enable easy information sharing, most corporates use the knowledge portal which is a technological application where customers, employees and other partners get a forum to interact.  Other forms of technology used include lotus notes databases and the Microsoft technologies (Papadopoulos et al., 2013).  The use of technology by PB will enable the company to strategies on its investment plans and focus on its objectives on innovation and maintenance of the government supported roads.  Furthermore, it provides the organization with the ability to respond, discriminate and reapply different information and strategies that had previously been a success in the organization

Knowledge management in an organization comprises of different assets in an organization. Some of these assets include stakeholders’ relationships, human resources, physical infrastructure, culture and intellectual property.   For PB Company, its specific knowledge   includes tools, organization culture, the management skills, business strategy and training and development. These intangible assets are essential in ensuring that every part of the organization is involved in ensuring that the set goals are achieved (Holsapple, 2013).This portrays a strong interconnection between the organization strategies and the goals. Furthermore, it includes the management of knowledge that is essential for creating value for the organization.  Managing knowledge comprises of a mix of strategies which include per peer monitoring, storytelling and learning from the mistakes made in the past.  Besides, it also makes use of different techniques from the knowledge-based systems and designs. In an infrastructure development oriented business, knowledge-based strategy will help the organization in reducing the amount of cost it uses in the production of quality goods and services (Sian & Kelkar, 2013). For example, if PB decides to adopt a new technology in its road care department, the maintenance cost of the roads will be cheaper and improve its overall competitiveness in the market.

Knowledge management helps the organizations by opening the doors of collaboration and sharing. In the modern economy, businesses target a wider market that can only be achieved by involvement in merger or acquisition strategies.  Knowledge management in the infrastructure business may need the PB Company to collaborate with its peers in the international markets to facilitate the exchange of ideas and to acquire answers to some of the complex questions in the industry. Moreover, it allows the employees of the organization to communicate effectively with the top management of the organization as well as strengthening their bond with the customers.

The infrastructure business requires minimal mistakes in decision making due to the huge capital outlay required in production. Knowledge management thus helps in solving the most of the problems faced by the organizations, especially in decision making (Woods & Cortada, 2013). Additionally, knowledge management helps the business to acquire more skills and expertise in different fields that help the origination in increasing efficiency and productivity (Jiménez-Jiménez et al., 2014).  For example, the PB research and development division that deals with the searching for solutions for the infrastructure problems may benefit from information sharing and the use of new technology.  The new technology may mean that the firm will have better methods of approaching the problem which is an added advantage in the industry.

Knowledge management in the infrastructure business leads to intensified speed of responsiveness. The time needed to carry out any activity is based on the complexity, the agency of work and the level of technology in the company.  Further, the degree of responsiveness will change the time taken in making decisions that are relevant in grabbing the business opportunities available. Besides, the time required to respond to customer inquiry would be fastened to include stages like receiving inquiry, processing of the quotation by the finance department and the preparation of any proposal.   Consequently, all these procedures can be done simultaneously by the use of extranet, the Internet, and intranet.

By adopting knowledge management in the organization, the manager of PB will be able to enhance quality and the ability to collaborate on improving the methods of operation and enabling interaction with different experts in the industry. Additionally, the firm will be able to improve o the return on investment, provide value added services, adopting different methods of solving problems and centralization of its data (Urbancova, 2013). The managers of the PB Company will also help in the coordination of the information and clustering the data available in the organization. However, it is also important for the management to also take into account the copyright issue in the collection and presenting of knowledge.

The coverage and documentation of the information in the organization does not need a standardized format of presentation. The managers can use directories, reports from different organizations maps, charts, and organizational structures and the set rules and policies to achieve the organizational goals. Knowledge management is an essential element in ensuring the growth and profitability of any organization, especially the infrastructure development oriented business (Meihami & Meihami, 2014).  For PB, the sharing and diversification of information are an essential component. It will help the organization to reduce the risk faced by its diversified portfolio as well as employing more innovative strategies in managing its infrastructure business.

It is important for every organization to put in place the knowledge agenda as one of their goals. This is because knowledge advantage helps the firm to win the confidence of their clients and ensuring that customer satisfaction is achieved (McIver, 2013). Moreover, knowledge plays a vital role in the improvement of customer service, the growth in revenue and the increase of the level of innovation in the organization. Perry and  Bernard,(2014) noted that, knowledge helps the company to achieve more than 81 percent of its goals through the capturing and sharing information obtained from the employees and the external environment. In his research Zheng, (2010) noted that over the last decade the achievement of most companies could be traced back to knowledge related activities including maintenance of customer satisfaction, capturing and using their employee skills effectively as well as improving the products markets and customer knowledge (Noruzy et al., 2013).

Although knowledge plays a significant role in an organization, different organizations use them in distinct ways depending on the level of industry mix and the standard of economic maturity (Kim & Slater, 2013). In many multinational companies, knowledge is employed in the shaping of the organizational strategies and the board of directors.  Moreover, gaining knowledge is based on gaining a competitive advantage and adding value to the organization through working smarter and the embracing of both innovative and quality delivery culture (Urbancova, 2013). The competitive advantage that can be gained by an organization may range from the production of quality goods at a lower cost or production of a differentiated product that the competitors cannot easily replicate.

With the dynamism in the business world, the management is required to open up different ways of thinking and to pay attention the development of new thinking capabilities in various individuals. While knowledge is a human attribute, it has been embedded in the systems and inanimate products and has widely been used in the setting of organizational goals (Kianto et al., 2014). Consequently, knowledge advantage can be divided into three groups; the ICT infrastructure, leadership infrastructure and people infrastructure (Dalkir & Liebowitz, 2011). The ICT infrastructure helps the organization to benefit from various technological advancements as well as ICT applications.  The infrastructure also helps the organization in the acquisition of information from other relate businesses and communication with its suppliers. The ICT infrastructure comprises of portals and interfaces of an organization intranet, problem-solving tools, group wave systems, and the World Wide Web (Zheng, 2010).  People infrastructure, on the other hand, helps the entity to get knowledge infrastructure from the different skills from the employees and the management of the company.   Additionally, the knowledge infrastructure helps in the nurturing and supporting of both the people infrastructure and the ICT infrastructure.

To adequately understand the importance of knowledge advantage in an organization, it is important to evaluate the study by Ikujiro Nonaka. The researcher evaluated the concept of explicit and tacit knowledge and assessed the focus of the western companies. He later introduced the SECI model which had become a pillar of knowledge creation (Sian & Kelkar, 2013). Further, he proposed four different ways that knowledge could be combined or converted.  The model is an illustration of the interaction of various types of knowledge.  The methods applied by the model in its operation include management techniques and communication technologies, which help in the improvement of the performance of the organization (Becerra-Fernandez & Sabherwal, 2014). In Nonaka’s model, there are four types of knowledge-creating processes which include socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization.

The socialization process emphasizes on tacit knowledge.  This is because it gives more explanation on a topic and helps in the creation of new knowledge using such methods as observing, interactions, analyzing, discussing and living in the same environment (Al-Busaidi & Olfman, 2017). Through socializing, people can create and secret knowledge from their different life experiences.  Furthermore, companies gain more knowledge from external sources from interaction with suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders (Noruzy et al., 2013). The notion of socialization can also be traced back to the traditional environments where siblings used to learn different techniques from their parents including woodcarving. Using the socialization process, the PB Company acquires more information on how to improve some of their businesses such as PB education and the PB research and development business.

Externalization process of the model focuses on both the tacit and the explicit knowledge linking. Moreover, it helps in the creation of new knowledge from different sources that will, in turn, help the entire organization (Ellison et al., 2015). Models and metaphor analogy drive externalization process in most cases making it a unique method of information acquisition. Different firms in the manufacturing sector combine their experiences to solve the various production problems faced in the industry. The combination segment includes where knowledge is transformed from tacit to explicit knowledge. It involves the collection of financial reports by the finance department and is consolidated in the formulation of the annual financial records. Also, it makes use of the organization’s database to sort, add and categories different business reports.

In internalization, explicit knowledge is created by using tacit knowledge.  If an individual practices or makes good use of the tacit knowledge, it broadens the knowledge created (Jiménez-Jiménez et al., 2014). Organizations, on the other hand, will gain from the knowledge if it is shared through the different socialization platforms. The organizations, in turn, provide different training programs to their employees at the various stages (Ahmad et al., 2014).  Consequently, when the employees read the training manuals and documents, they can internalize the knowledge and create new knowledge in turn.

Conclusion

In managing its portfolio, it is important for PB to take advantage of the knowledge present both in the organization and from other stakeholders.  Knowledge advantage helps the company in the identification of its strength and weakness through the SWAT analysis. By making use of the available information, PB will be able to increase the level of production and reduce the total cost. Additionally, the knowledge will help the organization to reach a wider market and to create a strong bond with their customers. On the other hand, knowledge management can directly be linked with the knowledge advantage that an organization benefits from. Both aspects help the organization to globalize the business, manage corporate amnesia and to achieve technological advancement across all the departments. Therefore, it is the duty of the PB management to ensure that knowledge management principles and knowledge advantage aspects are taken into account to ensure that the organization achieves greater goals at lower costs.

References

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