Knowledge and Organisational Learning Free Essay Example

How can knowledge management and organisational learning used to improve HR management systems and practices and build intellectual capital and competitive advantage for the future? Discuss this in relation to one or several aspects of HR management including Recruitment and Selection, Training and Development, Performance Management and Rewards, Succession Planning.

Knowledge management combines all the available resources within an organisation in order to become more efficient and one of the most reliable components of an organisation’s competitive advantage in the marketplace is one of its most readably available resources, its labour force and the knowledge it holds.

Since knowledge management aims at retaining the existing knowledge of an organisation it can be of great benefit for an organisation to implement knowledge management (KM) strategies and organisational learning into its human resource management (HRM) as it will aid in gaining a competitive advantage over other organisations.

The primary focus of HRM is to match the job profile with the skill set of the people, in order to achieve the organisation’s goals, whereas KM at a primary level, aims at harnessing the existing knowledge in the organisation, to create a competitive advantage and at a more advanced level focuses on increasing organisational learning (OL) (Suresh, 2002).

Hence there is a link between HRM and KM, since HRM looks at managing humans and knowledge creation is a human activity, businesses are realising a need for the integration between the KM initiatives and the human resource policies of the organisation.

The human resources department in most organisations handles high quantities of data and this data and the updating of it can be managed better by using effective knowledge management.

Suresh (2002) claims that effective KM requires a combination of many organisational elements such as technology, human resource practices, organisational structure and culture. KM can influence the way an organisation’s HRM go about the way of recruitment, retention, reward systems, performance management systems, training and organisational learning to foster knowledge retention and hence its competitive advantage.

The recruitment function should focus on the extent to which the knowledge processed by a person is in line with fundamental strategy of the organisation. Whicker and Andrews (2004) state that the aim of recruitment and selection in the knowledge economy is to source high calibre talent possessing a range of skills and capabilities related to the strategic knowledge areas. New recruitments should comprise knowledge and skills that contribute value to the organisation, offer real or potential competitive advantage and are hard to replace.

The function of the HR department is to select and recruit individuals who would subscribe to this culture of sharing information and knowledge dissemination (Suresh 2002). Recruitment in the knowledge era should not be just about filling a position but obtaining staff that are proficient at what they a do but also create a knowledge sharing and learning environment. The influence of KM in the recruitment process will aid in making the firm’s personnel and work processes unique and hard to duplicate and thus give them a competitive advantage over other organisations.

HRM role of retaining valuable staff should go beyond trying to keep hold of those people who add value to the organisation through their experience, expertise and knowledge. What they should be doing is retaining staff that are willing to share their knowledge with co-workers. Organisations should encourage and retain those people who are willing to share knowledge and work towards the improvement of the organisation and just not solve problems localised around personal expertise (Suresh, 2002).

KM integrated into the retention of staff will not only aid in retaining valuable knowledge but promote a knowledge sharing environment beneficial to the organisation. A rewards system that acknowledges people who share their knowledge with others in the work place should be adopted by HRM as it will motivate people to do so. Gloet and Martin (2005) state that research studies have clearly established that people are not willing to share data unless they are rewarded for it.

To maximise the value of knowledge sharing, employees must understand the benefits that sharing knowledge and experience provide to them as individuals, the advantages that will be gained to the organisation as a whole, that senior management recognises the sharing of knowledge, that knowledge sharing has become an integral part of every employee’s daily function and that a compensation/reward system is in place to recognise and promote employees who adopt this new behaviour (Suresh, 2002).

Thus an organisation wanting to achieve a competitive advantage through knowledge sharing should consequently have appropriate reward and incentive system which would recognize performance and adequately reward persons who share their knowledge with others. Employees are aware that knowledge is power and very few are willing to give up power, thus the culture of the organisation needs to change from one of hoarding information to sharing of information.

Effective knowledge creation depends upon the way in which people relate to each other in the organisation and the human resources department should focus on creating an appropriate culture in the organisation that facilitates sharing of information and motivating individuals to make their tacit knowledge explicit (Suresh, 2002). The rapid growth of technology has led to an economy where competitive advantage is increasingly based on the successful application of knowledge (Lengnick-Hall & Lengnick-Hall, 2003).

Hence training and development programmes implemented by the human resources department should, in addition to enhancing the existing knowledge, result in learning, development and application and these learnings should be captured into the knowledge base of the organisation (Donoghue, Harris and Weitzman, 1999). Not only does KM improve HRM activities but it can also aid in the development of intellectual capital and this is important as Lee (2002) states that an organisation’s intellectual assets are its most important source of competitive advantage in today’s marketplace.

In order to gain competitive advantage from KM, organisations need to identify core competencies, or integrated knowledge sets, that distinguish them from competitors and add value for customers (Bohlander, Snell and Sherman, 2001). Ulrich (1997) refers to these knowledge sets as organisational capabilities and suggests that HRM can play an important role in creating and developing the organisational capabilities necessary to compete in the knowledge economy.

Saint-Onge (2001) also alludes to the need for the HR function to transform itself in order to respond to changing requirements of the knowledge era. The role of HRM will focus on integrating individual, team and organisational learning for the benefit of both customers and shareholders (Gloet and Martin, 2005). HRM can play an important role in creating and developing the organisational capabilities that form part of contemporary KM strategies geared to creating wealth from intellectual capital while maintaining a commitment to sustainability imperatives.

Drucker (1994) states that the chief source of a company’s competitive advantage is the knowledge of an organisation’s members. Since all companies aim to acquire and potentially increase their competitive advantage more organisations are coming to realise that knowledge is their most important asset. Managers are also coming to realise that a firm’s viability depends on the competitive quality of its knowledge based intellectual capital and assets and the successful application of these assets to its operational activities (Wigg, 1997).

Knowledge is seen as an organisations gateway to competitive advantage and through the integration of KM into HRM activities, organisations create a working environment that fosters and encourages knowledge learning and sharing, which aids in building valuable intellectual capital thus ensuring that the business of today becomes the leading business of the future promoting knowledge growth and strength.

REFERENCE LIST

Bohlander, G. , Snell, S. and Sherman, A. 2001. Managing Human Resources. South Western College Publishers: Cincinnati. Donoghue, L. , Harris, J. and Weitzman, B. 1999. Knowledge management strategies that create value. http://www. accenture. com/Global/Research_and_Insights/Outlook/By_Alphabet/Knowledgevalue. htm (accessed April 29, 2010). Drucker, P. 1994. The age of Social Transformation. The Atlantic Monthly 274 (5): 54-80.