LL7: Knowledge Management Process : The SECI Knowledge Conversion

LL7: Knowledge Management Process : The SECI Knowledge Conversion

Knowledge Age worker-citizens need to be able to locate, assess, and represent new information quickly. They need to be able to communicate this to others, and to be able to work productively in collaborations with others. They need to be adaptable, creative and innovative, and to be able to understand things at a ‘systems’ or big picture’ level. Most importantly, they need to be to think and learn for themselves, sometimes with the help of external authorities and/or systems of rules, but, more often, without this help.

Most companies haves similarities like Listening to Customers, Involving Users in Decision Making, knowing the importance of customers, Products and services innovation and Exemplifying Knowledge Management.

Tacit knowledge is knowledge based on experience and observation. There wasn't some law or procedure handed down from on high. It's just the way that things are done. It's something that is immensely powerful because it's relevant. It can be directly applied to the activities that will need to be done in the future.

Explicit knowledge is academic knowledge or ‘‘know-what’’ which is defined in formal language, print or electronic media, frequently determined by established work processes. In other words, explicit knowledge means articulated, codified, and saved in certain media. It can be quickly transferred to others.

Both Tacit and Explicit knowledge is important.

Knowledge transfer focuses on the process through which knowledge is transferred to people and organizations which can gain from it. In other words, knowledge transfer is the systematic duplication of the expertise, wisdom, and tacit knowledge of experts into the mind and hands of their colleagues. Knowledge transfer has long been a challenge for businesses. Knowledge transfer is only useful if it is included in a set of policies for knowledge generation and capture.

In education setting,  ‘know what’ and ‘know how’ kinds of knowledge have only a short shelf life, it is no longer viable to ask schools to ‘fill up’ students with all the knowledge they need beyond school. Nor is it viable to teach students any particular ‘one best way’ of knowing – or doing – things. Instead they need to teach students how to work out for themselves what to do.

Today’s schools are organized to produce Industrial Age worker-citizens. If schools are to prepare young people for successful lives in the 21st century, they need to do things differently. 21st century schools need to develop different skills and dispositions from those that were required in the 20th century.

Forward-looking HR executives and chief learning officers know that their job is not only about facilitating the delivery of operational knowledge to their organization’s employees, consultants, and suppliers. They also realize that they can increase the overall operational efficiency and performance of their organization by identifying and leveraging the paid-for knowledge that has been neglected or lost within their organization.

LL6: Managing Structural Capital: The Dynamics of Knowledge

LL6: Managing Structural Capital: The Dynamics of Knowledge

In today’s economy, innovation is considered to be one of the main driving forces behind business competitiveness. Superior innovation provides companies with the opportunities to grow faster, better, and smarter than their competitors, and ultimately, to influence the direction taken by their industry.

Establishing and maintaining relationships are costly processes that should be considered as investments. Consequently, relationships and the uses to which they can be put should be seen as part of the stock of capital of the firm. In fact, relationships can be seen as part of the firm’s intellectual capital.

As I see it, structural capital allows for organizational effectiveness improvement through the transmission of knowledge.

For organizations mostly, changes are faster than their speed in responsibility and the ability for adjustment. In this space, organizations face with opportunities and threats. Therefore each invention and innovation causes change that may create opportunity for organization. So having proper structural capital is very important. Organizations should develop their new products and share clear vision in order to improve the effectiveness of their new product development performance.

LL4: Leading Knowledge Workers :Leadership in the New Economy

LL4: Leading Knowledge Workers :Leadership in the New Economy

As leadership expert Warren Bennis once stated, "leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality." Great leaders possess dazzling social intelligence, a zest for change, and above all, a vision that allows them to set their sights on the things that truly merit attention.

A learning culture is one with organizational values, systems and practices that support and encourage both individuals, and the organization, to increase knowledge, competence and performance levels on an ongoing basis. This, in turn, I believe, promotes continuous improvement and supports the achievement of business goals, innovation and the ability to deal with change.

For me, it is necessary to remain dynamic, competitive, and to continue to look for ways to improve organizations. Learning organizations are healthier places to work because they: allow independent thought, increase our ability to manage change, improve quality and develop a more committed work force.

A true organizational learning culture enables employees to challenge the status quo, think critically, and ensures that the team doesn’t become stuck in “this is the way it has always been done here” thinking, and instead, creates the capacity and adaptability needed for change.

LL5: Facilitating Human Capital : Lecture Discussion Paradigm Shift and Structural Capital

LL5: Facilitating Human Capital : Lecture Discussion Paradigm Shift and Structural Capital

Successful organizations evolve steadily. Following a cycle that starts with a policy or approach that is no longer relevant and effective, these organizations comes around over time to a new paradigm, or a new framework for acting and understanding.

Organizations have started realizing that in order to improve their productivity, a more skilled workforce is required (paradigm shift in Human Capital). If their workforce is educated and skilled they can bring in more for the company in every aspect. This has led to workforce being considered a capital that needs to be invested in, rather than just a resource that can be exploited.

Another reason for this shift could be the rise in competition in almost every industry. The rise of new industries has also posed threats to other industries. This rise in competition has led organizations to understand that the talent, which is required for the specific needs of the organization, has to be found, developed and retained within the organization.

Organizations have also started realizing that people are their most important asset, and if sustained in the right manner, with the proper care and nurture, this asset could be used to maximize profit and bring in the competitive edge that they require in this ever-dynamic business environment.

Organizations have realized that with a workforce that is committed, capable and clear about its strategies and objectives, the organization stands at a better position in the business environment. Employees who understand its vision and mission are crucial for survival as well as to make an impact.

Structural (SC) capital is part of the intellectual capital that is owned by an organisation and its efficient and dedicated management is essential for the creation of shareholder value, sustainable competitive advantage, and prolonged first-mover advantage. For me, structural capital allows sustainable competitiveness. Organizational capital consists of organizational culture, management philosophies etc. and has received a large amount of management attention. However, organizational capital is not as valuable towards the creation of sustainable competitiveness and first-mover advantage as innovation and process capital are.

LL3: Empowering Knowledge Workers : Lecture Discussion and Workshop Transactional Analysis

LL3: Empowering Knowledge Workers : Lecture Discussion and Workshop Transactional Analysis

Different people need to be dealt with in different ways and as individuals; you would deal differently with a touchy-feely person, than you would with a no-nonsense type of person.

Adjusting management style based on the personality of each team member can result in more engaged and productive employees.

The more managers understand about personality, and the different personality types on the organization, the easier it becomes to engage and inspire them.

It also deals with understanding what motivates them and what makes them successful, so they can create the most productive and engaging environment to work in.

In the workplace, certain psychological issues are bound to occur every now and then and you may have concerns about your own and someone else’s psychological maturity.

My opinion to this is you may dislike being disrupted, talking to others, being given directions or actively caring for others around you. Perhaps you just want to stick to your own corner and enjoy your own place. However, you may quickly discover that, when you get used to your comfort zone, you become estranged from the world around you and lose the ability to seize the connections between tasks, relationships with colleagues, and different public opinions which is counterproductive to your success in the workplace. Being a part of the knowledge era, individual contributions or the value we give to an organization is greatly depending on the attitude and the way we are responding maturely, like an adult, with the challenges in the organization.

LL2: The Meeting of the Minds: Understanding Human Capital (Motivation)

LL2: The Meeting of the Minds: Understanding Human Capital (Motivation)

Human capital is the sum total of a person's knowledge and skills that the company can use to further its goals. it takes human capital to create some other forms of capital. While a machine may eliminate the need to have hundreds of production workers make stuff, it still took human capital to design and build the machine. And as we move deeper and deeper into a knowledge-based economy that depends on information, knowledge and high-level skills, human capital will become increasingly important.

Employee motivation is the level of energy, commitment, and creativity that a company's workers bring to their jobs. Many modern theorists, however, propose that the motivation an employee feels toward his or her job has less to do with material rewards than with the design of the job itself.

There are as many different methods of motivating employees today as there are companies operating in the global business environment. Still, some strategies are prevalent across all organizations striving to improve employee motivation. The best employee motivation efforts will focus on what the employees deem to be important. Understanding Maslowe’s Hierarchy of need, realizing the highest level is achieving self-steem.

However, it can be help if  job positions in an organization can be assessed through HC Matrix to identify the value they contribute to the organization.

In nourishing the HC of your organization, management must Recognize them and their importance and give  them the resources they need.

LL1: Organization as a Living Organism and the Intellectual Capital Management

LL1: Organization as a Living Organism and the Intellectual Capital Management

All the organizational theories and management comprises of metaphors or particular images that allows us to understand and visualize conditions in confined traditions.

Organizations all over the world are striving towards high-skilled and high value economies. Traditional factors of production are no longer considered to be the only contributors to economic development and growth. Nowadays, knowledge has become an important factor for achieving economic development. In order to achieve these goals, a well-educated and highly skilled workforce is necessary. A knowledge economy has increased the demand for a highly educated workforce, especially a workforce with university degree.

In developing a knowledge economy, a sustainable economy based on employment, innovation and education is needed.

Organizations as living systems environment on which they are dependent on each other to satisfy various needs. When studying and comparing organization with living organism it was determined that organizations share the same concept as of a living organism. An organization needs to have the right environment in order to survive, adapt, surpass turbulence and reproduce; the cycle of live. If not it will perish and die. The systems must adapt to environments, organizational life cycles, the factors influencing organizational health and development, different species of organizations, and their relationships.

As working relationship evolve through times, knowledge era focuses on working with a diverse culture, as member of the organization, which I believe is more flexible and effective.

Thinking that my affiliation is on the education industry, I think education, especially higher education, is important for knowledge economy development. Higher education institutions are import for the creation, dissemination, knowledge transfer, and spillover of knowledge to the industry.

I think higher education can be a main contributor and driver of knowledge economy development.

The key to becoming part of ‘creative industry’ does not always lie in creating something new. In fact, the most cost-effective way to become part of the creative community is to make good use of ideas and skills that you already possess, but which you have not yet fully exploited.

At its most simple, it is a matter of ‘knowing what you know’.  Intellectual capital can include the skills and knowledge that a company has developed about how to make its goods and services.  It also includes insight about information pertaining to the company’s history; customers; vendors; processes; stakeholders; and all other information that might have value for a competitor that, perhaps, is not common knowledge.  Intellectual capital is therefore, not only organizational knowledge, it is also industry knowledge.  It is the combination of both cognitive knowledge and intuitive/experience-related knowledge.

The importance of knowledge pertaining to external parties relevant to an organization has been emphasized as an especially important body of knowledge pertaining to all aspects of the organization.

The problem today in many organizations is employee attrition through layoffs, resignations, retirements, and other forms of employee separation from the company. Employees have extensive knowledge about their job, the business processes, the data that supports their jobs including how to make things happen, and what works best.  Unfortunately, in most instances today their knowledge has not been captured, transferred, or made available to others.