College Essay on the Management
of Knowledge Workers
Man Management of knowledge workers is an organized process of verdict,
selecting, organizing, condensing and presenting in a system that perk up an
employee's understanding in a precise area of awareness. “Knowledge management
facilitates an organization to get imminent and understanding from its own
practice”. [Jarke, M., R. Gallersdörfer, M. A. Jeusfeld, M. Staudt and S. Eherer
(1995):167-192] Particular knowledge management activities facilitate focus the
organization on obtaining, storing and developing knowledge for such things as
problem solving, active learning, strategic arrangement and decision making. It
also keeps intellectual assets from crumble, adds to firm aptitude and provides
amplified flexibility.
Scarbrough argues that only by imaginatively addressing the conflicts,
ambiguities and paradox posed by knowledge work will management succeed in
harness it to business goals. (Scarbrough 1999, p493).
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This statement is somewhat true because by addressing or sharing policies we
could prevent misunderstandings among knowledge workers that could results in
conflict. Knowledge Management understands that organizations can conquer
development simply through a healthy co-existence of technology, progressions
and people. Although Knowledge Management is a support within which the
organization should views all its progressions as knowledge processes. In this
vision, all business developments involve formation, distribution, restitution,
and application of knowledge toward organizational rations and endurance.
“Employees understand knowledge from their specialized experience and through
the efficient divisions within the existing business units and expand competence
in all regions inside and outside the organization”. [O'Leary, D. IEEE
Intelligent Systems 1998(5):30-33]
Effective management of knowledge workers centers on solutions that includes the
entire system: organization, people and technology. Computers as well as
communications systems are good at capturing, renovating and distributing
extremely structured knowledge that changes quickly. Some companies are using
analysis, scheduling and computer supported work systems to fundamentally
develop decision making, resource provision, management systems, admittance, and
propagate progression know how and generally performance as a means to expand
core strategic competencies. “Knowledge management is the systematic process of
finding, selecting, organizing, distilling and presenting information in a way
that improves an employee's comprehension in a specific area of interest.
Knowledge management helps an organization to gain insight and understanding
from its own experience. Specific knowledge management activities help focus the
organization on acquiring, storing and utilizing knowledge for such things as
problem solving, dynamic learning, strategic planning and decision making. It
also protects intellectual assets from decay, adds to firm intelligence and
provides increased flexibility”. [University of Texas knowledge management
server]
Earlier, much of the knowledge was in the heads of its professional workers. Now
there is an obligation to put together an understanding and facilitate workers
learn best practice within a meticulous area, and to contribute what is learned.
Key features of conflicts verdicts include good listening skills, elasticity,
and enthusiasm to changes. Simple communication, though, is at the spirit of
conflict declaration and can as well serve as a prime method of conflict
deterrence. "At least in terms of internal disagreement, it frequently arises
when there is not enough communication from organization about goals and how you
would like to get there, when people have a good perceptive of [those issues],
there's usually not a marvelous amount of conflict." [Kelly, S., Lyytinen, K.,
Rossi, M.: 1996, 1-21].
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With every conflict organization situation, it's an issue of listening and
seeking to know to a certain extent than challenging right away. There needs to
be lots of communication and lots of interaction with senior managerial. Explain
to them the situation, what they're getting for the asset, and how they can make
the most of their returns and minimize costs. Regular meetings can offer a forum
for voicing concerns before they rise into a conflict. For instance, Adamjee's
group meets twice a month. The standard meeting arrangement is to bring up any
present issues and then to work through them together, nipping problems in the
sprout as well as enhancing team building. “When individual disagreements do
arise, it's essential for staff members to recognize that disagreement is a
normal occurrence in the workplace and that it won't vanish if ignored”. [Staudt,
M., Jarke, M.: Intelligent Information Systems 15, 3 (2000): 253-285].
The knowledge workers need to be simplistic in the applications of new
technologies to their business contexts. Such understanding is essential so that
they can hand over 'programmable' tasks to technologies to focus their time and
efforts on value-adding activities that demand inventiveness and innovation.
More prominently, they should have the ability of judging if the organization's
'best practices' are associated with the dynamics of the business environment.
Such knowledge workers are the serious elements of the double loop learning and
unlearning cycle that should be intended within the managerial business
processes. Knowledge management is about the use of computer and
communication tools to help people gather and apply their collective data,
information, knowledge and wisdom in order to make better, quicker, wiser and
more effective decisions. [Gene Meieran
http://www.knowinc.com/definitions/]
Of course, inventiveness and inquiry-driven learning possibly is difficult to
achieve within traditional command-and-control model. As mentioned earlier, use
of the information and manage systems and fulfillment with pre-defined goals,
objectives and best practices may not unavoidably achieve organizational
capability. The knowledge workers would also require having an overall
understanding of the commerce of their organization and how their work
circumstances fit within it. Such understanding is essential for their active
participation in the organizational unlearning and relearning procedures. Only
if they understand the insinuations of changes in their work contexts for the
business venture, they can be instrumental in synchronizing the managerial 'best
practices' with the external authenticity of the business environment.
Given the need for self-sufficiency in learning and decision making, such
knowledge workers would also need to be contented with self-control and
self-learning. In other words, they would require acting in a capitalist mode
that involves a higher degree of accountability and authority as well as ability
and intelligence for handling both. Companies can also define disagreement
resolution policies so employees know there are anticipated steps for handling,
and, if essential, escalating problems. The policies can even permit for outside
mediators when issues appear to go beyond in-house problem solving skills.
“Number of companies that have productively implemented knowledge organization
initiatives has supported their efforts with asset in other areas, such as
education and training”. [Mylopoulos, J. Information Systems 23, 3-4 (1998):
127-156] In the motor manufacturing, General Motors has been challenged by
having to get unlike sites around the world ISO9000 compliant. While
Hewlett-Packard's field service association of 12,000 people has faced the task
of making sure that when a new product comes out, they hurriedly learn details
of probable customer problems. This they achieve through databases of
frequently-asked questions or sessions with engineers.
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ichuda also likes what Xerox has attained by applying knowledge organization to
customer service. "With their customary products, they provided all the service
and support. Now, more complicated and incorporated products tell the user what
to do to resolve their own problems. The ability to supervise the technology is
being embedded in the product to permit the system to become smarter." [Kelly,
S., Lyytinen, K., Rossi, M.: 1996, 1-21]. In the knowledge association field,
Xerox's Knowledge Broker project began in 1996, and will be brought to business
in 1999 with the formation of a business unit in Grenoble, France.
The idea behind Knowledge Broker is that relevant information gathering on the
Internet and intranets is difficult and time-consuming. What is needed to make
the user's life simpler is transparent linking of decentralized and multilingual
information repositories, one interface without sacrificing search accuracy, and
the making of information and knowledge out of raw data.
According to Xerox knowledge brokers are fundamentally "software agents that can
query multiple databases, renovate information and generate customised reports,
all clearly to the user". Xerox believes that Knowledge Broker technology could
be used to resolve information reclamation problems in any area, counting search
engines on the Internet, where agents will in the end be able to determine each
other and share information. Its real goal, on the other hand, is intranets and
extranets, where users need to connect legacy databases with an undemanding user
interface.
Here are some characteristics that Knowledge Management should look for in their
soon-to-be employees:
People should believe in giving out and transferring knowledge to co-workers.
Remember that individualistic employees will not work well in a knowledge
organization environment.
Workers who are skilled at using Knowledge organization tools such as the
Internet, intranet, computerized database, e-mail and video-conferencing at all
times get a leading edge.
Those who are capable to contribute to the company's knowledge base by writing
all-inclusive case studies and reports etc should be extremely preferred. Such
workers would be able to interpret ideas and details into helpful reference
source for their colleagues.
Resourceful workers are sought after for the reason that they could be
vigorously sought and use, to the fullest benefit, information that is available
in the company.
References
Jarke, M., R. Gallersdörfer, M. A. Jeusfeld, M. Staudt and S. Eherer (1995).
Concept Base a deductive object base for Meta data management. Intel. Inform. S.
4, 2 (1995): 167-192
Kelly, S., Lyytinen, K., Rossi, M.: MetaEdita fully configurable multi-user and
multi-tool CASE and CAME environment. Proc. CAiSE 96, Heraklion, Greece, 1996,
1-21.
Mylopoulos, J. Information modeling in the time of the revolution. Information
Systems 23, 3-4 (1998): 127-156
O'Leary, D. Knowledge management systems: converting and connecting. IEEE
Intelligent Systems 1998(5):30-33
Staudt, M., Jarke, M.: View management support in advanced knowledge base
servers. Intelligent Information Systems 15, 3 (2000): 253-285.
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