Issues, Challenges and Constraints in K-Era
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Issues, Challenges and Constraints in K-Era Azahar Mohd Noora and Che Zan Hj Yassinb aPetroleum Resource Centre, Education Division, PETRONAS, 50778 Kuala Lumpur Tel : 03-23313803, Fax : 03-23311178, E-mail : [email protected]: b Data Mgmt & Capability Dev, Petroleum Management Unit, PETRONAS, 50778 Kuala Lumpur Tel : 03-23313893, Fax : 03-23311178, E-mail : [email protected] ABSTRACT impossible to keep track of, and make use of, knowledge in other parts. A company will need the relevant proper platform, solution and workers with IT knowledge as well as the Clearly, the knowledge that supports an organization’s necessary knowledge on the company’s business to processes and decision-makin g capability is an absolute obtain maximum results using knowledge management. vital resource, but it is a resource that usually suffers This paper focuses on the issues and challenges in k-era from under-management (Shahnon, 2000). That’s why which are K-Workers, Reluctance to Share Information, knowledge management – the harnessing and Technology versus Culture, Organising and Managing organization of information assets that reside in the Unstructured Data, and Leadership – Facilitating databases of an organization or in its employees’ Knowledge Generation. In addressing these problems, collective brainpower – has become such a critical part of Knowledge Management Competencies and Taxonomy doing business in today’s economy. are discussed. The organisation’s goal should be to foster a corporate culture that is constantly learning, and 1.1 What is Knowledge? to embed in it the organisation’s business processes. Organisations will benefit from management’s Knowledge can be a very difficult concept to define involvement in championing and facilitating the (Shahnon, 2000). There exist many possible, equally knowledge management programme in the organization. plausible definitions of knowledge. Indeed, a whole branch of philosophy is given over to questions about Keywords knowledge. On the other hand, “knowledge” is a word we all use and understand in everyday life without much Knowledge, Knowledge Management, Knowledge trouble. According to the Webster Dictionary, kn owledge Workers, Knowledge Sharing, Unstructured Data, is the fact or condition of knowing something with Taxonomy familiarity gained through experience or association. Knowledge, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is a 1.0 INTRODUCTION person’s range of information or sum of what is known (Penafort, 1999). Knowledge may be recorded in an As a rule, he or she who has the most information will individual brain or stored in organizational processes, have the greatest success in life – products, facilities, systems and documents. Benjamin Disraeli The organizational wealth of knowledge – the ideas, Organizations and enterprises alike are realizing how understandings, facts, rules, models and concepts, which important it is to “know what they know” and be able to it possesses that are used to take effective action to make maximum use of the knowledge they possess achieve its goal(s), is referred by various labels such as (Shahnon, 2000). In reality though, many organizations knowledge capital, knowledge assets, intangible assets, do not “know what they know”, and such a situation can intellectual capital and so on (Shahnon, 2000). often lead to duplication of effort throughout the Knowledge assets are the knowledge regarding markets, organization. All too often one part of an organization customers, products, technologies and competitors that repeats work of another part simply because it is an organization owns or needs to own, and which enables its business processes to generate profits or add value. 107 But where does knowledge reside in an organization? investments in knowledge management or of how This is part of what makes knowledge management such knowledge management relates to business performance a difficult concept to grasp and put into practice. (Shahnon, 2000). Often, it is difficult to justify why Knowledge is ubiquitous (Shahnon, 2000). It can live specific information technology solutions fall in the inside myriad databases, which explains why data realm of knowledge management rather than within the warehousing – extracting customer patterns and other scope of plain old information management or data critical information from databases – is such a crucial management. This ambiguity has led some consultants to component of businesses today. Some knowledge is recently remark that knowledge management is just a difficult to draw out; it often lies hidden and undervalued fad. in the minds of individual employees. And it may also dwell in the relationships that colleagues have with Knowledge management is not only about managing people at other companies. knowledge assets but also managing the processes that act upon the assets (Shahnon, 2000). These processes 1.2 Why is Knowledge Valuable? include: developing knowledge, preserving knowledge, using knowledge and sharing knowledge. Knowledge It has been noted that successful companies are those that management involves the identification and analysis of consistently create new knowledge and disseminate it available and required knowledge assets and knowle dge through the organization (Penafort, 1999). It is the asset-related processes, and the subsequent planning and management of this base of knowledge which gives them control of actions to develop both the assets and the their co mpetitive edge. processes so as to fulfill organizational objectives. In today’s fast-paced economy, an entity’s “knowledge Speaking at the National Knowledge Management base” is rapidly becoming its only sustainable conference in Kuala Lumpur, Dr Nikolai Dobberstein, competitive advantage (Shahnon, 2000). There is McKinsey & Co Malaysia senior manager, said that increasing realization that sustainable organizational knowledge management is a conscious strategy of getting competence depends upon the organisation’s capacity for the right knowledge to the right people at the right time creating new knowledge through an ongoing and (Penafort, 1999). continuous process of learning and unlearning. As such, this resource must be protected, cultivated and shared 2.0 WHY IS KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT among the organisation’s members. DIFFICULT? Until recently, companies could succeed based upon the individual knowledge of a handful of strategically The major issue about knowledge is that it is vital to the positioned individuals. However, when competitors continued operation and development of an organization promise more knowledge as part of their services, the and their plans; it is expensive to acquire and valuable competition is over. Why? Because organizational but intractable once acquired; it is difficult to obtain, knowledge does not replace individual knowledge, it assess, understand, retain, share and protect (Shahnon, complements individual knowledge, making it stronger 2000). In other words, it is difficult to manage. and broader. Organisations suffer from specific characteristic problems associated with knowledge: Hence, the full utilization of an organisation’s “knowledge base”, coupled with the potential of · “Knowledge Bottleneck” – A particular skill or individual skills, competencies, thoughts, innovations expertise is in short supply causing a bottleneck and ideas will enable an organization to compete more that restricts the operations that compete for that effectively. supply. · “Organisational Amnesia” – Organisations fail 1.3 What is Knowledge Management? to retain knowledge acquired and lessons learnt in the past. The people who had the knowledge During the past few years, information strategy leave and no retrievable record remains. executives have seen the emergence of interest in the · “Sub-optimal Decision-making” – The best newly chartered topic of knowledge management knowledge available fails to be applied correctly (Shahnon, 2000). The shared theme is that, increasingly, leading to sub-optimal decision-making. knowledge in the minds of organizational members is of · “Wasted Resources” – Since the organization greatest value as an organizational resource. does not really know what knowledge resources it has, it fails to capitalize on potential new However, there is no commonly accepted understanding initiatives. of “knowledge management” or of the business case for 108 Dobberstein also identified some of the common Most of them did not have the benefit of education and symptoms of knowledge management problems: external pressure and sometimes even threat were the only motivation for them to work (Devarajan, 2005). · Emphasis on gut feeling in decision making Skipping links in the chain of command was nothing which results in key decisions being wrong short of sacrilege and rabble-rousing. The concept of · Frequent re-invention of the wheel which is bureaucracy as formulated by Max Weber, involving reflected in the same mistakes being repeated division of labour and a framework of rules, regulations, · Failure to attract/retain outstanding people and regimen was hailed as a paramount virtue. Henry where the company instead attracts weaker Ford articulated aptly and, also, in anguish the “summum talent and hence generates poorer performance bonum” of the management philosophy prevalent at that · Insularity and inward-looking focus, where time: "What I want is a good pair of hands; unfortunately management fails to leverage on external I must take them with a person attached." Just as the expertise. proliferation of