KM and EC

According to Carla O'Dell, Knowledge Management is multidisciplinary. It is a field of study that covers a lot of areas. From a business perspective, knowledge management is defined as the strategies and processes designed to identify, capture, structure, value, leverage, and share an organization’s intellectual assets. These assets are then used to enhance an organization's performance and competitiveness. It is based on two important activities:

(1) capture and documentation of individual explicit and tacit knowledge, and

(2) its dissemination within the organization.

In the first activity, knowledge management is an approach to capture an organization's intellectual assets. It is also the process by which human centered assets are managed. Examples of human centered assets are the knowledge owned by individuals. The knowledge they possess can and must be shared with others within the company especially if it has the potential or the capacity to be used  towards accomplishing the organization's goals. Knowledge management consists of the processes involved with the leveraging of intellectual assets to improve an organization's performance.

In the second activity, knowledge management must be collaborative and integrated to guarantee the proper flow of information within an organization. The information must be cascaded accordingly based on the organization's communication plan. Misinformation and miscommunication must be avoided to deter unwanted and undesirable situations. Systems and processes are needed to acquire and share intellectual assets. Intellectual capital is on of the crucial elements that will give the company a competitive advantage with its targeted customers.

There are also differing views in the definition and description of knowledge management. In the library and information science perspective, it only  sees a very little distinction between information management and knowledge management. They describe and define these two as separate yet similar entities. The second perspective on the other hand makes a distinction between the management of information resources and of knowledge resources.

In e-communication, knowledge management has several processes. The first and fundamental process includes the creation and the acquisition of knowledge in various forms such as images, videos, sounds and more. Building and having your own database of resources makes it easier to retrieve data and information. These kinds of knowledge are also subject to modification based on your needs and the needs of your client. The information can and must be used for several purposes. These resources can also be archived or stored in a form or format that can stand the test of time. They also need to portable, they must possess the capability to move from one place to another. In short, the information or the knowledge must be available for transfer. It can be also subject to translation or re-purposing, it must be readily available for changes or modifications. All knowledge should be accessible and disposable at the same time.

Knowledge sharing includes the methodology and the software used for sharing and reuse of information.There are several tools that can be used for knowledge sharing such as e-mail or synchronous interaction tools. Examples of synchronous interaction tools are Facebook Messenger, Viber, Kakaotalk and the like. Knowledge sharing also requires collaboration tools that are used for  community building such as Yammer, Slack, Skype and others. Document or knowledge repositories are also needed along with staff and expertise directories such as Dropbox, Google Drive and others. E-learning tools and applications are also needed such as calendars and personal portals like Google Calendar, Sticky Notes and personal blogs.

We will now discuss two best practices in knowledge management.

Initially, there are four major processes involved in strategic knowledge management; Identifying, Sustaining, Building and Isolating.  Let us describe and define each process one by one for a better understanding. The first process is identifying. Identifying is the ability of a company or an organization to know what it can and cannot do. It is necessary to conduct a SWOT analysis to determine the company or the organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threat. Once these factors are identified they can now proceed to the second process. The second process is sustaining. Sustaining is focused on the distribution of knowledge assets across the company or organization. This requires the use of communication channels. If a company has a communication plan, it will greatly help them with the cascading of information so that no information is repeated or is rendered irrelevant. Once a company or organization is able to figure out the best way to sustain the distribution of knowledge they can now proceed to the third process. The third process is building. It is the establishment of the proper know-how and proficiency to match the requirements of a company or organization. This means that testing, training, seminars and evaluation are required to verify if employees have the proper aptitude and competence needed by the company or organization. Once they have completed the building process they can now proceed to the last process. The final process is isolating. Isolating is needed to make sure that a company or organization is performing at its optimum level by circulating the current and up-to-date information. It is necessary to remove or modify knowledge that has been deemed as obsolete. If a company or organization uses knowledge that is no longer up-to-date their ability to yield quality results will be compromised.

In knowledge management, adverse situations can be avoided if proper caution is practiced. A company or organization can never be careless. This is to avoid losses and damages that will cost the company or the organization. However, the existence of failures is a reality for all if not most companies or organizations. Nowadays, in this age where information is a key capital, failures are primarily caused by an over reliance on technology. Lack of understanding of the limitations of such systems can also cause failures. Improper fit of strategies in knowledge management with current organizational practices can also be considered as another reason for failure. Lack of acceptance or inability to adopt the information by employees can also be one. Proper implementation is required to guarantee the organizational fit and organizational acceptance of the employees and the organization's entirety. Proper implementation is also needed to guarantee the continued use. Organizational fit is necessary to properly carry out an internal assessment of needs and best practices in work as well as cost-benefit analysis and others. Organizational acceptance is the process of involving stakeholders in the design and implementation of systems by the help of managerial and technical support. Continued use is necessary to ensure proper content management. If knowledge management is properly utilized, it will definitely promote efficiency, learning, innovation, and competitive advantage within an organization.

In e-communication, let us review two best practices that we have previously discussed. First, always think before posting. One of the benefits of e-communication is permanence. Permanence can also be your worst enemy. Once something is uploaded on the internet it will be difficult to take it down. At times it can even be impossible. Information posted online will always re-surface regardless of the time or date. It may even change the perception of the truth because of the way it was written. Not all information posted online reflects the truth. There are times that information posted online lacks enough substance or has too much unnecessary items included. Examples of permanence in the internet that can be your worst enemy are the recent controversies regarding the Philippine News Agency's incompetence as a governing body that handles information. They have posted content which are not properly edited. You will notice that the information posted online did not go through the process of proofreading. People who were able to come across the articles immediately took a screenshot of PNA's blunders and their incomplete content has spread like wildfire online. Their credibility has been questioned by a lot of people and this becomes a reminder for everyone to always think before they post to avoid becoming the center of attention in the wrong way.

Second, obey copyright laws. Don’t steal. This means that ideas and products posted online are under copyright laws unless stated otherwise. Here in the Philippines, a law regarding copyright and intellectual property has been passed on January 1988. This was passed during the time of Fidel V. Ramos. It is Republic Act 8293 also known as the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines, an Act Prescribing the Intellectual Property Code and Establishing the Intellectual Property Office, Providing for Its Powers and Functions, And for Other Purposes. Copyright laws protect the integrity of creators and their creations. One of the most controversial copyright cases here in the Philippines was the between a local brand (Big Mak) and an international brand (McDonalds). Although this example was not an online battle it can still be used as an example for this specific article. In 2000, the Court of Appeals (CA) threw out the complaint filed by McDonalds against Big Mak. McDonalds sued Big Mak over its name and logos however it has been identified that Big Mak’s name was not based on the popular product by McDonalds but it came from the name of the owner’s parent’s name Maxima and Kimsoy. Their logos also show notable differences in terms of the shape, size and color. McDonalds was ordered by the Court of Appeals to pay 1.9 million to Big Mak for the damages the issue has cost.  

REFERENCES

N.A. (n.d.)Introduction to Knowledge Management. Retrieved November 14, 2017 from https://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/titles/content/9780262015080_sch_0001.pdf

King, William R. (n.d.) Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning. Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh. Retrieved November 14, 2017 from http://www.westga.edu/~dturner/KMOL.pdf

Uriarte Jr., Filemon A. (2008) A Brief Introduction to the Basic Elements of Knowledge Management for Non-Practitioners Interested In Understanding the Subject. ASEAN Foundation, Jakarta, Indonesia. Retrieved November 1, 2017 from http://www.aseanfoundation.org/documents/knowledge_management_book.pdf

N.A. (n.d.) Knowledge Management Best Practices. Retrieved November 17, 2017 from http://www.knowledge-management-tools.net/KM-best-practices.html

Alavi, Maryam Alavi and Dorothy E. Leidner. (2001) Review: Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management Systems: Conceptual Foundations and Research Issues. MIS Quarterly
Vol. 25, No. 1 pp. 107-136. Management Information Systems Research Center, University of Minnesota.  Retrieved November 17, 2017 from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3250961?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

N.A. (n.d.) Knowledge Management. Retrieved November 17, 2017 from http://www.cs.unibo.it/~gaspari/www/teaching/slides_KM1a.pdf

Mertins, Kai, et.al. (2001) Knowledge Management Best Practices in Europe. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. Retrieved November 17, 2017 from https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-662-04466-7?page=1

Patton, Michael Quinn. (2001) Evaluation, Knowledge Management, Best Practices, and High Quality Lessons Learned. Volume: 22 issue: 3, page(s): 329-336
Union Institute Graduate School, Minneapolis, MN. Retrieved November 17, 2017 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/109821400102200307?journalCode=ajec