RE: HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT WE KNOW?
First of all, we need to know what knowledge sharing is; and knowledge sharing is the activity through which skills, expertise and information is exchanged among people (Frappaolo 89). These people might be in the family, friends, community or even in the organization. In our case we are discussing on how knowledge is shared in the organization. Some organizations have a culture of sharing knowledge while others believe that sharing it creates loopholes in their organization (Allee 73).
Knowledge sharing is necessary in this organization as among other reasons it is an emerging trend and hence a requirement to maintain an edge over our competitors. Also, knowledge sharing will allow innovation in the organization as it fosters a free flow of ideas and information between various departments and different levels in the organizational structure. Knowledge sharing will also help the organization in formulation of new products and services, foster talent growth by building competencies, and streamlining business operations by removing redundant processes.
It is important that everyone in the organization focuses on formulating strategies that will ease knowledge sharing in the company. There are two strategies that the organization may opt for to promote interactions that foster knowledge management: organization and project team strategy. The organization strategy proposes investment in the level of the organizational integrative management practices to ease interactions to build knowledge among people situated in different parts of the organization (Huysmann and D.H 67). This is usually done when a task for knowledge creation is recognized and individuals are structured to create knowledge. The other strategy is the project team which builds on the team-level by improving available literature. This strategy suggests project team level investment, integrative practices of the management that will facilitate the interactions among individuals to create knowledge among them once a task of knowledge creation is defined and individuals are put in teams to create knowledge. These two strategies are approaches for knowledge development and a prediction of good organization capability (Yan 46). They are advantageous, but they are also costly and it will cost the organization a lot to conduct this every time and so not all the managers in the organization should conduct them.
The important criteria that the company should watch when determining an approach are include monetary and time costs. Many managers are not going to use the strategies mentioned above because they are costly. It is however the responsibility of the client to check the feasibility of a strategy based on the monetary cost of implementing it and the expected returns. The organizations should also consider the time taken in implementing a strategy (Montano 91). For instance the time taken for team building might affect the organization’s outcome. The team building might take a lot of time which would be used for other operations within the organization. We as the organization should also consider the applicability of the strategies in the work field. For instance not all the departments would use the same strategy because they might not be applicable to some departments.
The company should also consider the best practices in determining the best strategy to use and the best approach. The company should consider sensitizing the employees on the importance of the knowledge sharing strategies (Gwin 54). The other practice is integrating the employees in making decisions. The company should involve employees in decision making as they are the ones who come in contact with the client and also do the actual operations and hence know what is feasible and what is not. Also, some of the employees are talented in various ways and so they might be of help when it comes to decision making.
When making the decisions on the strategies to be used, the company or the organization should consider the employees to avoid the latter feeling left out. The organization should at least consider the employees since they are also part of the organization.
WORKS CITED
Gwin, Catherine. Sharing Knowledge: Innovations and Remaining Challenges (Independent
Evaluation Group Studies). New York: World Bank Publications 2003. Print
Huysman, M. H and D.H. de Wit. Knowledge Sharing in Practice (Information Science and
Knowledge Management) New York: Springer.2010 Print
Yan, Fu. Knowledge Sharing Organization Structure. Beijing: Economic Management
Publishing House. 2008 Print
Allee, Verna. The Knowledge Evolution: Expanding Organizational Intelligence.UK:
Butterworth- Heinemann. 1997 Print
Montano, Bonnie. Innovation of Knowledge Management.UK: IRM. 2005 Print
Frappaolo, Carl. Knowledge Management. Mankato: Capstone. 2006 Print
