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Emergence of Quality Theories
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Foundations of Quality Management Unit 7
Sikkim Manipal University Page No.: 127
Unit 7 Quality as a Knowledge
Management Concept Structure:
7.1 Introduction
Learning Objectives
7.2 Knowledge and Information
7.3 Knowledge Management – A Quality Management Framework
7.4 Knowledge Management
7.5 Tacit and Explicit Knowledge in Quality
7.6 Knowledge Repositories
7.7 Approaches to Knowledge Management
7.8 Obstacles in Knowledge Management
7.9 Case Study
7.10 Summary
7.11 Terminal Questions
7.12 Answers
7.13 References
7.1 Introduction
In today’s competitive environment organization needs to have sound
business knowledge to gain competitive advantage. In uncertain market
conditions organization needs a quality approach that views knowledge as a
foundation factor for organization survival and growth.
Quality management emphasis on optimum utilization of resources and on
greater productivity and the use of intellectual capital and knowledge assets
hold the key to achieve desired result. Organizations need to take various
decisions, plan, and organize, and knowledge is the basis for strategically
decision making. They are the building blocks or raw material for decision
making. Sound knowledge leads to effective decisions and provide overall
quality and productivity. Such as, knowledge of customer need and
expectation, knowledge of raw materials and resources to be used,
knowledge of products and services to be delivered these are some of the
information that helps to built strong decisions.
Organizations face various concerns of survival, adaption and competence.
By creating, acquiring, embedding and using knowledge, organizations can
address the issues and gain competitive advantage.
Foundations of Quality Management Unit 7
Sikkim Manipal University Page No.: 128
Managing information and knowledge require a significant commitment of
resources. It needs organization to keep the track and update, and look for
new sources of information and new technologies that helps to stand out
from others.
The concern for knowledge management is to exploit and develop
knowledge assets that help to attain objectives.
Knowledge assets refer to the accumulated intellectual resources that an
organization possesses, including information, ideas, learning, understanding,
memory, insights, cognitive and technical skills1.
And to achieve objectives, management has to take responsibility for all
those processes associated with identification, share and creation of
knowledge that requires a systematic creation and maintenance of
knowledge repositories to cultivate and facilitate sharing of knowledge and
organizational learning. A knowledge conversion process helps to use,
create share and transfer knowledge, it helps to preserve, embed and
enhance knowledge of process, products or services, and it also helps to
improve the knowledge access and develops an environment that is
conducive to knowledge conversion process.
Knowledge to be managed includes both explicit,-documented knowledge,
and tacit – subjective knowledge.
Therefore, Quality management helps to address changes, improve
knowledge management capacities and skills. With Integration of knowledge
and quality management process overall quality and productivity of the
organization will enhance and leads to a holistic development.
Learning Objectives:
After studying this unit, you will be able to:
Discuss the importance and application of knowledge management
Discuss the interrelation of quality and knowledge management
Explain the storage, application and utilization of knowledge assets in
organizations.
1Evans. R James and Lindsay. M. William, ”The management and control of
quality”, 6th edn, Thomson – South Western
Foundations of Quality Management Unit 7
Sikkim Manipal University Page No.: 129
7.2 Knowledge and Information
Information is an understanding of the relationships between pieces of data,
or between pieces of data and other information.
Information relates to description, definition, or perspective (what, who,
when, where).2
Knowledge comprises strategy, practice, method, or approach (how)
Fig. 7.1
7.3 Knowledge Management – A Quality Management Framework
A manager in Hewlett – Packard noted, ”The fundamental building material
of a modern corporation is knowledge“ H. James observed, “All organization
have it, but most don’t know what they have know, don’t use what they do
know and don’t reuse the knowledge they have”3. Quality of any product/or
service depends significantly on knowledge. To be considered as reliable,
knowledge concerning the organization processes has to be identified and
formalized as much as possible.
In order to manage a business, organizations need to have strong in and
around information. New century is dominated by knowledge-based
enterprises operating within this forces requires concern for wider issues
such as environmental scanning and, quality management is very focused
on knowledge production and integration.
Quality as such is defined as accelerated sustainable innovation in response
to problems and is directed at improving quality of knowledge processes,
production and integration in response to problems.
3 Evans. R James and Lindsay. M. William, ”The management and control of
quality”, 6th edition, Thomson – South Western
Foundations of Quality Management Unit 7
Sikkim Manipal University Page No.: 130
Quality management focuses on performing knowledge processing to
manage the best business processes and produce quality in products and
services .It relies heavily on production of knowledge and put emphasizes
on systematic, statistical, and scientific studies to bring quality to the modern
enterprise. Knowledge management is contributing quality management by
continuing contributing evolutionary development of effective programs,
policies, and rules that accelerate innovation in quality management and its
relate knowledge processes to eliminate error.
Quality management decisions and business process actions can be
confidently based on knowledge management.
Deming – quality guru in his quality philosophical framework summarized his
philosophy and called “A system of profound knowledge”, which consists of
four parts
1) Appreciation for a system
2) Understanding process variation
3) Theory of knowledge
4) Psychology
In the third part of profound knowledge which is called “theory of
knowledge”, Deming stresses the nature and scope of knowledge. Its,
presuppositions and bases, and the general reliability of claims to
knowledge4, Clarence Irving Lewis, author of Mind and the world believes
that management decision should be driven by facts, data and justifiable
theories, it should not be based solely on opinions .As such experience can’t
tested and verified but for prediction, good theories which are supported by
data and shows cause and effect relationship can be used, as these
theories explains the reason of why things happen.
Quality and Knowledge – An interrelation
Fig. 7.2
4 Evans. R. James, “Total Quality, Management, Organization and Strategy”, 4
th
edition, Cenage Learning
Foundations of Quality Management Unit 7
Sikkim Manipal University Page No.: 131
Role of Quality in Knowledge Management
Managing Quality in knowledge assets is prerequisite, organization must
ensure that data and information are valid and accurate, systems that
process data (hardware and software) are reliable and information is
accessible to all who need it.
Data Validity: Data used for planning and decision making requires
being accurate and valid. Good data yield good results. A sound
decision requires quality data.
To collect reliable data a systematic approach is required, internal cross
functional teams or external auditors can conduct periodic audits of the
process to collect the data.
Standardized forms, clear instructions and adequate training lead to
consistence performance in data collection
For example Data security AT&T Universal Card Services, used
standard data entry and procedures to facilitate the consistency and
uniform editing of manually input data and followed stringent guidelines
and standards for developing ,maintaining ,documenting and managing
data system.
The quality principle should be applied in managing and creating
knowledge.
Following are some of the features to manage quality in information:
Capture data only once and keeping its close to the origin of data
Eliminating human error by encouraging electronic support
Using single database
Ensuring proper training
Defining targets and measures of data quality
Error check and backup
Error checking capability into software system
Ensuring data availability and validity
Data Accessibility: Total quality focuses on data availability to
everyone besides top manager’s. Collected information should be
available to right person whenever needed. Right information, to right
person, at right time is quality approach.
Foundations of Quality Management Unit 7
Sikkim Manipal University Page No.: 132
Data accessibility empowers employees and encourages their
participation in quality improvement
Data security: Data are to be kept secure from the external threat .To
prevent the external threats systems have to be safeguarded with the
use of firewalls and passwords. Sensitive data are to be accessed by
only authorized users to safeguard the data security.
Role of Knowledge in Quality Management: The quality of products and
services is significantly depends on knowledge.
Knowledge management involves the process of identifying, capturing,
organizing and using knowledge assets to create and sustain competitive
advantage. Knowledge management can contribute to quality in terms of
providing, conceptual frameworks for thinking, knowledge processing and
improving its character and helps to validate frameworks that can help
individuals and groups.
The contributions of Knowledge Management to Quality Management
decisions are indirect, but they can have a pervasive positive impact on
knowledge processing in QM and through this impact can affect QM
decisions, implementation and business processing.
7.4 Knowledge Management
Concept:
Knowledge management constitutes, the practices applied in an
organization to identify, create, represent, distribute and enable
implementation of perceptiveness and experiences. The experiences and
insights are embedded in organizational processes and practices. It is the
management of information, experiences, insights which helps to improve
the process and enhance quality.
Knowledge is information in context to produce an actionable
understanding. It can be said that knowledge is information and context that
leads the ability to act.
Knowledge management focuses on how an organization identifies,
creates, captures, and acquires shares and leverages knowledge.
Foundations of Quality Management Unit 7
Sikkim Manipal University Page No.: 133
History and evolution of Knowledge Management
Peter Drucker, Paul Strassmann, and Peter Senge these are the various
theorists those have made contribution to evolution of knowledge
management, Chris Argyris, Christoper Bartlett, and Dorothy Leonard-
Barton of Harvard Business School have examined various facets of
managing knowledge. A study of Chaparral Steel, company, which has
effective knowledge management strategy inspired the research
documented Wellsprings of Knowledge – Building and Sustaining Sources
of Innovation (Harvard Business School Press, 1995). Peter Senge has
contributed and focused on the "learning organization," a cultural dimension
of managing knowledge.
Diffusion of innovation concept has also made remarkable contribution to
our understanding of how knowledge is produced, used, and diffused within
organization. The appreciation of the mounting importance of organizational
knowledge was accompanied by concern over how to deal with exponential
increases in the amount of available knowledge and increasingly complex
products and processes.
Knowledge acquisition, ”knowledge engineering," "knowledge-base
systems, and computer-aided facilities has contributed a lot in this sphere.
1980’s spurred the rise of the knowledge management systems that relied
on work done in artificial intelligence and expert systems.
Characteristics of Effective knowledge management system5:
An effective knowledge management system should include the following
A system to capture and organize the tacit and explicit knowledge of
business functions and processes to make people better understand
how business functions.
A system design that facilitates incorporation of new knowledge into the
business system and that is toward continuous improvement and
innovation.
A common structure to manage knowledge, validate, synthesis new
knowledge as it is acquired.
5 Evans. R James and Lindsay. M. William, ”The management and control of
quality”, 6th edition, Thomson – South Western
Foundations of Quality Management Unit 7
Sikkim Manipal University Page No.: 134
A culture and values that support collaborative sharing of knowledge,
across functions and encourages full participation of all employees in the
process.
Why knowledge management ?
Strategically linking organizational intellectual assets with positive
business results and enhancing quality in business processes.
Treating knowledge as an important concern of business activities and
reflected in strategy, policy, and practice at all levels of the organization.
To align strategy and process
To measure return on quality
To design effective performance measure systems
7.5 Tacit and Explicit Knowledge in Quality
Knowledge and information are the tools to deal with business problems;
managing knowledge provides primary opportunity for achieving substantial
savings, significant improvements in performance and provides competitive
advantage.
Knowledge is perishable and if it is not renewed and replenished, it
becomes worthless.
As it provide the “know how“ that an organization has available to use,
invest and grow. Many researchers and writers on this have drawn attention
to the distinction between explicit and tacit knowledge.
Tacit Knowledge : (personal know-how)
Tacit knowledge is information that is formed around intangible factors
resulting from an individual experience and is personal and content-specific.
The tacit knowledge is which we cannot easily communicate in words or
symbols or the rest of the knowledge. Much of our knowledge is tacit;
perhaps we do not fully know what we know and it can be very difficult to
explain or communicate what, we know. Tacit knowledge represents
internalized knowledge that an individual may not be consciously aware of
how he or she accomplishes particular tasks. For ex: A manager way of
motivating employees to accomplish goals.
In many organizations, however, especially the services sector, much of
people’s valuable and useful knowledge is tacit rather than explicit.
Foundations of Quality Management Unit 7
Sikkim Manipal University Page No.: 135
The salient characteristic of the tacit knowledge approach is the basic belief
that Knowledge is essentially personal in nature and is therefore difficult to
extract from the heads of individuals. In effect, this approach to knowledge
management assumes, often implicitly, that the knowledge in and available
to an organization will largely consist of tacit knowledge that remains in the
heads of individuals in the organization.6
The tacit knowledge holds that people are ”knowledge carriers“ and
dissemination of knowledge can be accomplished by the transfer of people
from one part to another part of an organization, in this view, new
knowledge is created when people come together under circumstances that
encourage them to share their ideas, experience, knowledge and insights
and this leads to learning in an organization
Tacit knowledge improve understanding of who knows what in an
organization – an effort that is sometimes described as an effort to create
“know who” forms of knowledge
An example of the tacit knowledge approach to transferring knowledge
within a global organization is provided by Toyota. When Toyota wants to
transfer knowledge of its production system to new employees in a new
assembly factory, Toyota typically selects a core group of two to three
hundred new employees and sends them for several months training and
work on the assembly line in one of Toyota’s existing factories. After several
months of studying, the production system and working alongside
experienced Toyota assembly line workers were sent back to the new
factory site. These repatriated workers are accompanied by one or two
hundred long-term, highly experienced Toyota workers, who will then work
alongside with all new employees in new factory to assure that knowledge of
Toyota’s finely tuned production process is fully implanted in the new
factory.7
Explicit Knowledge (recorded)
Explicit knowledge includes information stored in documents or other forms
of media, or that which can be express to others. Explicit knowledge can be
6 Sanchez Ron, “Tacit Knowledge” versus “Explicit Knowledge” – Approaches to
Knowledge Management Practice”, http://www.knowledgeboard.com/download/3512/Tacit-vs-Explicit.pdf 7 ibid
Foundations of Quality Management Unit 7
Sikkim Manipal University Page No.: 136
put into a form that we can communicate to others – the words, figures and
models in book are an example of that. Explicit knowledge represents
knowledge that the individual holds consciously in mental focus, in a form
that can easily be communicated to others
In traditional perceptions of the role of knowledge in business organizations,
tacit knowledge is often viewed as real key to getting things done and
creating new value. Not explicit knowledge. Thus we often encounter an
emphasis on “learning organization" and other approaches that stress
internalization of information (through experience and action) and
generation of new knowledge through managed interaction.
7.6 Knowledge Repositories
Knowledge repositories are knowledge assets, to organizations that refer
accumulation of intellectual resources that organizations possess.
Knowledge can easily be lost if information is not documented or when
individuals leave the organization. Repositories are the storage of
information for further use. Knowledge repositories, captures and manages,
knowledge in an organization and can be said as organizational memory. It
continuously captures and analyses the knowledge assets of an
organization. It is a collaborative system where people can get information
in order to retrieve and preserve organizational knowledge assets and
facilitate collaborative working. As the process improvement requires new
knowledge to result in better processes and procedures. Knowledge
repositories or Knowledge assets are similar to capital assets. They are
usually independent of those who created them and they can be used,
moved, and leveraged by others to solve broad-based problems and to
enhance performance.
Knowledge repositories are storage of information or policies and are
accessed to leverage organizational processes. They increases knowledge
of an organization, both as in an individual sense as well as a whole.
Foundations of Quality Management Unit 7
Sikkim Manipal University Page No.: 137
Kinds of Knowledge repositories:
Fig. 7.3: Knowledge Repositories
Employees: Employees are repositories of knowledge, they have firsthand
experience, information, knowledge and learning, that can be utilize for the
innovative process designing. Personal knowledge rooted in individual
experience and involving personal belief, perspective, and values. The
knowledge is stored in the brain of respective employees.
They are the carriers of tacit knowledge, attributed with “know-how” to
perform task and they have skills or the ability to solve problem.
Database: Database is organizational knowledge repositories where the
information is stored and retrieved. It is a collection of information that is
organized so that it can easily be accessed, managed, and updated. It is an
integrated collection of logically related records or files that is stored in a
computer system, which consolidates records previously stored in separate
files into a common pool of data records that provides data for many
applications.
Foundations of Quality Management Unit 7
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Software: There are various software’s used to store and process
information. It enhances knowledge repositories that support the
collaborative generation of knowledge by providing a semi-automatically
generated semantic net of the topics contained.
What is a...
– how does one look...
– how does one use...
– how good is...
– how does one implement...
(verbal description)
(diagrams, animations)
(examples, explanations)
(situational ratings)
(recipe or template)
Patents: A patent refers to a right granted to organization that invents or
discovers any new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, or
composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement. Patents are
unique information repository
Documents: A document is a physical symbolic, diagrammatically,
representation of the information to communicate. It is designed with the
capacity to communicate and represents information.
It carries organizational documented information for further retrieval.
Guides Policies: Guiding policies are the source of organization plan and
policies laid down for retrieval and organization information.
Procedures: Procedures are the scientific method, which indicates
sequence, steps, task, decision calculation and process to perform a job or
process the job when undertaken produce the result or outcome.
Technical drawings: Technical drawing is the standardized technical ideas
These are the knowledge repositories or knowledge assets that stores
information and knowledge for further process and enhancement, they play
more important role than financial and physical assets in organizations.
7.7 Approaches to Knowledge Management
Approaches to quality management pertain to reshape processes to get
valued result, in terms of quality and sustainable innovation in response to
problems. The emphasis is strongly on the elimination of errors, from
business process, employment of wide range of IT tools and techniques,
human intervention, social, analytical, and techniques are employed to
achieve this.
Foundations of Quality Management Unit 7
Sikkim Manipal University Page No.: 139
The ultimate concern is to enhance organizational ability and capacity to
attain organizational goal.
Karl-Erik Sveiby identified two “tracks” of knowledge management:
o Management of Information. According to Sveiby, "… knowledge =
Objects that can be identified and handled in information systems."
o Management of People. For many researchers and practitioners,
knowledge consists of "… processes, a complex set of dynamic skills,
know-how, etc., that is constantly changing."
(From Sveiby, Karl-Erik, "What is knowledge management" )
Knowledge management approaches can broadly classify as:
Mechanistic approaches to knowledge management
Systematic approaches to knowledge management
Cultural/behaviorist approaches to knowledge management
Mechanistic approaches to knowledge management
Mechanistic approaches to knowledge management are characterized by
the application of technology and resources to do more of the same better
Systematic approaches to knowledge management:
The systematic approach to knowledge management retains the traditional
faith in rational analysis of knowledge problem: such as –“The problem has
a solution only the way of thinking has to be changed “
Cultural/behaviorist approaches to knowledge management
Cultural/behaviorist approaches, – This approach concentrates and tend to
focus more on innovation and creativity – the learning organization. And
holds root in process re-engineering and change management, tend to view
“knowledge problem" as a – management issue.
7.8 Obstacles in Knowledge Management
In general, managing knowledge has been perceived as a different kind of
problem – an implicitly human, knowledge work is fundamentally different in
character from physical labor.
The knowledge work is almost completely immersed in a computing
environment. Alters the methods by which we must manage, learn,
represent knowledge, interact, solve problems, and act.
Foundations of Quality Management Unit 7
Sikkim Manipal University Page No.: 140
7.9 A Case Study8
8 Evans. R James and Lindsay. M. William, ”The management and control of
quality”, 6th edition, Thomson – South Western
Quality in Practice
Knowledge Management for Continuous improvement at
Convergys
Convergys Corporation (NYSE: CVG), a member of the S & P 500 and
the Forbes Platinum 400, is the global leader in integrated billing,
employee care, and customer care services provided through out-
sourcing or licensing. Converges serves top companies in
telecommunications, Internet, cable and broadband service, technology,
financial service, and other Industries in more than 40 countries, and
also provides integrated, outsourced, human resource services to
leading companies across a broad range of industries. Convergys
software processes more than 1.5 million individual bills each day to
support more than 120 million sub-scribes, and manages more than 1.7
million separate customer and employee contacts, both live and via
electronic interaction. Convergys employs more than 48,000 people in
48 customer contact centers, data centers and other offices in the United
States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
Convergys is on the Internet at http:// www. Convergys.com, and has
world headquarters in Cincinnati.
The outsourced customer service industry is maturing rapidly, is
extremely dynamic, and the environment continues to become more and
more complex. Some factors contributing to this situation include
consolidation of providers, stiff price competition, and new competition
from both the expansion to offshore markets such as India and the
Philippines as well as traditional system integrators who are further
penetrating the business process outsourcing (BPO) market. In addition,
Convergys is a fairly young organization, having growth through a series
of acquisitions that number more than 20 in the last 20 years. This high
number of mergers creates a unique challenged to integrate the myriad
of processes, procedure, and systems. With this environment and the
expectations of clients, shareholders and employees to constantly
improve, Convergys developed a vision “To establish a high
Foundations of Quality Management Unit 7
Sikkim Manipal University Page No.: 141
performance culture focused on continuously improving the value we
provide to our clients, shareholders and employees.”
To deploy continuous improvement (CI) as a key part of the company’s
culture and achieve this vision, Convergys followed a two-step
approach.
1. Establish leadership support and financial relevance.
2. Support and encourage total participation establish CI as part of
everyone’s job.
First, they built leadership support by linking CI to importance business
initiatives in a highly visible way. With this strong foundation, they turned
more attention to getting all employees involved in improving the
business. To accomplish this goal, Convergys needed a tool to help
facilitate sharing and accelerating improvement efforts. The tool they
chose was a Web-based employee intranet that called the CI portal (see
Figure 8.11).
The CI Portal provides an infrastructure for companywide knowledge
management activities. One of the primary ways employees use it us to
submit, tract, and manage improvement efforts (see Figure 8.12).
Additionally all improvement efforts and success stories from throughout
the organization can be accessed through the CI Portal. Since its
inception in the fourth quarter of 2000, more than 2400 improvement
efforts have been submitted in the pipeline, 300 of which were
completed, successful improvements by mid-2003.
Convergys also introduced a Best Practices Knowledgebase to the CI
Portal (see Figure 8.13). The purpose of the knowledge base is to
encourage and facilitate the sharing of best practices that improve the
value of services provided to their clients. Furthermore, through this
knowledge base, best practices can be adopted and leveraged across
the organization. To facilitate the sharing of knowledge across the
organization, the knowledge base was designed to make it easy to
record a best practice in a consistent format that makes it understood by
others with little difficulty. Additionally, best practices are categorized in
a way that makes it easy to find those that are relevant to a diverse set
of needs. To ensure the ongoing credibility of the Best Practices
Knowledgebase, a potential best practice is reviewed and endorsed
Foundations of Quality Management Unit 7
Sikkim Manipal University Page No.: 142
before it can be designated as a best practice. Once the proper
documentation is in place, the potential best practice is forwards to a
vice president deemed to be a subject matter expert in the area of the
idea. The VP is asked to review the practice and decide whether its use
should be encouraged across the organization. The VP then designates
the practice as a Best Practice.
Another reason employees go to the CI Portal is to access resources to
help them facilitate or accelerate improvement efforts. More than 40
specific improvement tools that are accessible through the CI Portal
support their standard improvement methodology, which is referred to as
The Improvement Process or TIP. Figure 8.14 shows TIP as accessed in
the CI Portal. For each step of TIP, CI Tools are identified that support
that step.
GI Tools are approaches, tips and techniques that facilitate problem
solving and making improvements. CI Tools are basically proven
methods that assist in marking fact-based decisions. CI Tools can be
used in a variety of ways. Independently, each tool can help to solve a
common business issue. CI Tools also support a structured
improvement effort. CI Tools are documented in the CI Portal in a
simple, consistent, easy –to- use format. Figure 8.15 shows list of the
types of tools included in the CI Portal as well as the consistent format.
Access to TIP and CI tools through the CI Portal provides an ongoing
source of continual training for employees on an –needed basis and a
way to refresh and reinforce continuous improvement approaches.
Additionally, self – paced training modules have been developed
specifically for CI and the CI Portal and are available to all employees to
augment learning and personal development. Examples of the self-
paced course including the following.
Driving Improvements with the CI Portal
Accelerating Improvements with TIP and CI Tools
Improving Business Processes
Continuous improvement (CI) is an integral part of Convergys’s culture
and its value proposition. Through CI, Convergys has been able to
generate significant financial benefits, such as maintaining higher profit
margins than its competition. In 2002 alone, more than 2,000
Foundations of Quality Management Unit 7
Sikkim Manipal University Page No.: 143
Self Assessment Questions:
1. What are knowledge repositories?
2. Differentiate between Explicit and Tacit knowledge
3. Select the correct option:
The Knowledge that is formed around intangible factors resulting from
an individual experience and is personal and content-specific is:
a) Explicit knowledge
b) Tacit knowledge
c) Transit knowledge
d) Information
7.10 Summary
“Quality is the totality of features and characteristics of a product in
satisfying customer needs and expectations on a continuous basis to delight
customer”. Quality is conformance to requirements or specifications, quality
of any product and service depends significantly on knowledge.
As the Business organizations exist with certain mission – “they are trying to
accomplish objectives, though they have to, face competition, gain
competitive advantage”, they have to improve the performance – ”To deliver
the best results”, and they also have to deal with the change “How to cope
with change? Now all these need made lifelong learning as an inescapable
reality for organization and they compete on the basis of knowledge. As the
product and services are increasingly getting complex, endowing them with
a significant information component is essential. Therefore, knowledge and
management employees (or 45 percent of management) were directly
involved in CI activities. In a 24 Month period, more than 2,400
improvement ideas were submitted. Furthermore, thousands more
embraced the CI culture. Several clients also acknowledged their
approach to continuous improvement as a point of differentiation.
CI and the uses of the CI Portal keep expanding. The focus will continue
to be on how employees can be better equipped to facilitate making their
own improvements. Additionally, Convergys continues to learn how to
most effectively leverage the knowledge and experience of its
employees through the sharing of success stories and best practices,
and in the process, strengthen CI as a competitive advantage.
Foundations of Quality Management Unit 7
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information are considered as corporate assets and it need strategies
policies and tools to manage these intangible assets same as the tangible
assets of organization.
Knowledge Management is the discipline that helps spread knowledge of
individuals or groups across organizations in ways that directly affect
performance. Knowledge Management envisions, getting the Right
Information within the Right Context to the Right Person at the Right Time
for the Right Business Purpose.
Functionally, the ideal knowledge management Infrastructure should take
advantage of existing knowledge stimulates the development of new
knowledge and ideas, acquire it directly and painlessly, automatically
classify and relate knowledge, make it globally accessible so that the right
knowledge could be obtained and effectively utilized by any knowledge
worker who needs it.
Further organization needs to implement technology driven methods to
access control and deliver information to share, identify and transfer
knowledge within organization these are the best practices that often set
high-performing organization apart from the rest
Finally, the contributions of Knowledge Management to Quality
Management decisions are indirect, but they can have a pervasive positive
impact on knowledge processing in QM and this impact can positively affect
QM decisions, implementation and business processing.
9 Evans. R James and Lindsay. M. William ,”The management and control of quality,6
th
edition, Thomson –South Western
9A benchmarking study co-sponsored by the American Productivity and
Quality Center reported that 79 percent of managers from the 70
responding companies felt that managing organizational knowledge is
central to the organization’s strategy, but 59 percent stated that their firm
was performing this management function poorly or not at all. Also, 88
percent believed that a climate of openness the trust is important for
knowledge sharing, but 32 percent of the respondents believed that their
organization did not have such a climate. In many companies, the gap was
attributed to a lack of commitment to knowledge management on the part
of top managers.
The transfer of knowledge within organizations and the identification and
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7.11 Terminal Questions
1. How information plays a role in knowledge management?
2. What is the importance of knowledge management?
3. Fill in the blanks with the correct option:
______________ includes information stored in documents or other
forms of media, or that which can be express to others.
a) Explicit knowledge b) Tacit knowledge c) Any information
d) Process knowledge
7.12 Answers to SAQ’s and TQ’s
SAQ
1. Refer to 7.6
2. Refer to 7.4
3. Refer to 7.5
Answers to TQ’s
1. Refer to 7.2
2. Refer to 7.3
3. Refer to 7.5
7.13 References
1. Howard, Alan, Rosa, David; “Quality Management”, Tata McGraw Hill
Publication; Third Edition 2009.
2. M R Gopalan, John Bicheno; “Management Guide to Quality and
Productivity”, Second Edition; Biztantra Publication.
sharing of best practices often set high – performing organizations apart
from the rest.