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ESSAY ON “ORGANIZATIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND PLANNING”
Course : MMS 5101 Management
Course Lecturer : Mr. Shyaman Udayanga, Senior Lecturer, Head of the Department of Business Administration
By
G.M.S.P.APONSO GS/PS/Mgt/08/09
A report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Business AdministrationUniversity of Sri Jayewardenepura
Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce16th August 2009
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Acknowledgements
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I wish to extend our thanks to the staff of
the university library for their helpful and
flexibility in providing me with necessary
books for reference.
I sincerely thank the guidance and advice
given by Mr. Shyaman Udayanga, Senior
Lecturer, Head of the Department of
Business Administration which helped
me complete this project accurately.
Knowledge
Introduction
It is often said that an organization’s most valuable assets are the people it employees.
The ideas, experiences, expertise and knowledge contained in the mind of an
individual may be worth more to an organization than can be quantified with respect
to how that knowledge is applied each day to save time, reduce costs, and advance the
organization’s initiatives.
What is knowledge ?
Knowledge is at the highest level in a hierarchy with information at the middle
level, and data to be at the lowest level
A justified true belief
It is different from data & information
It is the richest, deepest & most valuable of the three components.
What is Information?
Information is processed data
Information is a subset of data, only including those data that possess context,
relevance and purpose
Information involves manipulation of raw data
In normal conversation we use knowledge to mean:
Knowing that (facts and information)
Knowing how (the ability to do something)
Sometimes, we use the word knowledge to mean that we have some information, we
know that Sunil drinks king coconut, for example. When we have this type of
knowledge then we are able to express it.
The point is that knowing that and knowing how are two different kinds of
knowledge.
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Defining of Knowledge
Understanding, awareness, or familiarity acquired through education or experience.
Anything that has been learned, perceived, discovered, inferred, or understood. The
ability to use information in a knowledge management system, knowledge is
information in action.
Knowledge is part of the hierarchy made up of data, information and knowledge. Data
are raw facts. Information is data with context and perspective. Knowledge is
information with guidance for action based upon insight and experience.
Knowledge is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as (i) expertise, and skills
acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical
understanding of a subject, (ii) what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and
information or (iii) awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or
situation. Philosophical debates in general start with Plato's formulation of knowledge
as "justified true belief". There is however no single agreed definition of knowledge
presently, nor any prospect of one, and there remain numerous competing theories.
Knowledge acquisition involves complex cognitive processes: perception, learning,
communication, association and reasoning. The term knowledge is also used to mean
the confident understanding of a subject with the ability to use it for a specific
purpose if appropriate. (Wikipedia)
Knowledge-based economy
The modern, global economy, which is driven by what people and organizations know
rather than only by capital and labor.
Characteristics of knowledge
Extraordinary leverage and increasing returns
Fragmentation, leakage, and the need to refresh
Uncertain value
Uncertain value of sharing
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Types of Knowledge
There are two kinds of knowledge. One is explicit knowledge, which can be
expressed in words and numbers and shared in the form of data, scientific formulae,
product specifications, manuals, universal principles, and so forth. This kind of
knowledge can be readily transmitted across individuals formally and systematically.
This has been the dominant form of knowledge in the West. The Japanese, however,
see this form as just the tip of the iceberg. They view knowledge as being primarily
tacit, something not easily visible and expressible.
Tacit knowledge is highly personal and hard to formalise, making it difficult to
communicate or share with others. Subjective insights, intuitions and hunches fall into
this category of knowledge. Furthermore, tacit knowledge is deeply rooted in an
individual's action and experience, as well as in the ideals, values or emotions he or
she embraces.
Tacit knowledge also contains an important cognitive dimension. It consists of
beliefs, perceptions, ideals, values, emotions and mental models so ingrained in us
that we take them for granted. Though they cannot be articulated very easily, this
dimension of tacit knowledge shapes the way we perceive the world around us.
Knowledge gaps
Many firms face the challenge of a knowledge gap, where current knowledge is not at
a sufficient level. Such a gap is particularly noticeable when the firm is trying to
introduce a new product or new process.
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What is Organizational Knowledge?
When group knowledge from several subunits or groups is combined and used to
create new knowledge, the resulting tacit and explicit knowledge can be called
organizational knowledge.
Since “organizational learning is seen as encoding inferences from history into
routines that guide behavior”, (Schulz, 11) it could be said that organizational
knowledge is the product of those routines. For example, again using the Navy as a
point of reference, during and after major combat operations in North, lessons
identified across the organization are usually captured in a formalized system and
assigned to the appropriate offices of primary responsibility for action. By sharing
those lessons explicitly across all groups, organizational knowledge is created. The
process of reviewing those lessons and providing responses that in effect change
routines already in place in a way that improves the performance of the organization
or speeds decision processes constitutes organizational learning.
At the organizational level, new knowledge is often generated by combining explicit
knowledge with explicit knowledge. Organizational knowledge becomes particularly
powerful and measurable when combined knowledge is used create standard routines,
create a common culture and language, and encourages and enables cross-functional
group interactions within an organization. It is in the interest of the organization to
develop its individual and group knowledge sources, to expand their organizational
knowledge base.
Individual Social
Explicit Conscious Objectified
implicit Automatic Collective
The Different Types of Knowledge in Organizational Analysis (Spender, 1993) p. 39
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The Value of Organizational Knowledge
Daniel Andriessen identifies four methods for determining value. First, the financial
valuation method, which assigns monetary value to an object. Second, the value
measurement method, which involves using a non-monetary criterion and translating
it into an observable phenomenon. Third, the value assessment method, which is
dependent upon the personal judgement of an evaluator. And fourth, “if the
framework does not include a criterion for value, but does involve a metrical scale
that relates to an observable phenomenon” (Andriessen, 13), intangibles can be
measured by what he calls the measurement method.
How an organization chooses to approach measuring the value of organizational
knowledge might depend on the source of the knowledge or on how that knowledge
might help meet a current objective.
The value measurement method might be used to assign value to organizational
knowledge if the knowledge held has an observable effect and non-monetary criteria.
Perhaps making a practice of knowing and then celebrating special events or
milestones in an organization will positively impact morale, so much so that the
changes and positive or negative impacts are observable among the staff.
The value assessment method might be applied in situations where a leader, manager,
or commander is able to evaluate the immediate value of organizational knowledge.
In the commander’s case, perhaps having access to organizational knowledge allows
he or she to make a critical decision more quickly and easily. He or she can then make
an assessment based on the results.
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Knowledge Management
A brief history of knowledge management
Knowledge management as a conscious discipline would appear to be somewhere
between five and fifteen years old. It evolved from the thinking of academics and
pioneers such as Peter Drucker in the 1970s, Karl-Erik Sveiby in the late 1980s, and
Nonaka and Takeuchi in the 1990s. During that time, economic, social and
technological changes were transforming the way that companies worked.
Globalisation emerged and brought new opportunities and increased competition.
Companies responded by downsizing, merging, acquiring, reengineering and
outsourcing. Many streamlined their workforce and boosted their productivity and
their profits by using advances in computer and network technology. However their
successes in doing so came with a price. Many lost company knowledge as they grew
smaller. And many lost company knowledge as they grew bigger – they no longer
“knew what they knew”.
By the early 1990s a growing body of academics and consultants were talking about
knowledge management as “the” new business practice, and it began to appear in
more and more business journals and on conference agendas. By the mid-1990s, it
became widely acknowledged that the competitive advantage of some of the world’s
leading companies was being carved out from those companies’ knowledge assets
such as competencies, customer relationships and innovations. Managing knowledge
therefore suddenly became a mainstream business objective as other companies
sought to follow the market leaders.
What is Knowledge Management?
Many of us simply do not think in terms of managing knowledge, but we all do it.
Each of us is a personal store of knowledge with training, experiences, and informal
networks of friends and colleagues, whom we seek out when we want to solve a
problem or explore an opportunity. Essentially, we get things done and succeed by
knowing an answer or knowing someone who does.
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Knowledge management (KM) may simply be defined as doing what is needed to get
the most out of knowledge resources. In general, KM focuses on organizing and
making available important knowledge, wherever and whenever it is needed.
The active management of the expertise in an organization. It involves collecting,
categorizing, and disseminating knowledge
Fundamentally, knowledge management is about applying the collective knowledge
of the entire workforce to achieve specific organisational goals. The aim of
knowledge management is not necessarily to manage all knowledge, just the
knowledge that is most important to the organisation. It is about ensuring that people
have the knowledge they need, where they need it, when they need it – the right
knowledge, in the right place, at the right time.
Why do we need knowledge management?
Knowledge management is based on the idea that an organisation’s most valuable
resource is the knowledge of its people. This is not a new idea – organisations have
been managing “human resources” for years. What is new is the focus on knowledge.
This focus is being driven by the accelerated rate of change in today’s organisations
and in society as a whole. Knowledge management recognises that today nearly all
jobs involve “knowledge work” and so all staff are “knowledge workers” to some
degree or another – meaning that their job depends more on their knowledge than
their manual skills. This means that creating, sharing and using knowledge are among
the most important activities of nearly every person in every organisation.
What does knowledge management involve?
Knowledge management is essentially about facilitating the processes by which
knowledge is created, shared and used in organisations. It is not about setting up a
new department or getting in a new computer system. It is about making small
changes to the way everyone in the organisation works. There are many ways of
looking at knowledge management and different organisations will take different
approaches. Generally speaking, creating a knowledge environment usually requires
changing organisational values and culture, changing people’s behaviours and work
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patterns, and providing people with easy access to each other and to relevant
information resources.
In terms of how that is done, the processes of knowledge management are many and
varied. As knowledge management is a relatively new concept, organisations are still
finding their way and so there is no single agreed way forward or best practice. This is
a time of much trial and error. Similarly, to simply copy the practices of another
organisation would probably not work because each organisation faces a different set
of knowledge management problems and challenges. Knowledge management is
essentially about people – how they create, share and use knowledge, and so no
knowledge management tool will work if it is not applied in a manner that is sensitive
to the ways people think and behave.
Some “textbook” & “web” definitions of knowledge management
“The capabilities by which communities within an organisation capture the
knowledge that is critical to them, constantly improve it, and make it available in the
most effective manner to those people who need it, so that they can exploit it
creatively to add value as a normal part of their work.” (BSI’s A Guide to Good
Practice in KM)
“Knowledge is power, which is why people who had it in the past often tried to make
a secret of it. In post-capitalism, power comes from transmitting information to make
it productive, not from hiding it!”(Peter Drucker)
“Knowledge management is the explicit and systematic management of vital
knowledge and its associated processes of creating, gathering, organizing, diffusion,
use and exploitation. It requires turning personal knowledge into corporate knowledge
that can be widely shared throughout an organization and appropriately applied.”
(David J Skyrme, 1997)
Knowledge Management (KM) comprises a range of practices used in an organisation
to identify, create, represent, distribute and enable adoption of insights and
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experiences. Such insights and experiences comprise knowledge, either embodied in
individuals or embedded in organisational processes or practice. (Wikipedia)
Knowledge management systems (KMS)
A system that facilitates knowledge management by ensuring knowledge flow from
the person(s) who know to the person(s) who need to know throughout the
organization. The knowledge evolves and grows during the process
Knowledge management initiatives and activities
Knowledge management initiatives have one of three aims:
To make knowledge visible, mainly through maps, yellow pages, and
hypertext
To develop a knowledge-intensive culture
To build a knowledge infrastructure
Developing the Km Environment
Whatever knowledge management tools and techniques we use, they are unlikely to
work in isolation – they need to be supported by the right kind of environment. The
three key elements of that environment are outlined here, namely:
People
Processes
Technology (IT)
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The organisation’s people, processes and technology will at all times be acting as
either enablers of, or barriers to, effective knowledge management. We will need to
identify the barriers and remove them and will probably also need to build on existing
enablers and create additional ones. This is often where the greatest knowledge
management challenges lie.
People
Of the three components of knowledge management – people, processes and
technology – the most important is undoubtedly people. Why? Because creating,
sharing and using knowledge is something that is done by people. Processes and
technology can help to enable and facilitate knowledge management, but at the end of
the day it is people who either do it or don’t do it. A number of organisations have
learned this through bitter experience. Of those companies that led the way in the
early days of knowledge management, many focused primarily on processes and
technology – to their cost. Having made significant investments in the latest systems,
they then found that people simply did not use them and so the systems ended up
being confined to what became known as “the ”. Since then, organisations have
learned that it is people who “make or break” knowledge management initiatives.
Reasons people do not like to share knowledge:
General lack of time to share knowledge and time to identify colleagues in
need of specific knowledge
Apprehension or fear that sharing may reduce or jeopardize people’s job
security
Low awareness and realization of the value and benefit of the knowledge
others possess
Dominance in sharing explicit over tacit knowledge, such as know-how and
experience that requires hands-on learning, observation, dialogue, and
interactive problem solving
Use of a strong hierarchy, position-based status, and formal power
Insufficient capture, evaluation, feedback, communication, and tolerance of
past mistakes that would enhance individual and organizational learning
effects
Differences in experience levels
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Lack of contact time and interaction between knowledge sources and
recipients
Poor verbal/written communication and interpersonal skills
Age differences
Gender differences
Processes
In bringing knowledge management into our organisation, we will need to select and
implement a number of processes that will help our organisation to be better at
creating, finding, acquiring, organising, sharing and using the knowledge it needs to
meet its goals. There are many such processes as follows.
Conducting knowledge audits to identify knowledge needs, knowledge resources and
knowledge flows
Creating knowledge strategies to guide the overall approach
Connecting people with people to share tacit knowledge using approaches
such as communities of practice or learning events
Connecting people with information to share explicit knowledge using
approaches such as best practices databases, and using content management
processes to ensure that explicit knowledge is current, relevant and easily
accessible
Creating opportunities for people to generate new knowledge, for example
through collaborative working and learning
Introducing processes to help people seek and use the knowledge of others
such as peer assists
Teaching people to share knowledge in ways that inspire people by using
storytelling techniques
Encouraging people to prioritise learning as part of their day-to-day work, by
learning before, during and after the tasks and projects they have performed
Technology (IT)
In the early days of knowledge management, there was a strong focus on information
technology (IT). As knowledge management became the latest buzzword, technology
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vendors were quick to spot an opportunity to sell “knowledge management solutions”
and many of the companies that led the way in knowledge management were quick to
buy – to their cost. Having made significant investments in the latest systems, they
then found that people simply did not use them and so the systems ended up being
confined to what became known as “the knowledge management graveyard”. These
companies learned the hard way that knowledge management is about people,
processes and technology – in that order of priority.
Technologies that support knowledge management
Artificial intelligence
Intelligent agents
Knowledge discovery in databases
Extensible Markup Language (XML)
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence methods used in KMS:
Assist in and enhance searching knowledge
Help establish knowledge profiles of individuals and groups
Help determine the relative importance of knowledge when it is contributed to
and accessed from the knowledge repository
Scan e-mail, documents, and databases to perform knowledge discovery,
determine meaningful relationships, glean knowledge, or induce rules for
expert systems
Identify patterns in data (usually through neural networks)
Forecast future results by using existing knowledge
Provide advice directly from knowledge by using neural networks or expert
systems
Provide a natural language or voice command–driven user interface for a
KMS
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Intelligent agents
Intelligent agents are software systems that learn how users work and provide
assistance in their daily tasks
They are used to elicit and identify knowledge
Knowledge discovery in databases (KDD)
A machine learning process that performs rule induction, or a related
procedure to establish knowledge from large databases
Knowledge discovery in databases
Model marts
Small, generally departmental repositories of knowledge created by employing
knowledge-discovery techniques on past decision instances.
Model warehouses
Large, generally enterprise wide repositories of knowledge created by
employing knowledge-discovery techniques on past decision instances. Similar to
data warehouses.
Extensible Markup Language (XML)
XML enables standardized representations of data structures so that data can be
processed appropriately by heterogeneous systems without case-by-case
programming.
Competitive advantage of Knowledge Management
Knowledge management has been proposed as a fundamental strategic process and
the only sustainable competitive advantage for firms (Grant, 1996; Davenport, 1998).
A key to understanding the success and failure of knowledge management efforts
within organizations is the ability to identify the relevant knowledge to manage and to
extract value out of this knowledge.
Knowledge for the sake of knowledge is not useful to firms. We define knowledge
management as the formalized, integrated approach of managing an enterprise’s
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articulated and tacit knowledge assets. Knowledge assets include systems, documents,
policies, and procedures, as well as unarticulated expertise and experience across the
individuals, groups, organizational, and inter-organizational domains. We discuss how
a knowledge management infrastructure enables the generation, acquisition, use, and
transfer of knowledge, and most importantly, the identification of the critical
knowledge areas for a firm. Moreover, we argue that competitive advantage consists
of two dimensions: the value created to the customer and the ability to differentiate
(through cost, innovation, or both) from competitors. The framework describes
specific mechanisms through which knowledge management contributes to these two
processes.
We are explicit about how firms can identify key knowledge areas that impact
competitive advantage, and how they can implement market (value creation) and
competitor (differential capabilities) mechanisms that are instrumental in obtaining
competitive advantage. Our integrative approach provides a fresh perspective
on knowledge management from which we generate important insights for
management practice. Only relevant and available knowledge impacts competitive
advantage, thus top management needs to proactively engage in identifying this
knowledge and extracting value out of it. (Schwartz , D. 2006)
Ensuring the Success of Knowledge Management Efforts
Implementing a knowledge management strategy can:
Reduce loss of intellectual capital
Reduce costs by decreasing the number of times the company must repeatedly
solve the same problem
Reduce redundancy of knowledge-based activities
Increase productivity
Increase employee satisfaction
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Factors that lead to knowledge management success
A link to a firm’s economic value, to demonstrate financial viability and
maintain executive sponsorship
A technical and organizational infrastructure on which to build
A standard, flexible knowledge structure to match the way the organization
performs work and uses knowledge
A knowledge-friendly culture that leads directly to user support
A clear purpose and language, to encourage users to buy into the system
A change in motivational practices, to create a culture of sharing
Multiple channels for knowledge transfer
A level of process orientation to make a knowledge management effort
worthwhile
Nontrivial motivational methods to encourage users to contribute and use
knowledge
Senior management support
Reasons of knowledge management failure
The effort mainly relies on technology and does not address whether the
proposed system will meet the needs and objectives of the organization and its
individuals
Lack of commitment
Failure to provide reasonable incentive for people to use the system
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Planning
What is planning and why we need to plan ?
Planning is one of the most important project management and time management
techniques. Planning is preparing a sequence of action steps to achieve some specific
goal. If we do it effectively, we can reduce much the necessary time and effort of
achieving the goal.
A plan is like a map. When following a plan, we can always see how much we have
progressed towards our project goal and how far we are from our destination.
Knowing where we are is essential for making good decisions on where to go or what
to do next.
One more reason why we need planning is again the 80/20 Rule. It is well established
that for unstructured activities 80 percent of the effort give less than 20 percent of the
valuable outcome. We either spend much time on deciding what to do next, or we are
taking many unnecessary, unfocused, and inefficient steps.
Planning is also crucial for meeting our needs during each action step with our time,
money, or other resources. With careful planning we often can see if at some point we
are likely to face a problem. It is much easier to adjust our plan to avoid or smoothen
a coming crisis, rather than to deal with the crisis when it comes unexpected.
Planning in organizations and public policy is both the organizational process of
creating and maintaining a plan; and the psychological process of thinking about the
activities required to create a desired goal on some scale. As such, it is a fundamental
property of intelligent behaviour. This thought process is essential to the creation and
refinement of a plan, or integration of it with other plans, that is, it combines
forecasting of developments with the preparation of scenarios of how to react to them.
The term is also used to describe the formal procedures used in such an endeavour,
such as the creation of documents diagrams, or meetings to discuss the important
issues to be addressed, the objectives to be met, and the strategy to be followed.
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Beyond this, planning has a different meaning depending on the political or economic
context in which it is used.
Two attitudes to planning need to be held in tension: on the one hand we need to be
prepared for what may lie ahead, which may mean contingencies and flexible
processes. On the other hand, our future is shaped by consequences of our own
planning and actions. (wikipedia)
A primary functional managerial activity that involves: Defining the organization’s goals Establishing an overall strategy for achieving those goals
Defining "Goal"
A goal is a statement of a desired future an organization wishes to achieve. It
describes what the organization is trying accomplish. Goals may be strategic (making
broad statements of where the organization wishes to be at some future point) or
tactical (defining specific short-term results for units within the organization). Goals
serve as an internal source of motivation and commitment and provide a guide to
action as well as a means of measuring performance (Barton, 2000). Defining
organizational goals helps to conceptualize and articulate the future direction of the
organization, thus allowing those responsible for setting that direction to develop a
common understanding of where the organization is heading. Goals provide a way of
assuring that an organization will get where it wants to go.
Setting Goals
How goals are set is as important as the goal itself. Thus it is important that goals
meet specific criteria that can be used to easily assess them. One way of doing this is
to use the acronym “SMART” as a way of evaluating the goal. An internet search for
“SMART” goals yielded some 6.7 million hits. One of those hits, Measure-X.com
said that “the origin of the acronym is lost, and the specific traits are not universally
agreed upon, [but] SMART goals still provide a great framework to improve our goal
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setting and help we create more effective goals.” A further search of the first forty
websites found that most used the following words to define a “SMART” goal:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time-bound
Specific
A goal is specific when it provides a description of what is to be accomplished. A
specific goal is a focused goal. It will state exactly what the organization intends to
accomplish. While the description needs to be specific and focused, it also needs to be
easily understood by those involved in its achievement. It should be written so that it
can be easily and clearly communicated. A specific goal will make it easier for those
writing objectives and action plans to address the following questions:
Who is to be involved?
What is to be accomplished?
Where is it to be done?
When is it to be done?
Measurable
A goal is measurable if it is quantifiable. Measurement is accomplished by first
obtaining or establishing base-line data. It will also have a target toward which
progress can be measured, as well as benchmarks to measure progress along the way.
A measurable goal will answer questions such as:
How much?
How many?
How will we know when it is accomplished?
Attainable
There should be a realistic chance that a goal can be accomplished. This does not
mean or imply that goals should be easy. On the contrary, a goal should be
challenging. It should be set by or in concert with the person responsible for its
achievement. The organization's leadership, and where appropriate its stakeholders,
should agree that the goal is important and that appropriate time and resources will be
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focused on its accomplishment. An attainable goal should also allow for flexibility. A
goal that can no longer be achieved should be altered or abandoned.
Relevant
Goals should be appropriate to and consistent with the mission and vision of the
organization. Each goal adopted by the organization should be one that moves the
organization toward the achievement of its vision. Relevant goals will not conflict
with other organizational goals. As noted earlier, goals are set by or in concert with
the person responsible for achievement. It is important that all short-term goals be
relevant (e.g., consistent) with the longer-term and broader goals of the organization.
Time-bound
Finally a goal must be bound by time. That is, it must have a starting and ending
point. It should also have some intermediate points at which progress can be assessed.
Limiting the time in which a goal must be accomplished helps to focus effort toward
its achievement.
Overall strategy for achieving those goals
In order to meet the organizational goals, individual goals first need to be met. And
meeting up with individual goals requires effective planning and streamlining of
processes to finally lead the organization towards business success. Often change
management is enabled and certain standards are adopted to fulfil goals. But, before
any activities are undertaken, goals must be set out clearly. The goals should be such
that it should yield profits and must be quantified so that they can be measured. It is
difficult setting goals for each and every employee so certain specific or key result
areas are defined where work can be set on targets to improve performance. The goals
are also destined for a specific time period within which they need to be achieved.
Once the goals are defined, certain methodology has to be adopted in order to
streamline each process. The organizational goals are linked to mission statement so
each employee should be made the importance of the mission statement understood.
Each employee should set the individual targets from himself and work towards the
individual objectives as set by his superior.
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The key elements of any work commitment towards fulfilling individual goals and
organizational goals should be the following:
Prioritise key tasks and remain dedicated
All employees in an organization should priorities his tasks in order to remain
focused. The tasks in the order of priority should be taken up one by one and then
persistence and dedication is required to achieve it.
Focus on Team work
Although, individual contribution from every employee is important, unless there is
team contribution, an organization can reap profits. Those who work in teams and
emphasize on organizational culture emerge out to be the winners.
Enable good leadership role
The supervisors and managers should display effective leadership to lead the teams.
One should lead by example. One must also adopt a good leadership style. Generally,
a supportive style of leadership is preferred by employees and is also beneficial to the
organization.
Good relations with clients
This is one of the most important area which should be build up with each passing day
as the customers are stepping stone to success. If there are no users of our products,
we will not have any existence.
Enable good quality of workforce
The quality of workforce has to be maintained in order to be successful. These are
ultimately the backbone of any organization.
Enable a sound organization culture and a learning organization
A good working culture goes a long way in realizing the organizational objectives.
These are some of the few strategies to achieving organizational goals. With the
current industry atmosphere, the need is to realign IT with other functional areas to
achieve success.
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Vision and Mission Statements
Developing a vision requires a great deal of introspection. It is important to develop
true self-awareness, not only to understand ones own motivations, but to take charge
of them, and even change them. While most people are able to do this, it does
require effort, and may take them far away from their personal comfort zone. Thus,
many people simply choose not to make the effort.
What Vision and Mission Statements are?
A good vision statement expresses a compelling vision about the future. Achieving
the vision does not have to be feasible, but it does have to be desirable.
A common trap is to believe the vision has to be specifically about what the
organization wishes to become. That is unnecessarily limiting. The most powerful
visions describe a world that is better in some way, not only for the organization and
its members, but for other people.
A mission statement describes how the organization will achieve the vision. To be
compelling, a vision statement must touch the inner core of people, the center of their
being. There are many things we can build our sense of identity and self-worth on:
Family, spouse, children, work, money, possessions, pleasure, friends, even enemies,
or we can link our self-esteem to an organization. We all do this, to some extent.
Principles Are the Foundation for Vision and Mission!
A set of principles is a stronger, more enduring core for individuals. Principles can
also be shared with other people, across boundaries of self, family, and organizational
affiliations. Even in a constantly changing world, basic principles endure. Therefore, a
vision, which must also endure for a long time, must be based on core principles.
There are many principles that can serve as the basis for both personal and
organizational vision and mission statements. Figuring out which principles that guide
organizational actions, and articulating them, requires a lot of work. Identifying and
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articulating the basic principles guiding an organization is the responsibility of the
system owners. It cannot be delegated.
Creating effective vision and mission statements by necessity involves the entire
organization. People will commit to a much greater degree to a vision and a mission
they themselves have helped develop.
The Contribution of Planning to Purpose and Objectives
A detailed description of a new or existing business, including the company's product
or service, marketing plan, financial statements and projections and management
principles, require a plan to be implemented. A document that spells out a company's
expected course of action for a specified period usually includes a detailed listing and
analysis of risks and uncertainties.
The Pervasiveness of Planning
Planning is a function of all managers, which vary with each manager's authority and
with the nature of the policies and plans assigned by superiors. If managers are not
allowed to a certain degree of discretion and planning responsibility, they are not truly
managers.
The Efficiency of Plans
The effectiveness of plan refers to its contribution to the purpose and objectives. Plan
is efficient if it achieves its purpose at a reasonable cost, when cost is measured not
only in terms of time or money or production but also in the degree of individual and
group satisfaction.
Procedures
Procedures are plans that establish a required method of handling future activities.
They are chronological sequences of required actions. They are guides to action rather
than to thinking and they detail the exact manner in which certain activities must be
accomplished.
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Rules
Rules are unlike procedures in that they guide action without specifying a time
sequence. In fact, a procedure might be looked upon as a sequence of rules. Rule may
be a part of procedure.
Programs
Programs are a complex of goals, policies, procedures, rules, task assignments, steps
to be taken, resources to be employed and other elements necessary to carry out a
given course of action; further supported by budgets.
Budgets
Budget is a statement of expected results expressed in numerical terms. Financial
operating budget is often called a "profit plan". This budget can be expressed in
financial terms, in terms of labour- hours, units of product or machine hours or in any
other numerically measurable term.
Steps in Planning
Being aware of opportunities, a manager should take a preliminary look at possible
future opportunities and see them clearly and completely know where they stand in
light of their strengths and weaknesses, understand what problems they wish to solve,
and why and know what they expect to gain. Planning requires a realistic diagnosis of
the opportunity situation.
Establishing objectives
This is to be done for the long term as well as for the short term. Objectives specify
the expected results and indicate the end points of what is to be done, where the
primary emphasis is to be placed and what is to be accomplished by the network of
strategies, policies, procedures, rules, budgets and programs. Objectives form a
hierarchy.
Developing premises
There are assumptions about the environment in which the plan is to be carried out. It
is important for all managers involved in planning to agree on the premises.
Forecasting is important in premising: what kind of markets will there be? What
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volume of sales? What prices? What products? What technical developments? What
costs? What wage rates? What tax rates and policies? What new plans? How will
expansion be financed? What are the long-term trends? Because the future is so
complex, it would not be profitable or realistic to make assumption about every detail
of the future environment of a plan.
Determining alternative courses
The more common problem is not finding alternatives but reducing the number of
alternatives so that the most promising may be analyzed. The planner must usually
make a preliminary examination to discover the most fruitful possibilities.
Evaluating alternative courses
From the various alternatives available proper evaluation should be done which may
involve cash flow.
Selecting a course
The best alternative should be selected.Numbering plans by budgeting Final step is
giving them meaning by converting them into budgets. The overall budgets of an
enterprise represent the sum total of income and expenses, with resultant profit or
surplus and the budgets of major balance sheet items such as cash and capital
expenditures.
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Conclusion
In conclusion, for management to strengthen individuals and teams to sustain
organizational competitiveness; management must nurture and motivate its biggest
asset – the workforce; management must help in still confidence in the workforce by
way of empowerment and continuous education through knowledge sharing and
effective communication. Organizational knowledge management programs are
fundamentally aligned to its mission and vision. Effective knowledge management
programs help management to be competitive, innovative and creative; because of the
importance of knowledge management, most organizations have been restructured to
include a Chief Knowledge Manager in their hierarchy to be responsible for all
knowledge management programs within the organization.
With the intent of designing a more systematic, focused program on knowledge
management (KM), is exemplary KM practices in the private sector, government, and
nongovernmental organizations in Asia. Asian organizations studied is viewed not
only as stemming from intelligent management of knowledge assets but also from
supportive relationships and caring leadership that motivate knowledge workers in
Asia to perform at their best. Many leading organizations in KM practice in Asia are
shifting their focus from excellence in operational productivity and quality
management to excellence in strategic innovation and learning through KM.
As organizations evolve into more effective and efficient knowledge creators and
knowledge consumers, we may expect to see a rise in the number of studies that focus
on how to best measure the value of knowledge as an intangible asset. After all, the
effects of knowledge management efforts should be measurable as knowledge
management itself requires an investment of time, resources and manpower. Perhaps
organizations will continue to create their own frameworks for valuation or be able to
rely on a common methodology for such measurement regardless of the type of
organization doing the evaluating. Either way, it will be important to observe the
impact of improved organizational knowledge and knowledge management practices
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to the value of an organization, its people and organizational success and
sustainability.
Ultimately, the ability for an organization to be agile, successful, improve
performance and positively impact its internal culture will determine the true value of
organizational knowledge to the organization.
The eventual isolation of a unique body of knowledge, the identity of a critical
knowledge area can create a new perspective on the enterprise and how it contributes
value to its customers. The framework can support management’s intent in creating
and using a business planning framework of competitive analysis, strategy formation,
and identification of critical success factors for decision making and measurement.
There is abundant evidence that planning is the most prominent and pervasive of the
management functions or processes. Planning is prominent because of the evidence of
failure in organizations traceable to poor planning or preparation for the future on
management's part. Planning is pervasive in that it cuts through all management
functions and is a function that is applicable to all managerial levels. It cuts through
the other management functions of organizing, controlling, staffing, directing, and
decision making in the sense that it is a vital and necessary component of each of
these processes. That is, managers must plan for each of the other functions. Planning
is applicable to every managerial level because managerial action and decision
making, whether at the chief executive's level or at the first-line supervisor's level,
should ideally be predicated upon preliminary thought and anticipation of future
issues, problems, or details that invariably come into play in the process of making
organizations work. Before planning is anything else, it is a mental process. It is a
process of thinking through all facets of an issue or a problem before taking action. At
the same time, it provides the ingredients for action. Planning is a process that entails
an assessment of the organization, its resources, and its environment, and
encompasses the setting of objectives.
Every plan and all its supporting plans should contribute to the accomplishment of the
purpose and objectives of the organization. The Primacy of Planning Manager must
plan in such a way that it leads to proper organizing, staffing, leading and controlling
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which support the accomplishment of enterprise objectives. Planning and controlling
are inseparable. Any attempt to control without a plan is meaningless, since there is
no way for people to tell whether they are going where they want to go. Plans thus
furnish the standards of control.
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REFERENCES
Schulz, M. (2002). The Uncertain Relevance of Newness: Organizational Learning and Knowledge Flows. Academy of Management Journal. University of Washington.
Schulz, M., & Jobe, L. A. (2001; 2001). Codification and tactiness as knowledge management strategies: An empirical exploration. Journal of High Technology Management Research, 12(1; 1), 139.
Andriessen, Daniel (2003). Making Sense of Intellectual Capital. Butterworth-Heinemann.
Zack, M.H. (1999) 'Developing a knowledge strategy', California Management Review, Vol. 41, No. 3, pp. 125-145.
Schwartz , D. (2006) ‘Encyclopedia of knowledge management’, Idea Group Reference,
http://www. wikipedia.com
Barton, R.B. 2000. Chapter 7, Organizational Goal Setting and Planning. Murray State University, Murray, KY. http://campus.murraystate.edu/academic/faculty/rb.barton/40mgmt07.ppt#256,1,chapter7.
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Notes
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