WEB 2.0 TECHNOLOGY IN KMS

WEB 2.0 TECHNOLOGY IN KMS

PURPOSE OF THE ARTICLE:

This article tells about how web 2.0 technologies support KMS adopted by a political party.

INTRODUCTION:

Blog’s, Wiki’s, multimedia sharing, pod casting, RSS and social networking are used by the Socialist party’s KMS. The usage of these technologies are discussed one by one as follows

BLOGS:

The blog used by the party consists of brief information about the day to day or weekly activities of the party and personal dairy entries of the leaders that what they have done in the particular days.

The party followers or workers who follow this blog can make comments on the party activities, leader’s work and they may tell the overall feelings of the party workers and the public. They can also give suggestions to their leaders to improve the party’s image in the public

The term web blog or blog refers to a simple web page consists of brief paragraphs of opinion, information,……………..(Anderson 2007)

WIKI’S:

This is a web page in which a large number of part followers can put information about the history of the party, previous activities done by the party and the followers perspectives on the present society and they can even edit this content.

It facilitates the production of group work to enhance the development in the party. The extreme flexibility and open access as some of the many reasons why this wiki is useful for group work.

A wiki is a web page or set of web pages that can be easily edited by any one who is allowed………….(Eberbach 2006)

MULTIMEDIA SHARING:

This serves as storage and sharing of multimedia content like videos of party meetings, video clippings on the problems of people in different areas, video clips of leaders speech etc..,

This makes the followers allover from the country watch online videos from this multimedia sharing.

One of the biggest growth areas has been…….(Anderson 2007)

PODCASTING:

The audio recordings such as talks, interviews and lectures of the party leaders given to the public is recorded in MP3 format sudden announcements to followers can be recorded and the followers who have subscribed to the RSS feeds can immediately give response to the announcements.

In this way podcasting helps the followers to listen the speeches of the leaders any from the country. Originally audio blogs they their roots…..(Felix 2006)

RSS:

The party followers who have subscribed to the RSS feeds allow to find out about updates to the content of RSS- enabled websites, blogs, podcasts with out actually having to go and visit the site.

RSS is a family of formats…….(Anderson 2007)

Here the socialist party can be configured to send an RSS feed about its current status and announcements. If any issue is detected by the party an update about the issue and its solution is sent to the followers.

(7 thing you should know about RSS 2007)

SOCIAL NETWORKING:

Socialist party uses a social network, My social space, which makes large number of followers from different areas to meet, find like minds and share contents with others.

It creates a friendly environment among the followers that ultimately results the organizational benefit.

Professional and social networking sites that facilitate meeting people…….(Anderson 2007)

Recently, Barak Obama , President of U.S.A also used these web 2.0 technologies to interact with the public as well as with his followers.

REFERENCES:

1.Anderson, P 2007, What is web 2.0? Ideas, technologies and implications for education, JISC publishing, Retrieved March 29, 2009, from google data base.

2. 7 things you should know about …RSS 2007. Retrieved March 29, 2009, from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7024.pdf

3. Felix, L, Stolarz, D 2006, Hands-on guide to video blogging and podcasting: Emerging tools for business communication, focal press, U.S.A

SUCCESFUL IMPLEMENTATION OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN AN ORGANISATION

SUCCESFUL IMPLEMENTATION OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN AN ORGANISATION

ABSTRACT:

For any organisation, it is easy to introduce a KM system, but the problem is with “ how to make the employees in that organisation to follow it? ” for better organisation performance. The answer for the above question is the 100% commitment and motivation of knowledge workers in that organisation. This paper is about how the role of knowledge workers commitment and motivation affects in implementing KMS and resulting organisational performance of KMS. For better understanding, this paper starts with the introduction to KMS, the benefits of KMS and ends with an example, Municipal Corporation of a city, which adopts a new KMS.

INTRODUCTION:

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS:

A system is a collection of components together with their interrelations. Therefore, a system is not sum of its parts, but rather the product of interactions.Khosrow (cited in kaldi, Aghaie & Khoshalhan 2008). Thus knowledge management system is defined by various researchers as:

1.KMS are information systems designed to support individuals in performing KM-related activities in the context of their work. Bals, Smolnik & Riempp(cited in kaldi, Aghaie & Khoshalhan 2008)

2.kmss are the information technology based systems developed to support and enhance the
organizational processes of knowledge creation, storage, retrieval, transfer and application in organizations. Khosrow (cited in Kaldi, Aghaie & Khoshalhan 2008)

3.KMS are the systems which may be IT or non IT, used to share, capture, distribute and apply knowledge in its organization for better performance.

BENEFITS OF KMS:

The implementation of KMS in an organization can results the following benefits
1. An organization can fully realize the potentials of its knowledge assets.
2. Organizations can respond more quickly to the changing market conditions.
3. Organizations can increase the ability to be more innovative as well as improve decision making and productivity

WHAT PLAYS A KEY ROLE IN IMPLEMENTING KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM?

The common attributes of different KM systems indicates that most KMS:
1. Are based on the combination of information enabled communication, coordination and collaboration capabilities. 2. Provides a critical bridge between the information and technology resource inputs and organizations performance 3. Mainly depends on active participation and involvement of knowledge workers to transform the above inputs into organizational performance.

Despite the availability of the best technology or access to the richest warehouses of relevant information, knowledge workers commitment and motivation often determines the success or failure of KMS. Dyer &McDonough (cited in Yogesh&Galletta 2003)
In an organization the executive board and senior management drive the development of KMS but they often fail to motivate the rest of the organization to adopt these systems. The reasons for this failure include insufficient communication, failure to integrate KMS in everyday activities, lack of time to share knowledge, failure to use knowledge effectively and difficulties of capturing tacit knowledge.

Many forces are at work in KMS acceptance when implementation is driven from top: some workers wish to please their managers, some conform to demands imposed by performance criteria and some conform to peer pressures. All these together play an important role in the failure of KMS. Alavi &Leidner (cited in Yogesh&Galletta 2003)

THE CONTINUUM OF COMMITMENT:

‘‘Commitment by compliance, commitment by identification, commitment by internalization…………..(yogesh & Galletta 2003)

THE CONTINUUM OF MOTIVATION:

“Intrinsic motivation, external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, integrated regulation…(yogesh&Galletta 2003)

EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE:

Let me support the above topics by considering a governmental organization, Municipal Corporation of a city (MCC) .MCC is mainly divided into two sections. The Executive Board (Mayor and corporaters ) and the senior management (municipal commissioner and chief engineers) comes under the first section. While the rest of the organization (drainage department, road maintenance, tax department workers, staff) comes under the second section. This MCC wants to adopt a new KM system, the executive board and senior management drive development of KMS but they fail to motivate the rest of the organization because of insufficient communication between the management and the workers, some workers wish to please their superiors and many other reasons. Ultimately this result in the failure in adopting KMS.The main reasons for this failure is the lack of commitment and motivation in the workers. If the commitment in the worker is a result of incentives, rewards or punishment , the user emphasis is more on maximizing incentives not on value added by ones own contribution. If the commitment in the worker is a result of some identification ie.., if he compares himself with a role model he does the work if his character matches with his role model. So the management of MCC enhanced Commitment and motivation in its organization by giving respect to their staff, chance giving to the people who become panic, praising the workers who have done the work and by telling their work to others.

As a result workers in the organization pleased to adopt new KMS, which results in effective organizational performance.

REFERENCES:

1. Malhotra, Y &Galleta, D 2003, ‘Role of Commitment and Motivation in Knowledge
Management Systems Implementation: Theory, Conceptualization, and Measurement of Antecedents of Success’, System Sciences

2. Kaldi, A ,Aghaie, A & Khoshalhan, F 2008, ‘KMS Adoption in organizations’, industrial engineering & engineering management, pp. 37-41

3. Mostafa, F, Peyman, A, Mehdi, N & Mohammad, F 2007, ‘Iran aerospace industries’ KM approach based on a comparative study: a bench marking on successful practices’, Aircraft engineering and aerospace technology, vol. 79, pp. 69-79

ORGANIZATIONAL KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

ORGANIZATIONAL KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

PURPOSE OF THIS ARTICLE:
This article tells about the way how organization knowledge can be managed. Firstly it discusses about knowledge management and then how KMS supports to manage knowledge in an organization.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT:

Knowledge management is a systematic process of capturing, creating, storing and applying knowledge in an organization. The knowledge can be effectively shared if only if there is a proper communication exists between the employees.

Knowledge management refers to a systematic and organizationally specified process of acquiring, organizing and communicating both tacit and explicit knowledge of employees so that other employees may make use of it to be more effective and productive in their work. As mentioned by Mryam & Dorothy (1999,p.2)

KMS SUPPORTING KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT:

The value for organizational knowledge is limited, if it is not properly shared. Any organizations ability to sustain in a competitive world depends on the ability to integrate and apply its knowledge assets of organizational members.

Traditionally, the creation and transfer of knowledge has occurred through various means like face to face communications, mentoring and staff development. As now a day’s markets are becoming global and organizations are moving to virtual forms, these traditional means prove to be slow and less effective. So, more efficient electronic means is necessary to support knowledge management in the organizations. Only computer systems can have a random effect at best to facilitate communication and information sharing.

As a result organizations are beginning to implement information systems which supports and enhance the organizational process of knowledge creation, storage, retrieval, transfer and application in organizations. Maier (cited in Kaldi, Aghaie & Khoshalan 2008)

These systems are referred as Knowledge management systems which help in managing knowledge in organizations. It creates a new working environment where knowledge and experience can be easily shared and also enables information and knowledge to emerge and flow to the right people at the right time so they can act more efficiently and effectively. Smith ( cited in Mostafa, Peyman, Mehdi & Mohammad 2007)

The following section can provide a clear idea on managing knowledge in NHS pharmacy department through KMS.

EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE:

In NHS two approaches personalisation and codification are used to manage knowledge in it. In personalisation approach, workshop presentations, conferences, telecommunications and face to face interactions are used to share tacit and explicit knowledge among the organisational members. Where as in codification approach web 2.0 technologies such as RSS, WIKI’s, pharmacy space , podcasting and along with this meta data and tagging are used. The people who lacks IT skills use personalisation approach and others use the codification process.

This KM system acts as bridge for creating and sharing knowledge among the organisational members. During the conferences and workshop presentations people can know about new thing related to pharmacy sector and will share with fellow members through face to face interactions. They can put this information in wikis, podcasts through which others can connect to it. Pharmacy department can be configured to send an RSS feed about its current status and announcement. If any trouble is detected in the department, an update about the problem is sent to the users. In this way the knowledge is managed in NHS pharmacy department.

REFERENCES:

1. Maryam, A & Dorothy, L 1999, ‘Knowledge Management Systems: Emerging Views and Practices from the field’, system sciences, vol.7, pp. 1-8

2. Kaldi, A ,Aghaie, A & Khoshalhan, F 2008, ‘KMS Adoption in organizations’, industrial engineering & engineering management, pp. 37-41

3. Mostafa, F, Peyman, A, Mehdi, N & Mohammad, F 2007, ‘Iran aerospace industries’ KM approach based on a comparative study: a bench marking on successful practices’, Aircraft engineering and aerospace technology, vol. 79, pp. 69-79