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