Knowledge Management and Research in the Field of Knowledge Management

For a long time, knowledge has remained a broad and abstract topic and has been a subject of debate in philosophy since the era of classical Greek. However, recent developments in the last few decades have seen knowledge being embraced as a fundamental organizational resource. While individuals are concerned with the development of knowledge, there are organizations concerned with amplification of knowledge (Nonaka, 1994). Studies by Ma and Yu (2010) show that there has been a paradigm shift in the area of knowledge management areas.There are various perspectives of knowledge which include knowledge compared with data and information, process, the state of mind, access to information, capability, and object (Alavi & Leidner, 2001). Each knowledge perspective has different implications for the knowledge management (KM) and knowledge management systems (KMS). For example, when viewed as a state of mind (state of knowing and understanding), KM involves enhancing how people learn and understand through the provision of information. In the context of KMS, the role of the information technology (IT) is to gather, store, and transfer knowledge. Knowledge has also been classified into various taxonomies which include include tacit, explicit, individual, social, declarative, procedural, causal, conditional, relational, and pragmatic.

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The knowledge-based view of the firm has been attracting much interest in the literature of strategic management. In the knowledge-based viewpoint, the services delivered through tangible resources are viewed to be dependent on how they are combined and applied (Alavi & Leidner, 2001). The ability to seek and combine the various resources are dependent on the know-how existing in the firm. The organizations know-how is embedded in and relayed via multiple channels which include organization policies, routines, culture and identity, individual employees, and systems. Given that knowledge-based resources are not only socially complex but also difficult to imitate, the knowledge-based perspective of the firm posits that such assets may generate long-term and sustainable competitive advantages.

Knowledge management in organizations is one of the critical aspects that has been found to affect the organizational performance. According to Serenko et al. (2010), KM and IC is a distinct individual field. The authors observed that there had been an increased interest in the area of KM and IC in the past 15 years. It has been found that proper management of knowledge in organizations increases innovativeness as well as responsiveness. According to Alavi and Leidner (2001), KM is largely considered as a process that comprises various activities that include creation, storage and retrieval, transmission, and application.

Unfamiliar Concepts and Expressions

It was not until the age of IT that knowledge management systems were created. With the advent of the IT, there have been varied views as to how knowledge is different from data and information. Authors in the IT field have argued that knowledge cannot be separated from data and information. In their view, nothing is interesting or new about knowledge management if knowledge is seen to be different from data and information. Alavi and Leidner (2001) argued that knowledge is a product of cognitive processing which is activated by the inflow of new stimuli. In line with this viewpoint, the authors postulated that information is processed into knowledge once it has proceeded within individuals minds. Further, the authors pointed out that knowledge can be regarded as information only after it has been bundled and offered in the form of words, graphics, texts, and other symbolic forms. The major impact of this definition, however, is that for people to arrive at the same meaning of information or data, they must have a common knowledge base (Alavi & Leidneer, 2001).

Assessment of the knowledge assets is a critical step towards the improvement of organizational performance. In organizational standpoint, knowledge has been regarded as a key determinant for a sustained competitive advantage. Knowledge is a factor for sustained competitive advantage. Intellectual Capital (IC) falls in the field of knowledge which according to Bontis (2001), there is a need to measure despite it being an intangible asset. Other new concepts in this field are human capital (HC), structural capital (SC), and intellectual capital (IC). In one model, IC is assessed using various factors such as financial focus, process focus, customer focus, enewal and development focus, and human focus (Bontis, 2001).

Connection with Research and Work Experience

Alavi and Leidner (2001) work is associated with my research and experience. I have got enough experience in the realm of KM, and now I realize that knowledge is a valuable asset to any organization. There is, therefore, need to conduct research on various aspects of knowledge management. For example, it is necessary to understand barriers to knowledge creation and application. Equally important is the need to find out the incentives that can facilitate knowledge creation and application. A fundamental issue to exploiting the competitive potential of KM is a model that can be used to identify value-adding activities in KM (Holsapple & Jones, 2004). Development of an effective model would help organizations to maximize the positive impacts of KM.

Critical Judgment of the Papers Contents and Research Methodology

The papers provide critical information on various aspects of knowledge and knowledge management such as definitions, various view about knowledge, research done in the field of knowledge management, research gaps, dynamics in the field of knowledge, and the future of knowledge management. The papers are rich sources of information for one who intends to study or carry out investigations in the field of knowledge management. The work of Alavi and Leidner (2001) involved a review of conceptual foundations as well as research issues pertaining KMS and their article presents a good foundation for a researcher who intends to investigate various aspects of KMS. It is a high quality review judging not only on the basis of the contents but also on the numerous sources cited where one can find in-depth information in the field of KMS. Bontis (2001) work also involved a review of the various methods that can be used to assess knowledge assets where he presented strengths and weaknesses of each model. Researchers interested in testing the various models of knowledge assessment may find Bontis (2001) work useful in their studies on intellectual capital. The author cited various investigations carried out by others. In their work, Cerchione, Esposito and Spadaro (2015) conducted a research on KM in the context of SMEs but they only carried out literature review on previous investigations carried out by others. Although their methodology is weak, their conclusions are strong because they suggested future research, implications, and limitations for the study. The authors also cited several credible sources suggesting that their review is comprehensive. Holsapple and Jones (2004) is an exploratory study and its methodology employed is strong since it involved a review of numerous past work on KM. the article is relevant since it contributes toward a better understanding of knowledge chain model and the corresponding KM ontology. None of the authors carried out a field research and therefore the reliability of the findings is not strrrong.

Main Research Orientations in KM Field in the Last 15 Years

There has been an active research in the field of knowledge in the past 15 years. Alavi and Leidner (2001) pointed out that while much theory exists on knowledge management, hardly any empirical work has been undertaken. The authors contend that there are huge gaps in the field of KM. The authors identified areas with research gaps including knowledge creation, knowledge storage and retrieval, knowledge transfer, and knowledge application. The authors argued that much of the current research not only focus on the sources of knowledge but also on the state of knowledge and they pointed out that there is a need to carry out more research beyond the state and source of knowledge. The field of KM has several research gaps that require more investigations such as the need to seek answers to conditions that promote the creation of knowledge in organizations. Descriptive studies suggest that culture is either a major catalyst or hindrance for knowledge creation. Additionally, Alavi and Leidner (2001) suggested that there is a need to carry out investigations aimed at determining the level with which collaboration ought to be enhanced in a workplace so that it can improve as well as accelerate knowledge creation. Further, there is also need to carry out studies to find out whether shared knowledge creation platforms can be designed to tighten collaboration among employees.

KM has been widely employed in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In the past 15 years, invetigations has focused on barriers that hinder the application of KM in SMEs. There has also been researching of the main knowledge management systems adopted by the SMEs and investigation of the impact of KM on the SMEs performance (Cerchione, Esposito, & Spadaro, 2015). These obstacles include employees inability to find time to contribute to knowledge. Besides the need to investigate effective incentives to overcome barriers to knowledge storage systems, the authors believe that research on knowledge creation and retrieval need to address other fundamental issues such as effective retrieval mechanisms and the amount of context needed in the knowledge storage that guarantees effective interpretation as well as application (Alavi & Leidner, 2001).

There are also gaps in knowledge transfer that need to be bridged. Alavi and Leidner (2001) pointed out that one of the issues that need to be addressed is the question of the degree to which knowledge need to be increased in an organizational context upon application of the information technology. Another area that requires more focus on research according to the views of the authors is the issue of knowledge location. Regarding knowledge transfer, the authors pointed out that more research should focus on how to balance the push and pull processes in organizations knowledge transfer system. Further, there is a gap in whether the application of advanced IT systems discourages people from venturing into external ways of searching for new knowledge.

Organizational performance is usually measured by its ability to turn knowledge into practice, and available evidence reveals that there is a big gap existing between what organizations know and what they do (Alavi and Leidner, 2001). The authors added that researchers ought to find out the strategies which organizations can employ to encourage employees to apply knowledge. The assessment of knowledge assets has been another area that has attracted a lot of interest especially the development and testing of models for measuring IC in organizations (Bontis, 2001).

IT is an important aspect with regards to knowledge management. One of the key questions that need to be investigated is the impact of IT on the four areas of knowledge management processes. Among the key sectors requiring further research is finding out factors associated with the quality and usefulness of the information systems inherent in KM indicatives. Additionally, research should also focus on determining how individuals perceive knowledge obtained through IT systems especially when the originator of the knowledge is anonymous (Alavi & Leidner, 2001).

References

Alavi,...