Knowledge Management Individual Assignment Essay

Knowledge Management Individual Assignment - Essay Example Knowledge Management is one of the hottest topics in the fields of management and information technology. Several activities are involved in the process of knowledge management. Out of the many, the most commonly cited and discussed knowledge management activity is knowledge sharing or transfer (Ford, et al., 2003). Knowledge sharing is observed to be critical towards the success of today’s business organisation (Davenport, and Prusak, 1998). This is so because it results in deployment of knowledge to certain organisational portions at a rapid rate which can prove to be highly beneficial for the organisation (Syed-Ikhsan, and Rowland, 2004). Knowledge management can thus be considered as a socio-technical system that includes different form of storage, generation, sharing and representation of knowledge. Specific functional features of knowledge management are found to be always based on certain assumptions that are inherent to the cultural backgrounds of the people who either create or manage them. However, if people having national or professional cultural backgrounds use these systems in a way that differs from those intended by its designers, it might actually result in inhibiting the process of knowledge sharing in organisations (Branch, 1997). This study entails about analysing the impact that organisational culture has on the knowledge sharing environment of the companies in general. Communities of Practice and Knowledge Management Communities of Practice (CoPs) have received renewed attention in the recent years mainly in the field of different ways of managing the social and human aspects of knowledge dissemination and creation within the firms. One can find various existing literature that are related to the discussion of CoPs in the knowledge management literature (Davenport, and Prusak, 1998; Wasko, and Faraj, 2000; Wenger, et al., 2002; Ardichvili, et al., 2003). Lave, and Wenger (1991) were the first to coin the term community of practice a nd it can be defined as a system of activity wherein the participants are involved in sharing their understanding related to their present activities performed in the organisation and how they are valued in their lives and the communities. One of the assumptions that is central to the concept of CoP is that community members who are adjudged to be less experienced are involved in a learning process received from the social interactions with the community members who are considered to be experts of a specific domain of knowledge (Lave, and Wenger, 1991). One of the most important benefits of CoP is its ability to generate or disseminate tacit knowledge. This type of knowledge cannot be communicated easily because most of the times it is either embedded in a particular context or is intuitive in nature (Nonaka, 1994). This type of tacit knowledge possessed by an organisation is believed to be critical towards the sustainable competitive advantage gained by the companies because others cannot easily copy or imitate it (Liedtka, 1999). Brown and Duguid (1991) have argued that internalising and sharing tacit knowledge needs

Foundations of human resource management (Case study analysis) Essay

Foundations of human resource management (Case study analysis) - Essay Example In itself, the recruitment process should be well structured and organized in order to achieve the required skillful labor. After recruitment, a systematic training approach should be employed in order to induce the new recruits in their designed positions. In Silver Creek Winery Company, there is a need for business expansion. This requires an effective recruitment procedure to fill the job positions that will arise during this development. This report will assist the manager of Silver Creek Company, Julia, to implement an effective staffing process. Foundations of human resource management Business management refers to the use of management skills to utilize the fundamental business resources in order to optimize the profit. The growth and future of a company can only be shaped by effective management strategies. Being a developing company, Silver Creek requires well schemed management strategies in order to achieve the effective expansion and to exploit its potential of growth. Th e various challenges facing this company demand for proper planning in order to come up with a prompt solution. These plans should be implemented in all the entities of this business. As the Human Resource manager, Julia carries the greater burden of the company as the future of the company lies on her shoulders. This report will assist Julia to employ Human resource planning, job analysis and training in the recruitment process in order to facilitate the staffing required during expansion of the company. Human resource planning is a crucial tool that is employed in the recruitment process. It is used in determining the current and future human resource that a particular business requires in order to achieve its set goals (Hartel & Fujimoto, 2010). It requires that the human resource requirements are established and a proper plan designed to satisfy these requirements. This goes hand in hand with the financial resource allocation for the entire process. The manager has a role to bud get for the process effectively, in order to achieve a successful output. Recruitment refers to the use of management skills to induce the right labor resource, with the right skills at the right time. This resource should just be adequate, without shortage or surplus. This is the greatest role of a human resource manager. In theory, Human resource planning can be used to design the staffing process in any organization, be it small or large (Hartel & Fujimoto). This process can be implemented in a number of stages. First, the company should assess the current human resource capacity of the business organization. At this stage, the skills and knowledge of the available employees should be established. To achieve this, academic documents should be used. For instance, the certificates are effective in establishing the area of specialization and the special skills that an employee possesses. Also, the day to day performance of the employees should be monitored in order to learn the pote ntials of all the employees. Secondly, it would be important to determine the future needs of human resource. Here, the manger focus is on the positions that are likely to arise in the future, and the skills that will be necessary. These parameters should relate to the dynamic state of the market. Then, a gap analysis should be conducted in order to estimate the difference between the position of the organization at the moment and that in the future. Finally, a restructuring plan should be