This element is probably the most crucial among the four.

It is during the process of sharing

that knowledge is usually refined and enriched. Knowledge can be shared by the
organization with its employees (e.g., through memos and instructions) and sharing of
knowledge can occur between employees of the organization (e.g., through group
discussions and internal meetings) as well as with people outside of the organization (e.g.,
through attending seminars and workshops

As the groups of employees discuss and debate the knowledge and give their own
comments and inputs, new insights are formed that add relevance to and enrich the original
knowledge that was shared.
sector committees and thematic networks can provide a forum where new ideas can be
exchanged, debated and made more relevant. Through this process of dissemination,
debate and discussion, the organization’s knowledge on cleaner production technologies is
enriched. Additionally, when staff members attend outside seminars, workshops and
meetings on cleaner production

technologies, further knowledge sharing and enrichment take place

Why do Workers not Share Genuine Knowledge with their Colleagues?

Workers do not share genuine knowledge with their colleague because of the
following reasons:Protecting one’s competitive edge, Job insecurity,
Personal animosity, and Personal traits, sharedknowledge not accepted or
comprehended, Harm themselves or others with the
knowledge,Confidentiality, and Lack of a sharing culture. Given the
evidence above, we conclude thatknowledge workers possess a great deal of
valuable knowledge – explicit as well as tacit.However, knowledge sharing
is the basis of knowledge work and therefore, ironically, knowledgeworkers
are constantly required to devalue themselves by sharing valuable
knowledge. To remainviable in the knowledge workplace, knowledge
workers have to constantly replenish their stock of valuable knowledge.
Therefore knowledge will only be shared with those who could offerother
valuable knowledge in turn. The knowledge economy is basically a
knowledge marketwhere its workers trade knowledge or its proxies
constantly. Therefore, ironically, in an industrythat depends on knowledge
sharing, knowledge can and will not be shared freely. The motivatorsand
demotivators of sharing knowledge are listed in Table 8
International Journal of Managing Information Technology (IJMIT) Vol.3,
No.4, November 201182

expeditious manner. Knowledge sharing is an important part of knowledge

management and its success or failure will be directly related to how much
knowledge could be used by more people.To understand the development of
competitive advantage, we must understand knowledge andhow it is shared.
However, because of the complex nature of knowledge defining, knowledge
isundisputedly a big challenge. Based on review of critical literatures, by the
authors, knowledgesharing in workplace is determined by motivators and
demotivators. Many factors have beenidentified as facilitating knowledge
sharing in an organization, and culture is often considered asone of the
critical ones. Again knowledge in itself and anticipated mutual relationship,
hinges oninterpersonal knowledge exchange [53][54]. Therefore work
experience has a stronger effect onknowledge sharing in workplace.
Undoubtedly, knowledge acquisition positively affects attitudetowards
knowledge sharing

hen you dream of conquering the world and you fill your agenda with
daunting projects, it’s often necessary to equip yourself with a large
mug of coffee and with the right people. Any successful project, be it big
or small, has one thing at its core: effective collaboration, and you can
achieve it with knowledge sharing.

“In our research on knowledge transfer, we have seen companies greatly

disadvantaged, if not crippled, by knowledge loss. Certainly, some expert
knowledge may be outdated or irrelevant by the time its possessors are
eligible for retirement, but not the skills, know-how, and capabilities that
underlie critical operations — both routine and innovative. Organizations
cannot afford to lose these deep smarts” says Dorothy Leonard, the William
J. Abernathy Professor of Business Administration Emerita at Harvard
Business School.

Here are 10 benefits that you can get from sharing your knowledge:
Knowledge is power and sharing knowledge is empowering!

 Published on July 3, 2016

Esther De La Cruz

Esther De La Cruz

Supporting senior leaders and their teams to embed large scale and complex
chan... See more

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Most people know the saying ‘knowledge is power’. Knowledge, in my free

interpretation, means information that has been put into practice has proven
to be effective or of added value.

When you google the word “knowledge” you get something along the lines
of ‘information and skills acquired through experience’.

Historically knowledge could take us places where others couldn’t go and

you would keep this knowledge secure until the right opportunity arose to
use it. Someone who had a lot of knowledge would have a high potential to
be promoted. Someone knowledgeable in a certain trade would make more
money than someone with less years of experience and therefore likely to
have less knowledge in the same trade.

Knowledge was the key to success. But in today’s fast paced and internet
driven world, does this still apply in the same way?

In today’s world who would be more successful, the photographer who

keeps his tips and tricks of making the best sunset picture to himself or the
photographer who shares his knowledge about how to take the best sunset
picture with millions of people via the web?

Who would be more successful, the personal trainer who is highly

experienced and only shares her knowledge with clients or the personal
trainer who promotes healthy exercise regimes in magazine articles and
shares her knowledge freely on the internet?

It is almost beyond comprehension how our world has changed with the
evolution of the internet. Information sharing is what it is all about. Success
is no longer about the fact you have knowledge, it is about what you do with
that knowledge that makes you stand out and be different.

Historically if you had knowledge, people were willing to pay you in order
for you to share that knowledge. These days if you are not sharing your
knowledge, people will happily go to your competitor who is sharing
knowledge for free and end up paying your competitor for helping them to
use that knowledge in the right way.

Success is now cultivated by empowering others with your knowledge.

Maybe you are not convinced yet that knowledge sharing is what it is all
about in today’s world. Let me bring it into context of the corporate world
where change is happening at a more rapid pace than ever before.

Which corporate leaders would be more successful, those that keep their
knowledge to themselves or those leaders that share their knowledge freely
on a regular basis with their peers, staff or even more broadly. Leaders that
are transparent communicators and share what they know with their
employees can empower people across the organisation to make better
decisions and work with more clarity towards a common vision. This is
crucial when it comes to driving transformational change.

People at all levels of the organisation benefit from having as much

(relevant) knowledge as they can possibly obtain in order to do their job
well. Leaders that share their knowledge in the right way, at regular intervals
and ensure the knowledge is relevant for their audience, are highly effective
in leading change.
Consider sharing more of your knowledge with others every day. Great
things happen when knowledge is shared and more and more people are
empowered!

More on effective ways to lead large complex change in my book “Leading

Technology Driven Transformation” and it is now available here:

http://www.booktopia.com.au/search.ep?keywords=Esther+De+La+Cruz&p
roductType=917504

I would love to know your thoughts on this subject, so please share

them below.

1. It helps you grow

As Claudio Fernández-Aráoz put it, “The question is not whether your

company’s employees and leaders have the right skills; it’s whether they
have the potential to learn new ones”. Having a fixed set of skills is what
makes you proficient in a specific area – but growth means continuous
development. They say you could learn something from everybody in your
life. Better make sure you actually do.

2. It helps you stay motivated

Getting exposed to different skills and know-how from your peers can help
you want more from yourself, engaging everybody in a game plan of
acquiring knowledge. We’re all achievers on the inside. Sharing knowledge
practices pushes you to become better at what you do, while driving you at
the same time to contribute with your own insights.

3. Getting top talent access

“If you’re the smartest person in the room, then you’re in the wrong room”
the saying goes. Knowledge sharing helps you get feedback and help with
your projects from those more skilled or with a different set of competences.
You can always reach out to your peers – you’ll be amazed of what they can
teach you in no time. Not to mention the access to upper management
expertise!
4. Recognition

So many recent studies underline the importance of recognition at work – it

is one of the most powerful motivators and will highly contribute to both
employee retention and engagement. Sharing your knowledge with others
will give your talents more exposure, thus giving the people you interact
with the opportunity to identify you as a valuable expert. Helping others can
help you build your reputation. And that’s a valuable asset!

5. Generating new ideas

They say two heads think better than one. When different skills and
experiences collide, eye-opening ideas and solutions emerge. The creative
energy of brainswarming can generate faster and more relevant solutions to
your current assignments, supporting you in successfully achieving your
tasks. Tribal knowledge FTW!

6. Future leaders discovery

Sharing knowledge can be a great tool for everyone to PR themselves. All

you need to do is to be permanently connected to the hot business topics and
offer your expertise every time you can. When people are open to prove
their value through their competence, it’s easier to notice the ones likely to
organize people and to take initiative. The leaders of tomorrow are among
those.

7. Limiting the skill gap

Your team is as strong as its weakest member. By sharing knowledge and

talking about certain decisions and procedures, the new guys or juniors
could easily acquire new sets of skills. Create an environment where
everybody is encouraged to ask questions, and help professionals in all your
locations and job positions stay updated with the latest information in their
field.

8. Team cementing and silo breaking

When employees, teams and leaders share ideas and resources with each
other, the feeling that they pursue a common goal becomes authentic. The
feeling of being part of a functional and collaborative team boosts
enthusiasm and empowers everyone to exchange knowledge, breaking down
the silo mentality that affects both employees morale and ultimately
reducing your business efficiency.

9. Sense of purpose

There’s a thin line between employees “sort of doing stuff” and those that have
a sense of purpose. By creating an environment where people feel like their knowledge
makes a difference, they will clearly see how their work fits in the bigger mission of the
organization. Work without purpose is no work at all.

10. Operational efficiency

That’s perhaps the most important thing. Sharing knowledge increases the productivity of
your team. You can work faster and smarter, as you get easier access to the internal
resources and expertise within your organization. Projects don’t get delayed, people
swimmingly get the information they need in order to do their jobs and your business fills
the bill.

The “Knowledge is Power” adage is long dead as the new reality of the workforce has
taught us that sharing knowledge is beneficial to everybody. So start capturing and
communicating your organization’s deep smarts and…

Happy knowledge sharing!

Many associations are creating and monetizing their knowledge-sharing networks to

build member engagement and create a return on their investment for their e-learning
platforms. At PAISBOA, we have a long history of providing opportunities for
knowledge sharing with our in-person professional development programs featuring
industry experts, with our affinity group listservs (soon to be launched elists), and now
with our Wednesday Webinars featuring industry experts and PAISBOA members with
valuable knowledge and a particular expertise. All of this is included in your PAISBOA
membership fee!!!

Why is knowledge sharing important?

Lisa Quast explains: Managers are bombarded with an almost constant stream of data
everyday… This overload of data is making knowledge management increasingly more
important. There are three key reasons why actively managing knowledge is important to
a company’s success:

1. Facilitates decision-making capabilities by cutting through the noise.

2. Builds learning organizations by making learning routine, where everyone
continually assesses themselves looking for ways to improve.
3. Stimulates cultural change and innovation by encouraging the free flow of ideas.
In their article, Connection is Key: How Knowledge Sharing Helps Organizations
Grow and Prevents Isolation, Seshagiri and Mirrer assert that actively sharing
knowledge can make an organization more focused, efficient, and innovative. After all,
knowledge is among an organization's most valuable assets.

Sharing knowledge can:

1. Improve all levels of an organization's operations.

2. Help develop collaboration and innovation among staff members.
3. Prevent the loss of critical know-how.
4. Help partners with critical knowledge and solutions, such as policy
implementation.
5. Inspire new solutions and development pathways that stimulate change and
reforms.

Here are some examples of how PAISBOA facilitates knowledge sharing among
members every day!

 A change in providers for fingerprinting clearances in Pennsylvania resulted in

robust exchange on the HR listserv that has continued for this entire week, with
posts from members at universities and independent schools, staff and one of our
business services providers. This conversation is one of the many ways that HR
professionals can keep informed about critical changes in compliance issues.
 On December 13, some of the super-users of the PAISBOA Annual Data Survey
will share in-person and via videoconference how they are using the data provided
by Measuring Success so that other members can see “all the possibilities” in
using data to inform decision-making at their schools.
 With seed money from a PAISBOA Collaboration Grant, Plymouth Meeting
Friends School coordinated with ten PAISBOA Quaker schools to create a
Special Purpose Entity that will provide the Friends Education Equity
Collaborative with a structure that will enable them to secure needed scholarship
dollars through the Pennsylvania EITC and OSTC programs. The group will be
reporting back about their progress in a January 11 workshop at the PAISBOA
offices.

As part of our ongoing efforts to promote collaboration and knowledge sharing, we will
continue to provide the tools and platforms for members to share knowledge with and
amongst each other, as well as the provide timely and relevant professional development
opportunities for improving your professional practice.

Information sharing
Take advantage of the Power of the Flock!!
stimulates innovation and technical excellence
Almost 8 years ago I joined AMIS. Before this I worked with a lot of Open Source
projects and companies. The key to a good Open Source project is sharing information. In
my vision the AMIS Technology Blog is an excellent form of the open source way of
sharing information. In 2004 we were the first company within the Oracle knowledge
domain to actively and openly share all our information on our blog. This has resulted
nowadays in 5000 readers a day, a vast community of followers and AMIS as a known
name amongst Oracle technology specialists.

Share and you will get more in return

At the start of the AMIS blog, back in 2004, sharing information was not common
practice. Especially in the Oracle domain. This could lead to a diminishing competitive
advantage. Many Oracle professionals thrive by their own knowledge and practical
experience. By sharing your own knowledge you are educating your competitors. We
have gradually shifted form the mantra “Information is Power” to “Sharing and
networking is Power”. Nowadays we know sharing knowledge supports the community
and builds our company and personal brand. Most innovation is directly derived from
sharing information and discussion. New ideas bounce form one person to another with
every person adding new insights and perspectives to this idea. You have to share to
create something valuable.

Sharing of information within AMIS is a common practice. We do not own internal

information repositories. All R&D work we do is shared publicly. This ranges from a
simple Windows Service How-To till a vast overview of Oracle Fusion Middleware 12C
product overview. We have shown information sharing is beneficial. Both technical and
commercially. In the past years we gained a lot of contacts via this technology blog.
Some very personal and others leaning towards business opportunities.

Why sharing information is so powerful

For me sharing information is the most factor for success among professionals. Here are
my reasons:

Structure and learn

By sharing information you learn more about the subject you are writing about. By
writing content for other people you need to know all loopholes and while writing a demo
you need to document and explain all difficulties and strange behavior you normally
would encounter. With only one very important exception; You need to explain all this to
the people reading your articles. This forces you to structure all content and make it
understandable.

You add value to your community

By sharing valuable content about your core technology we contribute to our own
community. We spread the knowledge and help others become more advanced end
experienced in the technologies we use in our day-to-day work. By just doing this we
help others grow and when others grow our community grows…hence we, as a specialist
in this community, grow.
You inspire other people to think and react
Apart from structuring and learning sharing knowledge is also excellent to inspire people
to think and react. Just writing about something can spark a discussion and reflect on
your viewpoint with a discussion or a valuable addition in a comment of one of your
readers. Others might share their experiences and adding this to your article will make it
only better and more valuable for the community.

You verify your ideas and learn something more

Sharing knowledge is also a great way to discover and verify if your idea works all the
time. There might be situations where your solution does not apply fully. Hopefully
someone will add this as a comment and you can fix this for this specific case. New
insights create new ideas and spark innovation. With the shared knowledge of the blog
readers you can create whole new things and challenge your own goals to create
something new and innovative.

And of course sharing knowledge will lead to new contacts

In the past years we gained a lot of new contacts based upon the articles written on our
blog. Contact ranging from Oracle Product Management , competing companies in
Europe and of course a lot of new contacts form similar professionals form the US, India,
China, Vietnam and many more…Very valuable contacts and pleasant conversations. We
never envisioned our blog becoming this big and having such an impact on the Oracle
community and of such a value for our own company.

Sharing knowledge has always been very beneficial for our company. Growing and
learning by sharing our experiences, best practice and creating innovative ways to
improve ourselves and our community. Hope you’ve enjoyed reading the articles as much
as we do.

Related posts:

1. Sharing session state between JEE web applications through WebLogic session descriptor
of sharing-enabled
2. Java Knowledge areas
3. Knowledge Center on Web & Java
4. Report knowledge center meeting on (J)Unit tests
5. Getting started with Lucene 2.0 A powerful java search engine

Knowledge Sharing Is Power

Why Share Knowledge

As markets shift from providing tangible goods to selling intangible products and ideas,
knowledge sharing becomes a competitive advantage. Where do ideas that are for sale
come from? A company that doesn’t know what they know (or what they don’t know)
can’t find the new knowledge that is required for innovation. If that isn’t enough to worry
about, counteractive knowledge leakage happens when someone leaves a team. This is
hard to prevent when increasing turnover is an inevitable result of a constant need for
new ideas. Some information may be retained, but knowledge often walks right out the
door with an employee.
Look at all the knowledge these authors chose to share

What Is It

Creating a culture of knowledge sharing means establishing an environment with an

overall expectation of collaboration with others. It’s about engaging training to draw
people out of their shell and changing old ways of thinking, and making it normal to
share everything — this means both day-to-day information AND knowledge. If you can
encourage people to share information, without fear or reservation, organizational
knowledge will be more useful. After all, the overall purpose of knowledge sharing is not
just to build knowledge, but to use it. The mission is to make your team more cohesive
and help them advance together toward attainable, measurable objectives. It’s about
doing things better together than you were doing them alone. Shared knowledge is
useless if it is not producing results in the form of reaching goals.

How To Get One

What motivates teams to share knowledge? People are only going to participate if they
believe it is in their own best interests. The old saying of “knowledge is power” is just
that — old. Everyone who wants to be more effective at their job and progress in their
careers should believe that “knowledge sharing is power”. Here are three reasons why:

1. Knowledge is perishable. Given enough time, someone else will probably think of the
same idea you just did. New knowledge is only innovative for a certain time, and sharing
an idea keeps it alive longer.

2. Sharing knowledge makes an idea better. Your idea is great, and dialogue will shape
and improve that idea. Combining the knowledge of multiple people results in getting
more out than each is putting in.

3. You need friends. Trying to work alone is impossible, and getting an idea off the
ground requires input and support from other people. Being open and sharing helps
brings the skills of everyone together to achieve their goals.

Start with the onboarding process and make training collaborative — software can help.
Incentives and simple elements like gamification also encourage people to share.
Knowledge sharing is about improving the overall way a team thinks and works together
by sharing everything — even the little things. A small piece of knowledge that seems
irrelevant or useless to one person could help another, saving training time and resources,
and only strengthens the team and the overall product for the bette

Knowledge Management Drivers

The main drivers behind knowledge management efforts are:
Knowledge Attrition:
Despite the economic slowdown, voluntary employee turnover remains high. A
recent survey by the global consulting firm Drake Beam Morin revealeda n a v e r a g e
voluntary employee turnover rate of 20 percent with 81
p e r c e n t o f organizations citing employee turnover as a critical issue.
Estimated annual costs of employee turnover was a staggering $129 million per
organization. Much of this cost isd u e t o k n o w l e d g e a t t r i t i o n , w h i c h c a n b e
e f f e c t i v e l y m i n i m i z e d u s i n g k n o w l e d g e management techniques.
Knowledge Merging:
Since 1980, the annual value of mergers has risen 100
f o l d reaching a cumulative $15 trillion in 1999. Over 32,000 deals were announced,
triple thenumber of 10 years earlier and more than 30 times as many as in 1981. The
recent frenzyo f c o r p o r a t e m e r g e r s c o u p l e d w i t h t h e i n c r e a s e d n e e d t o
integrate global corporatecommunications requires the merging of
d i s p a r a t e a n d o f t e n c o n f l i c t i n g k n o w l e d g e models.
Content Management:
The explosion of digitally stored business-critical data is widelydocumented. Forester
Research estimates that online storage for Global 2,500 companiesw i l l g r o w f r o m
an average of 15,000 gigabytes per company in 1999 to
1 5 3 , 0 0 0 gigabytes by 2003, representing a compound annual growth rate of 78%. As
the volumeof digital information expands, the need for its logical organization is critical
for purposesof information retrieval, sharing and reuse.
E-Learning:
As the economy becomes more global and the use of PCs more pervasive,there has been
a dramatic increase in e-learning, also known as computer based training.E - l e a r n i n g
is closely linked to and overlapping with, but not equal to
knowledgemanagement. E-learning can be an effective medium for
k n o w l e d g e m a n a g e m e n t deliverables
Knowledge Management Drivers
The main drivers behind knowledge management efforts are:
Knowledge Attrition:
Despite the economic slowdown, voluntary employee turnover remains high. A
recent survey by the global consulting firm Drake Beam Morin revealeda n a v e r a g e
voluntary employee turnover rate of 20 percent with 81
p e r c e n t o f organizations citing employee turnover as a critical issue.
Estimated annual costs of employee turnover was a staggering $129 million per
organization. Much of this cost isd u e t o k n o w l e d g e a t t r i t i o n , w h i c h c a n b e
e f f e c t i v e l y m i n i m i z e d u s i n g k n o w l e d g e management techniques.
Knowledge Merging:
Since 1980, the annual value of mergers has risen 100
f o l d reaching a cumulative $15 trillion in 1999. Over 32,000 deals were announced,
triple thenumber of 10 years earlier and more than 30 times as many as in 1981. The
recent frenzyo f c o r p o r a t e m e r g e r s c o u p l e d w i t h t h e i n c r e a s e d n e e d t o
integrate global corporatecommunications requires the merging of
d i s p a r a t e a n d o f t e n c o n f l i c t i n g k n o w l e d g e models.
Content Management:
The explosion of digitally stored business-critical data is widelydocumented. Forester
Research estimates that online storage for Global 2,500 companiesw i l l g r o w f r o m
an average of 15,000 gigabytes per company in 1999 to
1 5 3 , 0 0 0 gigabytes by 2003, representing a compound annual growth rate of 78%. As
the volumeof digital information expands, the need for its logical organization is critical
for purposesof information retrieval, sharing and reuse.
E-Learning:
As the economy becomes more global and the use of PCs more pervasive,there has been
a dramatic increase in e-learning, also known as computer based training.E - l e a r n i n g
is closely linked to and overlapping with, but not equal to
knowledgemanagement. E-learning can be an effective medium for
k n o w l e d g e m a n a g e m e n t deliverables

Thestrategically literate employee, armed with the best and most up-to-date knowledge,
delivered in a timely manner,willproduceworkthatresultsinmore satisfied customers, increasedsuccess and
corporate value

3.3 Motivation for Knowledge Management

Internal and external pressures and rapid inflows of information make effective
operation of organizations extremely difficult (see Figure 1.2). The Internet and E-
Commerce have generated competitors that are on the other side of the world but only
amouseclick away.Employees aremoving from organizationto organization at alarmingrates,takingwiththem
importantknowledgeofcompanyoperationsthatmustberelearnedby new employees. The pace of technology,
particularly information technology (IT)continues to force management to consider
organizational change associated with theimplementations of electroniccommercestore-fronts,
automated inventory procurementand enterpriseresource planning (ERP) systems. Changes in government
legislation andregulatory practicesprovide asteady flowof new threatsand opportunities.Customersaredemanding
newproductsandservicesthatarebundledtotheirpreference.Subsequently,companiesare beingforced tomovefaster and atnewlevelsof
personalized interaction.Filteringthroughthisbarageofinformationforrelevantdataorcombinationsofinformationis a formidable undertaking.
To address these challenges, organizations must developmanagementmethodsthataccept
information as avalued resource, convert informationintoorganizationalknowledgeandgeneratevalue-addedinformation
fromthatknowledge

Many organizations especially those in the service industry adopt a strategy withstrong focus on their customer.
This customer-focused knowledge strategy is directedtowardscapturing,developingandtransferingknowledgeandunderstandingofcustomersd ’ iverse needs,
preferences, and businesses. These efforts bring about a significantimprovementinsalesandusethecolectiveknowledgeoftheorganisationto
solvecustomerproblems.Thisstrategyrecognizesandfaciltateslearningfromcustomersandunderstandtheirneedsbetteranddevelopmentofeffectivesolutionstotake
them.Byestablishingpersonalresponsibiltyforknowledge,organizationsarerecognizingthatindividualsmustbesupportedandmadeaccountableforidentifying,maintaining,
andexpandingtheirownknowledgeaswellasrenewingandsharingtheirknowledgeassets.Companiesarenowrealizingthevalueofeachknowledgeable
andcapableemployeeandrecognizethekeyfactthatthedevelopmentoftheirskilslaywithemployeethemselvesandnotwiththeorganization.
Somefirmsbuildingincentivesintotheirappraisalsystemand offering other motivators to encourage the development of a
knowledge-intensiveculture
There are a number of claims as to the “drivers”, or motivations, leading organizations to
undertake a knowledge management program. Popular business objectives include gaining
competitive advantage within the industry and increasing organizational effectiveness with
improved or faster learning and new knowledge creation. As knowledge management
programs can often lead to greater innovation, better customer experiences, consistency in
good practices, knowledge access across a global organization, and other organizational
benefits, many knowledge management programs will usually set some of these as end
objectives as well.
Some typical considerations driving a Knowledge Management program include:
Making available increased knowledge content in the development and provision of
products and services
Achieving shorter new product development cycles
Facilitating and managing organizational innovation and learning
Leveraging the expertise of people across the organization
Increasing network connectivity between employees and external groups with the
objective of improving information flow
Managing the proliferation of data and information in complex business environments
and allowing employees to access appropriate information sources
Managing intellectual capital and intellectual assets in the workforce (such as the
expertise and know-how possessed by key individuals) as individuals retire and new
workers are hired.
Technology Drivers: The proliferation of technology, data communications, networking and
wireless transmission has revolutionized the way employees store, communicate and
exchange data at high speed. The WWW has changed KM from a fad to an e-business reality.
Any one can access information at any time and from anywhere.
Process Drivers: One of the most critical assets of KM drivers is designed to improve work
processes. Implied in this area is the elimination of duplicate mistakes by learning from the
past and by transferring the best experiential knowledge from one location or project in the
firm to another. Starting from scratch with each project makes no sense in terms of
efficiency, productivity and value-added contribution to the company’s bottom line.
Personnel-specific Drivers: This area of KM drivers focuses on the need to create cross-
functional teams of knowledge workers to serve anywhere in the organization and
minimize personnel turnover as a threat to collective knowledge. More and more of what
was once viewed as independent firms are now closely coupled. Products and services are
jointly handled from diverse disciplinary areas where creative cooperation is essential for
innovation. Brainstorming, competitive response, and proactive positioning- all require
collaboration and coordination of various tasks within and among corporation.
Knowledge-related Drivers: Several KM drivers relate to the very concept of knowledge
sharing and knowledge transfer within the firm. They include revisiting overlooked
employee knowledge, making critical knowledge available at the time it is needed, and
finding a mechanism to expedite available knowledge for immediate use.
Financial Drivers: As an asset, Knowledge defies economic theory, where assets are subject
to diminishing returns over the long run. Knowledge assets increase in value as more and
more people use them. With this in mind, knowledge follows the law of increasing returns –
the more knowledge is used, the more value it provides. KM provides a worthwhile
opportunity to integrate knowledge in a way that enriches the quality of decision making
throughout the organization.

Drivers of Knowledge Management

What makes KM an increasingly interesting field?

The field of Knowledge Management, though over a decade old, has become increasingly
popular in recent years. There are several reasons behind the dramatic growth in interest in the
field. The main drivers behind Knowledge Management are Demand Drivers and Supply Drivers.

On demand side there are several structural, demographic and economic factors which have
driven the heightened interest in the field. On the supply side, recent advanes in communication
technologies, including the increased adoption of the internet, have allowed for the
development of communication and knowledge sharing applications specially adopted for
knowledge management functions.

Demand Drivers
There has been a dramatic structural shift from a manufacturing-based economy to that of a
service-based economy. Organisations have realised people are the primary asset in a service
organisation and have begun to recognise that retaining their employees' knowledge will be
increasingly important as firms grapple with how best to institutionalise the knowledge of their
employees given the current levels of employee turnover.

Increased globalisation of business - Workforces can be geographically dispersed across the

globe, making communication and knowledge sharing increasingly difficult. Organisations have
realised the need for tools and technologies which can facilitate the sharing of information
between geographically disparate employees.

Other problem that companies are likely to face will be as large number of key employees reach
retirement age. Thus finding tools and techniques that will aid in retaining and institutionalising
the knowledge maintained by these transitioning and retiring workers has become increasingly
important for firms that wish to maintain their continued competitiveness.

Knowledge Management has the potential to improve firms' competitiveness by :

(a) fostering innovation by encouraging the free flow of ideas amongst employees;
(b) improving customer service by streamlining response time;
(c) boosting revenues by getting products and services to market faster;
(d) improving and lowering the costs of employee training; and
(e) streamling operations by eliminating redundant process ...
Therefore, those firms that properly view the retention and management of intellectual capital
as a core competancy will have a significant strategic advantage through their ability to retain,
harness and draw upon their 'corporate memory".

Supply Drivers
Recent technological advances have facilitated the development and adoption of specialised
knowledge management tools and technologies. The new technologies have allowed
unprecedented ability to access, store, search, organise, share information and communicate
with colleagues across a global organisation.

These technological advances, while small advances in their own right, have led to a significant
improvement in the collective technological ability of an organisation to manage its knowledge
capital