KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT Case Study

Crj C Laura Business Administration, Academy of Economic Studies Professional Master 17.01.2012, Bucharest

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction3 2. L Fashion PR. General Presentation....4 3. Vision. Mission. Values. Objectives..5 4. Knowledge metaphors within L Fashion PR...5 5. Knowledge transfer process and its limitations within L Fashion PR..8 6. Knowledge creation process and its limitations within L Fashion PR..9 7. Knowledge representation within L Fashion PR...10 8. Conclusions. References11

1. Introduction.
Organisations have experienced many changes to the ways they operate. Factors that influenced them are the shift to a knowledge economy, and the increased streamlining of work activities because of technological innovations. Changing the focus on services more than on the products has encouraged greater recognition of the importance of the knowledge held within an organisation. Here, we should specify, the fact that each organization, depending of the activity, has different objectives that influence the way it operates inside and outside of it. Knowledge is the process of translating information (such as data) and past experience into a meaningful set of relationships which are understood and applied by an individual. Its very important for a company, nowadays, to learn from their bad experience or mistakes Fail often to succeed sooner, David Kelly, CEO of IDEO- , to reinvent themselves in the same time with the economy changes. Knowledge management is the process of identifying, capturing, organising and disseminating the intellectual assets that are critical to the organization's long-term performance. We can, also, define KM as doing what is needed to get the most out of knowledge resources. Technological advances have greatly helped the growth of knowledge management, and the capacity to link the many systems and processes in an electronic system has opened up many different possibilities for businesses. Many companies have embraced electronic processes to conduct their basic work activities, hence the coining of terms such as e-workplace, e-commerce and e-community. The increasing recognition of the commercial value of employee expertise has stimulated organisations of all sizes and complexity to adopt many of the principles and concepts of knowledge management. As a result of the KM, it has appeared franchises, multinational firms and strategic alliances. Knowledge management has its roots in a variety of different disciplines.

2. L Fashion PR. General Presentation. L Fashion PR is the only one Romanian PR agency for fashion, lifestyle and beauty. The agency offers a wide range of advertising services for both companies in fashion and beauty, and for companies that are not in this area, but want to strengthen their image through fashion or beauty. The agency services are: Event Planning * Charitable Events * Wow Fashion Projects * Fashion/ Fashion Business Consulting * Branding and re-branding * Media relations * Press kit development * Website content *Social Media Marketing * Sponsorship Opportunities * Celebrity endorsement * The integration ot the brand in boutiques * Pictures and Video * Launch products / store * Make up and hair * Promotional products * High Level Models * Professional shooting * Participation at fairs and events in the field * L Fashion Parties We offer a team of a highly experienced that delivers brand exposure and PR campaigns that work.We offer a personalized and strategic approach to Fashion PR that can help establish a brand or fashion label in the media and market place today. Our relationships with keytastemakers and opinion formers can help establish maximum credibility while maintaining their brand philosophy whether luxury, high street or cutting edge, from the roots up. While our focus is to obtain brand exposure through a variety of media, we are constantly aware of the end goal which is for PR to translate into sales. L Fashion PR is unique and provides a service which is different from other PR agencies with lasting relationships with both our clients and the press. Our network of high level contacts means your brand in the forefront of key editors minds. We have a highly developed online system, including 10 social media channels, that helps our clients being in the first 5 pages on Google. In the same time, the blog page http://moda-evenimente-tendinte.blogspot.com/ and the website www.lfashionpr.com, are on the first Google page, after the searching words fashion events, fashion show, evenimente moda, prezentari moda, tendinte moda. In one month the main site will have a forum where fashion designers, beauty companies can find opportunities of collaboration with different clients, locations, events, in their way of strengthening their image. It will be a log in system that will help them to become a brand. There are many sources that can contribute to the knowledge management of the agency such as: the website, the blog, the forum, the social media, media, news from

inside and outside the country, competition, the big fashion shows, the related arts, the economy, the innovation system of the agency, the employees. Organisational knowledge draws on different organisational knowledge sources, including data housed in organisational records and systems, explicit knowledge which is documented and accessible, and tacit knowledge held by employees, customers, shareholders and other organisational stakeholders. Some major corporate knowledge systems include information databases, the company web site, the library and archives. 3. Vision. Mission. Values. Objectives. Working selectively with fashion, accessory, lifestyle and luxury clients that really excite and inspire us, L Fashion PR, believe in becoming an extension of the clients company and image, not just an outside view. Our mission and vision are the result of the experience gained since the foundation of the company. This helped us to leverage knowledge to the organiztions advantage. As a result of our knowledge management, we learned to respect and to offer its clients the best solutions and services so that to obtain concrete results. L Fashion PR have the benefits of a boutique agency hand-on, creative and personal but also have the infrastructure and strength of a larger company- senior staff, strategic planning, in accordance to the evolution of the economy, PR contacts and a spectacular online shop, all combining to offer a compelling integrated fashion PR service. The differentiation comes from our specialized services, that help us to identify, where the company is, where should it be and how to reach there. All these are possible because of the knowledge of that company. So, the benefits of knowing all the necessary about a company are: helps drive strategy, solves problems quickly, diffuses best practices, improves knowledge embedded in services, cross-fertilizes ideas and increase opportunities for innovation, enables organizations to stay ahead of the competition better, builds organizational memory. The objective of the agency is to assist companies in its efforts to build the desired image, to reach their target audience and then to maintain it with a variety of creative services. This is the key that defines the KM of the agency. Here, its important to maintain, that L Fashion PR informs daily both locally and internationally about fashion, pr strategies, competition, new events, in the idea of establishing the best plan of knowledge management that helps offering the best services. 4. Knowledge metaphors within L Fashion PR. The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another. Understanding our experiences in terms of objects and substances allows us to pick out parts of our experience and treat them as discrete entities or substances of a uniform kind. Once we can identify our experiences as entities or substances, we can refer to them, categorize them, group them, and quantify themand, by this means, reason about them. The metaphorical process typically goes from the more concrete (source domain) to the more abstract (target domain) but not the other way around. Knowledge does not have direct references in the real world.

Therefore, people use metaphors to represent elements of things we are familiar with in the real world and transfer them in concepts like knowledge to make them understandable.

KNOWLEDGE AS SOMETHING PHYSICAL This type of metaphor is used to conceptualize knowledge using entailments from the target domain of the physical world of substances such as land, objects and forms They state that knowledge has domains (knowledge as land), knowledge can be located, moved, and exchanged (knowledge as objects), and it can be converted and transformed (knowledge as a form). Considering this type, we can build some methaphors, regarding our agency: knowledge as land, the knowledge of the agency, represents the main domain- public relations agency for fashion and beauty departments. knowledge as objects we use these knowledge when we send a newsletter; knowledge as a form the knowledge of the day.

KNOWLEDGE AS A RESOURCE.

The metaphor makes knowledge instrumental and places it in a taxonomy of organizational resources that also includes financial resources, human resources and physical resources. Ex. We must use the knowledge for the agency strategy. KNOWLEDGE AS CAPITAL Capital is valuable and important, it is an asset for the future and not an expenditure, it can be invested in, it can be capitalized, capital itself can be invested, it allows for a return, etc The knowledge as capital metaphor transports positive connotations to the concept of knowledge, which then also becomes important, an asset, etc. In addition, the metaphor gives access to the powerful concept of value and valuation. KNOWLEDGE AS A WAVE Electricity, heat, light, and other waves have in common that they have a physical referent but cannot be seen or touched. Ex. These knowledge must be amplified within the organization. Other types of methaphores for knowledge are: Knowledge as a living organism. Knowledge as thoughts and feelings. Knowledge as a process. Knowledge as a structure

5. Knowledge transfer process and its limitations within L Fashion PR.

Knowledge transfer inside the firm was viewed as being mainly one way - out from research and development to the divisions, then out from the country of origin to the rest of the world. The knowledge transfer process implies that the message transmitted by the emitter to be de-codified by the receiver to be able to be transformed in knowledge. The knowledge core is the accumulated mass of strategic knowledge which is identified, publicly valued, captured and disseminated by the organisation. This core promotes the best performance and ensures that the key strategic priorities are served. Tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge are complementary; the explicit integration cannot be replaced by its tacit complement. As we know, the knowledge transfer process, within a company is very important because in this way, we can obtain the answer at many questions and some problems can be resolved. The problem in Romania, is that people tend to not discuss with other people about their ideas or thougths. This is the result of some factors like: --- For more than 40 years Romania was part of the Communist bloc. --- The rights and freedom of people were severely affected. --- A permanent tension was induced to people and a organizational culture based on fear was created. --- The economy, the value system and the beliefs were affected by changes. The determinants of knowledge transfer can be: Emotional factors --- Closely related to the interactions that people have inside the group, the organization. --- The identity of the people can have a say in the process of knowledge sharing due to the existence of stereotypes, racism, negative emotions. --- The level of trust that exists between the organization, its subunits, and its employees greatly influences the amount of knowledge that flows both between individuals and from individuals into the firms databases, best practices archives and other records. Socio-cultural factors, denote the culture in which the person developed. Cognitive factors. Three most important origins of stickiness are the lack of absorptive capacity of the recipient, causal ambiguity and an arduous relationship between the source and the recipient. Experience based factors. Refer to the knowledge that each member of the organization, of the group gained over the years at work. It represents the stock of accumulated knowledge that was developed over the years. The background of the individual shapes the interpretation of the work situations and individual perspectives.

Unfortunately the past experience can also contribute to the development of stereotypes with respect to the relations that the employee has with other cultures, organizations or even co-workers. 6. Knowledge creation process and its limitations within L Fashion PR. Knowledge is an unusual element of the business world, in that the more it is used, the better it becomes. The ability to distribute and duplicate knowledge across a range of people is the key to its value and versatility in organisations. It can reduce the time taken to learn new competencies and insights, and save significant costs in lost opportunities. People develop knowledge as an ongoing process through their work. Organisations are increasingly regarding knowledge creation and innovation as core business, as more people spend most of their work time creating and innovating. In projects, meetings and think-tanks, their individual knowledge becomes part of a collective activity that seeks to build a bank of knowledge for use by the organisation. L Fashion PR organise, for each new project a meeting, where the employees discuss freely about the theme. They can receive a homework regarding the subject, or some days off to think about it. Figure 1.1 illustrates the five stages of organisational knowledge development: knowledge sourcing, knowledge abstraction, knowledge conversion, knowledge diffusion, and knowledge development and-refinement. The process of knowledge development is dynamic and responsive, drawing cues and feedback from a range of sources throughout the various stages. This feedback may influence subsequent knowledge construction as it provides further cues and information which are considered and evaluated. We now look at each phase in detail. Phase: KNOWLEDGE SOURCING
Y

Creates:
Rich and accurate foundation for ongoing knowledge formation

KNOWLEDGE ABSTRACTION KNOWLEDGE CONVERSION

Principles, theories and concepts to guide ongoing knowledge development

Abstract concepts which are converted into applications and outcomes

1.
KNOWLEDGE DIFFUSION
+ '
Adaptable and flexible knowledge which accommodates changing contexts Shared understanding and adoption of knowledge gained

KNOWLEDGE DEVELOPMENT AND REFINEMENT

Figure1.1: Phases of organisational knowledge creation

7. Knowledge representation within L Fashion PR.

As the guide to core knowledge, the knowledge map needs to offer direction and structure. It should demonstrate the intellectual and organisational content from a number of angles so that knowledge users can be assured they will successfully retrieve knowledge from the repository. Successful retrieval can be viewed from two perspectives: (1) in terms of how many viable knowledge sources are identified, and (2) in relation to how well they match the user's expectations. Recall is the percentage of relevant sources retrieved from the total relevant sources held in the repository. For example, a user may seek guidance on a new research method. The repository has, say, 61 sources describing that research method. The desired outcome is 100% recall, that is, all 61 sources are identified. Precision relates to the percentage of those retrieved sources which the user perceives as relevant. That is, if 61 sources are identified, how many are relevant to the user? Although hard to achieve, a goal of 100% precision is not unrealistic if various approaches are used to develop the content structure. These two measures are a good test of repository effectiveness, reflecting the need to link user and sources in a controlled and systematic manner. The structure of the repository can greatly influence recall and precision. High recall and precision are accomplished through careful consideration of how core knowledge operates, how it can be described and classified, and the ways the user explores the repository. Mapping requires considerable effort to categorise, classify and describe core knowledge. The effort is justified by the time that is ultimately saved by ail users of the system. The map also provides guidance to all staff on what constitutes core knowledge and builds a common terminology throughout the organisation. However, the construction of the map is a demanding process, particularly with respect to describing core knowledge. The content structure must also ensure effective identification of registered sources and accommodate user search preferences. These aspects are explored in turn. Creating a knowledge map. Knowledge maps describe the organisational activities from a number of different perspectives. In chapter 7, these perspectives were broadly described as focusing on relational or operational concepts. The knowledge map integrates these different perspectives, so that they can intersect and be explored in a cohesive way. This is perhaps most readily demonstrated by viewing a simple knowledge map. Ontologies, taxonomies and thesauruses The knowledge map mirrors the various ways the business operates, providing an explicit guide to the way core knowledge is perceived in that organisation. The map acts as an ontology, or formal classification, of the organisational knowledge structure. It can be developed within an organisation, or may draw on public sources of guidance. For example, Stanford University maintains a number of ontologies to which various groups contribute. Ontologies draw the many different perspectives together into the knowledge map.

8. Conclusions.

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Knowledge management has developed itself as a strong component of a company management. Today, to be informed means to be on top, and to remain there means to keep yourself upated. References: Debowski, Knowledge Management

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