Knowledge Management Processes

King (2009) describes the processes of KM as involving the capturing of knowledge, acquisition of knowledge, creation of knowledge, storage of knowledge, transfer of knowledge, sharing of knowledge and re-use of knowledge. He further added that the functions of these KM processes in the organization centres on developing methodologies and systems to support them, and motivates people to participate in them. King (2009) further asserts that the goals of KM in an organisations is primarily to leverage and improve the organisations knowledge assets with the aim to make better and effective practices, improved organizational behaviours, more informed decision making and improved performance. Omotayo, (2015) also views KM processes as the organisation of several activities aimed at carrying out key elements of an organisation’s KM strategy and operations. For this to be sustainable and effective, an organisation must firstly be able to identify what knowledge is available and then capture such knowledge which then needs to be organised it in order to effective within the organisational boundaries. Omotayo (2015) further asserts that knowledge when captured, needs to be shared and transferred amongst the staffs of an organisation via both human and technological means, and as a result, the members of the organisation can apply the new knowledge to their tasks/work activities, which can include the use of KM systems or developing the business case for an organisation’s KM projects. KM processes are quite people-intensive, and less technology-intensive than most people might believe, although a modern knowledge-enabled enterprise must support KM with appropriate information and communications technology (King, 2008). The next section starts the discussion with knowledge creation which is one of the processes of KM.

2.8.1 Knowledge Creation

The creation and development of knowledge is a fundamental element in the KM process (Dul et al., 2011; Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995; Pan and Scarbrough, 1999). For any organisation to survive, knowledge creation must be given attention Adi et al., 2016). Knowledge creation is not only limited to organisations alone but also occurs throughout daily activities which includes the work place as well as social settings. The creation of knowledge is dynamic in nature, and expresses itself in different forms such as formal training or talking with people who share similar interests or technological means such as data mining activities (Omotayo, 2015). She

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further posits that knowledge creation is majorly a process driven by people more than technology; technology is mostly used as an enhancer but cannot replace human ability to create knowledge. Organisations leverage on their ability to create knowledge, innovate, and generate value with new knowledge (Omotayo, 2015). This is knowledge that leads to new and innovative products, improves internal processes and operations, and improves the strategic decision- making capabilities and direction of the organisation (Nonaka 1994; Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995). Knowledge creation as described by Nonaka et al., ( 2006) is the conversion of tacit to explicit or explicit to tacit as seen in the SECI model which is embedded in the organization’s staffs minds and its vision and culture.

Hislop (2013); Adi Sapir et al., (2016); Nonaka et al., (2006) posit that the ability to create knowledge and generate a competitive advantage is now essential for any organisation that plans to remain ahead of the competition in the marketplace. The need to create knowledge in organisation has been identified above. It is equally important to point out that, for knowledge activities to be effective, knowledge held by organisations must be easily accessible and retrievable (Omotayo, 2015). This means that organisations must plan and organise their knowledge in such a way that it is easily assessable by the appropriate individuals in order to avoid or mitigate against any consequence this might leads to. It is therefore important for organisations to spend resources and efforts in managing and organizing the knowledge that exists within the boundaries of the organisation (Adi Sapir et al., 2016). When an employee leaves an organisation on the basis of turnover or retirement, their knowledge, ideas, experiences, relationships and insights leave with them and if strategies are not put in place capture, transfer, and share this knowledge in the organisation, this could lead to major knowledge loss within the organisation, to prevent this, the next section discusses how to share knowledge that was initially created.

2.8.2 Knowledge Sharing

The effectiveness of KM lies in the ability to share quality knowledge between and within an organisation (Paquette and Desousa, 2011; Olatokun and Nwafor, 2012; Amayah, 2013). The benefit of knowledge usage hinges on the ability to share such knowledge with colleagues, teammates and co-workers such knowledge once it is created. Ziva and Katarina, (2015) explain that the sharing of knowledge is a vital process in KM because it helps organisations leverage on the knowledge of employees which could be lost as a result of employee turnover or retirement.

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Another form of knowledge loss in organisations involves employees transferring to another organisation, mobility and alternative work arrangements. It is however, the responsibility of organisational staffs to create and share knowledge by making knowledge a personal responsibility and one that requires personal commitment (Pauline and Suneson, 2012). They added that an organisational goal for managing knowledge is to increase profit by improving the efficiency of their operations, improve innovation and enhance competitiveness. However, this desired benefit cannot be achieved without the effective sharing of knowledge within the organisation. These shared knowledge needs to be exploited in order to help employees make informed decisions. The application of knowledge by organisations is critical to the success of the KM goals against actual realized benefits (Hislop, 2013; Dul et al., 2011).

Knowledge Sharing (KS) is one of the fundamental aspects of the KM process, which is pivotal to the functioning of other KM processes (Wang and Noe, 2010). KS can be described as either “push or pull”. The push system typifies the ability of the knowledge worker to seek knowledge sources such as library search, seeking out an expert, internet search and collaborating with a colleague, while push system is exemplified in pushing knowledge onto a user, this includes items such as newsletters, unsolicited publications and so on (Frost, 2013). The goal of KS involves the creation of new knowledge through the combination of differently existing knowledge or to become more effective at using existing knowledge (Milena et al., 2014). This also involves the processes through which knowledge is channelled between a source and a recipient. For KS to be successful, priority is given to the sharing of the specific knowledge which is focused on organising and implementing knowledge in a way that bridges both existing and potential relationship issues thereby examining the form and location of the knowledge to ensure its complete transfer (Cummings, 2003). Cummings (2003) added that for KS to work, the knowledge seeker needs an interaction with the knowledge provider, and the knowledge provider should be willing to share such knowledge with the knowledge seeker. Santos and Goldman, (2012) and Wang and Noe, (2010) posits that the facilitation of KS requires the understanding of owner or user requirements and the many challenges and potential problems that arise in the course of managing knowledge and knowledge sources. Different organisations perceive the idea of KS in different ways within different situations or contexts. One of those is the idea of KS and knowledge transfer (KT), which has generated several arguments amongst several authors as to the various similarities and difference between both. The next section discusses KT as one of the KM processes.

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2.8.3 Knowledge Transfer

Prusak (2015) define KT as the process of relinquishing experience, know-how, insight, expertise and tacit knowledge of SME into the minds and hands of their co-workers. He added that in organisations, transfer of knowledge from one part to another poses a major challenge. Another definition of KT is the capture, organisation and distribution of know-how of professionals within a particular field (Kogut and Zander, 1992; Grant, 1996). Szulanski (1996) in his study regarded knowledge as an organisations core resource. During the early 2000s, focus on KT remains high on the minds of strategic leadership who seek to address the weakness associated with KT across organisations while others focus on intra-corporate knowledge flows within amongst multinationals and the study of business unit innovation and performance (Hansen, 2002; Gupta and Govindarajan, 2000; Tsai, 2001). Schlegelmilch and Chini (2003) present a literature review primarily in the area of certain empirical studies. The study shows that more recently published reviews on KT still align to the need of organisations focusing on the benefit of KT within and between employees.

Review carried out by Easterby-Smith, et al. (2008) and Van Wijk et al. (2008) focuses on both intra and inter-organizational knowledge transfer. Easterby-Smith, et al. (2008) then identified a number important questions relating to theoretical and practical significance to the current research area of inter-organizational knowledge transfer. Some of the questions generated in the process of this study include “How does the process of knowledge transfer unfold at different levels of analysis both at organisational and individual levels?” the work of Liyanage, et al. (2009), had a rather different perspective to the idea of KT and they state that it involves the dissemination of knowledge from point to point which could include a person, a place and so on. The next section discusses the knowledge capturing process and is the underlying KM process under which this research is underpinned.