Knowledge Management The Systematic Organisation

Question: Describe about the Knowledge Management for The Systematic Organisation. Answer: Introduction In todays more complex business era, knowledge management plays a major role in order to accomplish the business goals and objectives of the business organizations. Knowledge management (KM) refers as the systematic management of the knowledge assets of an organization. The major purpose knowledge management is to create value and to meet tactical strategic necessities of the businesses. Along with this, knowledge management entails the systems initiatives, strategies, and processes that play a major role to sustain and develop the evaluation, storage, improvement, sharing, and creation of knowledge. In addition to this, KM plays a major role to offer right tools, knowledge, people, culture, structure, etc. in order to improve the learning and to comprehend the value as well as applications of the new knowledge produced (Linden, Liu, Dargam Hernndez, 2015). Moreover, KM stores the new knowledge and also makes it accessible for the right people and at the right time place. KM const antly assesses, applies, processes, and also removes organizational knowledge together with actual long and short term factors. In current, KM has become a basic need of the business organizations that is Knowledge management (KM) is advantageous in order to create, share, use and manage the knowledge as well as information of an organization in an effective and a more comprehensive manner. Moreover, it leads to a strong tie to organizational goals and strategy. KM entails the management of knowledge that is valuable for various organizational purposes and also creates value for the organization. This research paper is helpful to describe that how Wal-Mart has been implemented knowledge management in order to increase the efficiency and output of the organization. Moreover, the paper would also be helpful to illustrate the models of KM that Wal-Mart used to enhance the efficiency and output of the business. Introduction of Wal-Mart Wal-Mart is a multinational corporation that runs a chain of large discount departmental stores as well as warehouse in various nations. Along with this, the company was established in 1962 and also integrated officially in 1969. In 1970, Wal-Mart started trading stock as a publicly held company. At this time, the company has approximately 4,573 stores as well as 730, 000 acquaintances within fourteen countries. This indicates the growth and success of Wal-Mart at the global level. In addition to this, Wal-Mart has completely owned operations in Argentina, Brazil, Canada and the UK (Wal-Mart. 2016). The firm also has quite a lot of joint ventures in China and a number of majority owned subsidiaries. Moreover, the corporation operates its business under different banners. All the international stores of Wal-Mart work for a specific goal, to enable their customers to save money and live a better life. On the other hand, KM refers as the practices as well as strategies that an organization uses in order to create distribute and also facilitate implementation of strategic insights as well as specific experiences. Moreover, the knowledge can be personified in either entity or organizational practices/processes. In current, each and every firm makes heavy funds towards development of internal knowledge management efforts. Wal-Mart is a major example that has become the largest corporation of world because of its efforts towards knowledge management (Nazari Emami, 2012). Along with this, Wal-Mart focuses on its goals objectives in order to develop and foster insightful knowledge management skills in an effective and a more comprehensive manner. For case, it should be noted down that, superior business performance, competitive advantage, innovation, and constant improvement of business operations processes are the major organizational objectives of Wal-Mart. Moreover, knowledge manag ement of the firm includes numerous important issues such as: mentoring programs, professional training, discussion forums, corporate libraries and formal apprenticeship. The corporation also focuses on adaptations of technologies, group decision support systems, expert systems, knowledge bases repositories, intranets and so on to resolve all these issues in an appropriate manner (Malhotra, 2005). Importance of Knowledge Management in Wal-Mart Wal-Mart has been built a deep-seated mark in the retail industry. The huge chain store of Wal-Mart has a devastatingly effectual knowledge management program. The KM program of the organization has allowed it to preserve its competitive advantage even at times of tumultuous economic circumstances. Along with this, the goals of the business are being accomplished concurrently all the way through strictly holding to business aims and also complementary operations with the economic growth (Erickson Rothberg, 2011). So, as a result of positive KM strategies, Wal-Mart achieved economic gains the whole time. In addition to this the knowledge management strategies of Wal-Mart have facilitated it to focus on its strategic business operations into cutting operational costs as well as putting up a worth for its shareholders. On the other hand, Wal-Mart makes an effective focus on all the major categories of knowledge. For case, public, shared and personal are the three major forms of knowledge. Public knowledge can be obtained all the way through public domains like the Internet, social media, books, etc. Shared knowledge is knowledge that is completely held by the employees of an organization and also applied in work. Moreover, personal knowledge is the knowledge that is mainly used in work as well as daily life of people. Wal-Mart used these all the forms of knowledge to improve the productivity and profitability of the organization (King, 2009). Apart from this, Wal-Mart also faced various challenges in order to introduce different knowledge management strategies within the organization. But, change management analysis played a significant role in order to override the challenges of the business. The effective KM largely contributed to accomplish the strategic, financial and competitive gains of the b usiness. In addition to this, in todays modern global age, all the stores of Wal-Mart are idyllic for businesses, units and organizations. Moreover, the knowledge management of Wal-Mart is so effective just because of the superior employee skills (Rubanju, 2007). The KM has played a critical role in order to defy all the challenges faced by the organization and to accomplish the overall mission as well as vision of the firm in an effective and a more comprehensive manner. Apart from this, the effectual and consistent knowledge management skills or strategies of Wal-Mart have also enhanced effectiveness of the organization within its service delivery as well as customer care. Nowadays, the organization makes use of effective KM strategies and staff productivity to predict the success or failure of the business. The organization focuses on the growth of the staff and also determines the loyalty, assiduousness and good conduct of employees to ensure the staff productivity for the business. Moreo ver, appropriate knowledge management has allowed it to resolve all issues linked to organizational practices in an effective and a significant manner (Lawlor, 2007). On the other hand, Wal-Mart also applies knowledge management in its HRM (Human Resource Management) strategies or practices. For case, HRM strategies are the tactics that business firms or organizations use to select, hire, and train their employees for competent performance as well as delivery of services. Special HRM strategies are implemented by different associations to accomplish just about same goals (Florea, 2014). Moreover, it should be noted down that, the implementation of effective HRM strategies is not a new phenomenon to Wal-Mart. It is because of, in the recent years, effective HRM strategies of Wal-Mart have been enabled it to obtain much acknowledgment all over the world. Moreover, as an integral part of KM, the HRM strategies of Wal-Mart are mainly used to facilitate the organization; so it can manage its managerial activities all the way through harmonization of employee allied processes. Along with this, the success of an association in the area of knowledge manag ement is also decided by the types of HRM strategies of the firms (Constantinescu, 2008). In the same manner, Wal-Mart also implemented knowledge management to reduce conflicts and to develop effective communication with the people. At the stores of Wal-Mart, KM is used as regards conflict management. It is because of with the appropriate application of KM, Wal-Mart become able to know major issues related to conflicts and to enhance effectual communication within corporation (Murray, 2008). Moreover, just because of the KM, the management always protects its staff and also provides them articulate resources by which they can knowledge management experiences with the other people of the organization. Along with this, Wal-Mart manages and motivates its employee all the way through the use of knowledge management practices. Wal-Mart focuses on employee retention and also offers annual rewards as well as appraisals to the employees. This motivation factor motivates the staff and workforces to improve their performance to get rewards and to accomplish the organizational goals in a specified time period (Becerra-Fernandez Sabherwal, 2014). For this reason, knowledge management played a major role to Wal-Mart to improve organizational efficiency, and to enhance the performance, productivity, profitability of the firm in an effective and a significant manner. Models of Knowledge Management Implemented by Wal-Mart Wal-Mart mainly implemented SECI model of knowledge management for the creation of knowledge. This is a famous conceptual model that was first planned by Nonaka and also further enlarged by Nonaka and Takeuchi. The model plays a significant role to describe that how knowledge is generated, relocated, and recreated in organizations. Moreover, Socialization (tacit to tacit), Externalization (tacit to explicit), Combination (explicit to explicit), and Internalization (explicit to tacit) are the four major concepts of the SECI model (Andreeva Ikhilchik, 2011). These four elements of the SECI model are described as below: Socialization: This stage of SECI model focuses on tacit to tacit knowledge. It means to share tacit knowledge in both internal and external way. This element states that employees of business firms must be ready to share knowledge for the growth and success of the organizations. Along with this, with the help of this concept, Wal-Mart transfers tacit knowledge one person to another (Srikantaiah Koenig, 2008). The firm uses direct interactions as well as experiences to share knowledge among people. Moreover, the firm also makes an effective discussion between the people of same culture; so they can share knowledge and also work together in an effective and an appropriate manner. The organization also conducts numerous joint activities to bring together the employees; so they may understand to each-other and also share their knowledge in a proper way. For that reason, the tacit knowledge or socialization process is related to the ideas of communities as well as alliance between peopl e and teams (Bratianu, 2010). Wal-Mart also applies this process in to tell the experienced people of the firm that they are responsible to share or transfer their knowledge and ideas with new employees. Externalization: This stage of SECI model mainly focuses on tacit to explicit knowledge. This process plays a significant role in order to create new knowledge the same as tacit knowledge that comes out and also becomes communal group knowledge. In addition to this, externalization plays a significant role in order to interpret tacit knowledge of an individual into explicit knowledge. This type of knowledge can be shared and comprehend by the people in an easy manner (McInerney Koenig, 2011). Moreover, Wal-Mart conducts dialogue sessions to transfer tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge. Wal-Mart also takes help of written documents, images, and concepts to provide support to this type of interface. Along with this, the firm also shares these documents with other team members those are working on similar projects. The knowledge that Wal-Mart captures by this process becomes a precious source of reference to other people or teams of the organization. Apart from this, this process o f SECI model is very difficult and time consuming. But, due to its advantages, Wal-Mart focuses on this in order to share knowledge among people in an effective and a significant manner (Geisler Wickramasinghe, 2015). Combination: This process of SECI model plays a major role in order to transfer the explicit knowledge all the way through databases, e-mails, documents, and meetings. Moreover, this stage also collects and processes related internal as well as external knowledge, and also make the knowledge more comprehensible and propagate for the people or groups of the organization. It is a major process wherever knowledge transforms from explicit to explicit knowledge. Along with this, Wal-Mart also collects explicit knowledge from inside or outside environment of the organization and also combines, alters or practices into a new form of knowledge. Wal-Mart also distributes the new explicit knowledge among the members of the organization; so they can tale help of the knowledge to accomplish the shared goals and objectives of the business in an effective and a more comprehensive manner (Woods Cortada, 2013). In this way, this element of SECI model is also advantageous for the success and growth of the busine sses. Internalization: Internalization is the last stage of the SECI model. Moreover, with the help of this process, Wal-Mart creates explicit knowledge with the help of tacit knowledge and also shares this knowledge across the organization. Wal-Mart also grasps as well as holds learned explicit knowledge into tacit knowledge (Uden, Wang, Rodrguez, Yang Ting, 2013). Along with this, this type of may be personified in actions and practices of the business organizations. People may re-gain the explicit knowledge by taking help of documents, reports and books. Moreover, people also gain tacit knowledge by accepting the explicit knowledge and also assuming new ideas or actions appropriately. In addition to this, with the help of this process, business organizations actualize their gained experiences or knowledge as methods, concepts, and processes that are performed in the course of experiments and researches. For this reason, the SECI model of knowledge management is beneficial for the busin ess organizations. Wal-Mart implements this model to share experiences and knowledge among the people of the business (Uden, Oshee, Ting Liberona, 2014). The firm also provides effective training to its employees at different stages of the SECI model; so they can work and also play important roles to accomplish the goals and objectives of the business. Conclusion On the basis of the above analysis, it can be said that, Wal-Mart has implemented knowledge management in order to improve the competence and productivity of the business. The effective KM strategies have increased return on investments and also reduced the financial risks of business. Along with this, it is also observed that, knowledge management also played a critical role to improve the overall organizational performance as well as efficiency in an effective and a more comprehensive manner. Moreover, the SECI model of KM also improved the performance of the organization. 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