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KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT – AN ORGANIZATION BEHAVIORAL APPROACH By Haryani Haron Lecturer International Education Center University Teknologi MARA & Siti Arpah Noordin Lecturer Faculty Of Information Studies University Teknology MARA Paper presented at the Admin Assoc. of University Technology MARA, Malaysia, Subang. 31 January 2003 ABSTRACTINTRODUCTIONECONOMIC EVOLUTIONWHAT IS KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENTOVERVIEW OF THE PRACTICE OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT§ Knowledge Identification§ Knowledge Acquisition§ Knowledge sharing§ Knowledge development§ Knowledge application§ Knowledge Creation§ Knowledge preservation§ Knowledge measurementULTIMATE IMPACT OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT§ Sharing best practices§ Unifying specialized knowledge § Preserving valuable knowledge assets§ Nurturing the culture of innovation and creativity§ Anticipate changes in the marketplaceCONCLUSION Innovation and creativity will be the essence for k-economy to be realized in order for organization to stay competitive. The mind-set of workers in an organization as well as the nation as a whole must be changed. This will be the biggest challenge for organizations to manage since innovation and creativity will demand for knowledge-driven employees or knowledge-workers. Organization’s knowledge capital (tacit and explicit) must be managed. Knowledge management is not about building a computerized systems of human capital but it is about the planning and implementation of activities designed to continuously identify, acquire, apply, share, develop, create, preserve and audit(measure) organization’s knowledge assets. Knowledge management is about sharing best practices, upgrading employees’ competencies and organization’s productivity.The information age, facilitated by the development of information communication technology, leads to an emergence of a new type of economy called knowledge economy. As the world becomes borderless, Malaysia will have to face an insurmountable global competitiveness. The challenge of competitiveness and productivity that Malaysia has to face is substantially higher. Therefore a quantum leap in total factor productivity is needed and every factor of production must be made to work smarter. Thus, to be able to work smarter for sustainability, Malaysia has to move to knowledge economy as soon as possible.Prime Minister , Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, in Vision 2020 states:By the year 2020, Malaysia can be a united nation, with a confident Malaysian society, infused by strong moral and ethical values, living in a society that is democratic, liberal and tolerant, caring, economically just and equitable, progressive and prosperous, and in full possession of an economy that is competitive, dynamic, robust and resilient.In the early days of independence, Malaysia’s economy relied heavily and extensively on the export of two commodities that are rubber and tin. During this period, the economic is based on agriculture production. The main activity is farming and Malaysia became one of the biggest producers of rubber. As more productivity is sought, the economics turn to industrial based as the manufacturing sectors started to grow. Although agriculture remains as an important economic sector, manufacturing sectors also emerges as the most important sector to the country. The transformation from agricultural to manufacturing sectors took place during the years of 1970 to 1980. This period also witnessed a significant change in Malaysia economy in term of its greater integration into the world economy. Malaysia adopted more liberal trade policies as to lure trade and foreign investors to the country. It is believed that open economy policy will encourage higher productivity and returns. However, according to Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad, manufacturing sector contribution to Gross Domestic Product will peak by year 2005. By then, when the economy become global, and as the competition for new market become stiffer, more innovation and creation are needed. As such, there is a need to have a networking or connectivity of people in the global economy to share expertise and knowledge to the creation of new product. Thus, the new factor that will influence the economy will be knowledge. The World Development Report in 1999 states that knowledge has become perhaps the most important factor determining the standard of living – more than land, than tools, than labor. Today’s most technologically advanced economies are truly knowledge-based.(Cheng Ming Ju, 2001)Knowledge based economy is an economy where knowledge intensify and its application to production and to productive sectors of any country’s economy can bring about quantum leaps in growth.(David Abdulai, 2001) The main player in knowledge-based economy will be the knowledge workers. Knowledge workers are “symbolic analysts”, workers who manipulate symbols rather than machines, such as architects, bank workers, fashion designers, researchers, teachers and policy analysts. United States, which has an advanced economy, 60% of workers, is knowledge workers.Knowledge workers will make up a knowledge organization. Knowledge organizations practice knowledge management. Unfortunately, there is no universal definition for knowledge management. In the broadest context, knowledge management is the process through which organizations generate values from their intellectual and knowledge-based asset either in the form of tacit or explicit. Often, generation values from such asset mentioned above involve sharing them among employees, departments and even other companies in an effort to devise best practices. (Santosus, M and Surmacz, J, 2001)Some of the indicators for a knowledge organization are:· Existence of high knowledge investments· Efficient knowledge distribution which leads to innovation· Employment of high-skilled workers· Effective system in production, transmission and transfer of knowledgeTherefore, Malaysia who is going to knowledge economy will have to produce by training or retraining its workers to become knowledge workers. The greatest impact will be the change in work pattern among the workers. From a secure and monotonous, daily routine, the work pattern should be directing the careers towards lifelong and continuous learning. Only through continuous learning, a worker will be innovative and have all the characteristics of a knowledge worker. Government, organizations, private or non-profit organization have a role to play to make this a reality in Malaysia.As Dr David Abdulai (2001) in his book, Malaysia and the k-economy, states:At the end of the day, Malaysian workers, the government, the private sector and non-profit organizations should be aware the knowledge-based economy does not have permanent friends, and hence it will only reward countries and workers who effectively take advantage of it.What is knowledge management?
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