Why is Knowledge Management Important in Today's Business Climate?
Today's business environment is characterized by continuous, often radical change. Such a volatile climate demands a new attitude and approach within organizations.
Some of the current challenges businesses face include:
a growing emphasis on creating customer value and improving customer service
an increasingly competitive marketplace with a rising rate of innovation
reduced cycle times and shortened product development times
a reduction in the amount of time employees are given to acquire new knowledge and
changes in strategic directions and workforce mobility that lead to knowledge loss
What Should Knowledge Management Accomplish?
The challenge of knowledge management is to determine what information within an organization qualifies as "valuable." All information is not knowledge, and all knowledge is not valuable. The key is to find worthwhile knowledge within a vast sea of information. Identifying knowledge assets requires that agencies identify the knowledge they currently have and the knowledge they will need to have for future business processes. They must ask themselves how new knowledge will impact organizational tasks and work processes, what needs to change, and how will this information keep the organization competitive.
Knowledge managers must have a vision of how they want their learning organization to function. Such a vision must be given top-level commitment and high-priority communication. It should spur and catalyze the imagination, encouraging workers to think about the future in improvisational and innovative ways. A good knowledge manager will unleash the creative potential in people, embrace new ideas, and apply technical know-how to develop new work processes that keep the organization competitive and future-focused.
