KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AND IT SUPPORT

Knowledge management systems are information systems which are perceived as facilitating organization learning by capturing important knowledge and making available to all the employees as required.Effective management of knowledge is important for the complexity of organizations. There are many knowledge based systems such as expert systems, information systems etc, Dutta (1997:79).Existing body of work on kms primarily consists of general principles of kms(Davenport 1997b), The major concern is that to have correct amount and type of knowledge which supports to the kms.

Knowledge management systems have been used by the organization recently, so little expectations are framed for the benefits and costs. The best results for the kms is the ability of organizations to be flexible and respond more quickly to changing market conditions, and also to be innovative as well as improving decision making and productivity (Strata, 1997: Harris, 1996). The benefits of kms used by the organization are improving project management, saving time, better serving to the clients and providing better measurement and accountability. Kms are multifaceted, its effectiveness is far more than just technology, cultural and organizational issues.

ROLE OF IT IN KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS


Organizations can be provided with vast electronic libraries with the help of Information Technology, many companies imagined a new world of leveraged knowledge due to Information Technology. E- mail and Internet have made it possible for professionals to locate things , no matter where they are located, like a geologist can compare data of an oil field to any similar field across the world to asses its commercial potential.

"Knowledge is experience. Everything else is just information" by Albert Einstein.

Many companies are thinking that linking people through electronic media, so that they can share the knowledge with each other and produce a new knowledge.For example a computer company group designed an electronic library of system configuration, so designers could draw from the pre- developed components. These companies believe that if they get people to documents their insights and draw each other work, they could create a web of global knowledge, which helps their staff to work with greater effectiveness and efficiency.


Information Technology has inspired this vision but itself cannot bring this vision into being, most of the companies found that leveraging knowledge is very hard to achieve. For example several years ago a IT group installed lotus notes, hoping it would lead to collaboration, but it was only used for E-mails. Studies show that IT normally reinforces an organization norms about documenting, sharing information, and using the ideas of others, computer based decision is no more considered as democratic than face- to -face decision making people need to build a relationship often through face- to -face meeting before they can effectively collaborate electronically.

As IT support in the Kms is the plus point in this paper but I argue with that, because IT doesn't give any kind of guarantee of success to any Kms, IT always focuses on business prospects but not on the organizational performance and competitive advantage strategies.


REFERENCES



G.E. Fryxell,"Managing the Culture of Innovation",L.R. Gonez-M afia and M.W. Lawless, eds., Organizational issues in High Technology Management (Greenwich, CT Jai press, 1990).


T. Burns and G.M. Stalkes, The management of Innovation (London: Tavistock publications, 1961); J.M Beyer "The Twin Dilemmas of Commitment and coherence Posed by High Technology,"(1990), pg 19-36.


Barlett, C. (1996) MC Kinsey and Company: Managing Knowledge and learning, Case 9-396-357, Boston, MA: Harvard business School.

Churchman, C.W. (1972) The Design of Inquiring Systems: Basic Concepts of systems and Organizations, New York, NY: Bencis books.

Harris, D.B (1996), Creating a Knowledge Centric Information Technology Environment. http// www.htca.com/ckc.htm.