Information Technology as a Supportive
Tool for Managing Knowledge: A Theoretical
Perspective
Rifat O. Shannak
Chairman of MIS Department, Faculty of Business, University of Jordan, Amman,
Jordan
E-mail: rshannak@ju.edu.jo, Tel: +96265355000 ext. 24288; Fax: +96265355510
Abstract
Knowledge has been lately considered as one of the most important assets of an
organization. Nowadays organizations are realizing how important it is to know what
they know and how they can maximize the usage of it .So can information technology
help the growth and the sustainability of organizational knowledge? The answer is yes,
but additional care must be taken in consideration. The use of information technologies
within an organization has been identified, by many companies, as an important tool for
managing or sharing organizational knowledge in order to improve business
performance.
This paper discusses how the organizations are going to manage knowledge effectively
through information technology. It‘s starts with discussing the main components for
knowledge management and the role of information technology and how it effect
knowledge management.
Keywords: Knowledge Management, Information
Knowledge, Performance, Organizational Performance
Technology,
Organizational
Aims and Objectives
The goal of this paper is to provide an overview of technologies, the relationship between
information technology and knowledge management.
Knowledge management can be improved by using new information technologies, which
help top management, make a successful decision and find the solutions for future
problems that the organization could face in the future.
Also IT has a powerful effect in enhancing the individuals and organization knowledge,
and provides the organization with different tolls that help in sharing knowledge between
employees and managers in the organization. Using IT help the organization in making
efficient decisions in short time.
The aim is to identify trends and new developments that seem to be significant and to
relate them to technology research in the field, rather than to provide a comprehensive
review of available products.
Introduction
New information technologies are having profound effects on the way an organization
operates. IT enables organizations to design their structures by finding new kinds of
tasks, enhancing the relationship between the employees, their superiors and the top
management, enhance the productivity and improve the organization productivity.
Knowledge management has important implications for both organizational learning and
decision making. Therefore, knowledge management is an important tool for increasing
the level of integration inside an organization, among people, functions, and even
divisions.
In 1990s many companies moved to develop electronic knowledge management systems
to speed learning and improve decision making, which are many of them have succeed
even it were very expensive. Nowadays, so much information is available to managers
through IT systems, which help them search and find the required information for making
effective decisions and discover the best practices and solutions for their companies.
Information Technology (IT) — Computer hardware and software used in the
acquisition, storage, manipulation, management, movement, control, display, switching,
interchange, transmission, or reception of knowledge, information, or data. IT includes
computers, ancillary equipment, software, firmware, networks and systems, services
(including support services), and related resources.
Knowledge Management (KM) — A type of IT-enabled organizational relationship that
has important implications for both organizational learning and decision making.
Literature review
Knowledge management is a key concept in today’s business world. Evidence of this
fact is apparent if one only peruses the current business, management, and organization
literature. On the surface, it looks as if knowledge management just appeared toward the
end of the 1990’s. Some regard knowledge management as a business fad or craze
(Swan, Newell, Scarbrough, and Hislop, 1999), but a closer examination of the concept
reveals that there has been considerable thought and research into it, and many of the
world’s most successful corporations, businesses, and organizations are investing
considerable resources in this enterprise (Alvesson and Karreman, 2001).
Prusak (1999) estimates that approximately 80% of the Global 1000 businesses are
conducting knowledge projects, and that “approximately 68% of the Fortune 1000 have
defined knowledge projects underway. Attendance at knowledge conference…has
reached over 10,000 in the U.S. alone. There are at least six knowledge management
newsletters, one fully developed knowledge management magazine” (p. 3).
Many of the practices set up in organizations can be broadly construed as contributing to
the knowledge agenda. These knowledge projects range from setting up an intranet,
using Lotus Notes or other team-oriented software, creating personal development plans,
mentoring, or sharing information on best practices. Increasingly, organizations are
creating specific initiatives or programs with a knowledge focus. Knowledge teams and
knowledge leaders are emerging, but very few organizations are applying knowledge
management throughout their organizations (Skyrme, 1999).
Many organizations rely heavily on computers, intranets, and the internet for knowledge
packaging. In fact, much of the credit for the widespread use of knowledge management
theories and practices must go to the development of the worldwide web because the
internet has made the world increasingly smaller in its short history. The internet began
in 1969 as a Pentagon-sponsored program called the Advanced Research Projects Agency
(Albert and Bradley, 1997, p. 144). It began as a loose confederation of interconnected
computer networks to help military contractors share large sets of data. By the early
1980’s, universities and research laboratories were using it as well. With the transition
from mainframe computers to personal computers in the mid to late 1980’s, businesses
began to use the internet too. By 1997, there were more than 35 million users (Albert and
Bradley, 1997, p. 146). The surge in information flow and connectivity has allowed
individuals and organizations to share a great volume of information and knowledge in a
manner that had never been possible.
Information technology has become a key in the implementation of knowledge
management. “It’s role is emerging as an integrator of communications technology,
rather than solely a keeper of information. The critical role for IT lies in its ability to
support communication, collaboration, and those searching for knowledge and
information” (McCampbell et al., 1999, 178). Information technology and the advent of
the personal computer have greatly enhanced organizational effectiveness, interorganizational deployment, and cognitive advance (Grover and Davenport, 2001, p.6).
Another area of communication that information technology has drastically impacted is
social activity. Computer networks provide a means to break down stovepipes, or
hierarchical barriers, that often inhibit the flow of free thinking, knowledge, and
innovation, or the creation of knowledge.
There are, however, some difficulties caused by the use of information technology in
knowledge management practices. First of all, information technology leads to
misconceptions
about
the
differences
between
information
and
knowledge.
Organizations often store heavy loads of information or data and mistakenly think they
are fostering the flow of knowledge. “Quite a few of these projects include work focused
on data warehousing, installation of Lotus Notes, building intranets and developing
document and intellectual capital applications—all of which bear a definite but somewhat
distant relationship to knowledge” (Prusak, 1999, pp. 3-4). A second challenge occurs
when organizations view knowledge work as done once the information technology
application becomes technologically operational. In reality, this is just the beginning of
the knowledge project. Constructing an information technology infrastructure for
knowledge does not, in itself, guarantee that organization members will use the system.
Finally, some organizations rely too heavily on information technology and not enough
on the social aspects of sharing knowledge.
In the short tradition of knowledge management practice, organizations typically address
knowledge management from a social or technological point of view. Managers tend to
look at the management of knowledge from the point of view that employees are their
best asset, whereas those who favor the technological approach deal with what
information technology is needed to support knowledge management. Abecker et al.
(1999) found that “effective knowledge management requires a hybrid solution, one that
involves both people and technology…our long term vision is a corporate or
organizational memory, at the core of a learning organization, supporting sharing and
reuse of individual and corporate knowledge” (p. 185).
Knowledge life cycle
There
are
four
different
phases
of
the
knowledge
life-cycle—socialization,
internalization, externalization and combination which have been formalized by Nonaka
and Takeuchi (1995) in the figure below. Under this view, “knowledge management” can
be explained as the management of the environment that makes knowledge flow through
all the different phases of its life-cycle.
Figure 1: Knowledge Conversion as proposed by Nonaka and Takeuchi
(1995)
Information Technology for Knowledge Management
There is an ongoing lively debate about the role that information technology can play for
knowledge management. On the one hand, information technology is used pervasively in
organizations, and thus qualifies as a natural medium for the flow of knowledge. A recent
study from the American Productivity and Quality Center shows that organizations
embarking in knowledge management efforts generally rely, for accomplishing their
goals, on the setting up of a suitable IT infrastructure. At the other end of the spectrum,
leading knowledge management theorists have warned about the attitude that drives
management towards strong investments in IT, possibly at the expense of investments in
human capital; see for instance Sveiby (1999).
Nowadays information technologies are as much about creating direct connections among
people through such applications as electronic mail, chat-rooms, video-conferencing and
other types of groupware as they are about storing information in databases and other
types of repositories. As for information databases, they can also be fruitfully re-thought,
in a knowledge management perspective, as resources for the sharing of best practices
and for preserving the intellectual capital of organizations. Generally speaking,
investments in IT seem to be unavoidable in order to scale up knowledge management
projects. The best way of applying information technology to knowledge management is
probably a combination of two factors: on the one hand, the awareness of the limits of
information technology, and of the fact that any IT deployment will not achieve much, if
it is not accompanied by a global cultural change toward knowledge values; on the other
hand, the availability of information technologies that have been expressly designed with
knowledge management in view.
Theoretical framework
The dependent variable in this research is the individual and organizational knowledge,
which depends on using knowledge management system in order to enhance their
knowledge. Information technology has a powerful effect on building an effective
knowledge management system.
As we have mentioned in the literature review, nowadays organizations depend more on
new technologies to enhance their knowledge, and use information technology to share
the knowledge between the employees.
Usage of Knowledge
Management system
(KMS)
Effective
Training
Enhance individual
& organization
knowledge
Information
Technology
Enhance the
decision making
Dependent Variables
Independent
Variables
Figure 2 - Schematic Diagram for the theoretical framework
The above figure 2 shows the relation between the information technology and
knowledge management and how the organization knowledge can be affected by IT. Also
it shows that by providing the employees and the managers an effective training on new
technologies will have a powerful effect in making successful decisions and improving
their knowledge and their performance.
Benefits of knowledge management
If an effective knowledge management strategy is developed and implemented, it can
greatly facilitate the collection and sharing of meaningful knowledge, reducing lost time
searching for that expertise. Thus employee knowledge can be converted to corporate
knowledge, building on organizational memory. Knowledge management can improve
efficiency and effectiveness, and increase responsiveness to market changes (Leng &
Shepherdson 2000). It can also be used to improve product development and quality, and
develop a better understanding of customer and stakeholder relationships (Davenport,
Eccles & Prusak 1992; Hauschild, Licht & Stein 2001).
Future Considerations for Knowledge Management
In spite of a number of people viewing knowledge management as a passing business
fad, the concept is an emerging discipline, which arose from a need for businesses to stay
competitive in an information age post-capitalist society. As the field matures,
knowledge management compels one to examine all approaches to sharing information
and knowledge, informal and formal, social and technological. It fosters creativity and
innovation. As technology develops even further, organizations will make new advances
in transferring, sharing, and creating knowledge. Even today, businesses are improving
artificial intelligence systems in order to capture and provide access to problem
resolution, legal knowledge, and new concept development (Grover and Davenport,
2001, p. 10). Nevertheless, knowledge management requires attention and discipline. It
requires considerable effort on the part of workers and managers alike, but the positive
effects of knowledge management are “evident by an internal and external awareness of
collective strength and the ability to respond and instantly organize to meet…demands
and opportunities” (McCampbell et al., 1999, p. 177)
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