Knowledge Management in the Modern Organization

By Randolf Kissling
CEO Aura Interactiva

Is your Human Resources Department prepared for responding to a dynamic environment?

Knowledge optimization and its strategic significance

It is increasingly common to listen about organizations creating knowledge at an unprecedented speed, and it is even more surprising to know that in a few years mankind will double all the knowledge accumulated throughout history in an endless circle. It is also amazing to see how technological development forces, competition, and globalization significantly accelerate this process.

In view of this situation, organizations are forced to manage –besides fixed assets, capital, and workforce—knowledge resources, information, and learning. In many organizations, particularly in the service sector, knowledge is becoming a more important competitive advantage factor than financial or material goods that have been formerly relevant.

Board of directors in modern organizations have a strategic priority: using knowledge as a competitive advantage. This priority states guidelines for the organization, particularly for human resources, aimed at capitalizing on knowledge developed by the organization throughout time for result achievement.

Transforming the organizational guideline into departmental action plans—Human Resources role

The main Human Resources challenge involves transforming organizational guidelines into concrete plans aimed at knowledge capitalization and result achievement. This challenge is combined with the fact that knowledge is not necessarily the same for the entire organization. Knowing the mission, vision, and some labor issues can be a requirement for the entire organization, but each department will have individual needs and will be evaluated differently.

For example, sales employees will have to know product or service characteristics, differentiate them versus the closest competitors, and learn good sales practices derived from the most successful experienced salespeople in the organization. On the other hand, production employees should know how to make the product, and avoid errors, losses, and labor accidents.

Therefore, by looking at the different organizational departments as a whole, the Human Resources department has a very complex task involving the organization of:

  Different departments and business areas

  Different learning objectives and topics

  Different individual skills and abilities

  Different evaluation methods

  Different geographic location

  Different individual time availability

  Limited training budget

Moreover, the organization demands immediate results from Human Resources. We should remember that in a global world, organizations should be able to achieve results at the fastest speed possible.

Human Resources: can it manage complexity?

Some visionary Human Resources departments have relied upon technology to find help in such a complex task. And it makes a lot of sense: other organizational departments are already using technology to streamline and reduce costs in less complex tasks than those of Human Resources.

There are technological solutions aimed at solving the complexity resulting from organizational knowledge transfer. They are known as Learning Management Systems, LMS.

LMS drastically reduces costs and complexity resulting from knowledge transfer in the organization. Moreover, it helps the Human Resources department focus on giving purposes, sense, and relevance to learning initiatives thus relieving this department from the repetitive, tedious, and burdensome tasks related to knowledge manual management.

Thanks to easy implementation, management, and coverage, LMS-managed training initiatives have continuity throughout time thus giving access to training across the organization while meeting individual employee learning needs.

If your organization is considering the use of LMS to capitalize on knowledge for operating results, consider the following:

  Capacity to organize students in groups, departments, or relevant business areas.

  Online collaboration capacity.

  Capacity for online testing and self-tests .

  Capacity to centralize knowledge repository and training initiative results.

  A wide range of tailor-made performance reports.

  Integration of virtual or e-Learning contents.