Knowledge Management Systems Human Dimension and Organizational Essay

Knowledge Management Systems Human Dimension and Organizational Culture - Essay Example This paper is aimed at understanding knowledge management systems. The main focus is to understand the importance of â€Å"people† dimension of knowledge management and how wrong organizational culture can lead ineffective knowledge management. The discussion of people dimension of knowledge management is built on the following statement by Randall Sellers: â€Å"The challenge is managing the people who manage the knowledge† (Turban et al., 2007). Recent theories and practices in knowledge management are discussed and examples are given to support the discussion. Knowledge Management Systems Knowledge is gained in numerous ways and in an organizations knowledge comes out of processing information available throughout the organization in the form of data. Also, employees gain knowledge in different ways (personal experiences, individual learning, etc) and this knowledge shared with the entire organization can be of great help to the whole organization. Knowledge management systems or knowledge management is the process of creating knowledge repositories, improving access to available knowledge and sharing/communicating through collaboration. It also focuses on enhancement of knowledge environment and management of knowledge as organization’s asset. Therefore, knowledge management can be best defined as the systematic actions taken by an organization or that an organization can take in order to extract the best possible value out of the knowledge available throughout the organization (Coakes, 2003).... But there are many challenges that the organizations face in implementing knowledge management systems effectively. The concept of knowledge management is relatively new and the literature is still growing. One of the main challenges in knowledge management is managing the people who manage knowledge. Randall Sellers points this out brilliantly when he says that knowledge management is only 20 percent IT and the rest is change management which mainly deals with human interfaces and cultural change (Turban et al., 2007). Knowledge Management and People Dimension â€Å"The challenge is managing the people who manage the knowledge†. By this statement Randall Sellers implies that the more important task in knowledge management is not just making the knowledge available to the employees but to convince them to participate in the process of knowledge management. Employees need to be encouraged and motivated to exchange and share their ideas and experiences. The systems need to be de signed in such a way that it is easy to share. Implementation of knowledge management is definitely a change process and employees are bound to offer resistance to the change. It is this management of the people (workforce) that Randall Sellers refers to in his statement (Turban et al., 2007). Knowledge Management Systems – Importance of People Even though it is believed that the human dimension is more important than technology, the current literature on knowledge management is mainly technology oriented. It is highly important to understand that technology makes it possible only to accumulate knowledge systematically and make it easily accessible. But the mechanism by which this knowledge affects the performance of the