Assignment of organizational behavior

June, 2023
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPI
Contents
1. Introduction...........................................................................................................................................................2
2. Information and Knowledge Management Process:.............................................................................................5
3. Knowledge sharing and Motivation:......................................................................................................................6
4. Modules of Information and Knowledge Management:.......................................................................................8
5. Role of Information Professionals in I & K Management:....................................................................................9
 1. Introduction

The Information Communication Technology (ICT) has been the driving force behind the
economic growth period of the last decade. It provided the infrastructure for economic
development, helped create the knowledge society, contributed to innovation and created
value for the economy. More importantly, it brought the world closer together by improving
the dissemination of knowledge, accelerating research, stimulating innovation and
facilitating collaboration. Information and communication technology (ICT) has now
become one of the basic building blocks of modern society. ICT has now become a core
concept of education and there is a need to master the basic skills and concepts alongside
reading, writing and numeracy (Anderson, 2002). Due to the impact of ICT, various
competencies are gaining importance viz.:

(a) Directorial competencies.

(b) Critical analysis and thinking competencies.
(c) Expert Work competencies.
(d) Situational competencies.
(e) Decision making competencies.
(f) Communication competencies.
(g) Centralization of the work, and
(h) Disciplinary competencies.
Technological developments in ICT are gaining speed. Technology quickly becomes
obsolete requiring new skills and knowledge to be mastered frequently. Adaptation is
only possible when based on a sound understanding of the principles and concepts of
ICT. Rapid developments in ICT are difficult to manage and it also enhances the
competencies for information and knowledge management. Knowledge could be
defined as information that has been combined with experience, context, interpretation,
and reflection, while as information is the data that has been organized and
communicated. The current conceptualization of ICT and knowledge management
suffers in fulfilling the needs of contemporary organizations and institutions. Traditional
information and knowledge management systems were modeled to ensure adherence to
organizational routines but a paradigm shift to these traditional models is the need of the
hour. However, the model presented here tried to overcome that entire incompetency
which was apparent in traditional ones (Luen & Al-Hawamdeh, 2001).
A knowledge management system is any kind of IT system that stores and retrieves
knowledge to improve understanding, collaboration, and process alignment. Knowledge
management systems can exist within organizations or teams, but they can also be used
to center your knowledge base for your users or customers. The meaning of knowledge
management system, while broad in use, can be narrowed to the following purpose: to
help people utilize knowledge to better achieve tasks. When you look at it like this, you
can reframe it as a more proactive form of customer success. You can answer
customers’ questions in real time, as they’re struggling with their challenges, instead of
constantly answering the same questions in your support ticketing system Tampoe,
1996).

The most important benefit of knowledge management systems is that best practices are
available to customers, which creates happy and successful customers. Happy and
successful customers keep coming back to buy more (and more often) than other
customers, and they tell their friends, thus becoming enthusiastic brand advocates.
Make no mistake; there is true business value in knowledge management systems
(Kumar, 2010).

Knowledge work can be characterized as follows:

Target: solves ill-structured problems in complex domains with a high degree of

variety and exceptions,

Content: is creative work, requires creation, acquisition, application and distribution of

knowledge and bases inputs and outputs primarily on data and information,

Mode of work: consists of a number of specific practices, e.g., creating new

knowledge, interpreting, integrating, representing, retaining and securing it, producing
and reproducing knowledge or, in Schultze’s (2003, 50f) terms, practices of informing,
such as expressing or extracting experiences, monitoring what can be learned from
happenings, translating knowledge to other domains, interpreting and absorbing
knowledge and networking with other people, personal skills and abilities: uses
intellectual abilities and specialized knowledge rather than physical abilities and
requires a high level of education, training and experiences resulting in skills and
expertise,

Organization: is often organized decent rally using new organizational metaphors, such
as communities of specialized knowledge workers, has strong communication,
coordination and cooperation needs and is highly mobile, flexible
and distributed

ICT: requires a strong yet flexible personalized support by information and

communication technologies.

2. Information and Knowledge Management Process:

Flow of Information and knowledge is a continuous process and the latter being
dependent on the former one. Success of information management is achieved when the
preservation and the retrieval of information is certain while the success of a KM
program depends on the sharing of knowledge (Haridasan, 1998).

Collect

Create
Examine

Apply

Process

Acquire
Store

Retrieve

Fig. 1 Knowledge Management Process

Information is observable, sovereign from action and decision, different in format after
processing, physical product, independent from existing environment, easily
transferable and duplicate. Information creation and flow process is very complex and
involves critical examination of the perceived data, organization of data, inference of
facts, identification of false and missing links, processing of data, storage of data and
ultimately when shared becomes knowledge. The cycle of information flow is as under
(Foy, 1999):
 Identification of Information

Discovery of existing Information

Acquisition of Creation of new

Information Information

Storage and Sharing of

organisation of Information
Information

Use and Application of

Information

Fig. 2 Information Management Process

3. Knowledge sharing and Motivation:
Major focus areas of information and knowledge management are sharing and
motivation. In knowledge management efforts, it is an important pillar, but at times, it
acts as an impediment to effective management. Various factors identified as the
barriers are insufficient and derisory organizational structures, sharing of non-friendly
organizational cultures and denominational segregation. Now the issue to ponder over is
whether the knowledge workers are motivated to share their knowledge with others or
not. Some of the related problems do arise when information systems such as intranets,
distributed libraries and information centers, document management systems,
groupware utilities and applications, are introduced to support knowledge sharing.
However, reports have shown that the introduction of these systems do not always result
in significant improvements in information and knowledge
sharing as there are many instances, when these systems are not being used to their full
potential (DeLong, 1996). Also individuals need to be motivated to use various tools
facilitating sharing of information and knowledge.

But how do ICT relate to motivation for information and knowledge sharing? Let us
presume for a while that intranet facility is introduced in an organization to further
information and knowledge sharing, we will find the significant improvement because
of the ease in the use of tools and efforts are reduced, in turn reducing stress on the
information and knowledge workers. The potential role of ICT in supporting knowledge
sharing, however, goes beyond the facilities of an intranet, although many of these
functions may be bundled through the common interface of the intranet. Due to the
development of ICT enabled information and knowledge management systems, there
has been an improvement in motivation for using these systems to their maximum
potential. This novel view of organizations should definitely help investors to make
their choices in a more informed way by basing them on a sound, systematic ground.
Moreover, it should support managers to identify the real weaknesses and strengths of
the organizations they run, and to set up the priorities in order to make them grow. By
this way, information and knowledge could be managed and shared over time, distance
and social constraints (Covin & Stivers, 1997).

Intranet/ Motivation
Extranet factors

Group
wares
ICT tools

Helpdesk
Knowledge
Metadata sharing
&
Ontology

Fig. 3 Key concepts and statements

4. Modules of Information and Knowledge Management:
The eight vital modules on which information and knowledge management system is
based areas under (Bansal, 2000):

1. Information: the most important entity which acts as an instant access to

update and customize knowledge.
2. Expertise: connects in real time experts in an organisation to members who
yearn assistance and even the tacit knowledge can made explicit.
3. Collaboration: plays an important role to facilitate on line brain storming
session and preserves information.
4. Team: ensures efficient and systematic management among shares skills.
5. Learning: abridges gap with the help of on line sessions.
6. Intelligence: deals mainly with the explicit knowledge rise.
7. Knowledge Transfer: William Saffady relates to (1) machine readable data files,
(2) various online databases and CD-ROM information product, (3) computer
storage devices in which information resides in the shape of optical discs,
juke boxes or magnetic tape auto loaders, (4) computers and network
systems.
8. Knowledge mapping: identifies the body of knowledge within the
organization, which is primarily concerned with mute knowledge base and
makes a repository of all skills and expertise in the organization.

Information
Learning
Module
s of
Expertise Informa
tion and Intelligence
Knowle
Collaboration dge
Manage I & K. Transfer
ment

Team I & K. Mapping

Fig. 4 Modules of Information & Knowledge Management

5. Role of Information Professionals in I & K Management:

To keep pace in the rapidly changing information environment, information professionals

have to play an important role. In every type of organizations, Knowledge & Information
Management has emerged as a key concern. Due to emergence of knowledge and
information management systems, information professionals have to take an additional
participative role in expert systems, artificial intelligence and knowledge based
management system. Information and Knowledge management system requires
professionals with skills and strategies to handle the emerging situation. Information
professional should view this emerging phenomenon through focused attention on the
process of information and knowledge management. They have to extend their expertise
selecting, organizing, preserving information to new forms. They will work with users in
collecting and analyzing strategic intelligence and act as trainers and consultants to transfer
knowledge throughout the organization. In this new role they will act as (Anderson, 2002):
• Information and Knowledge Management developers- working more closely with
faculty and students to design, organize and maintain a broader range of digital assets.
• Information and Knowledge Management Integrators- having a more active role in
education and research mission of university, integrating information resources and
services in course and research projects.
• Information and Knowledge Management Educator- teaching and training students
and faculty information literacy and how to organize, preserve and share their own
information resources.
• Information and Knowledge Management Researcher- applying new digital
technology to create new organizational (metadata), retrieval and storage
(preservation) options.
The organisations and institutions for being successful and competitive in the present
scenario need to continually reinvent information and update their knowledge. The system
given as under overcomes the traditional scenario of information and knowledge
management (Abram, 1997).
 Information and Knowledge Management
System

Tools Role of IP

KM Developers
Intranet/Extranet Helpdesk Barriers

Integrators
Groupware CBT
Ignorance Lack of
relationship Educator
IR Tools Geographic IS
Lack of time Denominatio
nal Researcher
Workflow MS Metadata segregation

Data Ware Ontology

Agent Tech. Data Analysis

Fig. 5 I/K Management System

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