MITS5505 Knowledge Management

Major Assignment Help

Major
Assignment
 Weightage: 2
5%
Due date: 15th of October 2023
Late penalty applies on late
submission, 10% per day would be
deducted
0 mark for LATE Submission more
than one week
0 mark for DUPLICATED
Submission or Shared Work

OBJECTIVE(S)

This assessment item relates to the unit learning outcomes as in the unit descriptor.
This assessment is designed to assess the knowledge of implementation of a
knowledge management solution utilizing emerging tools for stages of
knowledge management.

This assessment covers the following LOs.

LO3: Conduct research on emerging tools and techniques for the stages of
knowledge creation, acquisition, transfer and management of knowledge and
recommend the most appropriate choice based on expert judgement on the
practical needs.
 LO4: Apply and integrate appropriate KM components to develop effective
knowledge management solutions.

LO5: Independently design a usable knowledge management strategy by

application of key elements of a good knowledge management framework and by
incorporating industry best practices and state
of the art tools such as OpenKM or other emerging technologies.

INSTRUCTIONS

These instructions apply to Major Assignment only.

Answer the following question based on a case study given overleaf

Give your views on implementation and challenges of knowledge management at a

company based on five distinct stages of knowledge management:

Stage 1: Advocate
and learn
Stage 2: Develop str
ategy
Stage 3: Design and launch
KM initiatives
Stage 4: Expand and support i
nitiatives
Stage 5: Institutionalize knowledge management

Case study:

This discussion outlines the adoption and implementation of knowledge

management within the Sigma Bank. In 2010, the Bank recognised that it had a very
high exposure to loss of knowledge on departure
of key staff. This was mainly due to two factors: recruitment of staff from a limited glob
al pool of specifically skilled labour, and an average length of service of more than nin
e years during which time staff members accumulated an extensive knowledge of the
Bank and its operations. In response to this and other challenges, the Bank
embarked on an ongoing knowledge management program. The Bank
invested significant resources into the program and from an initial corporate vision
developed a knowledge management framework that led to the identification of
potential areas of improvement within the organisation. The resulting knowledge
strategy encompassed several key initiatives, the most significant of which was the
goal of changing the organisational culture. Other initiatives included the
consolidation of the Bank’s contact management into a single system, a review of the
existing document management system, and information mapping. To date, while
some initiatives have been achieved, others remain to be done. The challenge for
the Bank now is to move from structured to unstructured processes
for knowledge management and maintain the knowledge management focus while b
alancing available resources. The Bank must also consider how best to progress
initiatives without necessarily attaching a specific knowledge management label and
identify ways to move ongoing development of
knowledge management strategies to the next level.

There are still several strategies that have not yet been put into place. Although
the review of the document management system is partially completed, the
introduction of a potential solution is seen to be one that will potentially meet
some resistance. The Bank will approach this with the insight
gained from previous initiatives and with the experience of knowing that while the r
oad may at times be difficult, the view from the other side is generally better.
There has certainly been progress made in terms of recording past decisions.
This has mainly been achieved by targeting individuals developing an e-mail-
centric organisation whereby the majority of discussions and debate are captured
in threads within e-mails. This has proved successful to date, but moving forward,
there may be less use of e-mail and so the Bank will need to initiate
alternative approaches to formalise some of the processes.
There are also a number of legacy systems operating within parts of the
organisation, such as Human Resources. The integration of these is being
addressed in the single point of access activity. At this point, the project is still
largely in the stages of trying to understand exactly what is the boundary and
scope of the project.
The Bank is also investigating the idea of “yellow pages,” a system of identifying
those within
the organisation with specific expertise. The context of the system will be somewha
t wider than other systems in operation in that the extent of the experience will relat
e not just to that of the person’s job but in terms of their wider experience.
An ongoing challenge for the Bank, like several other organizations’, is that of
continuing to meet
the ongoing business demands with the level of available resources. In that enviro
nment, keeping knowledge management in the forefront is a challenge and needs t
o be achieved through practical initiatives that can demonstrably provide tangible
and/or strategic benefits. This requires commitment from within the

organisation as well as ongoing communication. In the Bank’s case, it looked on

knowledge management as a sunk investment and focused on getting acceptance to
the framework. Once this was completed, it provided a reference point for the
specific initiatives that could be looked at in terms of how well
they delivered against the framework.
Culturally, the Bank is at an interesting crossroads. The organisation is becoming
wary of what might be termed as “consulting labels.” As the organisation’s
awareness of knowledge management concepts has increased, the term “knowledge
management” has become a less favoured label. As a result, one of
the challenges for the Bank is to progress the knowledge management initiatives but
package them differently.
There is also a need to move the Bank’s ongoing development of knowledge
management strategies to the next level. To date, a best-practice-based approach
has provided a good framework for the Bank. However, one school of thought for
ongoing evolution is to explore the more unstructured process
for developing knowledge management strategies. Embracing complex adaptive syst
ems theory, this approach can be used to create a sense-making model that utilises
self-organising capabilities to
identify a natural flow model of knowledge creation, disruption, and utilisation.