Knowledge Management Strategies (Research Paper Sample)

Topic: How Knowledge management strategies impact on Organisational Performance: A case Study of Lenovo and IBM
Chapter 4 Data Collection and Analysis
4.1 Introduction
The chapter four of the dissertation offers an analysis of the collected study data. In this case, the chapter offers an analysis of the collected data from both the Lenovo and IBM Companies. In particular, the chapter offers the systems and knowledge management strategies and the process of their application applied by both organisations. As such, it relates the organisational systems with the discussed literature review on knowledge management.
4.2 Case Analysis of Lenovo
The study analysis evaluated the knowledge management strategies applied by Lenovo and the extent to which such strategies were applied in its operations. The start of the Lenovo Company application of Knowledge management was in 2003 (Bashir, Usoro & Khan, 2014). At this period, the organisation developed the LKSKM Knowledge management system. The second milestone in the adoption of KM strategies was in 2004, when the organisation integrated the knowledge management, information management and flow management into a single department (Ming, 2009). Once the function was established, the Lenovo Company developed a four stages system design through which manages its KM systems (Sun et al, 2013). The first stage was the acquisition of the required knowledge from the organisation. As such, the KM department sourced and tapped onto all the exiting organizational functions to consolidate the information from enterprise resource planning (ERP) and management information system (MIS) applied across the organisational functions. The second stage in the KM system design is the role of the KM function in the organisation to categorise and classify the obtained knowledge form the different sources to integrated and relevant information (Cooke, 2013). The third stage is the dynamic information sharing, where the management and KM function encourage the employees to share and transfer knowledge and information across the venture. Finally, the last stage in Lenovo KM systems management is the use of a systems audit. In this regard, the KM function audits the knowledge sharing process and links the overall impacts on organisational strategic goals to allow for changes and corrective measures in the established organisational systems.
Examples of KM systems adopted by the Lenovo Company include the use of the community of practice KM systems. In this case, the community of practice is mainly applied in the management of the respective organisational projects and in the process of designing new organisational product. As such, one of the fundamental pillars set up by the organisation is the development of an internal network system, where the employees can engage and interact with one another. In this scenario, employees with shared interest such as in design and in a specific project management share information among one another (Wang-Cowham, 2011). In this case, besides the enhanced sharing of and transfer of knowledge among the participating employees, the obtained information is used as a part of the organisational data base. The use of the communities of practice KM system has been a critical tool for enhancing connectivity, sharing and knowledge transfer among the Lenovo Company employees despite their geographical distance separations.
4.3 Case Analysis of IBM
Industry analysis, such as the analysis developed by Prusak (2001) indicated that the IBM Company is one of the earliest KM systems adopters, with its adoption timelines dating back to 1994.
As such, over the years, the organisation has developed and evolved its KM systems to match up with changing technology and market needs respectively. One of the earliest KM systems set up by the venture was the knowledgeview program. The program, aimed at the organisational business consulting services (BCS) unit (Mertins, 2010). The KM platform offered an opportunity through which business consulting resources and information was easily accessible, allowing for increase knowledge sharing for the consulting departments. In This regard, the KM system was accompanied by a knowledge map. In this regard, the knowledge map illustrated the availability of expert consultants as well as their availability timelines and schedules (Balaid, Rozan & Abdullah, 2014). Consequently, besides allowing for increased access to the consultants, it provided availability schedules as well. Among the other availed information from the system included past consultancy reports and lessons learnt from such reviews.
An additional knowledge management system for IBM was the Extreme leverage in 1999. In this period, the venture developed a knowledge sharing and collaboration tool for software sellers (Earl, 2001). In this case, the portal provides expert location and intellectual capital among others, allowing the sellers to easily meet and interact with experts on the different software brands offered by the company in the IT industry. Through the system knowledge map, the software sellers could sieve through the existing experts on a specific software as well as identify relevant information and timeliness within which to contact them (IBM, 2015). Moreover, it provided a list of frequently asked questions analysis as an approach to ensuring that resources utilisation was maximised. In this regard, the system generated automatic responses for the frequently queried issues, while the experts managed their time through dressing complex and emerging issues on software development and usage respectively.
4.4 Summary
In summary, chapter 4 of the dissertation offers an analysis of the KM strategies applied by both the Lenovo and IBM Companies. On one hand, an evaluation of the Lenovo Company indicates that the organisation conducted from a centralised designate department. In this case the organisational KM structure is based on the existing MIS and ERP technology systems to collect data as well as aid in strategic decision making within the venture. The KM function is tasked with the mandate of managing its KM systems as well as ensuring the alignment of the KM systems goals and outcomes with the strategic organisational goals. On the other hand, the analysis establishes that the IBM Company applies KM strategies through the use of knowledge maps to allow for collaboration and knowledge sharing between the organisation and the external stakeholders. Two of the main KM systems by the venture as discussed include the knowledgeview and the extreme leverage systems respectively.
Chapter 5 Discussion
5.1 Introduction
Chapter 5 of the dissertation offers a discussion of the established chapter 4 findings. On one hand, the chapter offers a discussion of the applied KM systems against the literature review analysis to establish the type of applied strategies. Moreover, it conducts a performance analysis of both organisations and relates the applied KM strategies and the organisations’ established performance level.
5.2 The use of knowledge management strategies by Lenovo and IBM
Lenovo applies the analytical KM strategies. The analysed KM strategy applied by the Lenovo Company is in line with the offered literature review analysis. In this case, Cabantous and Gond (2011) and Dalkir (2013) argued that a KM strategy that supports the process of decision making through both internal and external information is an analytical KM strategy. In this regard, the core features of an analytical KM strategy include the use of both internal and external information sources, the use of IT to integrate and analyse such acquired information, and the reliance on the developed information base to formulate strategic organisational decisions (Cabantous & Gond, 2011). Therefore, an analysis of the Lenovo KM strategy indicates the fulfillment of the above features. On one hand, the organisational KM strategy relies on meetings with external stakeholders as well as MIS internally generated data. Moreover, its execution is hedged on the management apparatus on MIS and EPR systems respectively. Therefore, an analysis of the adopted Lenovo KM strategy in comparison to the literature review, analysis concludes that the venture applies the analytical KM strategy in its operations.
On the other hand, key features of the applied strategies by IBM include collaboration and learning and retrieving past data to improve current systems performances. According to Kerzner (2013) and Rao, Mansingh and Osei-Bryson (2012), a KM strategy that allows for collaboration and sharing and retrieval of past information is categorised as an asset management KM strategy. In this regard, the IBM Company has enabled the development of a knowledge map through its expert location system. Through the knowledge map, as Lytras (2008) argued, the organisational internal and external stakeholders easily access the relevant knowledge form its original source. Therefore, based on the above analysis on the different scenario and instances through which IBM Company has applied KM systems, the study established that the key KM strategy applied by the venture was the asset management KM strategies, characterized by the use of knowledge maps to guide users.
The study analysis on the organisational performance levels for both the Lenovo and IBM Companies was guided by the literature review analysis by Richard et al. (2009). In this case, the analysis classified performance into financial performance, market share performance, and product and shareholder value performance. Therefore, the performance levels were developed based on the established framework.
5.3 The organisational performance of the Lenovo and IBM
An analysis of the Lenovo Company market share performance illustrates increasing growth rates. In this case, as the 2015 annual report by the Inter...