EXECUTIVE SUMMARY KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT (KM) revolves around the concept that one of the most valuable corporate assets is the experience and expertise floating around inside employees' heads. In order to manage this intellectual capital, executives must devise a way to capture and share that knowledge with co- workers. If done right, Knowledge Management is supposed to create a more collaborative environment, cut down on duplication of effort and encourage knowledge sharing—saving time and money in the process. Knowledge Management is about a systematic approach to managing intellectual assets and other information in a way that provides the company with a competitive advantage. The research checks into the Knowledge Management system of various IT companies and seeks to identify the various issues that underlie an effective and efficient KM implementation such as the reasons for investing in knowledge management, the technologies to be made use of, the barriers to its successful implementation etc. The Knowledge Management initiatives undertaken and the strategies made use of at INFOSYS, TCS, WIPRO some of the world’s leading IT consulting and software services companies have been incorporated in this research report to Page 1
Transcript
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT (KM) revolves around the concept that one of the
most valuable corporate assets is the experience and expertise floating around inside
employees' heads. In order to manage this intellectual capital, executives must devise a
way to capture and share that knowledge with co-workers. If done right, Knowledge
Management is supposed to create a more collaborative environment, cut down on
duplication of effort and encourage knowledge sharing—saving time and money in the
process.
Knowledge Management is about a systematic approach to managing intellectual
assets and other information in a way that provides the company with a competitive
advantage.
The research checks into the Knowledge Management system of various IT companies
and seeks to identify the various issues that underlie an effective and efficient KM
implementation such as the reasons for investing in knowledge management, the
technologies to be made use of, the barriers to its successful implementation etc.
The Knowledge Management initiatives undertaken and the strategies made use of at
INFOSYS, TCS, WIPRO some of the world’s leading IT consulting and software
services companies have been incorporated in this research report to serve as a pointer to
any organization that seeks to successfully implement KM initiatives.
Under the project title ‘Knowledge Management in IT industry-a study to understand
the perception of employees’ the objectives that were served were; identifying the
perception of the employees towards knowledge management and to identify the various
issues that underlie an effective and efficient KM implementation.To carry out the
research both primary as well as secondary data was collected from different
sources. The primary data was collected with the help of a structured questionnaire
and was sent to 150 employees working in IT companies. Employees were selected
on the basis of non-probabilistic convenient sampling.
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The findings of the study were:-
IT companies in India are knowledge based organizations and knowledge management
projects are already implemented there. Knowledge management is viewed as value
adding for the organisations. Companies feel that knowledge management leads to
reduction of cost but the biggest barrier in its successful implementation is technology.
Knowledge management basically provides new ways to expose tacit knowledge. Also it
was found that mentoring is the most suitable techniques that contribute to knowledge
management initiative.Various suggestions for the IT companies have also been
incorporated in the report.
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INTRODUCTION
In 1876, the English novelist, George Eliot, wrote that, “Of a truth, Knowledge is
power”. Now, over a century later, that observation still holds true. Knowledge gives us,
as individuals, the power to grow, to better ourselves, and to succeed in our endeavours.
In the business world, knowledge is power as well. As with individuals, knowledge is
what enables businesses to grow and to succeed. Contained within every business is a
wealth of knowledge about its policies and practices, and about the industry that it serves.
A business uses this knowledge to sell and support the products and services that it offers.
However, knowledge is not held within a business itself, but rather by the various
individuals that make up the organization. Without the knowledge possessed by the
people within it, a business cannot survive. The primary concern, then, that must be
addressed, if a business is to grow and prosper, is how this knowledge can best be
captured and harnessed. How can companies preserve their existing knowledge assets,
encourage the dissemination of that knowledge across the organization, and use that
knowledge to identify the best business practices and to refine and improve those
practices? The answers to all of these questions lie in the application of Knowledge
Management (KM) to the business’s operations and the adoption of Knowledge
Management Systems within the business infrastructure.
1.1 WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE?
Any discussion of Knowledge Management should, logically, begin with a definition of
‘knowledge’ itself. Unfortunately, Knowledge is a very slippery concept with many
different variations and definitions, each of which is valid in its own right. The nature of
knowledge and what it means to know something are epistemological questions that have
perplexed philosophers for centuries and no resolution looms on the horizon.
According to Webster's Dictionary, knowledge is "the fact or condition of knowing
something with familiarity gained through experience or association". In practice,
though, there are many possible, equally plausible definitions of knowledge. A frequently
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used definition of knowledge is "the ideas or understandings which an entity possesses
that are used to take effective action to achieve the entity's goal(s). This knowledge is
specific to the entity which created it."
Knowledge can be of three kinds:
Tacit knowledge
It is knowledge that is acquired at a subconscious level and therefore difficult to explain
to others. An expert machinist may be extremely skilled at operating a particular
machine, but he might be unable to instruct a new joiner on how to duplicate his
expertise. Most knowledge involving pattern recognition skills fall under his category.
Implicit knowledge
This type of knowledge is controlled by experts. Implicit knowledge can be extracted
from the expert—through a process termed knowledge engineering. For example, a sales
executive can train a new joiner about the basic procedure and rules to follow while
making sales. The new joiner can gain same effectiveness as his trainer over the period of
time. Thus knowledge which can be imparted through instructions and procedures is
implicit knowledge.
Explicit knowledge
It can be easily conveyed from someone proficient at a task to someone else through
written or verbal communications. The recipe for a cake, the steps involved in bolting a
car door, list of ingredients required for a chemical process are all explicit knowledge.
Unlike tacit and implicit knowledge, explicit knowledge often can be found in a book or
operating manual
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1.2 WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT?
Modern business organization can’t compete effectively in the marketplace without
skilled managers and employees and without methods for managing knowledge of its
people. Knowledge has been mandatory in today’s businesses and creates big impact on
overall performance.
Knowledge Management is the ability to selectively capture, archive, and access the
best practices of work-related knowledge and decision making from employees and
managers for both individual and group behaviors. Knowledge Management (KM) is
a systematic business enhancing strategy that selects, stores, organizes, packages, and
communicates information essential to the business in a manner that improves employee
performance and corporate competitiveness.
Knowledge Management is about a systematic approach to managing intellectual
assets and other information in a way that provides the company with a competitive
advantage. Knowledge Management is a business optimization strategy, and not limited
to a particular technology or information. A wide variety of information technologies
play a key role in a KM initiative, simply because of the savings in time and effort they
provide over manual operations. If a company takes the digitized data and indexes it with
a software program that allows someone to search for specific content instead of
manually paging through hundreds of screens, it is practicing Knowledge Management.
Some of the organizations in India that have adopted Knowledge Management are:
• Wipro
• Infosys
• Compaq
• Sapient
• TCS
• WockHardt,
• L&T Infotech
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1.3 THE NEED FOR KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN AN
ORGANIZATION
It is an organization’s ability to learn, and translating that learning into action
rapidly and effectively is the ultimate competitive advantage and can be
achieved through KM
Jack Welch
Knowledge assets are important intangible assets of an organization and thus it
needs effective and efficient management.
Effectively implemented KM leads to improvement in the working efficiency and
effectiveness of the organization leading the organization to success.
The productivity of the knowledge as well as knowledge workers is not the only
competitive factor in the world economy but it can become the decisive factor and
no1 corporate priority.
1.4 ELEMENTS IN CREATING KM SYSTEMS
The elements that create a KM system are as follows:
Data
They are numbers. They are numerical values or other attributes derived from
observation, experiment, or calculation.
Information
It is data in context. Information is a collection of data and associated explanations,
interpretations, concerning a particular object, event, or process.
Metadata
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It’s the data about information. Metadata includes descriptive summaries and
categorization of data and information. That is, metadata is information about the context
in which information is used.
Knowledge
It is information that is organized or summarized to enhance comprehension, awareness,
or understanding. That is, knowledge is a combination of metadata and an awareness of
the context in which the metadata can be applied successfully.
Instrumental understanding
It is the clear and complete idea of the nature, significance, and explanation of something.
It is about relating specific knowledge to various concepts.
Figure 1.1 Knowledge management System- Value Shop Creation
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In reality, most KM practices fall short of this. This is because it’s virtually impossible to
capture the thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors of a manager or employee in a way that is
both economical and complete enough to provide another person with quality information
and make decisions. Also they follow the same leadership principles, or perform the same
complex tasks at the same level of performance.
1.5 STRUCTURE, CULTURE & TECHNOLOGY IN KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT
Knowledge management in an organization has three aspects to it – the structure
of organization, the organizational culture and technology (Bhat, 2001; Lopez, et
al. 2004; Ellonen, et al., 2009). Jha and Joshi (2008) and Payne (2008) described
the foundation of KM as people, process and technology. The three pillars and the
interaction between them is depicted in the following figure
Figure 1.2 Components of Knowledge Management
.
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1.6 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PROCESS
In his definition, Bhatt (2000b) refers to knowledge management as a process of
creation, validation, presentation, distribution and application‘. According to him,
knowledge management can be broken down into a 5 step process as shown in
figure below. These are the steps in knowledge management, from an organization‘s
perspective.
Figure1.3 Knowledge Management Process
Knowledge Creation: This refers to the ability of an organization to create novel
and useful ideas. This is an emergent process where motivation, inspiration,
experimentation and pure chance play a role. (Lynn, et al. 1995).This step is closely
related to experimentation by a learning organization. (Garvin, 1993)
Knowledge Validation: This is the organization‘s ability to reflect and evaluate the
effectiveness of knowledge for the existing organizational environment. Identifying
and reconfiguring obsolete knowledge is extremely important since core-
competencies, even though not easily imitated can get obsolete (Nonaka and
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Takeuchi, 1995)
Knowledge Formatting: This refers to the different ways knowledge can be presented,
so that it is suitable to the different work-styles of the people.
Knowledge Distribution: Unless knowledge is distributed and shared, it cannot be
exploited by the organizational members. Knowledge transferred through a supervised
and predetermined channel will minimize interaction and questioning of the validity of
knowledge. Horizontal structure can speed up knowledge transfer and interaction.
Knowledge Application: Knowledge needs to be applied in its products, processes
and services to create value.
1.7 THE VALUE OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Some benefits of KM correlate directly to bottom-line savings, while others are more
difficult to quantify. In today's information-driven economy, companies uncover the most
opportunities — and ultimately derive the most value — from intellectual rather than
physical assets. To get the most value from a company's intellectual assets, KM
practitioners maintain that knowledge must be shared and serve as the foundation for
collaboration. Yet better collaboration is not an end in itself; without an overarching
business context, KM is meaningless at best and harmful at worst. Consequently, an
effective KM program should help a company do one or more of the following:
Foster innovation by encouraging the free flow of ideas
Improve decision making
Improve customer service by streamlining response time
Boost revenues by getting products and services to market faster
Enhance employee retention rates by recognizing the value of employees'
knowledge and rewarding them for it
Streamline operations and reduce costs by eliminating redundant or unnecessary
processes
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These are the most prevalent examples. A creative approach to KM can result in
improved efficiency, higher productivity and increased revenues in practically any
business function.
1.8 TEN PRINCIPLES OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Knowledge management is costly
Knowledge is an asset and its effective management requires investment of assets. There
are various particular knowledge management activities that require investment of money
and labour.
These activities including the following:
Knowledge capture involves creation of documents and moving documents into
other computer systems.
Adding value to knowledge through editing and packaging.
It also involves developing knowledge categorization approaches and categorizing
new contributions to the knowledge
It involves developing information technology infrastructure and applications for
the further distribution of knowledge
Educate employees for the creation, sharing, and use of information
Effective management of the knowledge requires hybrid solutions of
people and technology
Human beings may be expensive, but they are quite accomplished at certain knowledge
skills and cannot be replaced by artificial intelligence computers. When we try to
understand knowledge, to comprehend it within a broader context, to combine it with
other kinds of information, or to create various unstructured forms of knowledge, humans
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are recommended tool. These are various types of knowledge tasks at which humans
excel, and humans should be employed for such purposes.
Knowledge management is political
There is no secret that “knowledge is power”, and thus it should not surprise when
anyone says that knowledge management is a political undertaking. If knowledge can
associated with power, money, and success, then can also associated with lobbying, and
back-room deals. If no political thing appears around the knowledge management
initiative, it is a very good indication that the organization perceives that nothing valuable
is taking place in organization.
What do knowledge politics mean for effective knowledge management?
Some managers will criticize politics. But smart managers of knowledge will
acknowledge and cultivate politics. They will act as entrance for the use and value of
knowledge. They will break the deals between those who have knowledge and those who
use knowledge. They will cultivate powerful “opinion leaders” as early adopters of
knowledge management approaches. At the highest level, they will also try to shape the
authority of knowledge to better utilize it in the organization.
Knowledge management requires few knowledge managers
Knowledge won’t be well-managed until some group in a firm has the clear responsibility
for the job. Such a group might perform tasks such as collection and categorizing
knowledge, establishing such knowledge-oriented technology infrastructure, and
monitoring the use of the knowledge.
Several professional services firms have knowledge management roles in place.
McKinsey, Anderson consulting, Ernst and young, Price Waterhouse Coopers and A.T
Kearney all have the CFO Chief Knowledge officers” in place. Buckman laboratories
reoriented its information systems organization to become manager of knowledge, and
now call the group “the knowledge transfer department.” Hewlett-Packard also created a
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knowledge management group in its corporate product processes organization, and one in
its computer systems marketing group.
In addition to this, the knowledge mangers should not imply by their words or actions
that they are more “knowledgeable” as compared to others. In fact, one knowledge
manager at Hewlett Packard says that important qualification for such a role is being
“egoless.”
Knowledge management benefits more from the maps than the models,
more from the markets than from the hierarchies
It is alluring when managing knowledge to create a hierarchical model or architecture
knowledge, similar to encyclopedia Britannica’s propaedia that could govern the
collection as well as categorization of knowledge. But many organizations are good in
letting the knowledge, market work, and providing and mapping the knowledge which its
customers seem to want.
Sharing and using knowledge are mostly unnatural acts
If my knowledge is a valuable resource, why should I have to share it? If my job is to
create knowledge, why should I have to put my job at risk by using yours instead of
mine? We sometimes act surprised when knowledge is not shared or used, but we would
be good as knowledge managers assuming that the natural tendency is to save our
knowledge and look doubtfully upon that from others. To enter our knowledge into a
system and to look for knowledge from others is not only threatening, but sometimes also
just plain effort-so we have to be highly motivated to undertake such kind of work.
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Knowledge management means improving organization’s knowledge work
processes
It is important to improve the generic knowledge management process, but knowledge is
always generated, used, and shared intensively some specific knowledge work processes.
Such specific processes may vary by firm and the industry, and they include market
research, product design and development, and some more transactional process like
order configuration, pricing. If “real improvements” are to be made in knowledge
management, improvements must be made in these key business processes.
Knowledge access is just the beginning
If knowledge access would have been sufficient, then there would be long lines outside
the nation’s libraries. Access is important, but “successful knowledge management”
requires attention and engagement. Attention is the currency of information age. For
knowledge consumers to pay attention towards knowledge, they must be more than
passive recipients. More active involvement with knowledge should be achieved through
summarizing and report it to others, and through role-playing games based on usage of
the knowledge, also through receiving the knowledge through close interaction with the
providers.
Knowledge management never ends
Knowledge managers feel that their work would be done if and only if they could only
get their organization’s knowledge under control. However, the knowledge management
tasks are never-ending. Like human resource management or financial management or
CRM, there has been never been a time when knowledge has been fully managed. It is a
dynamic process that requires constant up gradation.
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LITERATURE REVIEW
Peter Drucker broadly described the current shift from industry to information to
knowledge, which he says started around 1960 and is expected to continue until 2010 or
2020, as follows: “We are entering the knowledge society in which the basic resource is
no longer capital, or natural resources, or labor, but is and will be knowledge, and where
knowledge workers will play a central role.”
The initial research defines knowledge and knowledge management (KM) and establishes
its roots. KM is not a brand new topic, while organizational learning and organizational
memory are related topics that have been fields of research for many years. The chapter
shows how research has been done in field of Knowledge Management. Additionally, this
chapter explains that KM has become a research area due to a many trends that have
made KM necessary and technically useful. (Murray E. Jennex, 1999) The next in line
at the arguments that show knowledge management (KM) is a discipline. Kuhn’s (1996)
criteria for being a discipline are used as a framework for providing information showing
KM to be a discipline. It was found that KM has interesting research questions, journals
specific to KM, a body of accepted knowledge, professional societies, its own jargon and
ontology, and its own degree programs. It also is concluded that KM is young and
growing discipline. (David Croasdell, 1994)
Table 2.1 Definitions of Knowledge Management
Definition Source Reference
KM is the systematic, explicit, and deliberate building, renewal, and application of knowledge to maximize an enterprise’s knowledge-related effectiveness and returns from its knowledge assets.
Wiig (Wiig, 1993)
Nonaka and Takeuchi used knowledge creation as the “capability of a company as a whole to create new knowledge, disseminate it throughout the organization, and embody it in
Nonaka and Takeuchi
(Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995)
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products, services, and systems.”
“KM is getting the right knowledge to the right people at the right time so they can make the best decision.”
Petrash (Burkowitz & Petrash, 1997)
“KM involves the identification and analysis of available and required knowledge, and the subsequent planning and control of actions to develop knowledge assets so as to fulfill organization objectives.”
Macintosh (Macintosh, 1996)
“KM applies systematic approaches to find, understand, and use knowledge to create value.”
O’Dell (O’Dell & Grayson, 1998)
“KM is the explicit control and management of knowledge within an organization aimed at achieving the company’s objectives.”
van der Spek
(van der Spek & Spijkervet, 1997)
“KM is the formalization of and access to experience, knowledge, and expertise that create new capabilities, enable superior performance, encourage innovation, and enhance customer value.”
Beckman (Liebowitz & Beckman, 1998)
“KM is human activity that is part of the knowledge management process (KMP) of an agent or collective. KMP, in turn, is an ongoing, persistent, purposeful interaction among human-based agents through which the participating agents aim at managing (handling, directing, governing, controlling, coordinating, planning, organizing) other agents, components, and activities participating in the basic knowledge processes (knowledge production and knowledge integration) into a planned, directed, unified whole, producing, maintaining, enhancing, acquiring, and transmitting the enterprise’s knowledge base.”
Firestone (Barquin, Bennet & Remez, 2001a)
KM is viewed as a process for optimizing the effective application of intellectual capital to achieve organizational objectives.
U. S. Dept. of the Navy
(Porter, Bennet, Turner & Wennegren, 2002)
Although knowledge management (KM) is maturing as a research topic, there is no
agreement on what constructs create its foundation. The topic has received increasing
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attention in academic journals, it is important for researchers to be aware of the research
streams associated with KM. Accordingly, this chapter reviews the knowledge
management literature published in top-tier journals from 2000 to 2005. These articles
then are classified by knowledge management construct and by research methodology.
The results indicate that the majority of knowledge management research has examined
the construct of knowledge transfer. Trends of published KM research, gaps, and
inconsistencies in the examined literature and applied research methodologies are
discussed. Knowledge management is a complex field, divided into necessity or design.
In this research, data that maps out a number of the characteristics of the field is
presented. (Todd Peachey, Dianne Hall, Casey Cegielski, 2000) After that trends that
indicate how knowledge management is evolving into a discipline in its own right and
present some thoughts on what the dominant characteristics of that discipline need to be.
Knowledge management (KM) initiatives are undertaken in order to improve
organizational performance. The goal of such improvement is to make an organization
more competitive in delivering value to its customers, employers, and stakeholders.
However, without a plan that links KM activities to organizational performance, the time,
effort, and money devoted to a KM initiative may yield little benefit. Thus, understanding
this linkage is crucial to competitiveness of knowledge-based organizations. This
research uses the knowledge chain model as the theoretical base for an empirical study of
the linkage between KM activities and approaches to competitiveness. It finds that every
one of the nine knowledge chain activities can be performed in ways that improve
organizational competitiveness in any of four ways: enhanced productivity, agility,
innovation, and reputation. Apart from offering empirical support for the knowledge
chain model, the primary finding of this research is that each knowledge chain activity
deserves to be considered as a possible means for implementing each of these four
approaches to improving organization performance.
(Verma Sanjeev, Chaudhuri Ranjan & Rajput Ritesh, 2008) conducted a research on
the needs and expectations of the employees from the knowledge management system.
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The research paper aimed at studying the existing knowledge practices, the use of
knowledge management as a strategic tool and the factors affecting the use of KM in the
Indian Service industry. The inferences that were drawn were; the employees feel that the
knowledge management is the strategic part of their business and they may be interested
to participate in knowledge creation and its sharing. The overall trend indicated healthy
organizational culture for implementation of knowledge management system. But
without the rewards or recognition for knowledge sharing the inner motivation of
employees may be missing. It was found that financial incentives are not the real
motivator for KMS adoption but recognition is very important factor to motivate people
to adopt KMS. Even if employees are willing to participate, still some practical hurdles
like less exposure to information, technology, routine work business and insufficient
communication may act as constraints in adoption of knowledge management system. In
addition, the factors like innovations, faster decision making, and employee’s
development are important to establish an environment in which the KM process for the
services sector could be applied.
(David G. Schwartz, 2001) This research briefly overviews a number of strategies for
eliciting tacit knowledge and then provides a detailed examination of one of these
strategies. The critical decision interview method can assist expert respondents to
articulate tacit knowledge by probing beyond their usual theories about their actions to
reveal their practice. Tacit knowledge then can be identified by contrasting respondents’
practices with theoretical prescriptions for best practice in the field. Knowledge
management (KM) has gained increasing attention since the mid-1990s. A KM strategy
involves helping people share and put knowledge into action. However, before an
organization can realize the benefits of KM, a fundamental question needs to be asked:
What performance goals is the organization trying to achieve? In this research, a multi-
level framework that gives a view of the performance environment surrounding
organizational knowledge work. It explains the KM framework using two organizational
case studies. Then, based on the KM framework and further insights drawn from our case
studies, it offer a series of steps that may guide and assist organizations and practitioners
as they undertake KM initiatives.
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Research further demonstrates the applicability of these steps by examining KM
initiatives within a global software development company. (Yadav Deepak, David Shine,
2007) quoted that the power of knowledge management is that it maintains focus on
people. It is people who manage knowledge and it is the role of the organization to
promote processes with the help of technology so that people want to share and manage
knowledge effectively. They performed analysis of the major Indian IT sector players and
revealed that organization that realized the need and importance of KM at early stages
were having better result today than compared to previous years despite increase in
number of employees. They have tried to provide explanation in light of KM maturity
model that defines knowledge life cycle in an organization. Most of the organizations in
Indian IT sector are found in stage III and above.
Table 2.2 KM Maturity Model
Level People Process TechnologyLevel 1 * * *
Level 2Knowledge awareness
information
Content Capture Basic information management
Level 3Central knowledge
Organization knowledgeEducation
Content structureManagement
Knowledge Technology
Infrastructure
Level 4
Customized enabling Content EnlivenmentKnowledge
ConfigurationManagement QuantitativeKnowledge
Management
KnowledgeInfrastructureManagement
Level 5Expertise IntegrationKnowledge Leverage
Innovation Management(Kumar Sanjay, 2008) examined the role of people’s biographical profile on the
processes of knowledge management. He states that there are two characteristics of
knowledge that are important for understanding knowledge transfer: velocity and
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viscosity. People are core of creating, sharing and using organizational knowledge for
successfully realizing corporate goals (Holsapple and Joshi, 2001).The study was
conducted in a software organization with a sample size of 331. Knowledge management
assessment tool developed by Maier and Mosley was used to carry out the research. The
results that were drawn states that though age, gender and work experience of employees
are positively associated with knowledge management practices but employees’
educational qualification and raise in organizational hierarchy are significantly and
positively related to knowledge management practices. He also states that personal,
interpersonal and organizational variables play significant role in both explicit and tacit
knowledge management processes in Software Company.
An article on Knowledge Management and Employee Empowerment by (N. Rajagopal,
V. Murale, N.T. Divya, 2006) discusses that a successful knowledge management
system must ensure knowledge availability, accuracy in retrieval, effectiveness,
accessibility and timely availability. The various benefits of such KMS are it constitutes a
key strategic resource, omnipresent of knowledge, retrieval of knowledge and
accessibility of knowledge. The article states that according to KMPG report(2000) the
application of knowledge management system is found more in IT field.KM projects are
more likely to be led by the IT department(22%), human
resource(15%),marketing(16%),operations(4%).The dissemination of ideas largely
depends upon the sharing of knowledge. Many companies successful in knowledge
sharing employ techniques like granting financial and other incentives to employees.
Employees must come out with prejudices of non-cooperation of sharing their ideas.
Promoting group discussions, Brainstorming provoke employees to expose with
innovative ideas. In fact knowledge sharing exercise will empower the employees in
many respects. There are many factors of knowledge sharing such as respect for team
members, management attitude, learning, innovations. These ultimately empower the
employees and improve their performance and organizational development.
(Sharma Kapil, Mishra P.N, 2007) have briefly reviewed in their paper about the
increased interest in more explicitly valuing intangible assets and have explored the
strengths and weaknesses of the current approaches of Intellectual capital and balance
scorecard(BSC) .He has established a relationship between the balance scorecard and
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intellectual capital. He states that there has been a growing trend to treat knowledge
management in a more systematic organizational sense to include the social as well as the
technological implications of any attempt to manage an organization’s intangible assets.
The social implications includes consideration of questions involving such cultural
factors as the degree of trust and openness in organizational communities; the personal
consequences of collaboration; effective learning platforms; and many other subtle
aspects of human interaction. It was noted that balance score card and knowledge
management approaches do not explicitly acknowledge the dynamic inter-relatedness of
all organization assets. To overcome these shortcomings they contended that it is critical
for an organization to manage its financial, tangible, and intangible assets as a dynamic
system and they proposed a new approach which they called Systematic Knowledge
management (SKM). By combing BSC with SKM, systematic knowledge management of
assets can be achieved in a very short time, with consequent early captures of benefits.
INDUSTRY PROFILE
THE IT INDUSTRY AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
The IT industry is resource-oriented and it becomes quite important to ensure that
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knowledge in the minds of resources is safeguarded. It is found that, while 26 per cent of
knowledge in the average organization is stored on paper and 20 per cent digitally, an
astonishing 42 per cent is stored in employees' heads. There have been many instances
where the learning and knowledge is lost when resources move to newer roles, or leave
the organization.
Knowledge is invisible and is tied up in customer relationships. It is linked to the ratio of
experienced to junior employees. KM assists in getting the right knowledge to the right
person as fast as possible and assists in retaining customers. The most difficult part in
implementing KM is not the technology. It is to understand where knowledge resides
within the organization.
3.1 TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES (TCS)
Established in 1968, Tata Consultancy Services has grown to its current position as the
largest IT services firm in Asia based on its record of outstanding service, collaborative
partnerships, innovation, and corporate responsibility.
TCS is a subsidiary of one of India's largest and oldest conglomerates, the Tata Group,
founded by Jamsetji Tata in 1868 and one of India’s most respected institutions today.
The mission of TCS reflects the Tata Group's longstanding commitment to providing
excellence: To help customers achieve their business objectives by providing innovative,
best-in-class consulting, IT solutions and services, and to actively engage all stakeholders
in a productive, collaborative, and mutually beneficial relationship.
The vision of TCS is to be one of the top 10 global companies by the year 2010.
The values – integrity, leading change, excellence, respect for the individual, and
fostering an environment of learning and sharing – will get us there.
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TCS' ability to deliver high-quality services and solutions is unmatched. It is the world’s
first organization to achieve an enterprise-wide Maturity Level 5 on both CMMI® and P-
CMM®, using the most rigorous assessment methodology - SCAMPISM. Additionally,
TCS’ Integrated Quality Management System (iQMS™) integrates process, people and
technology maturity through various established frameworks and practices including
IEEE, ISO 9001:2000, CMMI, SW-CMM, P-CMM and 6-Sigma.
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AT TCS
According to TCS, knowledge should be managed because of the following reasons:
Competition
o Marketplaces are increasingly competitive and the rate of innovation is
rising.
People
o Reductions in staffing create a need to replace informal knowledge with
formal methods.
o Competitive pressures reduce the size of the work force that holds
valuable business knowledge.
o Early retirements and increasing mobility of the work force lead to loss of
knowledge.
Operations
o There is a need to manage increasing complexity as small operating
companies are trans-national sourcing operations.
o The amount of time available to experience and acquire knowledge has
diminished.
Strategic
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o Changes in strategic direction may result in the loss of knowledge in a
specific area.
Knowledge management is important in TCS because of following reasons:
People
o 10% of associates are of non-Indian origin
o ‘NNN’ recruited every year
GNDM
o Global operations* – 100,000+ associates across 51 countries, 173
offices in 39 countries
o Certainty for our customers
Competition
o Cost and speed-to-market pressures
o Delivery Excellency through uniform processes, skilled resources and
new technology
Strategic
o Establish global brand
o New products and geographies
Figure 3.1 An overview of TCS Knowledge Management
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Knowledge in TCS
Customer Knowledge
Knowledge in Products
Knowledge in People
Market Knowledge
ProcessesKnowledge in
Partners, Alliances, Vendors
Organisational knowledge
Memory
Knowledge InOrganisational Assets
Environment Knowledge
Industry
Figure 3.2 Knowledge domain in TCS
3.2 INFOSYS
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Infosys is the leader in providing IT consulting and software services to the world's finest
organizations. Infosys Technologies Limited was established in India in the year 1981 by Mr.
Narayan Murthy. The Chairman and CEO of Infosys is Mr. S. Gopalakrishnan. The company has
104,850 professionals (including subsidiaries). Infosys specialises in offering a complete range of
software and consulting services such as business-technology consulting, Internet and e-business
consulting, system integration, custom application development, re-engineering and sustenance
amply supported by the company’s execution methodologies and delivery models. Over the
years, Infosys has grown into one of the major IT companies in the world and now has offices in
different parts of the world such as the U.S., Japan, Canada, U.K., Germany, Belgium, Australia,
France, Scandinavia and Hong Kong.
Vision
“To be a globally respected corporation that provides best-of-breed business solutions, leveraging
technology, delivered by best-in-class people.”
Mission
"To achieve our objectives in an environment of fairness, honesty, and courtesy towards our
clients, employees, vendors and society at large."
Values
Infosys believes that the softest pillow is a clear conscience. The values that drive it underscore
its commitment to:
Customer Delight: To surpass customer expectations consistently
Leadership by Example: To set standards in our business and transactions and be an
exemplar for the industry and ourselves
Integrity and Transparency: To be ethical, sincere and open in all our transactions
Fairness: To be objective and transaction-oriented, and thereby earn trust and respect
Pursuit of Excellence: To strive relentlessly, constantly improve ourselves, our teams,
our services and products to become the best
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AT INFOSYS
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More than ever before, sustained growth and responsiveness to the market - built on
sound business models, strong work-force competencies and effective people practices,
constitute the key challenges in enabling the delivery of cost-effective and high-quality
products and services. Continual and rapid changes in the business contexts and the
technological landscape impose further challenges to the industry in providing high
customer value through increased operational efficiencies, better services and integrated
systems.
Infosys, for long, has devised and set in place a variety of mechanisms to leverage the
organization's collective knowledge to address these challenges. However, during the
initial years, such efforts were limited in scope and spread across the organization. It was
only in late 1999 that the long felt need for an organization wide, integrated Knowledge
Management (KM) program crystallized into a centrally coordinated, formal and focused
effort. Propelled by the vision of Nandan and the leadership of Kris, the formal initiative
was launched under the stewardship of Dr. V.P. Kochikar. The initiative, anchored by a
group of four, has since grown in scope and reach. Currently, with a team size of ten, the
initiative has been identified as a critical thrust area for Infosys and has been drafted into
the thought leadership stream under the ambitious Infy+ program. The team is currently
headed by Dr. J.K. Suresh.
EVOLUTION OF KM AT INFOSYS
1992: body of language
1995: technical bulletin, online learning
1996: companywide intranet (sparsh)
1997: marketing systems, processes assets
1998: project leader’s toolkit
1999: people knowledge map, orgwide KM initiative
2000: integrated Kshop. A portal and satellite servers to Kshop
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2001: customization, subscription, process level changes
2002: process level changes, skills central, intergrated search
2003: KM in projects, integrated with IPM, KMail
2004: KShop on extranets, qualifications of benefit from KM
2005: KM focused deployment, KM for clients facing infoscions,
2006: KM for key accounts, new Kshop
THE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT VISION
To be an organization:
where every action is fully enabled by the power of knowledge;
which truly believes in leveraging knowledge for innovation;
where every employee is empowered by the knowledge of every other employee;
Which is a globally respected knowledge leader?
COMPONENTS OF KM INFRASTRUCTURE IN INFOSYS
Content management components
o Submission
o Workflow
o Classification rating
Collaboration management components
o e-mail
o expert locator
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o discussion forums
o blogs
o wiki
o team spaces
file system
o knowledge documents
o business rules
K-mail: a system for facilitating real-time collaboration amongst communities with the
aid of automated query-response features
k-speak: an innovative application using voice recognition technologies and
summarization algorithms to deliver information and knowledge to handhelds.
K-search: a tool that allows the user to search multiple information and knowledge stores
from the comfort of MS office applications.
3.2.2 WIPRO
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Wipro Technologies Limited is a giant information technology services corporation
headquartered in Bangalore, India. Wipro (an acronym of "Western India Palm Refined
Oils") was started as a vegetable oil trading company in 1947. In 1980 the company
diversified into Information Technology. Presently Wipro is into IT consulting, Business
process outsourcing, product engineered solutions, technology infrastructure and
services. Wipro employs 108071 employees as on March 2010.
Wipro's Mission and Vision
Having already achieved the pinnacles of process and quality credentials (through ISO
9000, SEI CMM, PCMM and Six Sigma), Wipro's Vision is focused on attaining
leadership in the areas of business, customer and people.
Business Leadership: Among the top 10 Information Technology Services companies
globally and the No.1 Information Technology company in India.
Customer Leadership: The No.1 choice of customers through innovative solutions and
Six Sigma processes.
People Leadership: Among the top 10 most preferred employers globally by creating an
environment of empowerment, intellectual challenge and wealth sharing.
Brand Leadership: Wipro to be among the 5 most admired brand in India.
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AT WIPRO
Wipro’s KM Vision
To be an organization where knowledge capture and sharing is the way we work, offering
customers speed-to-deploy as well as innovative products and services focused on their
needs, and offering employees an environment of continuous learning and productivity
