Knowledge management and leadership in learning organizations: an integrated perspective
Introduction
The study of organizational learning is an attempt to engage with some complex and difficult issues associated with organizing. As a result of all this, organizational learning is a fascinating and an enduring metaphor, one that continually yields fresh insights about organization. In addition, however, there are frustrations about the study of organizational learning ( , 2004). There are many theories and perspectives that claim to inform and to represent organizational learning, some of which are poorly thought through; prescriptions for organizational learning in action are at best temporary, but new prescriptions are nevertheless being invented constantly; and almost every senior manager has either done that and moved on, is doing it continually, has her or his own way of defining it in practice, or wants to be told how it can be done (, 2004). One thing that is generally agreed about the meaning of organizational learning is that it is a process that is connected to action. There is a difference between individual learning in an organization and organizational learning. The sum of individuals' learning in an organization is frequently assumed to equate with organizational learning. Such an interpretation is based on the idea that the combined impact of individuals' applied learning in an organization probably means that organizational learning or change will take place (, 2004).
Efforts to understand organizational learning have been assisted in recent years by the general shift of interest away from organizations and towards organization and organizing. An increasing focus on collective learning, situated learning, communities of practice, and on politics, power relations and learning has helped to shift the academic study of organizational learning away from individual learning, towards social, political and relational interpretations of learning and organizing. The current understanding of strategic learning is that it is a form of organizational learning whereby assumptions that underpin corporate-level knowledge are reframed or where the sense making and knowledge management structures of an organization are altered in potentially radical ways (, 2004).
Organizational learning was based on different things such as individual learning, training and development. This means that organizational learning can be said as the collation of learnings by different individuals in the organization. Organizational learning is not a new concept in business; this kind of learning has merged with other aspects of organizational management. Organizational learning helps in determining the methods used by organizations to learn and adapt to the changes done within the environment of a company. When there is increase in the changes in the environment there should be increase on learning for an organization. As changes happen new development and learnings should be craved by a company so that it can be prepared for the possible effects of the change. The changes in the environment may give a company its problems. Organizational learnings can help the company prepare for the problems created by changes in the environment. The paper will discuss about Knowledge management and leadership in learning organizations.
Information systems
Information systems have proliferated in business and educational settings during the last 40 years. The utility of these systems critically depends on the adequacy of the question facilities. An individual cannot handle all of the information that is available in the system, so the individual asks specific questions that access a very small subset of the database. The information that gets retrieved hopefully is accurate, complete, and relevant. Individuals become frustrated when they receive irrelevant information and fail to receive important information. Modern information systems have sophisticated and intelligent processing mechanisms, such as intelligent tutoring systems, expert systems, and decision support systems. The processing mechanisms are so complex that it is beyond the capacity of humans to keep track of the exact procedures that underlie decision making, reasoning, planning, and information retrieval (, & , 1992).Technological advances have provided a broad base for developing a wide variety of information systems. Such systems currently range from relatively simple and straightforward information reporting systems to complex, high-level advisory structures, such as expert systems, decision support systems, hypertext documents, and interactive tutorials (, & , 1992).
The common factor among all such systems is that they are structured around large, complex databases that provide support for the performance of human cognitive activities. When designers develop any of these complex information systems, they must identify the information content of the system, the representational format of the information within the system, and the means by which the user will access the information (, & , 1992).
It should be noted that there are a number of information systems that are related directly to business intelligence systems. They include knowledge management systems, on-line analytical processing systems, decision support systems, and executive information systems. For the most part, these systems are helpful in making comparisons, analyzing trends and patterns in business, and presenting historical and current information to decision makers. Essentially, these systems assist decision makers in making better informed decisions that affect all aspects of a company’s operations. In contrast, business intelligence systems go a step further by providing decision makers with a thorough understanding of their operations today and tomorrow (, 2001). Because most information systems have been and still are, to a large degree, built on accounting data, they tend to be inwardly focused. If led by these systems, decision makers are consumed with what they already know a lot about particularly costs. In contrast, decision makers need to focus on what they find more difficult: the creation of value and wealth (, 2001). Information systems are used by business to process different records, data and information used by the company in making decisions and strategies. Information systems relate to different business processes. One process related to information system is knowledge management.
Knowledge management
There has been a gap between two concepts: knowledge management and learning management. Knowledge management is focused on providing employees with the information and tools they need to perform their jobs in the most effective manner. This could include the text of e-mail messages, instant messaging, chat sessions, remote conferences, white boarding, traditional documents, and other pieces of knowledge created by employees. Ideally this information is captured, classified, and stored in the background by the system, not directly by the employee (. & , 2004). Then all of this information becomes available to other employees as part of a performance-support system or as assets that can be used in future reusable learning objects strategy (RLOs). In fact employees could simply think of the RLOs stored in a learning management system as one part of the global knowledge management of an organization (. & , 2004).
From an industry point of view, tools for managing learning and knowledge seem to be moving closer together. As vendors consolidate their offerings and organizations there should a unified system to support all these needs. For example, today an employee would go into a learning management system and register for a course. If a course contains fifty RLOs in a hierarchy, then the learning management system would have to treat each as a separate offering that is still managed as part of a course (. & , 2004). Essentially, a knowledge management system (KMS) is capable of making comparisons, analyzing trends, and presenting historical and current knowledge. But more importantly, such a system enables decision makers to analyze and understand the patterns quickly and identify the most significant trends. As such, it is an accurate predictive method for decision makers. In addition, a knowledge management system can track and evaluate key critical success factors for decision makers, which are valuable in assessing whether or not the organization is meeting its corporate objectives and goals (, 1999).
Overall, a knowledge management system can assist decision makers in making better informed decisions that affect all aspects of a company’s operations. By increasing the capabilities of decision makers, a KMS environment improves the chances that an organization will achieve its goals of increased sales, higher profits, and so forth by placing knowledge and related information in the hands of decision makers at the proper time and place and by providing flexibility in their choice and sequence of analysis and in the final presentation of results. (, 1999) Knowledge comes in different forms, this include facts, attitudes, theories, opinions, policies, rules and others. Knowledge is more of a stock resource while learning is an ongoing activity but both can be improved over time. The Knowledge management makes use of different practices to identify create, represent and distribute knowledge for reuse, awareness and learning. Knowledge management intends to introduce to a firm shared intelligence. It also intends to improve performance, build competitive advantage and create higher levels of innovation.
Leadership
One of the best ways that managers can increase the level of motivation among subordinates is to be effective leaders. Leadership can be defined as a process of influence in which the leader is able to get the follower to stay on a prescribed path toward the attainment of specific goals that are desired by the leader. Thus, by definition the art of leadership is an important part of effective management. The art of leadership may be inherent within the individual. If leadership can be acquired through education and training it may be the most difficult thing to learn (, 2003). Managers in the professional environment are likely to have specialized training and are often preoccupied with the technical or scientific aspects of subordinate jobs. Consequently, they may pay little attention to the development and application of leadership skills (, 2003). When overall organizational success is related to leadership qualities, it is clear that effective leadership can and does make a difference Leadership qualities assume great importance in the professional work environment because professionals are highly sensitive to how they are managed (, 2003).
A categorization of leadership types can be established relating to the institutional settings within which leadership is exercised and which allow or prevent feasible leadership action. Leadership styles by contrast can be categorized according to the actual behavior of leaders faced by particular situations. The leadership component is not much easier to identify. Traditional organizational culture is sometimes expressed in terms such as risk aversion, inertia, hierarchy and sometimes political clientelism (, & , 2004). Leadership styles associated with this kind of political culture are far removed from the values and expectations which might be linked to an effective complementarily between leadership and community involvement. A range of leadership styles may therefore be appropriate for joint working dependent on the personal characteristics evident in the leaders reflecting the degree of charisma, commitment, persuasion, ambition etc. which rest within any individual (, & , 2004).
Leadership can affect the organization and the way it moves to achieve its goal. With poor leadership and leadership styles the company tends to have a harder chance to achieve its goals. The leadership styles vary upon the characteristics of different individual in a firm. A person’s leadership style may not conform to the criteria of the subordinates. In using leadership styles one must first know how to influence the subordinates so that together they can work to achieve their goal. There can be different methods that can be used as an influence tactics. This include legitimizing, logical persuading, appealing to friendship, socializing, consulting, stating, appealing to values, modeling, exchanging and alliance building. The influence tactics that produces the best effect are logical persuading and consulting. This two influence tactics create not only a harmonious relationship with employees but it provides the leaders the capacity to share their goals with the employees of the company. The two influence tactics promote good relationship with the employees.
Knowledge management and leadership in learning organizations
A key challenge for any organization in the twenty-first century is to seek to maintain and improve its performance in an increasingly complex and competitive global operating environment, where change pressures appear to offer the only certainty (, 2000). It is not surprising that there should be some sense of cynicism when it is argued that, by focusing upon identifying, valuing and managing information and knowledge (IKM) assets, there are significant opportunities to achieve more effective organizations and to improve their efficiency by reducing the amount of wasted time, effort and lost opportunity through better and more integrated use of both tangible and intangible organizational resources (, 2000).
In order to do this successfully a number of deceptively straightforward principles must be understood, which acknowledge that within organizations there is an imperative for the data generation process to be understood; data gathering and organization for use and extraction of value should then become a priority; data’ is transformed into information through appropriate dissemination and interpretation; information, when used appropriately, assists in knowledge generation and decision-making processes; the culmination of the data to information to knowledge process is the creation of organizational wisdom, the accumulation of learning processes that help successful organizations to move forward.(, 2000). Without proper management of knowledge and information, the conduct of organizational learning would be incomplete since important things needed in the learning process would not be available. Learning would not always be complete without proper materials such as knowledge and information. Knowledge can be found anywhere but not all knowledge can be used in present situations. Organizational learning would not be done smoothly because many things would be lacking and the data may have security issues.
Organizational learning without information and knowledge management would create time related problems and could cause delays to the operations of the business. Without information and knowledge management, organizational learning would not be completed because the information and knowledge acquired cannot be used because it may be disorganized and put on different locations. Organizational learning should be finished with less time wasted and without any knowledge management, information tends to be scattered and disorganized causing more time wasted for the learning process. On the other hand learning organizations need to have good leaders so that the learning process would be uninterrupted and cannot be influenced by outside forces. Outside forces can be in the form of questions about the learning process and contradictions from different sectors in the firm. Good leaders can thwart the advances of such forces and can provide answers to the different questions they have regarding the process. Good leaders can find sources of information that will be of great value to the learning process. They can make decisions that can help the learning process to run smoothly and be equipped with appropriate information beneficial to the process.
Conclusion
Organizational learning helps in determining the methods used by organizations to adapt to the changes done within the environment of a company. Knowledge management intends to introduce to a firm shared intelligence. Leadership can affect the organization and the way it moves to achieve its goal. Without proper management of knowledge and information, the conduct of organizational learning would be incomplete since important things needed in the learning process would not be available. On the other hand learning organizations need to have good leaders so that the learning process would be uninterrupted.
References
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