Knowledge Management and Business Process Modeling

This document provides an overview of knowledge management and business process modeling. It explains the importance of knowledge management in organizations and how it can be implemented. The document also explores the stages of knowledge management and discusses a case study of a failed knowledge management project in a global company. The subject of the document is Knowledge Management and Business Process Modeling, and it is suitable for students studying business management or related courses. The document type is an essay or research paper.

Knowledge Management
Business Process Modeling
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Knowledge Management
Table of Contents
Business Process Modeling
Knowledge management system 2
Company reward system 3
Frames for codify the system 4
Case study 5
Summary 6
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Knowledge Management
Business Process Modeling
The business process modeling is the activity of representing the processes for an
enterprise so that current processes can be analyzed, improved and can be automated to perform
their respective tasks. This helps in analyzing the overall tasks of the organization and then
developing the counter methods for supporting the organization by using the well researched
theories and using the tools for implementing the practices mentioned in these theories. These
tools help to identify the real picture of the business activities in the organization.
Knowledge Management
Knowledge mangement is a site that covers the theories, frameworks, models, tools that provides
the support both to the professionals as well to the students for gaining the good information on
the relevant issues. The goal of this information tool is to provide the comprehensive overview of
the knowledge mangement by considering the issues of the objectives, scope, best practices,
strategy and tools used for business management. The data is organized in the logical manner
with applying various techniques and it is presented in understandable form. Every detail is
properly highlighted and various tools and techniques are used for storing the detail.
4.2 Based on the problem given in 4.1, complete the following tasks:
a. Brainstorm how the company can reward efforts and increase the perception of personal
worth other than issuing pay increases.
Solution
In this competitive business world the good and highly skilled employees are itself an asset
for the company. But as it is evident in several large companies it has become evident that the
companies does not overtly reward them for their contribution, It is also a well understood fact
that the employee reward and recognition system are the one primary method for motivating the
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employees for working in better way so that good results can be obtained is the pay increase,
reward system and employee worth recognition system. In order to motivate the employees the
following steps are required to be given-
 Each type of reward system, bonus, benefit sharing and employee recognition
system should be deployed on the circulation basis so that the employees can be
engaged and have consistent enthusiasm for working.
 In case of designing the reward system for the business it is required for
separating the basic pay system, merits and reward system from each other.
 The reward system should be strictly based on the group goals and these reward
system should be constructed in the manner so that they will help to achieve this.
 Developing a proper research and evaluation system for recognizing the
employees on the basis of their work performance, team work, behavior at work
place, adaption to the new technologies and other factors too.
 Communication channel should be effectively designed so that no employee feel
that he/she has been left apart and most importantly a complete trust worthy
environment for working should be provided so that the employees can give their
opinion without any hesitation.
 Rewarding to those employees that achieve their set targets on time is a one
factor but it is also required to provide the appropriate recognition to those
employees also who consistently improve their work quality is also an important
factor that should not be ignored to motivate employees.
 Most importantly it is highly required to present the well structured parameters
of providing the reward or promotion to other team members so that the other
employees do not have any feeling of being biased or neglected in their feeling
and they themselves evaluate the work performance of the awarded team
member.
b. Use nominal group technique to find the best solution to the employee personal-worth
Perception problem. Consider the solutions from the brainstorming activity and select the
"best" solution from that set.
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Solution
Nominal group technique is a technique of the group process that involves the
problem identification, solution generation and decision making. In this method each
group are given view of solution with short explanation with alternative and according
to the ranking of choice the best solution is selected. According to this perception the
best solution for recognizing the worth of the employees is to provide the method for
developing a proper research and evaluation system for recognizing the employees with
effective communication system.
c. Use consensus decision making with the goal of selecting a solution to the employee
personal worth perception problem to which all members of the group can commit.
Solution
 In the Consensus decision making technique is a creative and dynamic way of
reaching the agreement between all the team members that are ready to work in
these environmental factors. In this concern the proposals from each group is
accepted and is thoroughly discussed in the meetings. By applying this approach
most of the group members expressed their desire for having the proper research
and evaluation system for recognizing the employees with effective
communication system. Along with this many group members have advocated
to provide the appropriate recognition to those employees also who consistently
improve their work quality is also an important factor that should not be ignored
to motivate employees. Communication channel should be effectively designed
so that no employee feel that he/she has been left apart and most importantly a
complete trust worthy environment for working should be provided so that the
employees can give their opinion without any hesitation.
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5.1 Develop a set of general frames to codify the following:
• A horse
• A student
• An airline pilot
Use these frames and describe the following:
• Flash dance, an 18-hand thoroughbred
• Brenda, a medium-height, fourth-year liberal arts students
• Fred, a 30-year veteran airline captain
A frame is a structure for organizing the knowledge through the previous experience that
utilizes the slots and facets. These slots are basically the specific objects that are being described
and the facets are the values for these slots. These frames can be linked if one frame inherits the
properties from the superior frames.
1. Horse
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Families:
Thoroughbred
Horse Frame
Thoroughbred Frame
Is a: animal
Is a : 18 hand
Jump :yes
Trot : yes

Knowledge Management
Instance of
2. college Frame
Instance of
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Mini-assistance Frame
Is a : thoroughbred
Boards in : stall
Facet
Location:
Stable
Facet
Location :
Glen Farms
College Frame
Families : Student
Student Frame
Is a : Young Human
Is a: Undergraduate
Is a : Equestrian
Mini: Instance Frame
Name : Brenda
Height : Medium
Major :Liberal arts
Year : First
Lives in: room
Facet
Location:
Dormitory
Facet
Location:
N.E Quad

Knowledge Management
3. Airline Frame
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Airline Frame
Families :
Pilot
Pilot Frame
Is a : human
Is a : captain
Is a: certified
Is a : Veteran
Mini –assistance
Frame
Is a : Pilot
Name : Fred
Age : 30
Lives in : Suburb
Facet
Location: Chicago
Facet
Location : Cook
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Knowledge Management
Task 2: Knowledge developers
5.2 Someone suggested two types of potential knowledge developers:
“Send me a well-developed computer programmer or a programmer competent in several
languages, and we’ll make him or her into a successful knowledge developer.”
And
“Send me a talented generalist with well-developed interpersonal skills or somewhat more
delicately, ‘a user friendly person’ and a rigorously analytical mind, and we’ll team him or
her with a competent knowledge developer.”
In your opinion, which approach would be more successful in knowledge development?
Why?
As it is evident that in developing the knowledge based systems it is highly required to have an
approach that provides the scope of knowledge management, communication and should posses
the analytical skills? These qualities are highly required for developing the fine knowledge
development among the concerned candidate. The main source for developing the knowledge
among the team member is through the knowledge sharing process. The knowledge sharing is
the process where organization retains, creates and shares the knowledge among the team
members. In this process the individuals share their work experiences, tactics used is solving
certain issues and most importantly they share their knowledge gained in this process. In this
complete procedure the suitable mechanism is developed for sharing the ideas, information and
suggestions relevant to the concerned tasks.
Here as mentioned in the former case about a programmer, the main task of a programmer is to
convert the algorithm in the programs to support the real life applications. In this process the
main requirements for the knowledge development cannot be fulfilled. The person with such
skill will concentrate on developing better skill in his programming language. Along with this
the person responsible for knowledge management requires to have more skills along with
programming to develop a good knowledge mangement system for the organization.
I personally consider the later approach of selecting the talented generalist, as according to their
work profile of collecting the facts will help to achieve the set goals for developing the effective
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knowledge management system for the organization. He will help in developing the better
approach for knowledge development .His professional requirement is also to develop better
knowledge mangement at their concerned organization too. So this skill will help to achieve the
goals in better way.
7.1 Give your views on failure of implementation of knowledge management at a global
company based on five distinct stages of knowledge management:
Stage 1: Advocate and learn
Stage 2: Develop strategy
Stage 3: Design and launch KM initiatives
Stage 4: Expand and support initiatives
Stage 5: Institutionalize knowledge management
Case study: A global company (Source: Chua, A. and Lam, W., “Why KM projects fail: a
multi-case analysis”, Journal of Knowledge
Management, vol. 9, no. 3 (2005).)
Case Study Brief
A global company which was one of the ten top organizations in the concerned Industry had
lost a number of orders due to its inability to offer the integrated solutions. To overcome this
problem the mangement commissioned a Knowledge management project for gaining and
maintaining the global handling the services for market leadership. This project was named
Alpha and in this project the several and teams such as business architecture, IT and knowledge
content and design were formed. Due to following given problems this project failed-
 Knowledge was managed within silo-oriented communities. Thus, business-critical
Knowledge that straddled across multiple functional groups was neglected.
• There was an over-reliance on IT systems to manage knowledge in Alpha. Tacit knowledge
And behavioral issues, on the other hand, received insufficient attention.
• Three different external consulting firms were engaged at different stages of Alpha’s
Development. Inputs from these consultants confounded instead of facilitated the KM
Initiative.
• As time passed, the cost to sustain the KM initiative ballooned beyond control. The
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management decided to cut its losses and terminated the initiative altogether.
My views –
1. Advocate and Learn
In knowledge management it is very important to learn new technologies and also advocate
it too. In this rapidly growing industry those who do not want to learn cannot sustain themselves
in this competitive environment. As mentioned learning new technology is not only required for
developing the skills but also to be adaptable in this changing environment too. Here the major
reason for the failure of this project is that the team members at the IT department are reluctant
to learn new technologies and even they did not want to work on new platform. For any good
company this behavior of its core IT team cannot be accepted as it is evident that IT is most
researched and rapidly changing field and these changes are also fast adopted in the business
environment too. The team does not have been given complete requirement specification too. ,
this also indicates the poor skill level in this section too. Most importantly advocacy for
adopting the new technologies has not been inclined among the team members too. This is
biggest loop hole in gaining this objective. If even the senior and experienced team members
will not advocate the learning and adopting the new technologies in their working environment
then how can the work execution in new technology are forwarded.
2. Develop Strategy
Developing a proper strategy for attaining the goals is the road map for achieving the set
targets. But it is also required to do the extensive research in designing the strategy for execution
of the work. As it is mentioned that the Knowledge was managed within silo-oriented
communities. There should be a proper strategy to handle this issue and it is highly required to
develop more effective approach for managing the knowledge. The business- critical straddled
across multiple functional groups was neglected. A proper strategy should be developed to handle these
critical issues. Along with this it is highly required to develop the strategy for managing the issues related
to behavioral problem among the team members. Most importantly the proper strategy for managing the
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outsourcing of the work should be conducted. A proper work break down structure with appropriate
schedule is also required to develop.
3. Design and launch KM initiatives
To design and launch KM initiative it is highly required to develop the effective
program for attaining this goal. According to the Botha et al (2008) the important
considerations that are required to be considered while designing the Knowledge
management is as follows –
Culture
The work culture of the concerned organization is very important for the formation of the
knowledge mangement at the organization and the processes it implies knowledge
sharing particularly.
Infrastructure
For developing a good knowledge management system it is highly required to develop
the proper infrastructure for the support systems, teams, structures and collaboration. So
that required means are available so that a high quality infrastructure system be
developed.
Measures
It is also required to develop the strong metrics for measuring the Knowledge
Mangement system and a proper system for the change process for managing the change
in the knowledge mangement system , So that the changes does not put any adverse
impact on the system.
Technology
Adopting the latest technology is key requirement for developing the good knowledge
management system. It is required to have knowledge of explicit system, collaboration
tool and an expert locator. Most importantly the usage of technology in the well versed
form is highly required.
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By considering the above points appropriate initiative should be developed and a
systematic work break down structure should be developed for providing the effective
support to the system. Along with this a strong monitoring and control system should be
developed to provide the support for the implementation of the knowledge management
system.
4. Expand and support initiatives
After developing the initiatives it is required to develop a strong mechanism for the strong
monitoring and control system should be developed. A dedicated team should be associated with
the Research and development department to research on new methods for expanding these
initiatives and strong strategies should be designed for supporting these initiatives in the long
term. A responsible personal should be appointed for execution of this process. Along with this
the training programs on timely basis should be provided to the team members, the motive of
these programs should not only to provide the training of the latest technologies but also to aware
them about the benefits of adopting these technologies. Most importantly it is highly required to
develop their interest in gaining new skills and providing the better job responsibilities and
reward system for motivating them in this step.
5. Institutionalize knowledge management
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Knowledge Management
In order to institutionalize the knowledge management system within the organization it is
highly required developing the work guidelines that are required to be followed on the
mandatory basis. Along with this it is required to develop complete documentation system for
supporting these activities. These practices must be included in the work practices on the
compulsory mode at any basis. It should be the moral duty of the Team Leader to develop the
knowledge mangement practices on the compulsory mode.
 From time to time a proper meeting on this issue should be organized and each
team member should be encouraged to provide his/her suggestions to develop
the good knowledge management system most importantly a healthy working
environment with trust should be provided to the team members. Most
importantly to motivate the team members it is highly required It is also a well
understood fact that the employee reward and recognition system are the one
primary method for motivating the employees for working in better way so that
good results can be obtained is the pay increase, reward system and employee
worth recognition system. Communication channel should be effectively
designed so that no employee feel that he/she has been left apart and most
importantly a complete trust worthy environment for working should be
provided so that the employees can give their opinion without any hesitation.
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Knowledge Management
Summary
The business process modeling is the activity of representing the processes for an
enterprise so that current processes can be analyzed, improved and can be automated
to perform their respective tasks. Knowledge mangement is a site that covers the
theories, frameworks, models, tools that provides the support both to the
professionals as well to the students for gaining the good information on the relevant
issues. The goal of this information tool is to provide the comprehensive overview of
the knowledge mangement by considering the issues of the objectives, scope, best
practices, strategy and tools used for business management. It is also a well
understood fact that the employee reward and recognition system are the one
primary method for motivating the employees for working in better way so that good
results can be obtained is the pay increase, reward system and employee worth
recognition system. Communication channel should be effectively designed so that
no employee feel that he/she has been left apart and most importantly a complete
trust worthy environment for working should be provided so that the employees can
give their opinion without any hesitation.
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Knowledge Management
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