Knowlege management.docx

Knowlege management.docx

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Knowlegemanagement

KnowledgeManagement

Introduction

KnowledgemanagementwasdefinedbyGain（2001）itas“asetofpracticesthatmaximizesthebusinessvalueofknowledgebygathering,structuring,anddeliveringitatcriticalpointsofcustomerinteraction”

Followingtheresearchofknowledgemanagement,thenetworkperspectivealsowonagreatdealofattention,suchusacademics,managers,consultants.Allofthemtryingtochangeandinnovatetheirownnetworkswhichfromdense,closed,localnetworks,toloose,opennetwork,extendinggreatspaceandsociometricdistance.

Thearticlewillseparatetotwoparts.Inthefirstpart,theauthorwillexplainsocialnetwork,socialcapital,andsocialnetworkanalysis（SNA）,followingthat,theauthorwilltryingtoinvestigatetheeffectbetweenSocialnetworkanalysisandknowledgemanagementwhichinordertofindingoutthevalueandimportanceof“socialnetworks”totheknowledgeactivesoforganizations.Intheparttwo,theauthorwillintroduceknowledgesocialnetworkandthemanagementofrelationshipinsocialnetwork,inadditionalcontent,somenewtechnologiesusedtocontrolanddirectthesocialnetworkalsowillbeexamined.

Partone:

Criticallyassessthevalueandimportanceof'socialnetworks'totheknowledgeactivitiesoforganizations.

Themeaningof“Network”isnotsoeasytogiveabriefdefinition;itsdefinitioncanrelatewithinmanysubjects,suchasIT,Space,andsoon.However,intraditionalview,networkcanbedescribedasaspacewhichagroupofindividualsororganizationsarehaveasetsofrelationshipsamongthem,andsometimestheycancommunicatedoraffectedbyeachothers.（LuoQun,2004）

Therearetwotypesofnetworks;oneisreferringtonetworkofindividuals,whichcalledas“socialnetworks”andanotheronereferringtonetworksoforganizations,whichcalledas“organizationalnetworks”.

SocialNetwork

Asocialnetworkalwaysincludingseveralunits—alsoknownas‘‘nodes,’’‘‘actors,’’or‘‘vertices’’—togetherwiththerelationshipsorsocialtiesamongthem.Normally,theunitsornodesareindividualpersons,likestudentsortutors.Moreover,itcouldalsobeothersocialunits（suchasUniversity）orobjects（suchastexts）.Relationshipsoftenrepresentcommunication,influence,trustoraffect（e.g.,friendship）,butcanalsorefertoconflict（e.g.,disputes）.（Klovdahl1985）

InordertohelpusunderstandingtheSocialNetworks,andtofindouthowitisimportantfortheknowledgeactives,weneedtorecognizethefeaturesofsocialnetwork.JunFang（2007）pointedouttherearefourdimensionsaboutsocialnetworkinthewholenetwork,whicharedensity,centralization,reachability,balance.

Steward,FandConway,s.（2009）alsogavesomekeydimensionsofsocialnetwork,whichincludedsize,density,reachability,diversity,openness,stability.Theexplanationsforthedimensionsareinfollowing:

●Size:

Inbrief,thisdimensionmeansthenumberofactorsparticipatinginanetwork.However,itcannotaffectthenetworkdensityornetworkdiversity.Wheneverythingequation,alargenetworkisbetterthanasmallnetworkforexposingmemberstonovelty.

●Density:

Itreferstothenumberofactuallinkagesinanetworkasaproportionofthetotalnumberofpossiblelinkages.Densenetworkscandiffusionofknowledgeandexploitationeasier,butnotgoodfortheinnovationofknowledge.

●Reachability:

Ingeneral,itmeanstheaveragenumberoflinksbetweenanytwomembersinanappointednetwork.Thereisacontraryrelationshipbetweenknowledge“complexity’andthelinksthroughwhichitcanbeissued.

●Diversity:

Itrelateswithdifferentagesorgenderforindividualsorsizeorsectorfororganization.Highdiversityaddsthefeasibilityofpresenceofnovelinformation,knowledge,andperspectives,whichtheperformancesofthepotentialfornoveltyandinnovationcouldbeincreased.

●Openness:

Theperformancestowhichindividualsororganizationsinthenetworkareconnectedtothoseinothernetworks.Opennetworkswillgoodfortheexplorationandcreativityofknowledgeandinformation,incontrast,theclosednetworkscanresultin“thepoolingofignorance”

●Stability:

Thegradetowhichthesize,membership,diversity,ordensityofanetworkisstableovertime.Stablenetworkscanenhanceexploitation,however,inthelongterm,italsohavenegativeimpactwhichcausedthedevelopmentofnoveltyandinnovation.（Steward,FandConway,s.2009）

LarryPrusak（2001）said““Knowledgeflowsalongexistingpathwaysinorganisations.Ifwewanttounderstandhowtoimprovetheflowofknowledge,weneedtounderstandthosepathways.”Hence,onotherhands,Socialnetworksarebuiltbyasetofpersonsandrelationshipsbetweenthem.Fromthe“social”partinsocialnetworkswecangetthatthenetworkincludesnotjustonlypersonsbutalsoanotionwhichcalledcomputersupportedsocialnetworksisalsoinsideofit.（Wellman,Salaff,Dimitrova,Garton,Gulia&Haythornthwaite1996）.

Socialnetworks,therelationshipsestablishedthroughcomputerenvironmentsornot,whatever,itisjustakindcommunitywhichusedinthepractice.Communitiesofpractice（Brown&Duguid1991,Lave&Wenger1991）,inturn,serveasabaseforknowledgemanagement（Brown&Duguid2000）.Forexample,facebook,wikipedia,MSNLiveMessager,Email,thistypeofsocialnetwork,alreadybecomeanimportantwaystousedforcommunion,knowledgesharing,knowledgecreationandsoon.

SocialCapital

SocialCapitalwasdefinedbyJanineNahapietandSumantraGhoshal（1998）as“Thesumoftheactualandpotentialresourcesembeddedwithin,availablethrough,andderivedfromthenetworkofrelationshipspossessedbyanindividualorsocialunit…itcomprisesboththenetworkandtheassetsthatmaybemobilizedthroughthatnetwork.”

Therearethreedimensionsofsocialcapitalincluded,whichare

●“Structural”,meanstheformofthenetwork;

●“Cognitive’,meanstheabilitiesbetweennetworkmemberstosharemeanings,understandingandknowledge.

●“Relational”,meansthetrust,obligationsandnormsbetweennetworkmembers.

Theinnovation,productivityandemployeesatisfactionalwaysstandfortheeffectivenessorganization,andtheyaredependonthestrengthoftherelationshipsofitspeople.Therefore,socialcapitalalwaysincludestherelationshipsamongpeople,norms,valuesandsharedmeaninginanorganization.Itisoneofimportantelementswhichcanmaketheorganizationgettothesuccess,especiallyforitscustomerandhuman/intellectualcapital.

Socialcapitalisoneofkeyelementsofthenetworkorganization.Understandingthatthesocialcapitaladdsonthediscoveryandtheresearchinnetworkscientificfieldisveryimportant.Throughunderstandingsocialcapital,peoplecanrealizetheirnetworksofbusiness,professional,andpersonalconnection.Therefore,peoplewhowithrightknowledgeandrightnetworkwillgettheirbestbusinessresults.Theywillworksmarter.Highersales,betterqualityproducts,moresatisfiedemployees,greaterprofits,andsuperiormarketvalue,alltheaboveoutstandingbusinessresultscanget,ifanorganizationstayatgoodsocialcapitalproduces.（Carder,P.1995）

SNA

ValdisKrebs,（2002）definedSocialnetworkanalysisas“themappingandmeasuringofrelationshipsandflowsbetweenpeople,groups,organisations,computersorotherinformation/knowledgeprocessingentities.".Besidescollectingdata,social-networkanalysisidentifiesthepatternofinteraction.First,individualswithinthenetworkwouldbeidentified,suchaspeopleinanorganization,thenumberandqualitiesofsubgroups,informationbottlenecksandknowledgebrokers,etc.Second,socialrelationshipwillberevealed.Complexsocialstructureisthecombinationofnodesandties.Socialnetworksimplifiesthecomplexityintofollowings:

（Rob,C.etc2002）

●Improvetheflowofknowledgeandinformation;

●DetectLoopholes,bottlenecks,andgivefeedbacks.

●Seekopportunitywheretoincreaseknowledgeflowwhichwouldhavethemostimpactonyourbottomline.

Social-networkanalysisissometimesreferredtoasan'organizationalx-ray'becauseitshowstheunderneathorganizationalstructure.Complexityofnodesandtiesaresimplified,socialrelationshipstructurecanbemeasuredandevaluated.Thebenefitsofsocial-networkanalysisarefollowed:

（Rob,C.etc2002）

●Identifyisolatednodes

●Identifyrolesanddutiesindividualshaveplayed,suchasleaders,criticalknowledgebrokers,experts,specialists,etc.

●Detectfeedback,bottlenecks,andloopholes.

●Spotopportunitiesthathavethemostimpact.

●Widecommunicationchannels.

●Increaseeffectivenessandinefficienciesofknowledgeandinformationflow.

●Raiseawarenessoftheimportanceofinformalnetworks.

Social-networkanalysis（SNA）isadiagnosticmethodforcollectingandanalysingdataaboutthepatternsofrelationshipsamongpeopleingroups.Appliedtoknowledgemanagement,SNAcanidentifypatternsofinteractioninanenterprise,includingitsproperties,suchastheaveragenumberoflinksbetweenpeopleinanorganisation,thenumberandqualitiesofsubgroups,informationbottlenecksandknowledgebrokers.SNAprovidesaviewintothenetworkofrelationshipsthatgivesknowledgemanagersleverageto:

（Andrew,P.etc2002）

●Improvetheflowofknowledgeandinformation;

●Acknowledgethethoughtleadersandkeyinformationbrokers（andbottlenecks）;

●Targetopportunitieswhereincreasedknowledgeflowwillhavethemostimpactonyourbottomline.

●Raiseawarenessoftheimportanceofinformalnetworks

InteractionbetweenSocialnetworkandKnowledgemanagement

KnowledgeManagementcanbeconsideredasToolswhichsupportingS