Embedding Knowledge Management into Business Processes

Abstract

The paper examines how knowledge management may be used to achieve business process improvement by embedding knowledge management within problem processes. The paper presents knowledge as skilful knowing, and this occurs at the individual, group, and organizational levels. How the organization manages skilful knowing at these three levels is determined by its knowledge management. The paper applies lean thinking principles to identify inefficiencies in workflow and knowledge flow, which we call waste points. It then applies a knowledge management conceptual framework to identify why these waste points exist and to surface solutions. Knowledge management is then embedded into the problem processes to remove the waste points, allow knowledge to flow, and improve the efficiency of workflow. The results are based on a case study of three Saudi Arabia universities. The results have implications for researchers and practitioners.

Encouraging and enabling action research in innovation management

“…This requires further advancement as it forms the basis of ongoing and improved collaborative efforts and successful learning exchanges between researchers and practitioners. Including approaches from psychology and knowledge management will help, for example, overcome potential knowledge fragmentation in interdisciplinary teams (Massingham and Al Holaibi, 2017). This continuous evolution of the AIM‐R framework needs further testing and evaluation via additional AIM‐R projects.…”

Matching value propositions with varied customer needs: The role of service modularity

“…Organizations sometimes lack the tacit knowledge necessary to perform the tasks within the process at a satisfactory level (Massingham & Al Holaibi, 2017). Management can play a significant role in supporting knowledge sharing (Al Saifi, Dillon, & McQueen, 2016), because perceived fairness and capability of the organization's policies and practices play an important role in terms of reinforcing employees' organizational commitment (Vanhala, Heilmann, & Salminen, 2016).…”

Knowledge Management Cycle: A Scientific Literature Review

“…Knowledge has been interpreted from different points of view (Anand, Kant, Patel, & Singh, 2015;Gupta & Bhattacharya, 2016;Kianto et al, 2016;Akbari & Ghaffari, 2017;Massingham & Al Holaibi, 2017). Knowledge is defined as the capability of a person to assess information and use it in a productive way.…”

“…Knowledge management started to be known as a discipline in the beginning of 1990s (Pauleen & Wang, 2017) and over the years it became of interest to many scientists and practitioners who studied different areas related to knowledge management processes and their effect on the organisational performance (Massingham & Al Holaibi, 2017). Most researchers have recognized knowledge management as a crucial factor for organisations' success since it positively affects employees and customers satisfaction, and it is the main resource for increasing efficiency of the organisations' performance, which leads to building organisational uniqueness in the current dynamic environment (Cepeda-Carrion, Martelo-landroguez, Leal-Rodríguez, & Leal-Millán, 2017;Mageswari, Sivasubramanian, & Dath, 2017;Matoskova & Smesna, 2017;Alavijeh, Esmaeili, Sepahvand, & Davidavičienė, 2018).…”