Knowledge Management

Abstract

About 55 percent of the U.S. labor force consists of knowledge and information workers, and 60 percent of the gross domestic product of the United States comes from the knowledge and information sectors (Laudon & Laudon, 2006). Knowledge management (KM) is fast becoming a major area of concern for organizations as they deal with an ever-increasing volume of data, constantly evolving technology, and a shrinking, transient, diverse, and ever more-scattered workforce. Future research conducted will detail the importance of implementing a knowledge management system to assist the organization with gathering, maintaining, and disseminating its accumulated knowledge. It will also note the expected outcomes of KM with respect to process improvement and organizational learning. It will then explore the many benefits an organization can derive from KM, as well as the challenges for the organization and its members associated with implementing KM. Next, we will explore the effect KM has on the competitive landscape in many industries. Lastly, a suggested action plan for implementing KM will be provided. In the end, the benefits associated with the implementation of a KM plan will allow the organization to leverage its knowledge assets to achieve and maintain success in the marketplace.

Introduction

Knowledge management (KM) has become an important theme at many large business firms as managers realize that much of their firm's value depends on the firm's ability to create and manage knowledge (Laudon & Laudon, 2006). Margaret Fuller once said "if you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it". This quote helps to illustrate the value of KM, which is defined as the set of processes developed in an organization to create, gather, store, maintain, and disseminate the firm's knowledge (Laudon). KM can be used to stimulate organizational learning, which will in turn allow the organization to learn from its environment and subsequently use this...