EXPENDING THE MIND THROUGH KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

EXPENDING THE MIND THROUGH KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Kamal SinghRathore,

Reader, B.N.Girls College of Pharmacy, Udaipur-313001 (Raj.)

#9828325713(M), 02942410406(O)

Email: kamalsrathore@yahoo.com; kamalsrathore@gmail.com

INTRODUCTION

Knowledge is power; we can harness our mind through knowledge management. "Knowledge management" may sound like just another buzzword or a consultant's approach du jour, but it's turning out to be more than a mere management trend. Instead, knowledge management is quietly shaping how pharmaceutical companies do business.

Knowledge management supports and coordinates the creation, transfer and application of individual knowledge in value creation processes. In precise way we can say that knowledge management ensures "knowledge" is used as effectively and efficiently as traditional factors of production in achieving organizational goals and is as such vital. That is why we must believe that the only empire that will survive our era is the one we built within our minds. The sharing of information, best practices, and experiences, at different levels, is becoming more than ever a critical factor for the success of the merger. "Knowledge Management may be the key".

Charles Darwin said, "It's not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change". Knowledge that is acquired, stored, and dispensed without having any affect on the organization should, perhaps, be called ‘trivia'. For knowledge to actually be meaningful it needs to induce change. This is not to imply that all change is derived from knowledge (any person who has ever been associated with an organization knows better than that), but it is to say that knowledge, when acted upon can induce change that can have consequential impact on an organization. Perhaps, then, the real legacy of any ‘knowledge management' program or policy is the significance of the changes these initiatives bring about. Learning organization is "an organization skilled at creating, acquiring, and transforming knowledge, and at modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights". If change is not the result of creating, gaining, and sharing knowledge then "learning" is fairly meaningless. Innovation is merely creative imagination unless it results in a transformation of reality.

FACTORS

Any organization considering implementing a knowledge management program consider first the 12 "change management factors". These are:

1. Leadership and role models: If the organizational leaders support the knowledge management program, it has a much greater chance of success.
2. Consequences and incentives: in essence, this is the cost-benefit analysis all of us go through before we adopt any change. If knowledge management makes life easier and people have incentives to engage in the knowledge management processes, they are more likely to welcome the change.
3. Hassle: People must understand that though a knowledge management program may be a hassle, it will ultimately save them time and effort.
4. Level of participation: Engage those who will use the knowledge management system to be a part of the design.
5. Success stories: By sharing success stories, buy-in can occur more easily.
6. Value proposition: Prepare specific and defendable propositions as to how knowledge management will add lasting value to all parts of the organization. The greater the specificity, the more likely buy-in will occur.
7. Fear of technology: Even though most people in today's workforce are computer savvy to some degree, there are still many people who fear new technology. Deploy new technology used in the knowledge management system long before people have to start using it. Give people time to learn and adapt to the new technology.
8. Impossibility: Be prepared for the nay-Sayers. Understand that their concerns may be legitimate and may come from previous experience where similar initiatives have failed. Engage these people to the extent possible.
9. Priorities: A knowledge management system will be far more likely to succeed if it is perceived as being not only a high priority, but also as having a high likelihood of success.
10. Sink-in time: Allow for some time to let the concept of knowledge management to ‘sink-in'. Avoid ‘springing' a new knowledge management system on people. Communicate early and often and consider offering one-on-one demonstrations.
11. Training: The most vital element of managing the change associated with implementing any knowledge management program is the training program. Focusing on the user experience and providing ample real-life scenarios will increase the effectiveness of the training.
12. Ongoing support: Change management often begins and ends with the roll-out. Do not let this happen! Provide ongoing support so that people feel as though they have ready-resource when it comes to training, technical support, or other knowledge management related topics.

CHANGE FOR THE BETTER

Organizational learning involves acquiring new knowledge, either by discovering it or by imitating the best practices of others. Organizational learning describes organizations that utilize acquired knowledge to become more effective. This effectiveness can be realized through the change process resulting from acquired knowledge. What is important for an organization is the ability to implement the acquired knowledge into progressive change rather than acquire knowledge and never use it. New knowledge is of little value unless it is used. Some organizations are very successful at discovering knowledge, but fail to apply it effectively. One of the ways that effective application can be realized is through competition. As organizations are competitively driven to reach new heights (goals), they are forced to explore, discover, and change based on the value of the knowledge acquired.

Changing the way people work...is tough work that is not to be taken lightly. Therefore, close attention needs to be on the people affected by the introduction of change which occurs when knowledge management is introduced or revised. If your investment in knowledge management does not include a corresponding investment in change management, you may be throwing more than your financial investment down a rat hole. Therefore, human capital, change, and knowledge are a three legged stool which must be used together to be successful. Knowledge to induce change, it must be acted upon people, of course. This question and answer may seem silly, but the truth of the matter is that for knowledge management to be effective in bringing about change, people need to be engaged in the knowledge management process. If we accept that people are integral to the knowledge management process we must also recognize that there will be confusion and consternation about any process an organization introduces to manage knowledge. This is not because people will dislike the concept of knowledge management, rather because people will resist change in all of the various forms it takes. introducing a knowledge management program without paying attention to the "prevailing attitudes, beliefs, and practices", is recipe for failure, even when everyone fully appreciates the benefits of such a program.

CHALLENGES

Some solid challenges to knowledge management:

1. Systematic problem solving.
2. Experimentation with new approaches.
3. Learning from one's own experience and past history.
4. Learning from the experiences and best practices of others.
5. Transferring knowledge quickly and efficiently throughout the organization.

At Medical Protective, the reality of virtual teams in the organization posed a significant threat in the area of shared learning/knowledge management. In order to overcome this obstacle, information managers and organizational leaders determined that the use of technology would have to be leveraged to bridge the gap in connecting these teams to each other. Simple technologies such as shared network drives were used to maintain training material and commonly used forms and documents to keep the teams aligned. After mastering the simple technologies, Medical Protective then moved to more complex systems such as imaged filing programs, virtual telephony services, and web-based mainframes, so that teams were connected, despite their logistical distances.

FOCUS POINTS

There are various focus points of knowledge management-

• Manageability
• Technology
• The individual
• Culture
• Flexibility and change
• Shared leadership
• Building blocks
• Overcoming knowledge management challenges
• Case studies and workplace examples

PROCESSES OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Examples of business processes that will lead to effective knowledge management are:

• The setting of goals and objective: be realistic and recognize the limitations of data mining and information gathering. Make the increase of organizational knowledge a stated and specific goal for the all.
• Employee retention: human resource processes should focus on what it takes to retain employees who hold key knowledge. Provide opportunities that are developmental, have purpose, and have a high impact on business performance. Compensate such employees above typical market rates.
• Employee development processes: pairing experts (what some companies call "Oak Trees") and apprentices provide opportunities for employees with differing levels of knowledge to work together and increase the organizational knowledge. These relationships allow for a true exchange of knowledge through a human relationship and experience.
• Organized networking and annual conferences: these provide forums for face-to-face interaction and knowledge sharing and can lead to effective organizational knowledge management.
• Accountability: line management, not just information technology or human resource, should be held accountable for knowledge management. They should be held accountable for management of the human resources and organizational knowledge. They do this through the above business processes of employee development (experiences, developmental assignments, etc.).

In the process of knowledge management there must be significant steps taken to eliminate any barriers that may get in the way of becoming or increasing the ability to be a learning organization. Cummings challenged our intentionality for to effectively help the processes of knowledge management within an organization there must be intentional efforts to remove barriers that would inhibit ideas, talent, and money from getting to the point of best use.

KEY PRINCIPLES AND STRATEGIES OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Managers and leaders play in important role in the success of knowledge management in their organization. There are ten key principles to ensure that information management activities are effective and successful. These focus on the organizational and cultural changes required to drive improvements forward. Those principles are:

• Recognise (and manage) complexity

• Focus on adoption

• Deliver tangible and visible benefits

• Prioritise according to business needs

• Take a journey of a thousand steps

• Provide strong leadership

• Mitigate risks

• Communicate extensively

• Aim to deliver a seamless user experience

There are six strategies for developing knowledge management processes within organizations:

1. Define a knowledge management business case: What levels of knowledge and innovation will your agency need to stay ahead of your "environment"and be "competitive?" (Do not start until you can prove you need it.)

2. Baseline your intellectual capital: Knowledge is an intangible asset, but human capital is not--measure current and projected workforce capabilities, your human resource investments, and expected return on investment. (Get human resource involved from the outset.)

3. Make sure your senior executives "get it": Collaboration and knowledge sharing begin at the top, not at the bottom. Top management has to see how knowledge management will affect performance and why it is critical for innovation and change. (Make sure the top dogs are eating the same food.)

4. Build knowledge management from the bottom up and across: What's most important about any knowledge management program or process is its ability to facilitate knowledge exchange among those individuals closest to the work, to the customers, and to the processes. Knowledge management must be an enabling process that captures both best practices and new ideas while promoting access.

5. Balance external and internal: The value of your knowledge management program is multiplied by its reach-it needs to connect to other agencies, customers, and stakeholders. (Think in terms of strategic alliances.)

6. Think technology last and "chunk" your investments: What products will you need to support your first level of knowledge management development (allocate 75 percent of your knowledge management information technology budget). Save 25 percent for building your technology strategy to support future knowledge management phases or new investments.

‘With knowledge now the key raw material for creating all economic wealth and success, the new power struggles will reach deep into our minds and our personal lives', Denis Waitley in the landmark book "Empires of the Mind'. The modern business world is characterized by dynamic changing markets and continuous technological advance. To cope up with these trends, organizations must become more flexible, and one certain way for them to do so is to ascertain strengthen their potential to learn as organizations. Thus "knowledge" becomes as essential organizational driver and a key factor in value creation. Increased focus must be placed on expanding the organizational knowledge base, either by learning from others (colleagues, partners, third party content etc.) or by creating new knowledge by innovation. Both processes help secure sustainable competitive advantage. Knowledge management can be seen as an integrated approach to achieving organizational goals by placing particular focus on ‘knowledge', now widely considered as the new factor of production.

Knowledge management in R&D

The pharmaceutical industry is knowledge intensive, and therefore Knowledge Management is critical to improve R&D productivity and reduce product cycle time. To achieve these goals, the trend in drug development is to work in multidisciplinary project teams due to the multiple skill requirements. The success of this approach depends, among other things, on the availability of information from multiple sources, presented to the team members properly organized around the research topics, and personalized to each researcher's needs.

R&D professionals need to share their findings and conclusions with a geographically dispersed team. Although the discovery phase tends to be localized in "centres of excellence", the globalization created by industry mergers and worldwide testing, operations and distribution, makes knowledge sharing a critical success factor for clinical improvement. At the same time, regulations, markets, and health care issues that were unique to geography need to be considered from a global management perspective in order to achieve the advantages of economies of scale.

CONCLUSIONS

The implementation of a knowledge management discipline can provide very significant and measurable advantages in today's competitive environment. Knowledge management solutions provide a comprehensive and effective environment for building an enterprise wide knowledge infrastructure supporting the needs of the industry. Despite the varying definitions of knowledge management and the many nuances that go along with them, knowledge management is fundamentally just communication. Hynes, who insists he is not a knowledge management professional but merely a drug developer trying to speed the process, says that knowledge management is intrinsic to success: "Obviously, people who share information and manage it in the right way end up with a competitive advantage."