Running Header: KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Knowledge Management

Knowledge Management

Introduction

The contemporary business environment has compelled majority of the businesses around the world to become decentralized and highly responsive to the global market (Brante, 1998, pp. 119). Organizations no longer have to contend with a stable consumer market, which allows them to adopt a bureaucratic organizational structure. The consumers in today's business environment have a wide range of products and brands to choose from, and they can easily switch their loyalties among brands. The concept of consumer loyalty is now becoming an out of date concept, where the consumers are highly informed and empowered regarding their purchasing behavior. This environment has caused the organizations all over the world to fight viciously to keep their consumer markets intact and sustain a stable revenue flow. The organizations have had to adopt new strategies and organizational structures to be able to survive in the current business environment. Only the companies that have been able to successfully implement this change process, in their structures have been able to flourish in the industry (Broms & Gahmberg, 1983, pp. 785). The businesses today have had to think of innovative ways to be able to differentiate themselves from the competitors and be able to offer something new to the customers.

The successful businesses have been able to adopt several Blue Ocean strategies to achieve sustainable growth, instead of fighting for market share in an overcrowded industry. The traditional approach among businesses to adopt strategies based on cost leadership by sacrificing on quality and durability of the products has now become ineffective. The consumers now demand high quality and low priced products, and the element of customer service has become a valuable asset for the organization. Hence the businesses have to adopt the modern concepts such as knowledge management and open communication among their organizational structures (Case, 1999, pp. 440). In order to become more responsive to the ever changing and volatile consumer demand, businesses now have to become decentralized and creative. The employees in the business must display creative and innovative tendencies so as to offer quality products and services to the consumers. Hence the companies must incorporate the culture of active knowledge sharing and open communication, so that the company does not lag behind the trends of the market place (Phillips et Al, 2004, pp. 650). The creativity and innovative attributes of an organization can only be enhanced if the employees are empowered and have the right tools and information to innovative. Hence the concept of knowledge management and open communication has become essential for the modern organizations to be able to produce innovative output and achieve a competitive advantage in the industry (Elsbach, 1994, pp. 76).

Discussion

Knowledge Management

The basic concept of knowledge management has been extensively reviewed and discussed by the management of several organizations (Ackerman, et Al, 2003, pp. 102). Only a few organizations have successfully been able to adopt the concept in an effective manner and reap the eventual advantages of the system. Majority of the times the ...