Benefits and Challenges of KM

Introduction

The potential advantages of effective knowledge management are significant but, as with most processes, there are certain challenges to consider.

Why organisations need KM?

A good knowledge management system will make it easy to find and reuse relevant information and resources across your business. This, in turn, can help you to:

• create better products and services

• develop better strategies

• improve profitability

• reuse existing skills and expertise

• increase operational efficiency and staff productivity

• recognise market trends early and gain an advantage over your rivals

• benchmark against your competitors

• make the most of your collective intellectual capital

A resourceful collaboration will bring more views, diverse opinions, and varied experiences to the process of decision-making, helping your business to make decisions based on collective knowledge and expertise.

Advantage of Knowledge Management

Some of the common benefits of knowledge management include:

• improved organisational agility

• better and faster decision making

• quicker problem-solving

• increased rate of innovation

• supported employee growth and development

• sharing of specialist expertise

• better communication

• improved business processes

Challenges of Knowledge Management

The key to any successful knowledge management system is knowing its limitations. Some of the common challenges include:

• finding ways to efficiently capture and record business knowledge

• making information and resources easier to find

• motivating people to share, reuse and apply knowledge consistently

• aligning knowledge management with the overall goals and business strategy

• choosing and implementing knowledge management technology

• integrating knowledge management into existing processes and information systems

Ways to overcome Knowledge Management challenges

To overcome these challenges, you should:

• develop clear processes to capture, record, and share business knowledge

• define the scope and objectives of any knowledge management initiatives

• create a corporate culture of knowledge sharing between employees and management

• set clear goals and strategies to help you utilise the collective knowledge (otherwise, it will be of no use to your business)

• consider budget, strategy, and training needs for any new knowledge management system

• consider change management strategies for introducing new knowledge management practices