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NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

K6213 Knowledge Management Technologies

Term Paper

IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN ORGANIZATIONS

ANTONY PRAKASH

SRINIVASAGAM PRIYA LAKSHMI

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Contents ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................................... 3

INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 3

EVOLUTION OF KM SYSTEMS ........................................................................................ 3

APPLICATION & IMPACT OF KM TECHNOLGIES ........................................................ 5

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT ..................... 6

CORPORATE MEMORIES ............................................................................................. 7

IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN ORGANIZATIONS .............................................................................................................. 8

EFFECT OF SOCIAL NETWORKING PHENOMENON IN LEADERSHIP ...................... 8

EMERGENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA .................................................................................... 9

SOCIAL MEDIA AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT ................................................ 10

BENEFITS OF SOCIAL NETWORKING IN ORGANIZATIONS .................................... 12

SOCIAL NETWORKING IMPROVES EMPLOYEE EXCELLENCE ........................... 12

INCREASES EMPLOYEE MOBILITY ......................................................................... 13

CORPORATE DIRECTORIES AND INTRANET WILL BE REVAMPED ................... 13

INCREASE REVENUES ................................................................................................ 13

ORGANIZATIONS CHANGE THE WAY THEY COMMUNICATE ........................... 14

ORGANIZATIONS CHANGE THEIR VISION ............................................................. 14

CHALLENGES FACED IN IMPLEMENTING SOCIAL MEDIA IN ORGANIZATIONS 14

FUTURE OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGIES .................................. 15

CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................... 16

REFERENCES ................................................................................................................... 17

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ABSTRACT

This paper describes the evolution of KM systems, the applications of KM in

organization and its impact on business. The focus is on the impact of social media in

organizations from a knowledge management perspective.

INTRODUCTION

In a knowledge‐based economy, knowledge creation processes are viewed as

fundamental drivers of economic development. Continuous knowledge creation is needed to

maintain the competitiveness of organizations, regions and industrial clusters (Canals, Boisot,

& MacMillan, 2005). Knowledge Management is a relatively new field which has generated

a lot of interest since the 90’s. It was started with the expectation of improving business

efficiency with the help of information technology (Weisbord, 1987).

Knowledge management is the next logical step in a sequence of societal

developments that has already been going on for a very long time. Systematic management

of knowledge takes on new importance with the current economic reality where knowledge

is a differentiating competitive factor for individuals, corporations, and nations. This reality

is the driving force behind broad adoption and continued development of powerful methods

and tools to manage knowledge (WIIG, 1997).

EVOLUTION OF KM SYSTEMS

Evolution is important for the development and use of KM systems as the context

and information changes with time. It was initially assumed that Knowledge can be managed

like other commodities. However, it became clear that knowledge resides in the individuals

and it benefits strongly from the interaction with others. The interaction had an effect on the

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efficiency and thinking of individuals. Knowledge was acknowledged to have a volatile

character and it continuously evolved through interactions between people. A lot of

concepts that were available for knowledge sharing were not efficient which led to the

evolution of KM to adapt to the changing needs (Weisbord, 1987).

Example: At Guide, Oslo, in order to identify consultants with appropriate competencies for

a project, Competence description, a form of word documents were created in 1996 to give

details about a consultant’s competencies as the business is focused on finding the right

person for an assignment. When the organization grew, it required a more sophisticated

system to identify individuals with certain competencies. To overcome this issue, the

Available-consultants system was developed which consisted of an excel sheet with details

about competence, availability for a project, etc. When the first intranet was launched in

1996, HTML based competence descriptions were automatically generated with information

about competencies and profiles from the Available-consultants system. In 1998, the second

intranet was launched with consultant profile information and importance was given for

personal details. The Job-assignment system based on Lotus Notes developed and

implemented in 1998 contained information about consultant competencies and used to

match a project to a consultant with the desired profile. It partially replaced the Available-

consultants system. The Competence-marketplace system developed at Guide in Oslo was

designed to have KM system for mapping experts’ competencies within organizations, and

finding consultants for projects. The Developers-guild system was developed in 1999. It was

an online community meant for co-operation, knowledge sharing and information retrieval

and it also included online articles, discussion lists, collaborative writing tools, and news

(Lindgren, Hardless, Hardless, Nuldén, & Institute, 2002).

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The KM systems evolve continuously as the needs of the organization changes. The

system should be able to serve the organization to improve its knowledge base and efficiency.

Adding too much complexity to the system might result in its failure. KM systems evolution

needs to look into the organizational goal in the long run and managed to keep in sync with

the needs of the organization (Lindgren, et al., 2002).

APPLICATION & IMPACT OF KM TECHNOLGIES

Organizations realise the potential of knowledge and rely heavily on the competence

of individual organizational members. Information systems play an important role in

supporting knowledge management initiatives to achieve competitive advantage and a lot of

money is going into Knowledge Management. Industry watchers tell us that perhaps 80% of

businesses now have explicit KM projects. Several new trade journals serve the KM

practitioner community – including Knowledge Management, KM World, KM News, KM

Review, the Journals of Knowledge Management and of Knowledge Management Practice,

and the Journal of Intellectual Capital (Spender, 2004).

Knowledge has been recognized as one of the most important assets of an

organization. It is the differentiating factor for a company’s success and the benefits are

beyond the visible increase in stock value and balance sheet. It has also brought in the

awareness that the organization’s knowledge lies in its people which is benefited by

interactions with people having similar interests. Codifying the knowledge into a rigid set of

rules and instructions will restrict an organization’s ability to come up with new ideas.

Knowledge is continuously evolving and new knowledge is generated by sharing existing

knowledge.

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The development of KM for the future can be looked at from different perspectives.

One perspective is about the objectives to implement KM, the expectations associated with it

and how KM can be used to share knowledge, innovate and use it to the company’s

advantage. The nature of knowledge management initiative is one more perspective. Another

perspective is related to the speed with KM is evolving and how it is being used. The

organizations are using even more sophisticated tools for integrating knowledge

management into their strategy to gain competitive advantage and incorporate into their

overall operations.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

It is important for the organizations to consider the impact of technology in

knowledge management in order to better understand how technology helps in sharing and

exchanging ideas. Collaboration is now the primary focus for companies because corporate

knowledge remains locked up in employee files and inboxes even when other knowledge

management tools are in use. Web 2.0 has become the virtual office for teams in different

parts of the world to communicate and share ideas.

Some of the things that organizations tried as part of the knowledge sharing exercise

was to build ‘experts’ finding database where all the key information of an employee in the

organization would be keyed and in whenever required, the managers can use keywords to

find candidates suitable with the nature of work they have on hand currently. But this

requires users to keep their profiles up to date which many would forget to do. A few other

systems were completely ignored by the users as they believed that it contained too much of

their personal information.

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Some of the ways by which organizations can propagate the existing knowledge within

the organization are by (Lupfer, 2011):

The organization can have a centralized repository for common problems and also not

so common ones so that the employees can refer it when they face an issue before

coming up with a new solution if nothing similar has been captured before. This way,

repetition of work can be avoided and it saves time.

Companies can provide the tools and applications that will help the people to

successfully implement their ideas and improve the existing practices.

Blogging helps to put information out in the open where it’s accessible for all.

Many companies use intranet to share information. The intranet is open for all and

employees can be encouraged to add on to the information that already exists in the

form of comments or add something that is not available. This will increase the user

participation and add to the knowledge of the organization.

Ratings is another way of increasing the credibility of the information being shared as

the most highly rated one will be considered to be the most relevant. All that has to be

done is give a rank which is even simpler than writing comments.

Companies can give participation rewards to those who contribute the most towards

the knowledge sharing process. Recognition and cash rewards are some of the

incentives that companies can give.

Communities of Practice bring together people with similar interests to share their

ideas and expertise about a topic.

CORPORATE MEMORIES

Corporate memories refer to the knowledge about services and products accumulated

over a period of time in organizations. The companies lose this precious knowledge when its

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employees who are the key personnel in the corporate’s memories leave. One way of solving

this problem is recording everything that is done but this can lead to an information

overload. Another way of doing it is by capturing only the relevant knowledge by spending

some time and money on the process. Corporate memories play a key role in a company’s

progress as they have the lessons learnt from previous mistakes and have solutions for

problems that occur frequently. This helps to enhance the processes that are knowledge

driven. The implementation of systems for corporate memories should be supported by IT

infrastructure.

IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN

ORGANIZATIONS

We are living in an age where internet has changed the way people stay connected

with each other. With the rise of Web 2.0 technologies, a number of new applications and

tools have come into use over the last decade. The tools which brought tremendous changes

in the lives of millions of people are now transforming the way the business around the

world operates. A new term “Enterprise 2.0” was coined in the year 2006 by Harvard School

Professor Andrew McAfee, which is basically the application of Web 2.0 tools within the

organization.

EFFECT OF SOCIAL NETWORKING PHENOMENON IN

LEADERSHIP

The sensational rise of the creation and distribution of user generated content through

social networking sites has led to talks about the potential of social networking in

transforming the way organizations work (Ltd, 2008).

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All the enterprise functions are undergoing a change as a result of the environment

being engulfed by social media (Canals, et al., 2005). The current generation who are joining

organizations as fresh graduates are using social media in ways the baby boomers would

have never considered. This change has led to a dilemma in the minds of CEOs and CIOs as

the current organizational policies and structures are yet to figure out how the younger

generation works.

Don Tapscott, co-author of a popular book Wikinomics (Tapscott & Williams, 2006)

says that “the Facebook generation will wipe out the command control infrastructure in

business today”. He also proposes that the new generation of employees that come into the

workforce will challenge the existing organizational structures which are based on hierarchy

and control.

EMERGENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

One of the top priorities of an organization is to capture the knowledge that resides in

the minds of its employees. Though it is true that managing knowledge remains a top

priority, it is also equally true to say that it remains as one of the biggest challenges and

elusive goal for most organizations.

The emergence of social media has forced us to rethink Knowledge Management and

has created new challenges (Reichental, 2011). The shift from traditional tools to the

adoption of social media tools will change the way the knowledge is managed.

Organizations typically manage best practices and organizational insights which are in

structured form but with the implementation of social media, the future is going to be about

managing unstructured content.

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The use of social media is going to be a blessing in disguise for Knowledge

Management. All the features and benefits that are being experienced by people in the

consumer space can be incorporated into enterprise solutions. For example, if a manager

wants to know more about a member of his team who joined recently, he can get the

designation, department, contact number, etc., from the corporate directory services while

the additional information such as hobbies, interests, previous employment details can be

pulled from social networks. In the future, companies will have to use data driven

management techniques to analyse all the new knowledge that is being created through the

social media. This analysis will result in insights which will be of great value in determining

where knowledge resides in an organization.

Adrian, VP Sales for Trampoline Systems, which manufactures systems that allow

companies to monitor, measure and manage social networks, says that the main sources of

innovation in organizations are employees, business partners and clients. Establishing

connections among these three players through enterprise social computing will enable

organizations to manage knowledge effectively. In addition to this, social computing helps

companies in identifying experts in organizations and also make communication more

efficient.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Collaboration has become the primary focus for companies which are trying to

utilize the power of social media in their organizations. The progress in adopting social

media is happening at a rapid pace that it leaves a lot of companies scratching their heads in

order to come up with proper strategies. One of the primary strategies a company should

include in the transition phase is to create the best intranet possible. The best intranets are

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those that integrate social technologies that not only foster collaboration but also knowledge

management (Lupfer, 2011).

Some of the capabilities the winners of Jacob Nielsen “10 Best Intranets of 2011”

possessed are:-

Knowledge Sharing Participation Rewards

Innovation Management Customized Collections

Comments Social Tagging

Ratings Social Learning

Online social networks can be termed as webs of relationships that grow from

discussions over computer and internet (Kimball & Rheingold, 2003). When people in an

organization are stretched across time and space, conversations need to take place over an

intranet. A well implemented online social network can enhance an organization’s collective

knowledge and make sure knowledge gets to people so that they can act on it in time. It also

provides an important context to knowledge transfer that makes the transfer powerful than

just going through a document. The inherent nature of the social media provides an online

space for sharing experience and insights by storytelling. The right kind of online social

network brings appropriate tools to facilitate communication and showcase projects and best

practices and make knowledge-transfer happen.

Social Media has three basic functions which can be represented as three edges of a

triangle (Back & Koch, 2011). They are:-

1. Information Management

2. Communication

3. Identity and Network Management

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Social Software Triangle (Lindgren, et al., 2002)

Employees can use the Information Management aspect of Social Media to collect or

co-write information as in the case of wikis. The Communication aspect is used by the

employees to communicate directly with each other either synchronously in instant

messaging applications or asynchronously through weblogs. Employees make use of the

Identity and Network Management to present themselves to others and find others and link

with each other.

BENEFITS OF SOCIAL NETWORKING IN ORGANIZATIONS

Social Networking provides a wide range of benefits to organizations. Some of the

advantages listed by AT&T are given below (AT&T, 2008).

SOCIAL NETWORKING IMPROVES EMPLOYEE EXCELLENCE:

Most of the organizations have global footprints and they should use it to their fullest

advantage. As employees start interacting with their international counterparts, they begin to

think globally. The more opportunities they get to interact with them, the more attention

they pay to what their online contacts mention. When social network tools are used

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appropriately in the organizations, employees can use the features to gain deeper knowledge

in their areas of interest. These tools provide access to guides and mentors and act as a self-

development platform that can be used any time and from anywhere.

INCREASES EMPLOYEE MOBILITY:

Employees can use the networking tools deployed in the organizations to increase

visibility by sharing their expertise in online communities of practice. In addition to

increasing their visibility, it also increases their credibility. As the number of online contacts

they maintain increases, they will also be frequently solicited.

CORPORATE DIRECTORIES AND INTRANET WILL BE REVAMPED:

Corporate directories will undergo major changes to have similar capabilities to that

of Facebook and LinkedIn. Additional features such as personalization and providing user

rating options will be integrated into the corporate intranet sites to make them more

informative.

INCREASE REVENUES:

One of the huge benefits social media brings to the organizations is the way in which

it can be used to increase revenues. As a result of the numerous changes in communication,

organizations will be more accessible to its market which is a critical aspect for the success

of any business. Some of the benefits of adopting social networking strategy are:-

It allows expanded reach

It provides access to new markets

It helps in maintaining customer relationships

It offers innovative and dynamic marketing practices

The adoption of social media by organisations does not provide any guarantee that

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employees will start using them. So companies will have to alter their strategies and policies

to get employees participate in the collaborative work.

ORGANIZATIONS CHANGE THE WAY THEY COMMUNICATE

Social networking brings a wide range of innovative technologies that create value to

employees, organizations and to the customers as well. Organizations have started using

these tools not only for their internal communication but to communicate with customers as

well. They make use of these tools to promote their products and build their brand image.

ORGANIZATIONS CHANGE THEIR VISION

As the amount of information being made available online increases, businesses have

become transparent and their corporate social responsibility increases. So organizations have

started to give importance to collaboration and communication in their vision statements.

CHALLENGES FACED IN IMPLEMENTING SOCIAL MEDIA IN

ORGANIZATIONS

When intranets are opened to business users outside the organization and when

internal users start using the different collaborative tools available over the internet, it will be

difficult to maintain security as a whole. It is also important on the employees’ part to be

careful about the nature of information they share. As search engines are becoming more and

more powerful, any information leakage can be caught by people using the internet. All these

challenges make the managers and executives resistive to change. As more number of

applications that have been developed with collaborative capabilities is being increasingly

used by employees, organizations have to make sure that security is not impacted.

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FUTURE OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGIES

When we look back at the past few decades, we can realize that new technologies

have emerged almost every year and each one has created some sort of business value. One

technology that has emerged in the last decade and swiftly evolved into a platform for

corporate communications is social media. In the coming years, social networking tools and

strategies will be “must haves” in any organization (Weisbord, 1987). Some of the companies

that adopted social media early have developed standards and guidelines on the usage of

social media. The policies developed by these companies are likely to shape the future of

social media in other organizations and they will also provide an opportunity to learn the best

practices, successes and failures.

In spite of the fact that the usage of social media in organizations is a relatively new

phenomenon, it has been predicted to grow steadily in the coming years. A wide range of

solutions are already available on the market that has been developed to address business

concerns such as security and accountability. These solutions are relatively inexpensive when

compared to the magnitude of benefits they provide. One of the very few companies that has

created its own corporate social media platform and enables real-time collaboration among its

employees around the globe is IBM.

If social activities are aligned with an organization’s goal, they can be used to provide

support to all areas of an enterprise such as marketing & sales, communications and customer

service. The kind of information companies pay to get from market researchers such as

customers’ needs and wants are available for free on the social media outlets. In the near

future we can expect more companies to develop their own strategies to make use of the

highly valuable customer intelligence that social networks are generating.

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CONCLUSION

The lifeblood of most organizations was, is and will be conversations. The

information and knowledge that was shared through meetings and the informal talks that

happened near the water cooler stations are things of the past. The evolution of social media

has brought in great advantages to individuals and organizations and the primary advantage

is the kind of conversations they make possible. The social media technology is no longer

expensive when compared to the numerous benefits they offer and cost should not be a

factor for not implementing them in organizations. When the business and IT team work

together to refine social networks used in organizations to make them secure and integrate

them to their corporate information systems, they can unleash social networks’ maximum

potential and deliver better business results. So with the social media technology

continuously evolving, we can expect more and more organizations to implement these tools

in the future to manage knowledge and provide better collaboration facilities for employees.

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REFERENCES

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Management in Enterprise 2.0. Information Technology, 53. Canals, Agustí, Boisot, Max, & MacMillan, Ian. (2005). Evolution of Knowledge

Management Strategies in Organizational Populations: A Simulation Model. Kimball, Lisa, & Rheingold, Howard. (2003). How Online Social Networks Benefit

Organizations By Lisa Kimball and Howard Rheingold. 15. Lindgren, Rikard, Hardless, Christian, Hardless, Christian, Nuldén, Urban, & Institute, The

Viktoria. (2002). The Evolution Of Knowledge Management Systems Needs To Be Managed. Journal of Knowledge Management Practice.

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Beach, CA. http://www.crito.uci.edu/papers/2004/spender.pdf Tapscott, D., & Williams, A.D. (2006). Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes

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