Brief Talk about Knowledge Management (KM) and Digital Workplace

王琪

With the development of big data, cloud computing technology, and artificial intelligence, the world has entered new digital era. As stated in IBISWorld, the data storage and data processing industries have developed strongly in the past 5 years. The average annual growth rates of the 2 industries are 12.2% (2019) and 6.8% (2018) respectively. Thus, the economy is developing in the direction of globalization based on digitalization, which puts forward the requirements of high efficiency and sustainable development for the work of modern enterprises.

To begin with, the definition of digital workplace should be clarified. Different experts have different opinions. For example, Gartner said:” The digital workplace is an ongoing, deliberate approach to delivering a more consumer-like computing environment that is better able to facilitate innovative and flexible working practices” (2018), and Marshall believes that this is a people-oriented, technology-based management, which aims to promote coordination among technology, processes and people (2014). In short, the digital workplace has made a huge change to the traditional sense of office, it is no longer all employees gathered in one place, but any device can be connected at anytime and anywhere to work. This mode of work can make the office simpler, efficient and create greater value for enterprises.

Besides, KM is “a systematic approach to manage the use of information in order to provide a continuous flow of knowledge to the right people at the right time enabling efficient and effective decision making in their everyday business” (Payne & Britton 2010), and the primary objective is to enhance organizational efficiency and innovation through the use of knowledge (Dalkir 2017, p.3). KM can amazingly integrate data, strategic management, organizational science and decision support systems. There is no doubt that KM with multidisciplinary nature will be important to the construction of skills and knowledge in future digital workplaces.

Therefore, if an enterprise wants to achieve the transformation of modernization and sustainable development, the key is to build a digital workplace with KM as the core. Some forward-looking companies, like Huawei, have realized the problem and taken action. Huawei’s WeLink office software did that --- it operates all over the world and employs more than 170 countries and regions. WeLink implements real-time intelligent translation in 60 languages, which makes cross-regional and cross-lingual communication easier. Through WeLink, Huawei employees, customers and suppliers can access video conferencing through phone, PC and other terminals by clicking a link, and establish a real-time “face-to-face” communication (HAWEI 2019). However, most enterprises’ fragmentary information has not been integrated and reused, which leads to the rising of decision-making errors, and has been defeated by new modern enterprises. Thus, next will analyze how KM plays a part in building digital workplace from 2 aspects.

Firstly, KM can assist enterprise to build online shared database. As Grey said KM is a collaborative and integrated method for creating, catching and organizing enterprise knowledge assets (1996), so enterprises can integrate these organizational memories to form a constantly updated database. In the process, Wiig KM Cycle can provide sufficient support. It describes how knowledge is constructed and used. The system includes 4 key steps: building, holding, pooling and applying knowledge (Dalkir 2017, p.53). At first step, building knowledge means collecting information from various sources as widely as possible, including multimedia, books, interviews, and analyzing, reorganizing, codifying and integrating them (Dalkir 2017, p.54). For enterprises, it is to collect, analyze and organize all the historical information of the organization, including corporate culture, development process, employee information, framework, internal control methods, reports, information of suppliers and customers and experience of excellent employees. The second step, holding knowledge is to store and archive all the knowledge of the previous step, like storing knowledge in the knowledge base of the computer and coding it (Dalkir 2017, p.55). For an enterprise, it is to record and sequence the forms of patents, regulations, intellectual property rights into certificates, manuals, articles of association, reports or documents for future reference. The third step is pooling knowledge, which is used to coordinate, access and retrieve knowledge (Dalkir 2017, p.55). The key is to establish a KM system, identify information sources and categories, and label or catalogue information. In database, employees can quickly retrieve all relevant information or contact specific experts to gain relevant experience by identifying knowledge sources, such as keywords or representatives. The final step is to use the shared knowledge retrieved through investigation, analyzation, selection, decision-making and implementation (Dalkir 2017, p.57). Employees can use the data to refer to the processing method of historical business, compare the current situation and history, analyze the trend, retrieve relevant knowledge to make decisions consistent with organizational goals, and listen to the opinions of relevant staff. Therefore, the online shared database established by the KM model can make the communication between employees in various departments closer, simplify the complicated information collection process, reduce costs, improve the work efficiency of organization, and reduce the error of decision-making.

Secondly, enterprises can establish fully connected office platforms to promote the construction of digital workplace. Full connectivity refers to the connection among employees, partners, suppliers and customers. Enterprises can communicate and share information quickly with all internal and external stakeholders through a public platform. Ideal full-connection platform can realize team, knowledge and equipment connection. Pugh and Prusak’s knowledge networks theory demonstrates the importance of the platform. This theory defines 8 dimensions of knowledge network work from the strategic, structural and tactical levels of an organization. They are leader’s change theory, organizational goals, the role of professional knowledge, members’ participation, operational modes, institutions and infrastructure, social roles, measurement and performance feedback systems (Pugh & Prusak 2013). A fully connected platform is designed to incorporate these elements into an integrated team. First of all, team connection is to break through the restrictions of region, time and language through online platform, so that employees in all offices can be combined into a high-quality team to share files, business approval, video conferencing at anytime and anywhere. In addition, team leaders can see and evaluate the work of staff, and members can communicate with their superiors in a timely manner. Next is the connection of knowledge. On this platform, all employees can receive training and imparting expert experience through live broadcasting, learn online libraries, or communicate through forums. Expert interviews are one of the main ways to acquire knowledge (Dalkir 2017, p.124). As Pugh said there are many ways to optimize expert interviews, including storytelling, discussion forums, news interviews, peer assistance, knowledge communities and networks (2011), so the fully connection of knowledge cannot be ignored. Finally, the connection of devices is aimed at breaking the restrictions of complex devices. It is easy to connect wireless networks, whiteboards, projectors, cameras, laptops or mobile phones through online platforms, so as to achieve synergistic effect in different places. For example, Apple’s iWork, employees can use real-time collaboration, and your team members can work together, whether they use Mac, iPad, or iPhone (iWork-Apple 2019). In short, the fully connected office platform is a large community of enterprises, which can realize knowledge sharing, acquisition and exchange with zero distance and time difference.

In brief, online databases enable enterprises to collect, integrate, analyze, code, share and reuse all information and data. A fully connected office platform enables all stakeholders to communicate, share, learn and process knowledge together. Therefore, both approaches can realize the modernization and digitalization of office through knowledge management, which makes the work more secure, concise and efficient, and enhances the business ability while reducing the error rate. This is undoubtedly the key to enhancing the sustainable development ability and competitiveness of enterprises. However, all these schemes also depend on the support of software. The existing information technology needs to be further strengthened and developed in many aspects, and the follow-up technical maintenance also needs adequate financial support. Besides, the above concepts are all in the ideal state of operation, so them should be further investigated and adjusted according to the actual situation.

References

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[2]Gray, D 1996, What is knowledge management, The Knowledge Management Forum.

[3]HAWEI 2019, Power of Connection: Huawei Digital Workplace, Industry Insight, viewed 6 April 2019, <https://www.huawei.com/cn/industry-insights/digital-huawei/cases/digital-workplace>.

[4]IBISWorld 2018, Date Processing and Web Hosting Services – Australia Market Research Report, viewed 5 April 2019, <https://www.ibisworld.com.au/industry-trends/market-research-reports/information-media-telecommunications/internet-service-providers-web-search-portals-data-processing-services/data-processing-web-hosting-services.html>.

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[6]iWork – Apple 2019, Documents, spreadsheets, presentations, all of them are brainstorming, viewed 6 April 2019, <https://www.apple.com/cn/iwork/>.

[7]Marshall, S 2014, What a Digital Workplace and What It Isn’t, Social Business, viewed 5 April 2019, <https://www.cmswire.com/cms/social-business/what-a-digital-workplace-is-and-what-it-isnt-027421.php#related-articles>.

[8]Payne B & Nodine T 2010, Knowledge management.

[9]Pugh K 2011, Sharing hidden know-how, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

[10]Pugh K & Prusak L 2013, Designing effective knowledge networks, MIT Sloan Management Review.

[11]ThoughtFarmer 2018, What is a Digital Workplace, viewed 5 April 2019, <https://www.thoughtfarmer.com/blog/what-is-a-digital-workplace/>.