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EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION: A TOOL IN MANAGER’S HAND FOR
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN ORGANIZATIONS
MS. ANCHAL LUTHRA, RESEARCH SCHOLAR
SRM University, Haryana
Plot-39, RGEC, Rai, Sonipat-1310028 (Haryana)
E-MAIL: anchal_vkn@yahoo.co.in
TEL: (0130)2121214/216
DR. RICHA DAHIYA, PROFESSOR
SRM University, Haryana
Plot-39, RGEC, Rai, Sonipat-1310028 (Haryana)
E-MAIL: richa_dahiya18@yahoo.co.in
TEL: (0130)2121214/216
“Effective Communication: A Tool in Manager’s hand for Knowledge Management in
Organizations”
Abstract
The purpose of the study was to focus on the theoretical background of knowledge management
and communication system of organizations to formulate a better understanding of the role of
communication in knowledge management and to know why information sharing is
indispensable and how transfer and management of knowledge depends on communication. The
research design used in this study was mainly exploratory with a review of literature and in-
depth interviews with some selected manager of IT companies in Delhi/NCR region to get an
insight into what role communication plays in knowledge management. The study results
proposed that the managers who were not able to communicate effectively are comparatively less
effective in knowledge management than Managers with excellent communication. Another
important finding is that even the sound documentation and systematized procedures have a less
impact in the absence of proper communication. This paper will bridge a gap between
communication and Knowledge Management and thus will help in understanding the role of
communication in knowledge management. The research findings will be helpful for HR
managers to build the strategies and modules by incorporating the component of Knowledge
Management through effective communication.
Keywords: Knowledge Management, Knowledge Sharing, Effective Communication,
Knowledge management systems.
Introduction
Today’s economic world has become technically much more empowered by innovation in
respect to all areas or functions occurring in an organization. Understanding, developing and
following a proper communication system for sharing knowledge in an organization is acting as
a significant tool for managers who has desired to get expand their organization globally and
wants to achieve success by fulfilling the goal and objectives. According to (Wheatley, 2000) the
knowledge is human knowledge, so employees are best treated as having useful knowledge
(Canary & McPhee, 2010). The main focus of contemporary organizations is to hire highly
skilled individuals who are able to handle the market competition and the internal organization
system which works on coordination, innovation and sharing of experience and knowledge to
achieve success. Employees with excellent knowledge, updated information and
multidimensional experience are considered as the best resources to an organization. For an
organization to keep itself updated with the information is of utmost importance because this
information helps to make employees and the organization more knowledgeable and efficient in
making sound decisions. Knowledge, its regular sharing and proper management are an integral
element for the development of an organization. The phenomenon of the use of knowledge in an
organization is not new because earlier the organizations also put emphasis on establishing
proper systems and channels for processing files, setting up qualification norms for job
assignments and prioritizing which are the part of organizational knowledge, but the use of term
‘Organizational Knowledge’ was appeared early in the 20th century (canary & McPhee, 2010).
The basic purpose of all the organization is to attain the anticipated level of the growth by using
the knowledge, information, experience and abilities of their employees and for this organization
needs to share or communicate the expectation. Not only organization but communication is
important for employees as well. Without communication no organization can imagine its
survival, be its internal communication within the organization or the external communication to
create a market. Even for sharing and managing knowledge, communication among employees
and with the organization is necessary. In many studies it has been observed that managers with
excellent communication skills are able to manage their teams more effectively and their teams
are more successful in achieving their targets. Good communication is considered as an
important skill for an effective and efficient leader or manager. A manager with poor
communication skills is not possible to share any idea, information, innovation and decision with
his team and the organization effectively. A manager indeed with the help of effective and
properly channelized communication can exceptionally manage the organizational knowledge.
Here the word communication does not refer to the speaking or listing skills of a manager, but it
also refers to the broader meaning which include the use of information technology and other
developed tools and techniques of communication in knowledge management.
Literature review
There are several studies which show an association between KM and Communication e.g.
Kumar & Gupta in 2012 tried to cover different aspects of knowledge and Knowledge
Management Systems (KMS) and its role in Multinational Corporations. Key concepts like
knowledge creation and knowledge sharing are also described. Rasula et al. in 2012
presented three main components important for knowledge management, information
technology, organizational elements and knowledge. Bojan & Bojan in 2012 point out the
importance of developing and implementing an effective system of knowledge management in
the modern enterprises for innovative and put stress on the concept of developing an effective
communication system for managing knowledge. Borgne & Pels in 2010 suggested a practical
strategy for developing a communication system for knowledge management so as to make
information available to everyone at any time and from any place and rich knowledge should be
communicated. Kimmerle et.al in 2010 defined knowledge building as a co-evolution of
cognitive and social systems and demonstrated how collaborative knowledge building may occur
in an ideal situation within an organization, when people interact with each other using shared
digital artifacts. Crawford & Strohkirch in 2006 revealed that individuals who less comfortable
with communication in a variety of contexts are significantly less effective with a variety of
knowledge management functions. Malhotra in 2005 suggests that the superiority of a strategy-
pull models made feasible by new "plug-and-play" information and communication technologies
over the traditional technology-push models. Wilson in 2002 explained knowledge management
includes a variety of organizational activities and expected that changes communication practice
will enable information sharing. Egbu & Botterill in 2002 revealed that conventional
technologies, such as the telephone, are used more frequently to manage knowledge, then more
radical IT, such as Groupware or video-conferencing. Ozhan et.al in 2009 defined the importance
of communication and revealed communication tools in KM processes. Findings show that
communication is an important dimension of knowledge management as well as technology,
leadership, culture and it is mostly used for explicit knowledge sharing.
Organizational Knowledge and Its Management- A System and Process Oriented
Approach
Knowledge is an essential asset for any organization. All organizations must have an idea about
the concept of effective and efficient use of organizational knowledge for development and to
have competitive advantages over others. Knowledge in itself is a huge word and is compiled of
many known and unknown features which are distributed openly here and there in an
organization. Managing these open ended fragments and clubbing them together to make it an
advantageous is not an easy task rather it requires an accurate and well channelized process to
handle and manage organizational knowledge. This well-structured progression helps managers
to synchronize the knowledge and assists them to define the quality and type of information
which is beneficial for everyone in an organization. These processes and channels enable
everyone to have quick and easy access of the information (Rasul et. al., 2012). The source of
knowledge could be internal or external experiences and learnings of employees or the
environment. Initially the concept of organizational knowledge was not taken that seriously, but
these days, organizations are focusing more on channelizing and operational application of
organizational knowledge by developing knowledge management models and explaining its
prominent role in achieving organizational success to its employees (Holsapple & Joshi, 2004).
In organizations where knowledge has been taken as an authoritative factor, also have an idea,
how, where, why and when to practice and access it successfully (Jarrar & Zairi, 2010).
Knowledge gained by the organization and its employees comprises of various components like
experiences like, reducing the stages of the project, developing a new product or service. The
process of knowledge management comprises of remembrance and recollection of previous
observation, teachings and instruction to develop organizational aptitude and intellect as an
imperative asset this further consist of information gathering form organizational online /offline
records, files and brochures and develop well- structured systems and networks for the exchange
of information or knowledge among individuals working together in an organization.
(Baskerville & Dulipovici, 2006) Managing knowledge requires specific tools and techniques to
assemble thoughts, viewpoints, and experiences of staffs, clienteles, dealers and traders to share
each other in the effective execution of this process. All these factors affect the process and
system of managing knowledge by increasing or decreasing the time duration and may also
prove harmful if the employee relates and utilize incorrect or uncertain knowledge or
experiences in situations where they are not required and results in deprived performance, termed
as ‘knowing-doing gap’(Kumar & Gupta, 2012). Knowledge management system acts as an
advantage by enabling him to access accurate documents, the right sources of data and
clarifications at any time when they need it. An organization develops its knowledge
management systems for its employees to facilitate them with cooperative competences, to
promote sharing and transferring of categorical and implied knowledge and to make sure that
employees with less confidence and fear of sharing and expressing their ideas and viewpoints
will able to do it under knowledge management system. This system enables organizations to
recognize, select, establish, store, distribute and alloc
ate the important information, data or proficiency which collectively contributes those
unstructured but significant memories that are characteristically exist within the organization by
providing systematized techniques to locate individuals who retain the requisite information
(Kumar & Gupta, 2012).
Manager and Knowledge Management: An association for Organizational Growth
In present business scenario the managers are considered as the main driving force and factor
who with the help of their teams can solely contributes huge growth and development. All
organization put more emphasis on hiring an effective and capable manager who is self-driven
self-motivated and multitasking and has abilities to perform extraordinary under all
circumstances. A manager must also be a good leader with motivational skills to drive the team
to contribute to the employees (A. Luthra & R. Dahiya, 2015). A manager has a robust,
significant and close association with organizational information. As already discussed, that the
words data and information collectively termed as knowledge which in itself is a very vast term.
Knowledge is nothing but sets of informally or formally distributed data, which when arranged
in a proper manner becomes useful information or knowledge and is transferred uninterruptedly
between organization, managers and other employees. The process of knowledge management
starts from generation of idea, transfer of the idea and its utilization to increase the rate of growth
(Gumus, 2007). It is the core responsibility of a manager to collect the data form all channels and
conclude it to valuable information, to store all the valuable information, and converting it into
significant organizational knowledge. He should encourage his team to interact and share the
ideas, experiences and thoughts with each other and try to develop and enhance the
organizational knowledge accordingly as these factors could be used in future for better growth.
Managers who are regularly in touch with their teams and regularly using group activities to
inculcate the knowledge are more productive in performance and are successful in handling a
team by managing the information and knowledge in a proper and channelized manner. It is the
prime duty of a manager to keep a record of all the information which is useful to him and to his
team. There are many ways to keep the records like documentation in the form of hard/print
copies, soft copies, on emails, messages etc. These records become an asset to a manager and
could be used in future for any past reference or information. Keeping records is also
management of organizational knowledge. Hence, manager has an important role to play in
managing knowledge in an organization and its timely sharing with other if and when required
for the growth of an organization.
Effective Communication: An Explicit Tool to Manage Knowledge
It has been proved in researches and studies that effective communication is very significant for
any business and it of utmost important for top management, directors, managers & employees
working at any level to communicate with each other in effective and proficient manner to
develop a successful business environment. Similarly, Knowledge management can also be done
successfully with effective communication between top management, managers and other
employees. Managers with poor or deprived communication skills cannot interact effectively
with team and is also not able to share all the relevant information which can disturb and destroy
the knowledge management system of an organization. Manager must be able to set a proper
knowledge management system and has competencies to communicate with teams (Holsapple &
Joshi, 2004). The term ‘communication apprehension’ is widely used to elaborate the concept of
inability, fear or anxiety of a manager while communicating with others. Managers with
communication apprehension’ less participate in communicative happenstances or even
sometimes may escape for such situations (McCroskey, 1977). Effective communication is the
basic tools in process of creating and sharing knowledge. Organizational communication is a
well-defined process of sharing and transferring of opinions, data, thoughts, experiences and
emotions between employees of an organization. If a manager is a good communicator with
excellent skills can intensively in create and transfer the strategies and rules to the workers and
can manage knowledge. Communication is required to transfer knowledge form one medium to
another medium.
Mangers with well develop communication skills and tools (verbal, written and electronic
communication tools) are able to manage knowledge in an excellent manner in comparison to
those who lack this skill and tools (Klein, 2008). There is a very close association between
effective communication, information sharing and knowledge exchange process. In every mode,
from unspoken to obvious knowledge, communication is essential. Consequently,
communication is vital in KM process, and a manager with excellent communication skills can
creation, manage and sharing the knowledge effectively and efficiently. (ozhan et.al, 2009). As
stated above that organizational documents and records are also a kind of knowledge which a
manager has to manage. It has been proved studies that a manager with poor communication
skills are not even able to describe, translate and share that knowledge with others.
Communication if we talk about these days is not complete without technology. A manager who
is not updated with the latest communication tools and technologies to manage knowledge are
also least effective. A manager must update himself with latest development in the area of
communication so that he can communicate effectively with his team. Virtual conference, group
chats, conference calls, video calling all are the updated version of communication technology
by knowing the use of all these advance tools he can save quality time and can quickly collect,
arrange, manage, store , share and transfer the knowledge with everyone in spite sitting at
different locations. Hence, communication is an important tool in the hand of manager to manage
knowledge in an organization.
Limitations
The main thoughts presented in this paper have highlighted the general knowledge and
understanding of basic concept of Knowledge management and how effective communication
helps manager to manage organizational knowledge, but still there exist some limitations such as
there was still more literature that should be reviewed and linked to this study. But due to lack of
time and inability to get access to libraries and portals it was difficult to collect all resources. The
data collected may not be sufficient to explain the concepts in broader a way. Copyrights issues,
delay in taking permission for refereeing some of the best papers was also a limitation. Future
research needs to collect more data and resources related to Knowledge management and
communication to write a good conceptual paper.
Conclusion
The study results after reviewing literature proposed that the managers who were not able to
communicate effectively are comparatively less effective in knowledge management than
Managers with excellent communication. Another important finding is that even the sound
documentation and systematized procedures have a less impact in the absence of proper
communication. Based on the arguments about importance of communication in KM practices
individuals and groups perform knowledge flow within organization, all types of communication
are very crucial. With the help of this paper author has tried to bridge a gap between
communication and Knowledge Management and thus will help in understanding the role of
communication in knowledge management. The research findings will be helpful for HR
managers to build the strategies and modules by incorporating the component of Knowledge
Management through effective communication.
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