Introduction
Most executives look forward at accomplishment of greater output from innovation with the use of fewer and present human resources in the global market. For them to achieve this, the management needs solid and successful programs on knowledge management to acquire and share human capital. Knowledge management as a recent technology management catchphrase is used in advancing the innovation levels in the workplace and value addition for a firm’s operations. It comprises of a diverse technical offering for impending applications. However, there is limited evidence on this phenomenon, circumstances, and factors associated with the organizational implementation of the offerings (Anantatmula 47).
Knowledge Management
Organizations seek creative and innovative ways to draw, encourage, and maintain new and younger employees. This entails branding the corporation to be attractive to the young generation and using incentives such as remunerating them in terms of performance models and adjustable schedules. Progressive organizations make use of centers of excellence as internal efforts devoted to acquiring and managing its entire operations from Process of technology and market intelligence specifically to the category knowhow (Ichijo 56). Multinational corporations in Saudi Arabia are being affected by various changes in business operations. There is a tendency of movement toward more inventive and innovative, empirical training techniques to accelerate resource development. There is also a philosophical change in the skills desired in human resources management, typically resulting from the use of new technology. Most organizations are separating the planned functions from strategic functions (Bryman and Emma 45). Because of this, it requires more association and management skills to direct the tactical work. From a managerial point of view, knowledge management is a mindful plan of getting the exact knowledge to the correct workers at the right point, and helping them share and put their views in action (Jennex 216). This implies that knowledge from the past, and the present should be used for making future decisions.This ensures that the organization achieves sustainable competitive advantage. Moreover, personal view about knowledge management provides the needed information for an individual to gain knowledge to improve on job performance (Andersson 111).
The access to related property and markets has led to fierce competition among corporations. Organizations that are determined to succeed use innovative strategies by seeking sustainable skills to gain the competitive advantage over the others (Nonaka and Hirotaka 91). The most likely ones to succeed are those with proper strategies of management because they have moved toward utilization of all relevant knowledgeable resources. These corporations have realized that the relevant information is not only held by the management with long-term plan to make sound decisions but also by the other employees who carry out their information to conduct daily activities (Baron and Michael 45). They should therefore consider knowledge as the insubstantial byproduct of thoughts and decisions of the mindset of workers. Nevertheless, the business cannot exhaust workers knowledge unless it is converted into managerial knowledge. This is because it enables the acquaintance of one employee to be accessed and subsequently used by other personnel who may need it in for better completion of tasks (Bryan and Claudia 305).
In Saudi Arabia, multinational companies do not effectively manage this knowledge. The core roles of multinational companies in the country are apparent in adding value across borders in activities such as marketing, manufacturing, trading, consulting, project management, contracting, insurance, and banking (Mertins Peter and Jens 106). They also provide licensing, financing services franchising, and various supporting roles. Consequently, a group of multinational firms operating across the national borders is not automatically identical with worldwide production (Holtham and Nigel 137). The competition among the companies trading within the country because of economic, marketing, management, and technological variables is very high. There is also a perception that the contributions of these companies toward the socio-economic growth are considerable to be helpful (Caersarius 94). Understanding Islamic principles and morals are vital to the multinational corporations. There are a few purposeful indicators of firms’ success that should be related to selected actions of multinational companies’ restricted intellectual awareness. The success of business operations of multinational companies trading in Saudi Arabia in relation to these awareness help them understand more of the artistic needs, principles, and understanding of the citizens of the country and the entire Muslim community.
Identification of knowledge as the only major source of effective competition that can lead to successful management is a requirement for business firms and the, potential to knowledgement have been formed. Nevertheless, it can be difficult for a company management to visualize how current assets in workers’ minds can be properly managed (Davenport and Lawrence 98). From a managerial point of view, it is a mindful plan of getting the exact knowledge to the correct workers at the right point in time and helping them share and put their views in action (Dixon 228). This implies that the corporation should use knowledge from the past, and the present in making future decisions. This ensures that the organization achieves sustainable competitive advantage. Moreover, personal view about knowledge management provides the needed information for an individual to gain knowledge to improve on job performance (Forsgren Ulfs and Jan 56).
Technology is the basis for knowledge management because its revolution triggers the opportunity of knowledge mobilization. In Saudi Arabia, technical knowhow is not only poorly spread in the remote areas but also in the urban centre. Information communication technology is a powerful determinant in management of knowledge initiative, especially in developing poor countries such as Saudi Arabia. For example, the country should use the available knowledge to expand the desalination of water that will be beneficial (Patton 1192). The cost of producing water for agricultural use is high as compared to the returns it generates. This means that the volume of water used and the income from dairy farming is low. The country should therefore ensure that it makes use of the imports and export as the main source of income to enable access to food and other commodities. It is significant for organizations to sustain the knowledge created by use of codes and proper storage of information for future use after its retrieval (Hahn and Mani 121). This is the process of organizational memory that basically refers to all knowledge in an organization. This includes knowledge codes in written credentials, structured information in the database, organizational procedures, and codified knowledge in the expert systems (Nonaka 66).
The corporations should consider two major memory dimensions (organizational and individual). Although the organizational memory is built on the basis of corporate observation, individual memory deals with personal observations. The knowledge of reduction of oil use should be stored to make sure similar innovative knowhow are used to produce water at lesser costs. For example, using alternatives, such as solar and nuclear power although there will be political challenges concerning the production costs. Knowledge should be shared within an organization to ensure transferability and codification. This is to make sure that this knowledge becomes purposeful to the organization. The parastatals involved in power installation in Saudi Arabia should be able to understand that the technological cost of installing this power is high and therefore it should privatize the construction of the water generating plants and also encourage international teamwork to support with proper technology for the operation (Gottschalk 89).
A corporation should ensure that her knowledge is not discarded. This means that there should be a strategy to ensure that outdated knowledge is helpful or else is of help to the acquired new one in coming up, with reliable innovation. It should ensure that it abandons the past ways of doing work and ensure that there are more advanced methods that are technologically based. This discarding takes time to implement because the workforce needs to change their operations and adapt to the new system of doing work. The country should also ensure that it overcome the challenges of solely using income from the oil products to provide services to the increasing population and especially in the urban centre. In addition, it will ensure provision of job opportunities to its manpower that will come up will better operations in the industries. These employees will also earn income to further engage in research activities for better innovations (Davenport and Lawrence 113).
Challenges for Knowledge Management
In conclusion, majority of the challenges facing these corporations is lack of effective knowledge in the future changes in the business environment. They cannot predict the economic, social, and political business environment. The demographic, cultural, and socio-political challenges make it more complicated to manage their knowhow (Russell and Peter 45). Moreover, these corporations may not be offering conducive environment for additional research and innovation thus they lack new knowledge. To build an effective category of knowledge, organizations have formalized knowledge and documented it by use of playbooks, which give information on the relevant strategies for specific categories. They are normally electronically created, web-based or displayed on the file server of the company (Bryman and Emma 117).
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