Table of Contents
Summary
An opening
Human Resource Management
In conclusion,
Citing sources
Summary
Companies are looking for new ways to manage the most valuable resource in their company, their employees, to remain competitive in today’s marketplace. If managed well, employees can have a lot of information and knowledge that will be invaluable to the company. Every person has enormous amounts of knowledge. Firms must find ways to keep their employees’ knowledge up-to-date and to make them more competitive. Knowledge management is becoming increasingly important because workers have the knowledge and skills to be successful in the future. This paper gives an overview of the current literature that is available to leadership in the area of knowledge management and presents models of how to incorporate it into the current human resource management.IntroductionOne, if not the most important resource a company has is its knowledge, which is comprised of the collective knowledge contained in its employees. Knowledge Management (KM) is about how this knowledge is acquired and maintained. Human Resource Management is a way to manage employees. It follows that knowledge management would also include managing employee knowledge. The literature identified several themes as being important to management and leadership. These themes include what current practices are in human resource and knowledge management, and how to integrate knowledge management into human resources management. Human Resource Management, or HRM. Human Resource Management is a way to manage the policies and strategies of a company with respect to its employees. According to the literature, HRM is defined as the management of the recruitment, training and hiring of employees. There are many components to HRM. Different strategies for HRM will be used depending on the company or the area of focus. Sundiman investigated how human resources management contributes to knowledge management. Sundiman outlines three major components of HRM. The first is governance of human capital management. To put it another way, is the strategy of the HR department in line with the company’s vision? This is critical for company executives. The HR management should support leadership’s vision and goals. If they don’t, the company won’t be able to achieve the results it desires. Retention is the second aspect of HRM. It makes sense that employees should be retained if they are the company’s greatest resource. Most employees are able to spot problems and inefficiencies before the leadership, and can help solve them. A stable, competitive company is built by retaining its employees. Sundiman also discusses employee development and job-training. Leaders of companies should make it a priority to educate and develop their employees in their areas of expertise. This is essential for the company’s overall operational capability. Leadership must recognize that there is no way to gain competitive advantage over other companies if their employees are not constantly learning. HRM Systems
Characteristics of the Workforce. Delery and Gupta refers to a group of characteristics that, when managed well, can give companies a competitive edge. These characteristics include ability, motivation, as well as opportunity. It is important to focus on all three characteristics when managing human resources. Although workers may have the ability to do certain tasks, they still need to be motivated and provided with the chance to do so. These authors go on to explain how HRM practices can have an impact on all or part of the above-mentioned workforce characteristics. An example of an HRM practice that influences all three of these characteristics is compensation. High-quality employees can be attracted and retained by a company’s compensation package. This gives them the incentive and opportunities to use their skills. The authors hypothesized that the company’s organizational effectiveness was tied to how HRM practice affects workforce characteristics. They tested this hypothesis with a sample from large motor carriers in America. Their conclusion was that while HRM practices can help predict financial performance, consistency is key to maintaining a company’s competitiveness. Relationship-oriented HR system and High commitment HR system. Collins and Kehoe discuss two types of HR systems and how they maintain and build relationships. The High-commitment HR system emphasizes building long-lasting relationships between employees and their employers through competitive pay and investing in their long-term growth. The relationship-oriented human resource management seeks to develop interpersonal relationships between HRM and employees as well as interpersonal relationships between employees and their workgroups or teams. These relationships must be nurtured and encouraged with the goal of increasing knowledge sharing and employee commitment to the company. Researchers gathered data from 128 units, which included scientists working for large hydroelectric corporations. Because of the company’s high investment in employees, they found that employees were more committed to the company. It also showed that the relationship-oriented HR system encouraged increased knowledge-sharing and access to knowledge within the organization and outside the organization. The authors concluded that the combination of the two systems can help the leadership increase employee engagement and knowledge sharing, which in turn will lead to higher performance. Human Capital
The literature about HRM (which refers to the management and supervision of employees in a business) was briefly covered in the previous section. This section will explore the concept human capital and its implications for HRM, KM and other business functions. Human capital is the company’s human resources. It also includes the knowledge and skills of its employees. This allows for sustainability. The company’s “human capital edge” refers the knowledge that its employees have. The “human processes advantage” refers how the company manages implicit knowledge. In other words, how a company manages its human resources will determine its competitive advantage. Hollenbeck & Jamieson discuss how social network analysis can be used to assist management in maximizing information flow through their organization. It is also used by management to assess the personal and social relationships of their employees. This allows them to increase productivity and human capital. An analysis of social networks can be used to help the leadership identify key employees, and identify employees with similar information networks. Figueiredo & Paris define intellectual Capital as the sum and difference of a company’s human, relational, and structural capital. The knowledge of employees is human capital, and the management mechanism is structural capital. Relational capital is the company’s relationship with customers and other stakeholders. Aramburu (Kianto, Saenz) and Saenz refers to intellectual capital. This is the knowledge, expertise, and relationships that a company has with outside stakeholders, customers, and suppliers. Their research confirms the importance of human capital to the company’s ability and capacity for innovation. Human capital is the knowledge of employees. The management of this knowledge directly contributes to innovation and competitiveness in a company. Knowledge Management (KM)
Knowledge Management describes a company’s ability and willingness to share its knowledge in order to create innovation and give it a competitive advantage. Management has been interested in knowledge management for many years. This includes how companies capture and manage the knowledge and information created by their products and employees. Hussinski, Kianto, Vanhala, and Ritala have identified ten KM techniques and compared them to four other countries to find which are universal and which are culturally-specific. These practices included supervisory work and strategic knowledge management. They also identified knowledge protection and learning mechanisms. Ritala studied the KM practices across four countries to determine which practices are universal and which are culturally specific. Their research found that knowledge management did not have to be universal. However, the circumstances or settings in which the ten practices were implemented varied. Knowledge sharing is an essential concept. A firm cannot be competitive or sustainable without it. The employees are the source for that advantage. KM practices are a way to share information among companies and between industries. Information and communication technology (ICTs), allow you to share and collect this information and knowledge. Social networking tools, collaboration platforms, and internal blogs are just a few examples of ICTs. An IT system and big data can be used to improve collaboration and store knowledge. An intranet is a way for companies to communicate with their employees. It allows employees to share ideas and provides a platform for them to do so. These tools could be called “social web.” Misinformation and leakage can occur on any social platform. Leadership must ensure that safeguards are in place to protect knowledge. Incorporating KM into HRM
The overall strategy for linking HRM/KM must consider the company’s values, the leadership style, as well the culture within the organization. The leadership will need to buy-in and change the culture in order to develop a system for human resource management that supports knowledgemanagement. Incorporating knowledge management into human resources management has several benefits. A company that improves its HRM relationship with KM and human resources management will have a competitive edge. The HRM’s ability and position in developing and training a workforce can be facilitated by the maximization of a company’s knowledge. Farhadi & Rezaee viewed the relationship between knowledge and human resource management using the lens of corporate responsibility. While human resources can be thought of as individuals within an organisation, they should also be considered internal resources. Companies that place emphasis on employees, knowledge and social responsibilities have a positive impact on company performance. Firm innovation is another positive outcome of combining HRM and KM. Firm innovation is stimulated by emphasizing knowledge-based practices in HRM. Knowledge creation and sharing is encouraged amongst employees. This encourages innovation by sharing knowledge and generating new ideas. Leadership can increase innovation through the creation and enhancement of management systems that combine knowledge and information sharing. Additionally, HRM can be integrated into a company’s KM to increase employee engagement and satisfaction. Implementing KM/HRM is a complex task. Executive leadership and management are essential for a successful and efficient merger. It is crucial that the company’s values and mission are aligned. Leaders must create and encourage a culture that promotes knowledge creation, acquisition, and generation. Leaders should encourage cooperation rather than competition to avoid “knowledge hoarding”. Sanchez de Pablo & Donate looked at leadership’s role in developing HRM/KM practices. They specifically focused on knowledge-oriented leadership. They found that knowledge-oriented leaders have a positive impact on knowledge creation and knowledge management systems. It was also shown that this had a positive effect on innovation performance. Sohrabi, Naghavi analyzed HRM as a way to manage knowledge workers. These people were in highly technical jobs that required extensive training. These workers are often better informed than their managers about the job they do. This is why it is crucial to ensure their longevity and retention. Their findings showed that knowledge workers were more likely to be personalized than those who employed them. For example, one-on-one training was more efficient than group training. Their findings also showed that leadership should consider the occupational and worker roles when designing an HRM system. The workforce should be considered when establishing HRM and KM. A leader can fill many roles within an organization, including many responsibilities like decision-making and day-to-day operations. Leaders also need to inspire and motivate others. Miloloza examined a selection of small and medium-sized Croatian firms to see how their leadership styles affected HRM, KM. This author examined three types of leadership: laissez-faire, democracy, and autocratic. The author discovered that small companies with democratic leaders were more successful at knowledge management. Organisational Culture
As stated previously, employees are the company’s greatest resource and a source of expertise. A company’s competitiveness depends on investing in its employees’ knowledge and expertise. Leadership must help Human Resource Management to identify and develop this knowledge. This means that HRM and employees have the ability to find knowledge. These were the objectives of the article’s authors who studied how human resources were managed at an Iranian water- and waste-plant. The culture of knowledge management enabled employees to make many contributions. They helped to make decisions, eliminate waste and reduce costs, save time, recognize innovative staffing methods, and made important contributions to the organization’s success. This article gives insight to management’s role in supporting Knowledge Management and empowering HRM. This article is valuable for leaders because it recognizes the importance of organizational culture in integrating KM and HRM. The literature contained common themes such as knowledge sharing, collaboration and human capital. It is crucial that companies are able to tap into the knowledge within their employees and company in this information age. Collaboration is key to staying relevant and competitive in the marketplace. HRM, which covers employee relations, is therefore the place where employees’ knowledge should be sought out, shared, and protected. This is what knowledge management is all about. This paper examines concepts and models of HRM/KM from different perspectives. This is important since different companies may have different KM models. A large number of literature’s weaknesses are that they were not carried out in the United States. Also, the majority were done on single entity firms. This makes it difficult to generalize. However, since no two firms are the same, the variations in the studies cover a wide range of company types. A larger number of studies would provide a better picture of the U.S. companies because each country has its own culture. Cites
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