International Journal of Innovative Research and Practices Vol.

1, Issue 3, March 2013

ISSN 2321-2926

Impact of Knowledge Management in e-HRM Practices

N. Santosh Ranganath

Faculty Member, Dept. of Commerce and Management Studies

Dr.B.R.Ambedkar University, Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh

Abstract: Knowledge management presents HRM with the opportunity to become pivotal to the strategic
management of the organization and a catalyst for knowledge creation and building value. This involves more
than just re-labeling Human Resources - it is a fundamental paradigmatic shift for HRM and senior
management. The best hr practices are always concentrated on knowledge management. In recent years,
Knowledge Management has emerged as one of the prime concerns of human resource Management (HRM)
system. Knowledge Management is creation, distribution and utilization of knowledge at the individual group
and Organizational level for the benefits of people improved and affected by it. This paper express Emerging
trends in Knowledge Management faced by HR area.
Keywords: HR department, Tacit Knowledge, Explicit Knowledge, Knowledge Economy

Introduction In many large organizations the HR department is in

itself divided into smaller units looking at various
It is widely known that Knowledge Management
components within the company like policy making,
(KM) as a discipline and a tool is meant to provide an
recruitment, corporate communication &
integrated way to identify, capture, reshape, and,
entertainment, etc. However, given that the policies
share, the organization’s information assets so as to
created will go a long way in shaping the attitude of
create faster response time for seekers in the
its employees, KM, and its policies need to be
organization. It is often a debatable question if KM
integrated and also worked along these lines. So what
should be a separate department by itself handling the
exactly can HR Management (HRM) do for KM?
various aspects of KM or should it be integrated with
There are a few Basic Criteria that should be
an already established department. This brings me to
followed by HRM when implementing KM. HRM
the Human Resource (HR) department. KM is all
can and must help with articulating the main purpose
about people and the culture of sharing and not just
of knowledge management. Since HR deals with
the tools employed. Hence from my perspective, the
people, knows the workings of the organization, the
HR department has a very crucial and vital role to
vision of its Board/Trustees, it is in a strategic
play in not just its formation but also in giving KM
position to understand how KM can be employed for
its shape.
the benefit of its employees and the organization as a
whole.

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Along with the vision, HRM should and must align which the organization’s transformation into a
KM along the organization’s mission, and, policies. knowledge driven company cannot be achieved.
The main purpose being, is to create an atmosphere
of sharing and using knowledge to its optimum to Need for Knowledge Management:

begin with, at least. The most crucial purpose is

Why do we need to manage knowledge? Ann
to transfer tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge.
Macintosh of the Artificial Intelligence Applications
This can be done through its traditional training
Institute has identifies some of the specific business
methods via building employee personality and
factors, including:
career skills and competencies, through workshops,
through fun and entertainment, through internal
• Marketplaces are increasingly competitive
social networking sites and mailing lists via the
and the rate of innovation is rising.
intranet. It has to employ not just tools, but, the
• Reductions in staffing create a need to
human capital to energize the company towards the
replace informal knowledge with formal
change that it must bring. And change it must!
methods.
Initiate culture change and Learning • Competitive pressures reduce the size of the
initiatives: HRM can help facilitate this through a work force that holds valuable business
series of event related initiatives and talent fairs and knowledge.
interactive e-learning modules with mentorship, • The amount of time available to experience
within the organization thus involving all levels of and acquire knowledge has diminished.
employees from across projects and the organization. • Early retirements and increasing mobility of
HRM has to be the enabler for behavioral change for the work force lead to loss of knowledge.
KM to succeed. HRM itself has to undergo some • There is a need to manage increasing
change in its use of technology – it needs to be at the complexity as small operating companies
forefront in understanding what technological tool/s are trans-national sourcing operations.
are appropriate for the sharing of knowledge, moving • Changes in strategic direction may result in
it from internal email niches to wider discussion the loss of knowledge in a specific area.
forums on the intranet. HRM has to be the catalyst
for culture change to be effected – connecting the In brief, knowledge and information have become the
traditional to the new methods, that is appropriate medium in which business problems occur. As a
with the Next-Gen, to leverage the collective result, managing knowledge represents the primary
knowledge in an atmosphere of “openness” with a opportunity for achieving substantial savings,
competitive edge. significant improvements in human performance, and
competitive advantage. It’s not just a Fortune 500
KM by itself cannot survive in a vacuum. It involves
business problem. Small companies need formal
people and communication, employee favoring
approaches to knowledge management even more,
policies, updated technologies, and, above all, a
because they don’t have the market leverage, inertia,
change in the culture of an organization, without
and resources that big companies do. They have to be

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International Journal of Innovative Research and Practices Vol.1, Issue 3, March 2013
ISSN 2321-2926

much more flexible, more responsive, and more and resources to do more of the same better. The
"right" (make better decisions) — because even small main assumptions of the mechanistic approach
mistakes can be fatal to them. include:

Approaches to Knowledge Management: • Better accessibility to information is a key,

including enhanced methods of access and
The term "knowledge management" is now in reuse of documents (hypertext linking,
widespread use, having appeared in the titles of many databases, full-text search, etc.)
new books about knowledge management as a • Networking technology in general
business strategy, as well as in articles in many (especially intranets), and groupware in
business publications, including The Wall Street particular, will be key solutions.
Journal. There are, of course, many ways to slice up
• In general, technology and sheer volume of
the multi-faceted world of knowledge management.
information will make it work.

Cultural / behavioristic approaches to knowledge

management

Cultural/behavioristic approaches, with

substantial roots in process re-engineering and
change management, tend to view the "knowledge
problem" as a management issue. Technology though
ultimately essential for managing explicit knowledge
resources — is not the solution. These approaches
tend to focus more on innovation and creativity (the
"learning organization") than on leveraging existing
Fig. 1: Model of Knowledge Management
explicit resources or making working knowledge
In this model, the KM system is intended to provide explicit. Assumptions of cultural/behavioristic
infrastructure support for knowledge intensive approaches often include:
processes of the organization shown in figure -1. The
emphasis here is on knowledge performance and • Organizational behaviors and culture need to

getting results rather than the more traditional be changed … dramatically. In our

emphasis on contents management, knowledge information-intensive environments,

sharing or information access. organizations become dysfunctional relative

to business objectives.
Mechanistic approaches to knowledge management • Organizational behaviors and culture can be
changed, but traditional technology and
Mechanistic approaches to knowledge management methods of attempting to solve the
are characterized by the application of technology "knowledge problem" have reached their

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limits of effectiveness. A "holistic" view is activity or discipline that belongs

required. Theories of behavior of large-scale exclusively to managers.
systems are often invoked.
• It’s the processes that matter, not the Business Activities related to Knowledge

technology. Management

• Nothing happens or changes unless a

Management of Information Systems (MIS)
manager makes it happen.
or Information Technology and Information

Systematic approaches to knowledge management Management (IT/IM) — Knowledge

management emerged in part out of IT
Systematic approaches to knowledge management management as it became clear that access
retain the traditional faith in rational analysis of the to information and data was insufficient to
knowledge problem: the problem can be solved, but provide enough insight to support decision-
new thinking of many kinds is required. Some basic making. Recently, major software
assumptions: companies (e.g., Microsoft) have also
decided to offer KM services to help
• It’s sustainable results that matter, not the integrate technology into the workplace.
processes or technology … or your
Human Resource Management — It is said
definition of "knowledge." that the 1980s fixation with “business
• A resource cannot be managed unless it is process re-engineering” had emphasized
modeled, and many aspects of the cost-cutting without appreciating the value
organization’s knowledge can be modeled as of people. It became clear that people were
an explicit resource. not costs, they were in fact assets because of
• Solutions can be found in a variety of their knowledge and experience. Within
disciplines and technologies, and traditional human resource management circles,
methods of analysis can be used to re- knowledge management grew as a way of
examine the nature of knowledge work and demonstrating, in a more systematic way,
to solve the knowledge problem. the value of people to business processes.
• Cultural issues are important, but they too
Change Management — As regular or
must be evaluated systematically. continuous change became a feature of
Employees may or may not have to be organizational life, it was recognized that
"changed," but policies and work practices successful change needed to be managed.
must certainly be changed, and technology Since organizational change tends to involve
can be applied successfully to business the orchestration of people, technology and
knowledge problems themselves. resources, knowledge management was
• Knowledge management has an important considered a key method of tying these
management component, but it is not an threads together.

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ISSN 2321-2926

Project and Team Management — As ventures that have yielded marginal results. He
organizations began to rely on short-term asserts that the business managers need to realize that
projects, serial short-term contracts, and use unlike information, knowledge is embedded in
of teams, it became necessary to provide people... and knowledge creation occurs in the
appropriate support — and capture the process of social interaction. On a similar note,
resulting knowledge. Ikujiro Nonaka, the renowned Professor of

Corporate Intelligence and Research & Knowledge, has emphasized that only human beings
Development — In an organization there are can take the central role in knowledge creation. He
also several areas specifically devoted to argues that computers are merely tools, however
acquiring and creating useful knowledge, great their information-processing capabilities may
such as technology research centres, be. A very recent Harvard Business Review special
intelligence gathering operations, corporate issue on Knowledge Management seems to lend
research and training facilities, and libraries. credence to this point of view. This issue highlighted
the need for constructive conflict in organizations
Knowledge Management in the Technological that aspire to be leaders in innovation and creation of
Era: new knowledge.

The traditional paradigm of information systems is

based on seeking a consensual interpretation of
information based on socially dictated norms or the
mandate of the company bosses. This has resulted in
the confusion between 'knowledge' and 'information'.
However, knowledge and information are distinct
entities!! While information generated by the
computer systems is not a very rich carrier of human
interpretation for potential action, 'knowledge' resides
in the user's subjective context of action based on that
information. Hence, it may not be incorrect to state
Fig. 2: Knowledge Management Focus
that knowledge resides in the user and not in the
collection of information, a point made two decades The 'wicked environment' of the new world of
ago by West Churchman, the leading thinker on business imposes the need for variety and complexity
information systems. of interpretations of information outputs generated by
computer systems. Such variety is necessary for
Karl Erik Sveiby, the author of The New
deciphering the multiple world views of the uncertain
Organizational Wealth: Managing and Measuring
and unpredictable future. As underscored by the
Knowledge-Based Assets, contends that the confusion
strategy guru Gary Hamel at the recent Academy of
between `knowledge' and `information' has caused
Management meeting address, non-linear change
managers to sink billions of dollars in technology
imposes upon organizations the need for devising

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non-linear strategies. Such strategies cannot be learning-doing nexus. Also build knowledge value as
'predicted' based on a static picture of information an organizational as well as an individual asset; and
residing in the company's databases. Rather, such Minimize the organization’s knowledge risk
strategies will depend upon developing interpretive associated with loss of requisite capability and
flexibility by understanding multiple views of the knowledge.
future. In this perspective, the objective of business
strategy is not to indulge in long-term planning of the
future. Rather, the emphasis is on understanding the
various world views of future using techniques such
as scenario-planning.

Knowledge management draws from a wide range of

disciplines and technologies. Expert systems,
artificial intelligence and knowledge base
management systems (KBMS) related technologies
have acquired an undeserved reputation of having
failed to meet their own — and the marketplace’s —
high expectations. In fact, these technologies
Fig. 3: HR Practices in the Knowledge Economy
continue to be applied widely, and the lessons
practitioners have learned are directly applicable to
Knowledge creation, use, sharing and retention have
knowledge management. Computer-supported
always been important. What is new is the significant
collaborative work (groupware) in Europe,
shift towards a systematic and strategic approach to
knowledge management is almost synonymous with
managing the primary assets of the knowledge
groupware … and therefore with Lotus Notes.
economy: people, knowledge processes, and
Sharing and collaboration are clearly vital to
knowledge products. Globally, knowledge has
organizational knowledge management — with or
become the most important factor in economic
without supporting technology.
development and knowledge assets are considered
essential for economic growth, competitive
HRM Practices in the Knowledge Economy
advantage, human development and quality of human

The nature and characteristics of work in the life. The idea that people and the knowledge they

knowledge economy herald new opportunities for possess is the organization’s most valuable asset is

HRM. To maximize benefit from knowledge assets, a not new. The shift in the terminology from over 20

fourfold contribution from HRM is proposed. In the years ago from ‘Personnel Management’ to ‘Human

knowledge economy, HRM must Provide expertise in Resources Management’ signaled what some claimed

understanding and defining firm-level strategic was a metamorphosis for the profession.

knowledge capabilities. And it develops and manages

knowledge workers by leveraging the knowing-

Impact of Knowledge Management in e-HRM Practices 35

International Journal of Innovative Research and Practices Vol.1, Issue 3, March 2013
ISSN 2321-2926

Knowledge management presents HRM with the integration of Human Resource Management into
opportunity to become pivotal to the strategic KM initiatives is seldom examined. In the course of
management of the organization and a catalyst for prevailing trends like globalization, customer
knowledge creation and building value. This involves orientation and specialization, most of the companies
more than just relabeling Human Resources - it is a place emphasis on recruitment, sustainment and
fundamental paradigmatic shift for HRM and senior evolution of qualified employees. Electronic Human
management. The transformation begins with Resource Management (eHRM) is a web based tool
viewing HRM through a ‘knowledge lens’ and to automate and support HR process. The
repositioning the functions in relation to strategic implementation of eHRM is n opportunity to delegate
knowledge capabilities. Managing knowledge the data entry to the employees. eHRM facilitates the
workers, building value from knowledge, and usage of HR marketplaces and offers more self
assessing knowledge risk are also new requirements service to the employees.
of HRM in the knowledge economy. We propose that
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