Knowledge management is the process by which any organisation collects, manages and deploys the knowledge and information available to said organisation. This information can include everything from customer databases to information on procedures and policy.
Good knowledge management can not only make an organisation more efficient by standardising work, but can also improve the quality of its work by building on previously obtained knowledge instead of having to start from scratch with each problem. Effective knowledge management in a business can also allow collaboration and a culture of innovation and improvement to be fostered.
One of the biggest challenges in creating this culture especially in the context of the fast pace tourism industry is the resistance to change that exists inherently in people. People who work in faced paced environments and industries are liable to opt for the solution that works instead of attempting to improve that solution. Efficiently managing how processes are taught and used can prevent this.
Typically in small business like those that characterise the Irish tourism sector, knowledge is concentrated in people, the employees and transmitted from employee to employee through on the job training. Exceptions to this exist in the case of managers or other specialist roles of course. This in effect means that the knowledge is owned and stored in the employees making it difficult to codify and transmit at scale. One way to address this would be to set aside time for employees to note down the work they do and the processes they implement so that the work they do can be better understood.
The key thing in any business big or small, is to know where the knowledge to help that business succeed is stored. Is it kept with the employees who work with the business, is it documented somewhere or it is defined in a process or manual.
-Aaron Bowman
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Source: (Musulin, 2011)
-Jerli Padios