Abstract
M.Com. (Business Management)
Organisational knowledge (OK) is an important asset of any organisation. It comprises the accumulated knowledge of persons within the organisation and the knowledge about the organisation itself. Such knowledge in explicit and tacit formed over time becomes embedded in work processes. However, knowledge by itself has no value; it only becomes valuable when integrated into assigned individual and departmental tasks to achieve organisational objectives and goals. To be able to continuously make sense of the organisation and its environment, there needs to be a movement of OK, which happens through the various activities of knowledge management (KM) such as acquisition, storing and sharing within the organisation.
Through the theoretical framework, or literature, this study placed its focus on understanding the concepts relating to knowledge management systems (KMS) and business intelligence (BI) tools as organisational tools that support and facilitate organisational KM activities. BI tools acquires and store organisational operational data from various sources or systems and transforms it first into information, then into OK for use by the internal working community. These two tools (KMS and BI) have an intimate relationship with KM as well as with each other, thus this study proposed a conceptualised framework in which the KMS and BI tools are integrated to facilitate “knowing” in the organisation.
This study used a questionnaire as a data collection tool. It was sent to employees in order to determine how the use of BI tools can enhance organisational KMS and performance. The findings of this study revealed that knowledge from KMS and BI tools impacts individual tasks, therefore confirming that current work practices regularly use KMS and BI tools to acquire and share the required OK to effectively execute assigned tasks. The study concluded that integrating BI with KMS could be beneficial for the organisation, as users will have a more easily accessible centralised knowledge base containing both tacit and explicit knowledge. The interplay is demonstrated through work practices resulting in enhanced individual effectiveness and improved organisational efficiency and performance. The successful implementation of the integration will rely upon the KM ethos instilled in the organisation, where the values and benefits of the sharing and storing knowledge at a central place accessible by all are well communicated to the employees for the benefit of the organisation.