Improving application of knowledge management systems in organizations: case of Nairobi city water and sewerage Company

Abstract

Knowledge is an asset to any organization and has become a vital resource to organizations and hence a growing need for knowledge management (KM). Knowledge is described as information provided in context to produce an actionable understanding; it is what makes an organization take action or provides the ability to take action. Knowledge is classified as either tacit or explicit. Tacit knowledge exists in the minds of people and is very difficult to manage while explicit knowledge is the documented information, presented in the form of journals, books, policy manuals, and processes among others. Research has noted that capturing, storing and utilizing both tacit and explicit knowledge is critical to an organization’s success in the fast changing market place. If organizations don’t manage knowledge, we will lose a lot in terms of productivity trying to reinvent the wheel when there are changes. This research demonstrates how the development of a knowledge management system can be developed and used in organizations, using a case organization. The KM system prototype developed and presented in this research project is for managing both tacit and explicit knowledge. The knowledge management system enables capturing of tacit knowledge through the use of discussion forums and articles onto a database which the employees can search to retrieve stored posts. From the data collected, the prototyped solution showed that if adopted and developed further, knowledge capture, storage, dissemination and sharing in organizations would be more efficient and would increase the productivity of employees.