Applying Social Technical Theory in Knowledge Management (Km)

The work entitled "Challenges and Reflections on Knowledge Society & Sociotechnical Systems" reports that information technology (IT) is redefining the business basis" and that "customer attendance, operations, product strategies, marketing and distribution and even the society of knowledge depend sometimes even totally on Information System (IS)." (Balloni, 2010, p.21) The implementation of a new technology has been associated with problems that are "often linked to resistance by the work force and failure to achieve the expected benefits." (Balloni, 2010, p.21) Balloni (2010) reports that there must be a fit between the 'technical' and 'social' system, which form the organization. This means that business strategy, rules and processes determine the type of software and subsequently the type of hardware, database, and telecommunications system needed by the organization. The social system is comprised by the organization's

Social awareness has been heightened over the past several decades because of the rapidly changing environment and technical information here in the United States and overseas. This change has accelerated the way we think and the way our decisions are based (Thomas, Fleck & Snipes, 2000). This is the reason that organizations that encounter information overload are better off when they are able to come up with solutions through technical and social systems. Because of some organizations inability to adapt innovative advances, they hamper on the negative impact of information overload.

Integrating organizational development (OD) and technological intervention into a total system is one of the more difficult tasks for an executive or consultant to execute. Organizations are profoundly affected by technological advancements and require a flexible customized change model to fit the social network of the specific organization into which technology is being introduced. Examines socio-technical systems (STS) theory and presents classical organization theories of Burns and Stalker, Woodward, Perrow, Thompson, and

Knowledge management can be considered to be an essential strategic function in any organisation today. As the world becomes more globalised, and traditional structures of intermediation are removed whilst new ones are created, it is clear that knowledge, and consequently a learning organisation is one that is more likely to find unique sources of competitive advantage, and be able to develop sustainable competitive strategies in the long term. A number of different processes and sub-processes have been identified with knowledge management, such as knowledge generation, knowledge codification, and knowledge transfer or

The concept of sociotechnical systems was created in the 1960’s as a part of organizational development research by E. Trist and F. Emery. Ranging from a small system between you and your phone, to the interaction between human behaviors with massive technical infrastructures society has developed in hopes to boost performance and quality for both the societal and technical side of the system (Fischer).

Knowledge management assists in renewing, developing, transferring, and sharing knowledge. This is based on produce value, economic wealth, and organizational performance. (Becerra-Fernandez & Sabherwal, 2010) This process creates value from its intellectual and knowledge based assets. Knowledge management leverges knowledge within an organization to provide a competititive edge. The fuctions within knowledge management acheives the goals of an organization to acquire additional knowledge within its operations to

-Sociotechnical view sees that optimal organizational performance is achieved by jointly optimizing both the social and technical systems used in production.

This paper investigates several issues regarding the nature, domain, conceptual foundations, and practical challenges of knowledge management and organizational learning. The paper first identifies and contrasts two fundamental philosophical orientations to knowledge management -- the personal knowledge orientation and

In a global world where society is driven by technology it is almost impossible for any form of business or organization to succeed without the proper technological advances. Businesses have heavy reliance on their information systems for accuracy which helps management with making decisions.

New and original technology may be created, but how can a person or group of people can implement or utilize the technology to try to maximize benefits as best as possible is the question that first needs to be analyzed. Researchers developed a process approach to how technology will be implemented to be used properly by people with minimal costs. The processes used in this approach are known as socialization, commitment, reward allocation, feedback, and redesign, all of which is a long, complex protocol to ensure that the technology is not used improperly or mishandled enough to warrant danger. In addition to the technology being implemented, organizations and businesses will be vigilant in knowing what technology is being created so they can invest in new technology for a competitive market position, to try to gain the upper hand over other organizations. The implementation process accounts for this as well; businesses are always striving to make more money and sometimes when new inventions or innovations are made, they may cater to the market in appeal so to make money. The imperative issue of how technology will be fully realized in its utility as time goes on, giving people more choices in what they want. Technology may be used for seemingly a vast variety of reasons but knowing how to fully utilize it is the real undertaking that should be considered and dealt with. Moreover, the idea of an approach in how to implement technology is important as well, as new technology

Knowledge management is described as the capability of a company to research and develop new technology, disseminate it with purpose and under control, apply it on the products, services and systems. [1]

Knowledge management and information is the process of capturing, developing, sharing, and effectively using organizational knowledge.It refers to a multi-disciplinary approach to achieving organizational objectives by making the best use of knowledge. It includes the fields of business administration, information systems, management, library, and information sciences. Other fields may contribute to research, including information and media, computer science, public health, and public policy. Many large companies, public institutions, and non-profit organizations have resources dedicated to its efforts, often as a part of their business strategy, information technology, or human resource management departments.Several consulting companies provide advice regarding knowledge management to these organizations.

In today’s modern day environment, the competition as well as the drive to be one of the best amongst organizations, is consistently increasing, especially after globalization. Due to which many organizations are no longer confined under certain boundaries, but instead are more intermingled. As an outcome, many organizations these days heavily rely on each other for sharing knowledge. Therefore, knowledge management is considered as a valuable component towards the success of an organization.

Knowledge Management is defined as the process of capturing, distributing and effectively using knowledge (Davenport, 1994) 1. It can also be refer as a multi-disciplined method in order to accomplish organizational objectives by fully utilized and generate value from their intellectual and knowledge-based assets 6. Knowledge Management focuses on the gaining, creating, and sharing knowledge and technical foundations that support them 2. According to Grey, knowledge management is an audit of “intellectual assets” that highlights unique resources, critical functions and potential deadlocks which prevent knowledge flows to the point of use. It protects intellectual assets from decaying, seeks opportunities to improve decisions, services and products through adding intelligence, increasing value and providing flexibility (Grey , n.d) 5. On top of that, knowledge management includes a range of planning and practices used in an organization to classify, create, distribute and enable adoption of intuitions and experiences.

The process of collecting, transferring, storing and making information useful is also known as knowledge management. In this, the organization is enabled to grow, adapt to changes and meet customer demands. The information age has a most certain influence on how the organization manages knowledge. This is true of whether that knowledge is unique to the organization, or shared to external organizations. Today there are various ways to collect and compile data and turn that data into useful information; however, without the use of knowledge management, then data, information, and knowledge is lost or misused. Through the knowledge management process the organization has the ability to learn as an organization. This is