Beowulf Not just a kids story essays

Beowulf Not only a children story articles At the point when you contrast Beowulf with any cutting edge novel or film, Beowulf appears honest, best case scenario. Beowulf is told in a clear, simple way dissimilar to a considerable lot of todays works, which contain complex plots and subjects. What makes Beowulf intelligible to a grown-up and not simply kids? For what reason do individuals discover stories, for example, Beowulf so captivating? For what reason is Beowulf, or any fantasy, noteworthy? Beowulf, the account of the youthful Beowulf sent by destiny to spare a realm tormented with a nightmarish beast, a somewhat essential plot outline particularly for a story that has been around for more than one thousand years. Anyway Beowulf contains definitely more long-standing effect than a huge number of the top of the line books at any book shop. Beowulf, as any fantasy, instructs numerous ethical exercises giving us a point by point understanding into the way of life and essayists convictions through composed records of profound quality and religion and through the stories profound imagery. Furthermore, it additionally accommodates an engaging ride loaded up with extraordinary accomplishments and beasts with a moving saint or good example for the peruser. Rather than some other well known fanciful stories, for example, the stories of the Greek divine beings, Beowulf is practically conceivable. Beowulf is directly over the edge of genuine, it pushes our meaning of what exists however not forthright to where we can't envision what's going on in the story. Additionally I feel that Beowulf is a predominant work of folklore since Beowulf is a valid and immaculate saint, and speaks to the character and mental fortitude the vast majority wish they had In Episode 1 the story starts with the story of Scyld Sceafing, which matches Beowulfs advancement, it is the theme of a vulnerable kid transforming into an extraordinary lord. So also, Sceafing shows up from the water to the Danish terrains similarly Beowulf shows up. This is a well known subject in numerous legends, a little and frail one ascending to be solid and a pioneer (for example Jesus). Some portion of the excellence of myt... <!

Wilhelm Wundt Essay Example for Free

Wilhelm Wundt Essay Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt conceived on August sixteenth, 1832 in the German State of Baden was a rationalist, doctor, teacher and therapist, and is considered by numerous individuals as the â€Å"founder of present day psychology† or the â€Å"father of test psychology†. His commitment to brain research on an entire is noted well among current analysts; be that as it may, his marking thus commitment to brain science as a science has recognized him from numerous other noticeable figures in the space of brain science. He built up the main lab submitted only to mental research at the University in Leipzig, extended exploratory brain science as a set up way of thinking, built up the strategy for reflection which turned into the premise of the advanced logical technique, composed books and volumes of diaries which directed the spread of test brain research, and impacted various ways of thinking, for example, structuralism and voluntarism. These were the significant consequences of his endeavors to seek after the investigation of human conduct in an orderly and logical way and his objective to build up brain research as a one of a kind all out science. Wundt, brought up in a rural area called Neckarau, was the child of a Lutheran pastor and experienced childhood in a domain wherein there were numerous researchers and educated people as the two his parents’ families were comprised of academic people, for example, history specialists, scholars, doctors and researchers. He thusly had a productive youth and his instruction turned out to be exclusively the obligation of his father’s partner. His proper instruction started at the University of Tubingen, in any case, in the wake of remaining for only one year he moved to the University of Heidelberg where he got one of the top clinical understudies in his group, graduated summa cum laude, and set first in the state clinical board assessment (B. R. Hergenhahn, 2009). In the wake of graduating with his clinical degree, he went on to the University of Berlin where he went through a year and after came back to Heidelberg where he turned into the lab partner of acclaimed physiologist Hermann Ludwig von Helmholtz. It was during this residency with von Helmholtz that Wundt started to build up his hypothesis that brain research was a characteristic science. This affected him to give addresses on his logical way to deal with brain science and compose his first book called Contributions to the Theory of Sensory Perception which basically made ready for his excursion in demonstrating brain science to be a science. Wundt stayed at Heidelberg until 1874 when he persuaded a proposal to be a Professor of inductive way of thinking at Zurich University in Switzerland. Subsequent to remaining there for a year he got an arrangement to show reasoning at the University of Leipzig back home in Germany which he acknowledged and remained until his passing in 1920. The logical methodology by Wundt had before long come to be known as ‘Wundtian psychology’ in view of its distinction based on what is was known as before him. The underlying foundations of brain science are very antiquated and are in truth gone back a very long time to the early Greeks, for example, Aristotle and Hippocrates who had differentiating perspectives on whether the heart or the cerebrum was the seat of the psyche. Glassman Hadad (2009) accepted that by and large brain research rose up out of two conventions: theory and the common science. Scholars were constantly keen on understanding the significance of human experience and discernment. This intrigue started a few examinations which â€Å"set the phase for the improvement of technical disciplines, including brain science, through their dependence on perception as a methods for knowing their world† (Kasschau, 2003, p. 15). One such savant was John Locke who demonstrated his enthusiasm for pondering the job of learning in conduct when he composed his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, which was distributed in 1690. Seventeenth century rationalists had presented and advanced the possibility of dualism, the idea that the brain and body are isolated and particular. Another celebrated savant Rene Descartes concurred with this thought; anyway he indicated that there was still some communication among brain and body. He had an unthinking perspective on a human conduct and contemplated that the brain and body impact each other to make a person’s encounters. He considered the to be as controlling the body’s developments, sensations, and observations. The logical interests of brain research can likewise be gone back a great many years with doctors, for example, Galen and Hippocrates who impelled their perspectives on cerebrum work. One researcher who decidedly affected brain science was Isaac Newton. His work in material science assisted with building up a logical ‘method’ â€Å"consisting of perception, the definition of speculations intended to foresee occasions and results and the ensuing testing of these theories through further observation† (Watts, 2010). These components stay key to the logical technique that is commonly utilized in brain research. Additionally having extraordinary effect on brain science was Newton’s use of those techniques and his hypothesis of mechanical determinism. It was along these lines accepted that sciences, for example, science, science, material science and physiology had impacted parts of brain research. Fundamentally brain research was a blend or cross breed of various logical fields and reasoning and was not seen as a particular science. Thinkers, for example, Galileo, August Comte and Immanuel Kant dismissed brain research as a science since they accepted that it was outside the domain of science. Comte is noted broadly for his avoidance of brain science from the order of sciences which he expounded on in one of his renowned works Course of Positive Philosophy. John Stuart Mill, who was profoundly affected by and appreciated by Comte and his works, couldn't help contradicting this rejection. Plant voiced his complaint of this prohibition and was of the supposition that brain science could turn into a science which he expressed in his System of Logic in 1843; in any case, it required somebody with the grant and information on how perception and analyses are made. In spite of the fact that Mill was of this position he didn't venture to attempt to accomplish this objective and just discussed doing mental investigations; yet Wundt assumed up the liability and really did them. Accordingly it was in the late 1800s and mid 1900s that was when brain research split away from reasoning and turned into a different field of study (Plotnik Kouyoumdjian, 2011). Wundt accepted that experimentation could be utilized to concentrate just the basic procedures of the brain yet couldn't be utilized to contemplate the more intricate mental procedures; anyway he proposed that it could help in the comprehension of the higher mental procedures. George A. Mill operator (1998) states that â€Å"For Wundt, brain research included the investigation of awareness into components, the assurance of the way where these components are associated, and the assurance of the laws of association. This origination he acquired from the British empiricists. Similarly as scientific experts had dissected issue into particles and anatomists had broke down living frameworks into cells, analysts, he chose, must break down brain into the rudimentary sensations and sentiments that make it up†.

Book Rioters Favorite 2017 Book Covers

Book Rioters Favorite 2017 Book Covers Were giving away a stack of our 20 favorite books of the year. Click here to enter, or just click the image below. You know when a book cover just catches your eye and you fall in love with it? Well, the year of 2017 had plenty of book covers like that for Rioters and weve rounded up our favorite book covers in this group post. We would also love to hear what YOUR favorite book cover of 2017 wasâ€"please comment on this post so we can all gush over cover art and judging a book by its cover. Elizabeth Allen Edgar and Lucy by Victor Lodato White embossed on white, the cover is just incredibly appealing to the eye. And then the reader realizes that the main character was born with albinism and the lack of pigment on the cover makes sense. Then the reader begins to get into how the garden was a central part of this character’s childhood and the organic plant graphics become more meaningful. The bold, sans serif font in black and red serves to stand in stark contrast to the rest of the cover art, compelling the reader to dive into Edgar’s story. Anthony Karcz River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey   Look, Im only just a man. How do you expect me to resist a cover where a group of Civil War-era mercenaries wade into trouble on the backs of their trusty steeds? Their tame hippo steeds. From the over-saturated tones to the double take when you realize whats actually going on in the image, its the perfect pulpy genre cover. Jamie Canaves When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon I’ve spent all of 2017 saying that this book is as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside. I actually picked up this book because the cover is a beautiful Indian girl radiating happiness and I just had to read it. Every time I see the cover I smile back at Dimple, one of my favorite characters.   Leah Rachel von Essen Electric Arches by Eve L. Ewing   Brianna McCarthy did the artwork for the cover of Ewing’s brilliant poetry collection from Haymarket Books (one of my favorites of the year), and it is spellbinding. The illustration is titled, “The Garden of Lost Things” (2015), and is part of the Vetiver Night Women Series. (Follow McCarthy on Instagram!) Kate Krug A Crown of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi Did I start this series because of this cover? Yes and no shame. I mean, look how pretty! *heart eyes* Rachel Brittain We Are Okay by Nina LaCour I 100% picked up this book because of its stunningly beautiful cover art (illustrated by the talented Adams Carvalho and designed by Samira Iravani, by the way). Lucky for me, the story inside proved to be just as beautiful and heartfelt as that cover led me to believe! Just look at that cover, and tell me you wouldnt do the same. Kathleen Keenan One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter by Scaachi Koul The cover of Koul’s book of essays, designed by CS Richardson, is both eye-catching (the bright colour, the blacked out words) and clever (again, the blacked out words). Sometimes simple designs resonate the most. Adiba Jaigirdar Saints and Misfits by S. K. Ali Not only is this cover super colourful, but it has a hijabi Muslim girl on it! Ashley Holstrom Exit West by Mohsin Hamid Just look at it! The way the title zooms one direction and the author’s name zooms the other. It makes my eyes dance. I love it. Danika Ellis Star-Crossed by Barbara Dee A middle-grade book with two girls dancing together, staring into each other’s eyes? A girl who has a crush on a girl?? Right on the cover? This book is monumental in kidlit from this cover alone. Aimee Miles The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (U.S. edition) I love this cover. I love Starr’s curly hair with the bright red bandana. I love how the sign shows the title as an acrostic poem. I love how the white cover contrasts with Starr’s skin tone. I love that Khalil is on the back cover, blending in with the dark, but still very much present. Liberty Hardy They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib I can no longer deny that my favorite covers each year have a theme. Past and recent favorite covers I love include Mr. Fox, The Trees, Stephen Florida, Lives of the Monster Dogs, and Before the Feast. And they all have one thing in common: animals. I love the cover of They Can’t Kill Us because it looks like an album I would want to listen to and it made me immediately want to read the book. Which I did, and it is as amazing as the cover. Well done, Two Dollar Radio. Claire Handsombe Unconventional by Maggie Harcourt   This cover perfectly captures the setting of one of my favourite books of the year, in which Lexi helps her dad run fan conventions and meets and falls for an author who is appearing as a guest at one of them. I love that some of the people in the queue are cosplaying, and if you look carefully you can even tell what they’re a fan of. And I love that tagline: “everyone’s a fan of someone.” This is a fun, playful book that’s also full of earnestness and feeeeelings, and the cover reflects that. Annika Barranti Klein The Gauntlet by Karuna Riasi The world of the game in which Farrah, her brother, and her friends are trapped is a rich, detailed place that comes to life in the page so that you can almost see it, smell it, taste its food. The cover tells you exactly what you’re getting on the pages inside. Emily Polson Landscape with Invisible Hand by M.T. Anderson Not only does this colorful, attention-grabbing painting of a UFO make a perfect cover for a sci-fi story about aliens, it also relates directly to the book’s protagonist. The main character Adam is an aspiring painter who specializes in landscapes featuring spaceships of the aliens who are ruining earth’s economy. This isn’t just a fun fact about him, thoughâ€"his paintings play a major role in the plot. Find even more gorgeous book covers over this a-way.  

Book Rioters Favorite 2017 Book Covers

Book Rioters Favorite 2017 Book Covers Were giving away a stack of our 20 favorite books of the year. Click here to enter, or just click the image below. You know when a book cover just catches your eye and you fall in love with it? Well, the year of 2017 had plenty of book covers like that for Rioters and weve rounded up our favorite book covers in this group post. We would also love to hear what YOUR favorite book cover of 2017 wasâ€"please comment on this post so we can all gush over cover art and judging a book by its cover. Elizabeth Allen Edgar and Lucy by Victor Lodato White embossed on white, the cover is just incredibly appealing to the eye. And then the reader realizes that the main character was born with albinism and the lack of pigment on the cover makes sense. Then the reader begins to get into how the garden was a central part of this character’s childhood and the organic plant graphics become more meaningful. The bold, sans serif font in black and red serves to stand in stark contrast to the rest of the cover art, compelling the reader to dive into Edgar’s story. Anthony Karcz River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey   Look, Im only just a man. How do you expect me to resist a cover where a group of Civil War-era mercenaries wade into trouble on the backs of their trusty steeds? Their tame hippo steeds. From the over-saturated tones to the double take when you realize whats actually going on in the image, its the perfect pulpy genre cover. Jamie Canaves When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon I’ve spent all of 2017 saying that this book is as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside. I actually picked up this book because the cover is a beautiful Indian girl radiating happiness and I just had to read it. Every time I see the cover I smile back at Dimple, one of my favorite characters.   Leah Rachel von Essen Electric Arches by Eve L. Ewing   Brianna McCarthy did the artwork for the cover of Ewing’s brilliant poetry collection from Haymarket Books (one of my favorites of the year), and it is spellbinding. The illustration is titled, “The Garden of Lost Things” (2015), and is part of the Vetiver Night Women Series. (Follow McCarthy on Instagram!) Kate Krug A Crown of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi Did I start this series because of this cover? Yes and no shame. I mean, look how pretty! *heart eyes* Rachel Brittain We Are Okay by Nina LaCour I 100% picked up this book because of its stunningly beautiful cover art (illustrated by the talented Adams Carvalho and designed by Samira Iravani, by the way). Lucky for me, the story inside proved to be just as beautiful and heartfelt as that cover led me to believe! Just look at that cover, and tell me you wouldnt do the same. Kathleen Keenan One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter by Scaachi Koul The cover of Koul’s book of essays, designed by CS Richardson, is both eye-catching (the bright colour, the blacked out words) and clever (again, the blacked out words). Sometimes simple designs resonate the most. Adiba Jaigirdar Saints and Misfits by S. K. Ali Not only is this cover super colourful, but it has a hijabi Muslim girl on it! Ashley Holstrom Exit West by Mohsin Hamid Just look at it! The way the title zooms one direction and the author’s name zooms the other. It makes my eyes dance. I love it. Danika Ellis Star-Crossed by Barbara Dee A middle-grade book with two girls dancing together, staring into each other’s eyes? A girl who has a crush on a girl?? Right on the cover? This book is monumental in kidlit from this cover alone. Aimee Miles The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (U.S. edition) I love this cover. I love Starr’s curly hair with the bright red bandana. I love how the sign shows the title as an acrostic poem. I love how the white cover contrasts with Starr’s skin tone. I love that Khalil is on the back cover, blending in with the dark, but still very much present. Liberty Hardy They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib I can no longer deny that my favorite covers each year have a theme. Past and recent favorite covers I love include Mr. Fox, The Trees, Stephen Florida, Lives of the Monster Dogs, and Before the Feast. And they all have one thing in common: animals. I love the cover of They Can’t Kill Us because it looks like an album I would want to listen to and it made me immediately want to read the book. Which I did, and it is as amazing as the cover. Well done, Two Dollar Radio. Claire Handsombe Unconventional by Maggie Harcourt   This cover perfectly captures the setting of one of my favourite books of the year, in which Lexi helps her dad run fan conventions and meets and falls for an author who is appearing as a guest at one of them. I love that some of the people in the queue are cosplaying, and if you look carefully you can even tell what they’re a fan of. And I love that tagline: “everyone’s a fan of someone.” This is a fun, playful book that’s also full of earnestness and feeeeelings, and the cover reflects that. Annika Barranti Klein The Gauntlet by Karuna Riasi The world of the game in which Farrah, her brother, and her friends are trapped is a rich, detailed place that comes to life in the page so that you can almost see it, smell it, taste its food. The cover tells you exactly what you’re getting on the pages inside. Emily Polson Landscape with Invisible Hand by M.T. Anderson Not only does this colorful, attention-grabbing painting of a UFO make a perfect cover for a sci-fi story about aliens, it also relates directly to the book’s protagonist. The main character Adam is an aspiring painter who specializes in landscapes featuring spaceships of the aliens who are ruining earth’s economy. This isn’t just a fun fact about him, thoughâ€"his paintings play a major role in the plot. Find even more gorgeous book covers over this a-way.  

The Truth About Video Games - 1124 Words

Its dinnertime and your parents are yelling your name to come eat. You yell back saying, I will be there in just a minute! In reality though, you could take up to ten minutes, but then your food will be cold. Finally ten minutes have passed and your mother comes upstairs and threatens to ground you. Everybody has been in this situation before with different things such as movies and television. Since technology has developed rapidly, video games have become more realistic in terms of violence. These games and systems have reached second in demand in the media industry following television (Rottenberg et al. 30). The human species is an inherently violent species in this generation. When we play video games for extended hours at a time,†¦show more content†¦In the time between 1999 and 2007, there has been a 30% increase in the number of kids suffering from being bullied (â€Å"Contribute to Youth Violence†). During the Connecticut school shooting in 2012, the killerâ €™s motivation was video games, which he played right before he conducted the malicious mass murder (â€Å"Contribute to Youth Violence†). The FBI determined that video games were linked to school massacres in 2000 (â€Å"Contribute to Youth Violence†). Since video game purchases have risen, juvenile crime has risen along side by a staggering 50% (â€Å"Contribute to Youth Violence†). Finally, if a child keeps losing in a video game or becomes angry during the time they are submerged in their video game, they store up large amounts aggression. As aggression builds, radical ideas and actions birth in the brain of adolescents. These ideas rise because violent video games cause the frontal lobe of your brain, the center for the control of emotions and decision-making, to become fuzzy and unclear as if the brain is being blocked (â€Å"Violent Video Cause Aggression†). â€Å"A 2009 study found that it takes up to four minutes for the level of aggressive thoughts and feelings in children to return to normal levels after playing video games. It takes five to ten minutes for heart rate and aggressive behavior to return to baseline† (â€Å"Violent Video Games Contribute†). Yet, mature video games are not the only cause for aggression, video games that contain noShow MoreRelatedThe Truth About Video Games Essay1415 Words   |  6 PagesThe Truth about Video Games Since the industry of video games has been around, people have been skeptical about video games and their effects to our society. People are so used criticizing video games, claiming that they only corrupt our families, ruin our social lives, and make us and our children more violent. People that are against video games also claim that spending your time reading books is a better and more beneficial alternative. But to blindly claim these things while there are so manyRead MoreThe Truth about Video Games and Violent Children 1222 Words   |  5 Pages Violent video games are not training kids to be murderers. The video game industries have been called against and blamed for making kids more aggressive and violent for years. Although recent studies show that violent video games have been useful for kids to get their anger out. Only some kids were found to be aggressive after violent video game play, but they had three specific traits that lead to this aggressive behavior (â€Å"Viol ent...). Not all kids are affected by violent video games, but peopleRead MoreCorrelation between Gun Violence and Video Games in the Article, The Truth About Video Games and Gun Violence by Erik Kain753 Words   |  3 PagesThe article, â€Å"The Truth About Video Games and Gun Violence† by Erik Kain discusses how video games and gun violence correlates. The author opens up with someone by the name of Aaron Alexis who resorted to gun violence while playing video games that contained violence. There is a violent video game that scares parents and behavioral experts. There has been a debate on whether people who play video games later have violent behavior. Throughout the years, video games continue to show images portrayingRead MoreGrand Theft Childhood the Surprising Truth About Video Games and What Parents Can Do1827 Words   |  8 PagesIn â€Å"Grand Theft Childhood,† Professors Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson do a good job of investigating whether violent video games are bad for kids. They present both sides of the argument in an unbiased way. In the early chapters of â€Å"Grand Theft Childhood† Kutner and Olson take on the relation between depictions of violence and their effects on child behavior by arguing that amount of crime decreased dramatically during the peak of violent penny gaff viewing in England. Penny gaffs were inexpensiveRead MoreViolent Video Games in the Twenty-First Century: The Truth Essay1649 Words   |  7 Pageshalf-truth. The nation would come to see a cause for teen violence where there was none. Fear, in this case, would result in one of the many half-truths that are still heavily debated to this day. Although this half-truth regards video games resulting in teenage violence, the effects of video games on children and teenagers do not generally result in future adolescent violence problems. The relation between teenage violence and violent video games covers an immense area for argument. A video game’sRead MoreThe Effects of Video Games on Children1610 Words   |  6 PagesMany participants also suggested that the games caused the children to have strong imaginations, while a few disagreed. 61.0% said that electronic games did not cause the children to lack good behavior. The survey also showed that electronic games do not cause the children to be skilled in terms of their self expression, and do not cause them visual stress. On the issue concerning obesity, the percentage of the respondents who said that electronic games caused children to be obese was equal to theRead MoreEssay about Video Games and Violence: Cause, or Scapegoat?1116 Words   |  5 Pagescoming out about video games is bad. A student tried to kill his fellow classmates, and he was an avid Call of Duty player. A study has been released that proves that playing video games will turn you into a criminal. The many benefits of games and gaming, such as their possible applications to education and their ability to tell more complex stories than other forms of media, are almost universally ignored. I know better, though. Between the lifetime I’ve spent playing and loving video games, and theRead MoreVideo Games Effects On Teenagers1716 Words   |  7 Pagesform, and video gaming is a huge part of our culture. You can ignore or embrace video games and imbue them with the best artistic quality. People are enthralled with video games in the same way as other people love the cinema or theatre† (Serkis, n.d.). Video games have shot onto the scene within the past 50 years. With technology advancing as fast as it has today, video games are becoming more and more realistic, as well as inherently more violent. The pressing question of today’s video games is, areRead MoreVideo Games: A Scapegoat for Youth Violence Essay examples1265 Words   |  6 Pagesmost recen t medium are video games. Aided by crime-saturated news reports, a lot of people are convinced that video game violence transfers to real-life youth crimes like the school massacres. They think that violent video games make people violent, but that is not the case. Violent people play violent video games. Not everyone who plays video games are violent, but those who already are violent will play them as an outlet for their frustration and rage. If anything, video games keep violent peopleRead MoreViolent Video Games And Gun Violence830 Words   |  4 PagesTitle: Violent Video Games and Gun Violence: A False Shepard Or Violent Video Games and Gun Violence: Scapegoated Thesis Statement: While they may cause aggression in some people, playing violent video games does not cause gun violence because other countries that consume more video games per capita have less gun violence, they are mentally beneficial, and the real causes are rooted elsewhere. I. Other countries consume more video games per capita than the United States and they have significantly

The Power Of Context By Malcolm Gladwell - 1464 Words

If the change in behavior of one individual is a natural act results from internal transformation and external influences, then cultural change is an inscrutable mystery. Which factor is influential enough to cause a change in a society composed of individuals with different thoughts? There is no definite answer to this question, because there never exists one solid element that changes an entire society. There is always a combination of reasons behind such changes. However, there is always one solid factor which is present that makes culture change. In â€Å"The Power of Context†, Malcolm Gladwell describes how the crime rate suddenly â€Å"went into a precipitous decline† (151) due to changes of â€Å"the smallest details of the immediate environment† (155). On the contrary, in her text â€Å"An Army of One: Me†, Jean Twenge discusses how society systematically built Generation Me, a cultural change that happens gradually over decades. Although Gladwell and Twenge’s arguments concerning cultural change seems contradictory, they both consolidate one essential factor that makes culture change- an active assertion of change made by an individual or a group of individuals. Therefore, active attempt of change is an important cause of cultural change. Such assertiveness helps to introduce the change in the first place and makes it noticeable in the perspective of society, While it influences people’s mentality when behaving and making decisions. First and foremost, active assertions of the changeShow MoreRelatedThe Power Of Context By Malcolm Gladwell1588 Words   |  7 PagesAn individual’s context is the people that is around the individual and the surrounding environment is what surrounds the individual at the moment. In the 21st century, more and more research done by experts had proven the importance of the context and surrounding environment as to how an individual behave in the different situations. In her bo ok Hard to Get, psychologist Lesile Bell shed some lights how the women of the twentieth century define themselves via sexual experience and social interactionRead MoreThe Power Of Context By Malcolm Gladwell Essay1633 Words   |  7 Pagesfemale sexuality debate are largely fueled by the religious and social beliefs that prevail in most societies. In â€Å"The Power of Context,† Malcolm Gladwell brings about the possible causations factors of crime in modern societies and it details some of the factors, which can influence the way people likely to react to specific cases in crime commission. He explains the power of context idea as means to deduce why specific cases lead to specific reactions from the members of the involved society. BothRead MoreThe Power Of Context By Malcolm Gladwell1349 Words   |  6 Pagesvirtual violence seen in media and supports this idea with references from historical and culture examples. She claims that people are captivated by the stream of v iolence and do nothing about it because it is so enticing to them. In â€Å"The Power of Context,† Malcolm Gladwell analyzes the effects an environment or situation can have a person despite their beliefs or values. The morals and values that were learned in one’s childhood seems to change when one is put into a certain situation that is out of theirRead MoreThe Power Of Context By Malcolm Gladwell1709 Words   |  7 Pageseducational institutions and societal systems influence the human subconscious in the same way, just with a strong less recognizable form of advertising. These institutions and systems use social stigma. In Malcolm Gladwell’s â€Å"the Power of Context† the power of social stigma is shown by how context effects a situation, And in Karen Ho she identify the social stigma of being â€Å"elite† and getting a higher education. Societal stigma is the way of the system (society) to advertise to their people what isRead MoreThe Power O f Context By Malcolm Gladwell1579 Words   |  7 PagesIndividuals’ behaviors are articulated by what they perceive and what is stored in their memories, however, with the changes of the environment and with the time flows, those perceptions that stored in people’s mind might be changed. In â€Å"The Power of Context†, Malcolm Gladwell depicts that people’s characters are not only related to the cognitive association, but also affected by the physical surroundings because things that exist in individual’s residence also shape who they are. Similarly, Leslie Bell inRead MoreThe Power Of Context By Malcolm Gladwell Essay1802 Words   |  8 Pagesindividuals are still depend on their races, genders, social background or other geographic groups, so that people who are suffering conventional or unconventional abuses in the real world are considered as social vulnerable groups. In â€Å"The Power of Context,† Malcolm Gladwell provides a theory a nd a phenomenon, which are the Broken Window Theory and New York City Subway situation. He uses these two examples to illustrate both cognitive associations and physical surroundings would affect the vulnerable groupsRead MoreMalcolm Gladwell s Power Of Context1201 Words   |  5 Pagesnever ending race to further itself on a socioeconomic level from the generation before knowing full well that the majority will not achieve such goal. That in itself is a testament to how difficult the task of altering identity is. Malcolm Gladwell’s Power of Context echoes many of the same progressive principles preached in the early twentieth century, he believes external factors such as the aspects of environment are the greatest determinants of identity. Barbara Fredrickson argues in her bookRead MorePower Of Context By Malcolm Gladwell Essay1080 Words   |  5 Pagesindependently from their environment. Gladwell challenges conventional wisdom, claiming that the matter is significantl y more complex. Gladwell s theory, â€Å"Power of Context,† basically identifies small details within an environment and how they can heavily influence said environment. The â€Å"Power of Context† is extremely enlightening; because it sheds light on the observed behavior within Johnson s self-organizing Manchester and Faludi s archaic Citadel. Gladwell builds his theory off of the conceptRead MoreSocial Medi The Power Of Context By Malcolm Gladwell1665 Words   |  7 Pagesentertainment. In Maggie Nelson’s essay, â€Å"Great to Watch,† she argues the idea of â€Å"video and image flow† can lead to different understandings, distractions, and even problems, which explains the Broken Windows Theory introduced in â€Å"The Power of Context† written by Malcolm Gladwell that people engaging in certain kind of behavior (crime and violence) are evoked by a feature of the environment. Video and image flow via social media in the 21st century can in duce crime. In the age of distraction, young teenagersRead MoreThe Power Of Context, By Malcolm Gladwell, Steven Johnson, And Karen1891 Words   |  8 Pageslifestyle grow up to be proper, while those who live in poverty follow the path to failure. In the essays â€Å"The Power of Context,† â€Å"The Myth of the Ant Queen,† and â€Å"Biographies of Hegemony,† written respectfully by Malcolm Gladwell, Steven Johnson, and Karen Ho, the theme of minute changes in one’s environment, continuing to affect one heavily in the long term is brought up numerous times. Gladwell asserts the concept by talking about the incident with Bernherd Goetz and the stigma attached to the shooting

The Mission Of College Nitt Is An Educational Institute...

Task 1 Nitt College: Nitt is an educational institute recognised by NZQA and provides high range of business courses, marketing; accounting etc. the mission of institute is to provide good courses to student with help of appropriate resources and technology. They provide leadership in teaching, learning, assessment and professional development for diverse community within New Zealand. The address of college is 13b ronwood ave, manukau. New Zealand National College- This College was started in 1989 under education amendment. New Zealand National College (NZNC) is a private training establishment that is registered with NZQA. The college has a strong commitment to quality in all aspects of its operation. The vision of college is to become a number one in language courses and also in business courses. The mission is to provide a high quality language teaching certificate training programme for second language teaching job seekers throughout the world. Most are Indian students in this college. It provide business courses and English language courses. Cornell institute of business and technology-Cornell is big educational institute recognised by NZQA. They have three campuses in Auckland and one outside from Auckland, a highly recognised quality certification association. The mission is to provide high quality education and professional training that meets industry, student community needs in a sustainable manner and pbrs also run under college which provides hotel management

How to Plan a Successful Trip free essay sample

How to plan a successful trip A trip is an energizer which stimulates us from the stress of daily life. The more our stress levels increase, the more interests and purposes of traveling are diversifying, and the importance of traveling is also growing bigger and bigger. Also, the developments of communication and transportation enable people to get a variety of information about other countries and have various chances to go abroad easier. So, how can you efficiently plan a trip that fits your purpose and avoid missing what you really want to see? The value of careful planning helps a traveler avoid foolish mistakes. The experienced traveler uses planning time to establish several aspects of the trip. Making a wise plan for a vacation trip will ensure you to have an unforgettable experience. By doing these following tasks in advance, you will be more likely to have a successful trip: figure out the purpose of a trip, set priorities of places, decide a destination and period of a trip, establish a budget, gather information, and make a schedule with the flow of human traffic line. We will write a custom essay sample on How to Plan a Successful Trip or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page There are some materials you can use to achieve a successful trip; for instance, clothes, a map, money, and your personal documents. It will be also very helpful for you during your vacation trip, if you take some medicines in case of emergency. Moreover, you need knowledge and skills such as online research and advanced reservation. This is a really important part because all the information no matter what you research influences your whole vacation trip. In addition, the more knowledgeable you become about your trip details, the more money and time you will save. The first step, it is important to know the purpose of your trip before planning any trip. This may sound obvious, but it is crucial for a successfully planned vacation. According to an article of the tourist industry that I read, there are four main reasons people travel. The first reason travel is to gain health: they may have an illness that can be treated more efficiently in other countries. The second reason is to enjoy leisure time: most modern people need a break from stressful work. So, many people take a trip to break away from everyday routine. The third reason is to learn about other cultures, and the last reason is to gather information. Most people are more likely to travel to gather information. The second step, after figuring out and determining the purpose of the trip, is to set priorities of places you are interested in. Each place around the world has a plenty of different tourist attractions and a particular atmosphere. It might be hard to set priorities among beautiful places. However, that might be the real charm of preparation of trip because it is a chance to let you know and see a variety of beauty around the world. When you make a list of the places you are interested in, you are ready for the next step. For the third step, you should decide the most suitable destination and the time period of travel. When you are in this process, first of all, you should pay close attention to the local weather news. A well planned vacation can be easily ruined by a storm; heavy rain or extremely hot weather. Then, you can check the particular characteristics of each place because all the places have a various atmosphere. For example, some places are well known as historical places, while some places are well known as artistic places. Lastly, you need to pay attention to the political and social issues. The fourth step is establishing a budget. A budget is the most important thing because all situations during vacation trips can be affected and changed depending on budget. When you are in this process, you need to check the local prices because this can help you establish a budget for the travel. In addition, you should compare the prices and options of all the companies when you make reservations for hotel, car and so on. The more you compare cautiously, the more you will be able to get a bunch of benefits. Above all things, you should be prepared for unforeseen occurrence in order to avoid unnecessary expenses. So, it is better for you to establish a generous budget rather than a tight budget. The fifth step, after choosing the destination and a budget, is to gather all information about the destination, and figure out the local situation. Due to the fact that we are unfamiliar with the place, it is important to research the destination instead of quickly reserving plane tickets and traveling. What you have to be sure to remember is that the lack of information can ruin your whole vacation trip. It is not too much to say that the degree of our satisfaction about a trip is contingent upon being adequately informed before traveling. In this process, you need to search not only the famous tourist spots where you should visit, but also the places where you should be cautious. All the places around the world have specific dangerous areas. So, you need to take special precautions when venturing out because it is not uncommon for thieves to target tourists. Here are some tips: tourists should not wear excessive amounts of jewelry and should carry a minimal amount of money. Next, dressing similar to locals can also improve your chances of not being targeted as an unprepared tourist. In addition, instead of bringing a wallet, secure all money and valuables where thieves are less likely to look, such as in a zipped-up pocket. Finally, avoid wearing valuables that can be ripped off or easily removed. When you research the tourist attractions, it is helpful to search for particular events. Added to that, there are some ways to get discounts or coupons for bus pass, restaurant and admission fees to famous places. Lastly, you should recognize particular details such as holidays of the tourist attractions, local conflicts and the acts which are prohibited by law. Being aware of the laws is a really important aspect of a vacation overseas. Finally, you should arrange an effective route for each day of whole trip by considering the flow of human traffic in mind and figuring out the exact location. The route shouldn’t be too hard on your body. You should map your route from one place to another, taking into consideration time and other limiting factors: first of all, you need to sort the places, which you found, according to the close location among them. Then, you need to calculate how many places you can visit among them by departure time standard. For instance, if you stay museum for an hour, you check schedule and the method to move from museum to another place. In case you arrive to the airport, you also need to know how to get to destination from the airport, what transportation is the most effective to use. In conclusion, preparing for trip is a hard process. It sometimes takes long time, and causes extreme pressure. However, in the end, it is a very rewarding job. â€Å"At least a trip will bring you the three benefits: the first benefit is vast knowledge about other countries, the second benefit is an attachment to hometown, and the last benefit is self-discovery. said Bhagwan. A trip is not an escape forever from daily life but a pathway to meet renewed me. Additionally, it makes you get back to daily life with a full charged energy and broadened mental vision. Therefore, when you follow these all steps: figure out the purpose, set priorities of places, decide a destination and period of a trip, establish a budget, gat her information, and make a schedule with the flow of traffic line, you are ready for having an adventure that greatly influences on your life.

Organizational Knowledge Essay Example

Organizational Knowledge Essay We live in an information economy in which the major source of wealth and prosperity is the production and distribution of information and knowledge. An era in which the key economic resource is knowledge is startlingly different from an era in which the key resources were capital, raw materials, land and labor. Emerging service economy trend lead many organizations towards the information base strategies to face and fight with the current business competitions. In that case knowledge plays a major role in every organization. In an economy where the only certainty is uncertainty, the one sure source of lasting competitive advantage is knowledge. (Harvard Business Review) Therefore an organization? s most valuable assets are the people it employs. The ideas, experiences, expertise and knowledge contained in the mind of an individual may be worth more to an organization. In this case, Knowledge can be recognized as an important weapon for sustaining competitive advantage in organizations and many companies are beginning to manage organizational knowledge. Any organization that dynamically deals with a changing environment ought not only to process information efficiently but also create information and knowledge. (Lee Choi, 2003) 3 Organizational Knowledge It is often said that an organization? s most valuable assets are the people it employs. We will write a custom essay sample on Organizational Knowledge specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Organizational Knowledge specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Organizational Knowledge specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The ideas, experiences, expertise and knowledge contained in the mind of an individual may be worth more to an organization than can be quantified with respect to how that knowledge is applied each day to save time, reduce costs, and advance the organization? s initiatives. How can an organization capitalize on individual knowledge? How do individuals contribute to subunits or groups within the organization to build and perpetuate group knowledge? How does individual and group knowledge become organizational knowledge that can be captured, reused, and applied to achieve measurable positive effects for the organization? When might extraorganizational knowledge be used to further increase or enhance the capabilities of an organization? In line with the topic; Organizational knowledge, we have to explores these questions, first by defining each knowledge type, then by examining how knowledge moves through an organization and becomes valuable organizational intellectual capital. Defining Knowledge Knowledge is a cognitive, a spiritual, event that take place inside people? s heads. There are two primary definitions of the knowledge as the Tacit Knowledge and the Explicit Knowledge. In simply knowledge residing in the minds of employees that has not been documented is called tacit knowledge, whereas knowledge that has been documented is called explicit knowledge. Tacit Knowledge Tacit Knowledge can be defined as knowledge that has not yet been codified from the outside the individual? s mind. On another words, knowledge that comes from experience and is difficult or impossible to communicate. It is intangible and consists of knowledge which is difficult to express and to communicate to other people. Also it is more difficult to transmit than codified knowledge and hard to formalize due to belonged personal qualities. Examples for tacit knowledge are; Awareness Mental models Wisdom Skills Expertise Corporate memory 4 Explicit Knowledge Explicit knowledge, in contrast, is the knowledge that can be codified and is transmittable in formal systematic language. (Nonaka 1994) It consists of knowledge which can be expressed in symbols, and which can be communicated through these symbols to other people. Knowledge can reside in e-mail, unstructured documents, hand books, manuals can be listed under this category. Examples for explicit knowledge are; Databases, statistics, collections Books, publications, reports, documents, correspondence Photographs, diagrams, illustrations Computer code, expert systems, decision support systems Presentations, speeches, lectures Recorded experiences, stories Materials for education, teaching and training Laws, regulations, procedures, rules, policies Individual Knowledge Individual knowledge can be defined simply as knowledge possessed by the individual. This knowledge is most often tacit unless the individual possesses explicit knowledge that is not shared with anyone or any organization other than the individual. A private journal or private blog might be considered explicit individual knowledge. Individual knowledge can be acquired through experiences, and at times it can be acquired without language. When an individual is acquiring knowledge from observing another person? s actions, and once the individual applies his or her own experiences and background to what is learned it becomes individual knowledge. The creation of new „individual? knowledge derived from observation, imitation and practice is called socialization, or tacit to tacit knowledge sharing. Individual knowledge can certainly develop from explicit knowledge. What a person reads, for example, can contribute to new thoughts and ideas in the mind of the individual. This method of knowledge creation is referred to as internalization – turning explicit knowledge into 5 tacit knowledge. By reading or acquiring explicit knowledge, independent thought and analysis can develop into new, individual knowledge. An individual can make a greater contribution to the knowledge sharing and creation process by allowing their knowledge to be internalized by others or socializing their knowledge with others, which leads to the creation of group knowledge. Group Knowledge Group knowledge might be defined as individual knowledge that multiple individuals rely upon as truth, share and understand. Group knowledge is â€Å"broadcast information† (Correa da Silva Cullell, 56), but is not necessarily information shared „publicly? (i. e. â€Å"common knowledge†). Group knowledge can be generated and disseminated through socialization and often results in the transformation of tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge, or externalization. When groups come together and exchange ideas, â€Å"individual knowledge is synthesized to arrive at group knowledge, which eventually becomes routing at the organizational level. Thus, the transformation of individual knowledge into organizational routines leads to complex and embodied organizational knowledge. When group knowledge from several subunits or groups is combined and used to create new knowledge, the resulting tacit and explicit knowledge can be called organizational knowledge. 6 Important Dimensions of Knowledge Knowledge is a firm asset Knowledge is an intangible asset. Knowledge is not subject to the law of diminishing returns as physical assets, but its value increases as more people share it. Knowledge has different forms Knowledge can be either tacit or explicit (codified) Knowledge involves know-how, craft and skill Knowledge involves knowing how to follow procedures Knowledge has a location Knowledge is a cognitive event involving mental models and maps of individuals There is both a social and an individual basis of knowledge Knowledge is sticky, situated, and contextual Knowledge is situational Knowledge is conditional: Knowing when to apply a procedure is just as important as knowing the procedure Knowledge is related to context SOURCE: Laudon and Laudon, 2008. Management Information Systems Knowledge Creation New knowledge always begins with the individual. Making personal knowledge available to others is the central activity of the knowledge creating company. It takes place continuously and at all levels of the organization. Organizational knowledge creation may be explicated by the interchange between tacit and explicit knowledge. According to Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995), â€Å"tacit knowledge is highly personal and hard to formalize, making it difficult to communicate or to share with others. Subjective insights, intuitions, and hunches fall into this category of knowledge†. On the other 7 hand, explicit knowledge is more easily transmitted as it is characteristically codified. As such, explicit knowledge is more easily processed and shared with others. According to the theory, the process of knowledge conversion proceeds through four different modes: 1. Socialization (the conversion of tacit knowledge to tacit knowledge) 2. Combination (the conversion of explicit knowledge to explicit knowledge) 3. Externalization (the conversion of tacit to explicit knowledge) and 4. Internalization (the conversion of explicit to tacit knowledge) Socialization During the socialization mode, tacit knowledge is transferred through interactions between individuals, which may also be accomplished in the absence of language; individuals may learn and gain a sense of competence by observing behavior modeled by others. For example, mentoring and apprenticeships instruct tacitly through observation, imitation, and practice. Combination The combination mode of knowledge conversion embodies the aggregation of multiple examples of explicit knowledge (Nonaka, 1994). Explicit knowledge may be exchanged during meetings or conferences in which a diversity of knowledge sources combines to shape a new and enhanced conception. Externalization The externalization mode of the knowledge conversion spiral references the translation of tacit knowledge into explicit. Metaphors are recommended as a way to facilitate this translation (Nonaka, 1994). Metaphors assist individuals in explaining concealed (i. e. , tacit) concepts that are otherwise difficult to articulate by assisting individuals in forming impressions based on â€Å"imagination and intuitive learning through symbols†. Internalization The conversion of explicit to tacit knowledge, i. e. , the internalization mode occurs through a series of iterations in which concepts become concrete and ultimately absorbed as an integral 8 belief or value. Where externalization utilizes metaphors to facilitate knowledge conversion, internalization represents an active process of learning. Nonaka (1994) describes this as â€Å"participants†¦.. sharing explicit knowledge that is gradually translated, through interaction and a process of trial-and-error, into different aspects of tacit knowledge. It is found most commonly at highly successful Japanese companies such as Honda, Canon, Matushita and Sharp are in focusing to the knowledge creation. Managers in these companies recognize that creating new knowledge is not simply a matter of mechanistically â€Å"Processing† objective information. The knowledge creation process The mutual exchange of tacit and explicit knowledge that describes the knowledge creation process is initiated at the level of the individual employee or organizational member. Because individuals are an integral component of this conversion process, their commitment to knowledge creation is critical. According to Nonaka (1994), knowledge creation may be activated when organizational members have freedom and sufficient purpose to pursue new knowledge. A continuous process of questioning and reconsidering existing premises by individual members of the organization fosters organizational knowledge creation† (Nonaka Takeuchi, 1995). Knowledge Management For hundreds of years, owners of family businesses have passed their commercial wisdom on to their children, master artificer have taught their trades to followers, and workers have exchanged their knowledge on the job. Therefore knowledge management is nothing new, but until the 1990s that managers were not talking about knowledge management. (Harvard Business Review) When the industrialized economies have shifted from natural resources to intellectual assets, managers have been constrained to censor the knowledge underlying their businesses and how that knowledge is used. At that same time rice of technological devices using; mainly computers has made it possible to codify, store, and share certain kind of knowledge more easily than ever. In current business environment, Knowledge management has become an important theme at many large business firms as managers realize that much of their firm? s value depends on firm? s ability to create and manage knowledge. (Laudon Laudon). Studies have found that a substantial part of a firm? s stock market value is related to its intangible assets, of which knowledge is one important component, along with brands, reputations, and unique business processes (Gu and Lev, 2001). Well executed knowledge-based projects have been known to produce extra ordinary returns on investment, although knowledge-based investments are difficult to measure (Blair and Wallman, 2001). Knowledge Management is the process of leveraging organizational knowledge to deliver longterm advantage to a business. This, in turn, requires technology to capture, codify, store, disseminate and reuse the knowledge. Any organization, before framing a strategy, should analyze the industry and should understand all relevant parameters of industry growth. This analysis would yield results on the industry parameters like growth/ recession buyer/supplier power leading to determining the attractiveness of competition. The competitor analysis would reveal the strategy adopted by the competitors and identify the possible future movements of the competitors and to predict the strategies that are likely to be adopted by them. An organization can gain competitive advantage and sustain it only if it is able to understand the needs of the customer and track the changes in the customer needs. In this context, the analysis of the needs of customer gains importance. An organization should assess the resources and capabilities, before formulating a strategy, since the resources and capabilities should aid the operationalization of the chosen strategy. The right combination of resources and capabilities in the context of a strategy can be discovered through the process of knowledge management. Knowledge Management Value Chain Knowledge management increases the ability of the organization to learn from its environment and to incorporate knowledge into its business processes. Knowledge value is very difficult to measure and it is extracted when knowledge is used. Knowledge sharing increases the value of knowledge with abundance. Knowledge management value chain is a sequence of intellectual tasks by which knowledge workers build their employer? s unique competitive advantage and social and environmental benefits. There are four main value adding steps in the knowledge 10 management value chain; each stage adds value to raw data and information as they are transformed into usable knowledge. Acquisition Storage Dissemination Application Figure 02: Knowledge Management value chain Knowledge acquisition Organizations acquire knowledge in a number of ways, depending on the type of knowledge they seek. In a way, organizations acquire knowledge by developing online expert networks so that employees can â€Å"find the expert† in the company who has the knowledge in his or her head. Other than that firms have to create new knowledge by discovering patterns in corporate data or by using knowledge work stations where engineers can discover new knowledge. A coherent and organized knowledge system also requires systematic data from the firm? transaction processing systems (sales, payments, inventory, customers etc. ), news feeds, industry reports, legal opinions, scientific research and government statistics as well. Knowledge storage Knowledge storage generally involves the creation of a database. Expert systems also help corporations preserve the knowledge that is acquired by incorporating that knowledge into organiza tional process and culture. Management must support the development of planned knowledge storage systems to update and store documents properly. 11 Knowledge Dissemination Portal, e-mail, instant messaging and search engine technology have added to the existing technologies for sharing documents, data and graphics. Training programmes, informal networks and shared management experience communicated through a supportive culture help managers focus their attention on the important knowledge and information which is really important for their decisions and their work. Knowledge Application Knowledge that is not shared and applied to the practical problems facing firms and managers does not add business value. To provide a return on investment, organizational knowledge must become a systematic part of management decision making and become situated in decision support systems. An organizations can do this is to build online information databases that employees can access which works as an online knowledge bank. Other than this some knowledge management experts have suggest that organizations create â€Å"communities of practice†, which are groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems or a passion about a topic and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in that area by interacting on an ongoing basis. Out of the four steps in knowledge management value chain, knowledge sharing is considered to be the most important one, and it is said â€Å"Knowledge sharing is the power† instead of â€Å"Knowledge is the Power†. In order to do this an organization must have a knowledge supporting culture, that management can support the knowledge creation and sharing. In line with that perfect human resource management is a prior functional area in an organization. Top management provides employees with a sense of direction by setting the standards for justifying the value of knowledge that is constantly being developed by the organization? members. Deciding which efforts to support and develop is a strategic task. (Harvard business review on Knowledge management, 2008) 12 Knowledge Applications in the Technological Aspect Business Problems ? ? ? Monitor service levels and costs Develop document access rules Management ? Document intensive business Fragmented information in legacy s ystems and manual processes ? ? ? Coordinate Documents and maintenance data Develop Document Access procedures Revise repair and maintenance procedures Organization Information systems Business solution ? ? Reduce time Reduse cost ? ? ? ? Implement oracle database Deploy laptops Technology Immediately access Equipment maintenance information Figure 03: Use of Technology in Knowledge Management Process The diagram shows how organizations can use technology in solving business problems and how an organization can reduce the time consumption and the cost by using information systems. These information systems would include transaction processing systems, management information systems, decision support systems, expert systems and intelligent systems etc. Knowledge Management Strategies There are mainly two types of knowledge management strategies. In some companies, the strategy centered on the computer. In that c knowledge is carefully codified and stored in databases, where it can be easily accessed and used by anyone in the company. This is called Codification Strategy. 13 Codification Strategy Codification strategy implies the theme; â€Å"people to documents†, pointing to develop an electronic document system that codifies, stores, disseminates, and allows reuse of knowledge. The companies that follow codification strategy rely on the† economics of reuse†. Once an organization invests in knowledge asset; they can reuse it many times. The reuse of knowledge saves work, reduces communication costs and allows a company to take on more projects. And the strategy focuses on generating large overall revenues. And also the organizations always think in the point of human resource management to hire new graduates who are suited to reuse knowledge and the implementation of solutions, to train people in groups and through computer based learning, to reward people for using and contributing to document databases. Earnest Young is an organization which uses this strategy as their knowledge management strategy. In other companies, knowledge is closely bounded to the person who developed it and is shared mainly through direct person to person contacts. In those companies main purpose of the computers is to help people to communicate knowledge, not to store it. This is called Personalization Strategy. Personalization Strategy And this strategy implies that â€Å"person to person† fact which points to develop networks for linking people so that tacit knowledge can be shared. In contrast to the codification strategy, the personalization strategy relies on the logic of â€Å"expert economics†. It focuses on maintaining high profit margins. But on the other hand the process of sharing deep knowledge is time consuming, expensive and slow. It can? t be made much efficient. The companies that applied this strategy as their knowledge management strategy; wish to hire people who like problem solving and can tolerate ambiguity and to reward people for directly sharing knowledge with others. Choosing the knowledge management strategy is not an arbitrary thing, it depends on the economics of the company, the way it serves its clients and the people it hires. Experts believe that the choice between codification and personalization is the central one facing virtually all 14 companies in the era of knowledge management. However an organization? s strategy for knowledge management reflects its competitive strategy; it creates value for customers; how that value support for customers; how that value supports an economic model and how the company? s people deliver on the value, because it is the leading fact and the base of all other functional areas in the organization for gaining the competitive advantage in the dynamic economy. Types of Knowledge Management systems in an Organization There are essentially three major types of knowledge management systems namely; enterprisewide knowledge management systems, knowledge work systems and intelligent techniques. Figure 3 shows the knowledge management system applications for each of these major categories. Enterprise-Wide Knowledge Management Systems Knowledge Work Systems Intelligent Techniques Structured knowledge systems Semi structured knowledge systems Knowledge network systems Computer aided design (CAD) Data mining 3 D Visualization Virtual reality -Neural networks Expert systems Intelligent Agents 1. Enterprise-wide knowledge management systems are general purpose firm wide efforts to collect, store, distribute and apply digital content and knowledge. They provide databases and tools for organizing and storing structured and unstructured documents and other knowledge objects for locating employees with expertise in a particular area including web based tools for collaboration and communication. Structu red knowledge systems: These systems perform the function of implementing the tagging, interface with corporate databases where the documents are stored and 15 reating an enterprise portal environment for employees to use when searching for corporate knowledge. Semi structured knowledge systems: These systems track, store and organize semi structured documents (folders, messages, proposals, e mails, slide presentations etc) Knowledge network systems: Knowledge network system addresses the problem that arises when the appropriate knowledge is tacit knowledge residing in the memory of expert individuals in the firm. Because such knowledge cannot be conveniently found, employees expend significant resources rediscovering knowledge. Knowledge network systems provide an online directory of corporate experts in well-defined knowledge domains and use communication technologies to make it easy for employees to find the appropriate expert in a company. 02. Knowledge work systems (KWS) are specialized systems built for professionals and other knowledge workers charged with discovering and creating new knowledge for an organization. The development of powerful networked work stations and software in the discovery of new knowledge has led to the creation of knowledge work systems. 03. Intelligent techniques have different objectives from a focus on discovering knowledge (through data mining and neural networks) to distilling knowledge (through expert systems and fuzzy logic) in the form of rules for a computer programme in order to discover optimal solutions for problems. Knowledge Portals Many organizations have integrated their content and document management capabilities with powerful portals and these will provide access to external sources of information, such as news feeds and research, as well as to internal knowledge resources along with capabilities for e mail, chat, discussion groups and video conferencing. Organizations are now using blogs, wikis and social book marking for internal use to facilitate the exchange of information between individuals and teams within organizations. 16 A learning Organization In more recent times, managers seem to be searching for new approaches to management. Fuelling this search is a range of new issues that modern managers face but that their historical counterparts did not. These issues include a concern about the competitive decline of western firms, the accelerating pace of technological change, the sophistication of customers, and an increasing emphasize on globalization. A new approach to management that is evolving to handle this new range of issues can e called as the learning organization approach. Organizational learning means the process of improving actions through better knowledge and understanding. Therefore under the organizational knowledge title organizational learning is another important fact which can be identified as a supportive term for the organizational knowledge. A learning organization is an organization skilled at creating, acquiring and transferring knowledge, and at modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights. Learning organizations emphasize systematic problem solving, experimentation, learning from their own experience and past history, transferring knowledge. These activities leading the organizations towards the fact of gaining competitive advantage by relying on the scientific method and data rather than assumptions, searching for and testing of new knowledge, reviewing their successes and failures, learning from others; specially from immediate environment, and spreading the knowledge throughout the organization quickly and efficiently. Actually the most important thing is that the using and sharing the knowledge which has collected. Otherwise there is no any created benefit from the knowledge to the organization, peculiarly learning from others and spreading the knowledge throughout the organization is become more important in this case. Learning occurs in two forms, those are single-loop and double-loop. Single loop learning asks a one dimensional question to expose one dimensional answer. Double loop learning takes an additional step or several additional steps. It might also ask why the current setting was chosen at the first place. In other words, it asks questions not only about objective facts but also reasons behind those facts. 17 A learning organization is focusing to create, acquire and transfer knowledge continuously from the environment and there by modify its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights. This involves mainly three areas. An organization has to follow ongoing programmes, designed to produce incremental gains in knowledge. An example to indicate that an organization can import new ideas from outside and apply it to daily operations; a case study, General Electric’s impact program originally sent manufacturing managers to Japan to study factory innovations, such as quality circles and kanban cards, and then apply them in their own organizations. This program was one of the major reasons that General Electric recorded productivity gains averaging nearly 5 % over the last four years. (Harvard business review on Knowledge Management, 2008) Successful ongoing programmes also require an incentive system that favors risk taking. Employees must feel that the benefits of experimentation exceeds the costs; if not they will not participate. This is challenging for managers, since they must maintain accountability and control over experiments without stifling creativity by unduly penalizing employees for failures. Companies must learn from past experiences and should review their successes and failures, assess them systematically and record the lessons in a form that employees find open and accessible. 18 Learning and the Knowledge Management The knowledge continuum shows the process of transforming data in to knowledge and wisdom. The knowledge continuum In this continuous process organizations acquire knowledge throughout its life cycle. Therefore learning plays very important role in the knowledge management process. Its probably appropriate to develop some perspective regarding this stuff called knowledge, which there seems to be such a desire to manage, really is. Consider this as a basis for thought relating to the following diagram. ? ? ? ? A collection of data is not information. A collection of information is not knowledge. A collection of knowledge is not wisdom. A collection of wisdom is not truth. The idea is that information, knowledge, and wisdom are more than simply collections. Rather, the whole represents more than the sum of its parts and has a synergy of its own. 19 8 Average Time (Hours) 4 6 Learning curve 2 10 20 quantity 60 30 40 120 180 240 Figure 07 – Learning Curve 20 Conclusion Organizations can achieve competitive advantage by focusing their knowledge Management efforts in harnessing their assets and competences in their core areas of operation, which can be identified by the value chain analysis approach. An organization progressively discover that value creating activities change over a period of time, and helps to identify value-creating activities faster thereby providing a strategic direction. As organizations evolve into more effective and efficient knowledge creators and knowledge consumers, the effects of knowledge management efforts should be measurable as knowledge management itself requires an investment of time, resources and manpower. Perhaps organizations will continue to create their own frameworks for valuation or be able to rely on a common methodology for such measurement regardless of the type of organization doing the evaluating. On the other hand, any organization, before framing a strategy, should analyze the industry and should understand all relevant parameters of industry growth. This analysis would yield results on the industry parameters like growth/ recession buyer/supplier power leading to determining the attractiveness of competition. The competitor analysis would reveal the strategy adopted by the competitors and identify the possible future movements of the competitors and to predict the strategies that are likely to be adopted by them. An organization can gain competitive advantage and sustain it only if it is able to understand the needs of the customer and track the changes in the customer needs. In this context, the analysis of the needs of customer gains importance. An organization should assess the resources and capabilities, before formulating a strategy, since the resources and capabilities should aid the operationalization of the chosen strategy. The right combination of resources and capabilities in the context of a strategy can be discovered through the process of knowledge management. In short, today? s organizations act with the theme of â€Å"Knowledge sharing is the power† instead of â€Å"Knowledge is the Power†, in order gain competitive advantages, by keeping a knowledge supporting culture, that management can support the knowledge creation and sharing, maintaining a perfect human resource policy which lead to minimize the employee turnover for the purpose of securing organizational memory in the organization. Organizational Knowledge Essay Example Organizational Knowledge Essay We live in an information economy in which the major source of wealth and prosperity is the production and distribution of information and knowledge. An era in which the key economic resource is knowledge is startlingly different from an era in which the key resources were capital, raw materials, land and labor. Emerging service economy trend lead many organizations towards the information base strategies to face and fight with the current business competitions. In that case knowledge plays a major role in every organization. In an economy where the only certainty is uncertainty, the one sure source of lasting competitive advantage is knowledge. (Harvard Business Review) Therefore an organization? s most valuable assets are the people it employs. The ideas, experiences, expertise and knowledge contained in the mind of an individual may be worth more to an organization. In this case, Knowledge can be recognized as an important weapon for sustaining competitive advantage in organizations and many companies are beginning to manage organizational knowledge. Any organization that dynamically deals with a changing environment ought not only to process information efficiently but also create information and knowledge. (Lee Choi, 2003) 3 Organizational Knowledge It is often said that an organization? s most valuable assets are the people it employs. We will write a custom essay sample on Organizational Knowledge specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Organizational Knowledge specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Organizational Knowledge specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The ideas, experiences, expertise and knowledge contained in the mind of an individual may be worth more to an organization than can be quantified with respect to how that knowledge is applied each day to save time, reduce costs, and advance the organization? s initiatives. How can an organization capitalize on individual knowledge? How do individuals contribute to subunits or groups within the organization to build and perpetuate group knowledge? How does individual and group knowledge become organizational knowledge that can be captured, reused, and applied to achieve measurable positive effects for the organization? When might extraorganizational knowledge be used to further increase or enhance the capabilities of an organization? In line with the topic; Organizational knowledge, we have to explores these questions, first by defining each knowledge type, then by examining how knowledge moves through an organization and becomes valuable organizational intellectual capital. Defining Knowledge Knowledge is a cognitive, a spiritual, event that take place inside people? s heads. There are two primary definitions of the knowledge as the Tacit Knowledge and the Explicit Knowledge. In simply knowledge residing in the minds of employees that has not been documented is called tacit knowledge, whereas knowledge that has been documented is called explicit knowledge. Tacit Knowledge Tacit Knowledge can be defined as knowledge that has not yet been codified from the outside the individual? s mind. On another words, knowledge that comes from experience and is difficult or impossible to communicate. It is intangible and consists of knowledge which is difficult to express and to communicate to other people. Also it is more difficult to transmit than codified knowledge and hard to formalize due to belonged personal qualities. Examples for tacit knowledge are; Awareness Mental models Wisdom Skills Expertise Corporate memory 4 Explicit Knowledge Explicit knowledge, in contrast, is the knowledge that can be codified and is transmittable in formal systematic language. (Nonaka 1994) It consists of knowledge which can be expressed in symbols, and which can be communicated through these symbols to other people. Knowledge can reside in e-mail, unstructured documents, hand books, manuals can be listed under this category. Examples for explicit knowledge are; Databases, statistics, collections Books, publications, reports, documents, correspondence Photographs, diagrams, illustrations Computer code, expert systems, decision support systems Presentations, speeches, lectures Recorded experiences, stories Materials for education, teaching and training Laws, regulations, procedures, rules, policies Individual Knowledge Individual knowledge can be defined simply as knowledge possessed by the individual. This knowledge is most often tacit unless the individual possesses explicit knowledge that is not shared with anyone or any organization other than the individual. A private journal or private blog might be considered explicit individual knowledge. Individual knowledge can be acquired through experiences, and at times it can be acquired without language. When an individual is acquiring knowledge from observing another person? s actions, and once the individual applies his or her own experiences and background to what is learned it becomes individual knowledge. The creation of new „individual? knowledge derived from observation, imitation and practice is called socialization, or tacit to tacit knowledge sharing. Individual knowledge can certainly develop from explicit knowledge. What a person reads, for example, can contribute to new thoughts and ideas in the mind of the individual. This method of knowledge creation is referred to as internalization – turning explicit knowledge into 5 tacit knowledge. By reading or acquiring explicit knowledge, independent thought and analysis can develop into new, individual knowledge. An individual can make a greater contribution to the knowledge sharing and creation process by allowing their knowledge to be internalized by others or socializing their knowledge with others, which leads to the creation of group knowledge. Group Knowledge Group knowledge might be defined as individual knowledge that multiple individuals rely upon as truth, share and understand. Group knowledge is â€Å"broadcast information† (Correa da Silva Cullell, 56), but is not necessarily information shared „publicly? (i. e. â€Å"common knowledge†). Group knowledge can be generated and disseminated through socialization and often results in the transformation of tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge, or externalization. When groups come together and exchange ideas, â€Å"individual knowledge is synthesized to arrive at group knowledge, which eventually becomes routing at the organizational level. Thus, the transformation of individual knowledge into organizational routines leads to complex and embodied organizational knowledge. When group knowledge from several subunits or groups is combined and used to create new knowledge, the resulting tacit and explicit knowledge can be called organizational knowledge. 6 Important Dimensions of Knowledge Knowledge is a firm asset Knowledge is an intangible asset. Knowledge is not subject to the law of diminishing returns as physical assets, but its value increases as more people share it. Knowledge has different forms Knowledge can be either tacit or explicit (codified) Knowledge involves know-how, craft and skill Knowledge involves knowing how to follow procedures Knowledge has a location Knowledge is a cognitive event involving mental models and maps of individuals There is both a social and an individual basis of knowledge Knowledge is sticky, situated, and contextual Knowledge is situational Knowledge is conditional: Knowing when to apply a procedure is just as important as knowing the procedure Knowledge is related to context SOURCE: Laudon and Laudon, 2008. Management Information Systems Knowledge Creation New knowledge always begins with the individual. Making personal knowledge available to others is the central activity of the knowledge creating company. It takes place continuously and at all levels of the organization. Organizational knowledge creation may be explicated by the interchange between tacit and explicit knowledge. According to Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995), â€Å"tacit knowledge is highly personal and hard to formalize, making it difficult to communicate or to share with others. Subjective insights, intuitions, and hunches fall into this category of knowledge†. On the other 7 hand, explicit knowledge is more easily transmitted as it is characteristically codified. As such, explicit knowledge is more easily processed and shared with others. According to the theory, the process of knowledge conversion proceeds through four different modes: 1. Socialization (the conversion of tacit knowledge to tacit knowledge) 2. Combination (the conversion of explicit knowledge to explicit knowledge) 3. Externalization (the conversion of tacit to explicit knowledge) and 4. Internalization (the conversion of explicit to tacit knowledge) Socialization During the socialization mode, tacit knowledge is transferred through interactions between individuals, which may also be accomplished in the absence of language; individuals may learn and gain a sense of competence by observing behavior modeled by others. For example, mentoring and apprenticeships instruct tacitly through observation, imitation, and practice. Combination The combination mode of knowledge conversion embodies the aggregation of multiple examples of explicit knowledge (Nonaka, 1994). Explicit knowledge may be exchanged during meetings or conferences in which a diversity of knowledge sources combines to shape a new and enhanced conception. Externalization The externalization mode of the knowledge conversion spiral references the translation of tacit knowledge into explicit. Metaphors are recommended as a way to facilitate this translation (Nonaka, 1994). Metaphors assist individuals in explaining concealed (i. e. , tacit) concepts that are otherwise difficult to articulate by assisting individuals in forming impressions based on â€Å"imagination and intuitive learning through symbols†. Internalization The conversion of explicit to tacit knowledge, i. e. , the internalization mode occurs through a series of iterations in which concepts become concrete and ultimately absorbed as an integral 8 belief or value. Where externalization utilizes metaphors to facilitate knowledge conversion, internalization represents an active process of learning. Nonaka (1994) describes this as â€Å"participants†¦.. sharing explicit knowledge that is gradually translated, through interaction and a process of trial-and-error, into different aspects of tacit knowledge. It is found most commonly at highly successful Japanese companies such as Honda, Canon, Matushita and Sharp are in focusing to the knowledge creation. Managers in these companies recognize that creating new knowledge is not simply a matter of mechanistically â€Å"Processing† objective information. The knowledge creation process The mutual exchange of tacit and explicit knowledge that describes the knowledge creation process is initiated at the level of the individual employee or organizational member. Because individuals are an integral component of this conversion process, their commitment to knowledge creation is critical. According to Nonaka (1994), knowledge creation may be activated when organizational members have freedom and sufficient purpose to pursue new knowledge. A continuous process of questioning and reconsidering existing premises by individual members of the organization fosters organizational knowledge creation† (Nonaka Takeuchi, 1995). Knowledge Management For hundreds of years, owners of family businesses have passed their commercial wisdom on to their children, master artificer have taught their trades to followers, and workers have exchanged their knowledge on the job. Therefore knowledge management is nothing new, but until the 1990s that managers were not talking about knowledge management. (Harvard Business Review) When the industrialized economies have shifted from natural resources to intellectual assets, managers have been constrained to censor the knowledge underlying their businesses and how that knowledge is used. At that same time rice of technological devices using; mainly computers has made it possible to codify, store, and share certain kind of knowledge more easily than ever. In current business environment, Knowledge management has become an important theme at many large business firms as managers realize that much of their firm? s value depends on firm? s ability to create and manage knowledge. (Laudon Laudon). Studies have found that a substantial part of a firm? s stock market value is related to its intangible assets, of which knowledge is one important component, along with brands, reputations, and unique business processes (Gu and Lev, 2001). Well executed knowledge-based projects have been known to produce extra ordinary returns on investment, although knowledge-based investments are difficult to measure (Blair and Wallman, 2001). Knowledge Management is the process of leveraging organizational knowledge to deliver longterm advantage to a business. This, in turn, requires technology to capture, codify, store, disseminate and reuse the knowledge. Any organization, before framing a strategy, should analyze the industry and should understand all relevant parameters of industry growth. This analysis would yield results on the industry parameters like growth/ recession buyer/supplier power leading to determining the attractiveness of competition. The competitor analysis would reveal the strategy adopted by the competitors and identify the possible future movements of the competitors and to predict the strategies that are likely to be adopted by them. An organization can gain competitive advantage and sustain it only if it is able to understand the needs of the customer and track the changes in the customer needs. In this context, the analysis of the needs of customer gains importance. An organization should assess the resources and capabilities, before formulating a strategy, since the resources and capabilities should aid the operationalization of the chosen strategy. The right combination of resources and capabilities in the context of a strategy can be discovered through the process of knowledge management. Knowledge Management Value Chain Knowledge management increases the ability of the organization to learn from its environment and to incorporate knowledge into its business processes. Knowledge value is very difficult to measure and it is extracted when knowledge is used. Knowledge sharing increases the value of knowledge with abundance. Knowledge management value chain is a sequence of intellectual tasks by which knowledge workers build their employer? s unique competitive advantage and social and environmental benefits. There are four main value adding steps in the knowledge 10 management value chain; each stage adds value to raw data and information as they are transformed into usable knowledge. Acquisition Storage Dissemination Application Figure 02: Knowledge Management value chain Knowledge acquisition Organizations acquire knowledge in a number of ways, depending on the type of knowledge they seek. In a way, organizations acquire knowledge by developing online expert networks so that employees can â€Å"find the expert† in the company who has the knowledge in his or her head. Other than that firms have to create new knowledge by discovering patterns in corporate data or by using knowledge work stations where engineers can discover new knowledge. A coherent and organized knowledge system also requires systematic data from the firm? transaction processing systems (sales, payments, inventory, customers etc. ), news feeds, industry reports, legal opinions, scientific research and government statistics as well. Knowledge storage Knowledge storage generally involves the creation of a database. Expert systems also help corporations preserve the knowledge that is acquired by incorporating that knowledge into organiza tional process and culture. Management must support the development of planned knowledge storage systems to update and store documents properly. 11 Knowledge Dissemination Portal, e-mail, instant messaging and search engine technology have added to the existing technologies for sharing documents, data and graphics. Training programmes, informal networks and shared management experience communicated through a supportive culture help managers focus their attention on the important knowledge and information which is really important for their decisions and their work. Knowledge Application Knowledge that is not shared and applied to the practical problems facing firms and managers does not add business value. To provide a return on investment, organizational knowledge must become a systematic part of management decision making and become situated in decision support systems. An organizations can do this is to build online information databases that employees can access which works as an online knowledge bank. Other than this some knowledge management experts have suggest that organizations create â€Å"communities of practice†, which are groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems or a passion about a topic and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in that area by interacting on an ongoing basis. Out of the four steps in knowledge management value chain, knowledge sharing is considered to be the most important one, and it is said â€Å"Knowledge sharing is the power† instead of â€Å"Knowledge is the Power†. In order to do this an organization must have a knowledge supporting culture, that management can support the knowledge creation and sharing. In line with that perfect human resource management is a prior functional area in an organization. Top management provides employees with a sense of direction by setting the standards for justifying the value of knowledge that is constantly being developed by the organization? members. Deciding which efforts to support and develop is a strategic task. (Harvard business review on Knowledge management, 2008) 12 Knowledge Applications in the Technological Aspect Business Problems ? ? ? Monitor service levels and costs Develop document access rules Management ? Document intensive business Fragmented information in legacy s ystems and manual processes ? ? ? Coordinate Documents and maintenance data Develop Document Access procedures Revise repair and maintenance procedures Organization Information systems Business solution ? ? Reduce time Reduse cost ? ? ? ? Implement oracle database Deploy laptops Technology Immediately access Equipment maintenance information Figure 03: Use of Technology in Knowledge Management Process The diagram shows how organizations can use technology in solving business problems and how an organization can reduce the time consumption and the cost by using information systems. These information systems would include transaction processing systems, management information systems, decision support systems, expert systems and intelligent systems etc. Knowledge Management Strategies There are mainly two types of knowledge management strategies. In some companies, the strategy centered on the computer. In that c knowledge is carefully codified and stored in databases, where it can be easily accessed and used by anyone in the company. This is called Codification Strategy. 13 Codification Strategy Codification strategy implies the theme; â€Å"people to documents†, pointing to develop an electronic document system that codifies, stores, disseminates, and allows reuse of knowledge. The companies that follow codification strategy rely on the† economics of reuse†. Once an organization invests in knowledge asset; they can reuse it many times. The reuse of knowledge saves work, reduces communication costs and allows a company to take on more projects. And the strategy focuses on generating large overall revenues. And also the organizations always think in the point of human resource management to hire new graduates who are suited to reuse knowledge and the implementation of solutions, to train people in groups and through computer based learning, to reward people for using and contributing to document databases. Earnest Young is an organization which uses this strategy as their knowledge management strategy. In other companies, knowledge is closely bounded to the person who developed it and is shared mainly through direct person to person contacts. In those companies main purpose of the computers is to help people to communicate knowledge, not to store it. This is called Personalization Strategy. Personalization Strategy And this strategy implies that â€Å"person to person† fact which points to develop networks for linking people so that tacit knowledge can be shared. In contrast to the codification strategy, the personalization strategy relies on the logic of â€Å"expert economics†. It focuses on maintaining high profit margins. But on the other hand the process of sharing deep knowledge is time consuming, expensive and slow. It can? t be made much efficient. The companies that applied this strategy as their knowledge management strategy; wish to hire people who like problem solving and can tolerate ambiguity and to reward people for directly sharing knowledge with others. Choosing the knowledge management strategy is not an arbitrary thing, it depends on the economics of the company, the way it serves its clients and the people it hires. Experts believe that the choice between codification and personalization is the central one facing virtually all 14 companies in the era of knowledge management. However an organization? s strategy for knowledge management reflects its competitive strategy; it creates value for customers; how that value support for customers; how that value supports an economic model and how the company? s people deliver on the value, because it is the leading fact and the base of all other functional areas in the organization for gaining the competitive advantage in the dynamic economy. Types of Knowledge Management systems in an Organization There are essentially three major types of knowledge management systems namely; enterprisewide knowledge management systems, knowledge work systems and intelligent techniques. Figure 3 shows the knowledge management system applications for each of these major categories. Enterprise-Wide Knowledge Management Systems Knowledge Work Systems Intelligent Techniques Structured knowledge systems Semi structured knowledge systems Knowledge network systems Computer aided design (CAD) Data mining 3 D Visualization Virtual reality -Neural networks Expert systems Intelligent Agents 1. Enterprise-wide knowledge management systems are general purpose firm wide efforts to collect, store, distribute and apply digital content and knowledge. They provide databases and tools for organizing and storing structured and unstructured documents and other knowledge objects for locating employees with expertise in a particular area including web based tools for collaboration and communication. Structu red knowledge systems: These systems perform the function of implementing the tagging, interface with corporate databases where the documents are stored and 15 reating an enterprise portal environment for employees to use when searching for corporate knowledge. Semi structured knowledge systems: These systems track, store and organize semi structured documents (folders, messages, proposals, e mails, slide presentations etc) Knowledge network systems: Knowledge network system addresses the problem that arises when the appropriate knowledge is tacit knowledge residing in the memory of expert individuals in the firm. Because such knowledge cannot be conveniently found, employees expend significant resources rediscovering knowledge. Knowledge network systems provide an online directory of corporate experts in well-defined knowledge domains and use communication technologies to make it easy for employees to find the appropriate expert in a company. 02. Knowledge work systems (KWS) are specialized systems built for professionals and other knowledge workers charged with discovering and creating new knowledge for an organization. The development of powerful networked work stations and software in the discovery of new knowledge has led to the creation of knowledge work systems. 03. Intelligent techniques have different objectives from a focus on discovering knowledge (through data mining and neural networks) to distilling knowledge (through expert systems and fuzzy logic) in the form of rules for a computer programme in order to discover optimal solutions for problems. Knowledge Portals Many organizations have integrated their content and document management capabilities with powerful portals and these will provide access to external sources of information, such as news feeds and research, as well as to internal knowledge resources along with capabilities for e mail, chat, discussion groups and video conferencing. Organizations are now using blogs, wikis and social book marking for internal use to facilitate the exchange of information between individuals and teams within organizations. 16 A learning Organization In more recent times, managers seem to be searching for new approaches to management. Fuelling this search is a range of new issues that modern managers face but that their historical counterparts did not. These issues include a concern about the competitive decline of western firms, the accelerating pace of technological change, the sophistication of customers, and an increasing emphasize on globalization. A new approach to management that is evolving to handle this new range of issues can e called as the learning organization approach. Organizational learning means the process of improving actions through better knowledge and understanding. Therefore under the organizational knowledge title organizational learning is another important fact which can be identified as a supportive term for the organizational knowledge. A learning organization is an organization skilled at creating, acquiring and transferring knowledge, and at modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights. Learning organizations emphasize systematic problem solving, experimentation, learning from their own experience and past history, transferring knowledge. These activities leading the organizations towards the fact of gaining competitive advantage by relying on the scientific method and data rather than assumptions, searching for and testing of new knowledge, reviewing their successes and failures, learning from others; specially from immediate environment, and spreading the knowledge throughout the organization quickly and efficiently. Actually the most important thing is that the using and sharing the knowledge which has collected. Otherwise there is no any created benefit from the knowledge to the organization, peculiarly learning from others and spreading the knowledge throughout the organization is become more important in this case. Learning occurs in two forms, those are single-loop and double-loop. Single loop learning asks a one dimensional question to expose one dimensional answer. Double loop learning takes an additional step or several additional steps. It might also ask why the current setting was chosen at the first place. In other words, it asks questions not only about objective facts but also reasons behind those facts. 17 A learning organization is focusing to create, acquire and transfer knowledge continuously from the environment and there by modify its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights. This involves mainly three areas. An organization has to follow ongoing programmes, designed to produce incremental gains in knowledge. An example to indicate that an organization can import new ideas from outside and apply it to daily operations; a case study, General Electric’s impact program originally sent manufacturing managers to Japan to study factory innovations, such as quality circles and kanban cards, and then apply them in their own organizations. This program was one of the major reasons that General Electric recorded productivity gains averaging nearly 5 % over the last four years. (Harvard business review on Knowledge Management, 2008) Successful ongoing programmes also require an incentive system that favors risk taking. Employees must feel that the benefits of experimentation exceeds the costs; if not they will not participate. This is challenging for managers, since they must maintain accountability and control over experiments without stifling creativity by unduly penalizing employees for failures. Companies must learn from past experiences and should review their successes and failures, assess them systematically and record the lessons in a form that employees find open and accessible. 18 Learning and the Knowledge Management The knowledge continuum shows the process of transforming data in to knowledge and wisdom. The knowledge continuum In this continuous process organizations acquire knowledge throughout its life cycle. Therefore learning plays very important role in the knowledge management process. Its probably appropriate to develop some perspective regarding this stuff called knowledge, which there seems to be such a desire to manage, really is. Consider this as a basis for thought relating to the following diagram. ? ? ? ? A collection of data is not information. A collection of information is not knowledge. A collection of knowledge is not wisdom. A collection of wisdom is not truth. The idea is that information, knowledge, and wisdom are more than simply collections. Rather, the whole represents more than the sum of its parts and has a synergy of its own. 19 8 Average Time (Hours) 4 6 Learning curve 2 10 20 quantity 60 30 40 120 180 240 Figure 07 – Learning Curve 20 Conclusion Organizations can achieve competitive advantage by focusing their knowledge Management efforts in harnessing their assets and competences in their core areas of operation, which can be identified by the value chain analysis approach. An organization progressively discover that value creating activities change over a period of time, and helps to identify value-creating activities faster thereby providing a strategic direction. As organizations evolve into more effective and efficient knowledge creators and knowledge consumers, the effects of knowledge management efforts should be measurable as knowledge management itself requires an investment of time, resources and manpower. Perhaps organizations will continue to create their own frameworks for valuation or be able to rely on a common methodology for such measurement regardless of the type of organization doing the evaluating. On the other hand, any organization, before framing a strategy, should analyze the industry and should understand all relevant parameters of industry growth. This analysis would yield results on the industry parameters like growth/ recession buyer/supplier power leading to determining the attractiveness of competition. The competitor analysis would reveal the strategy adopted by the competitors and identify the possible future movements of the competitors and to predict the strategies that are likely to be adopted by them. An organization can gain competitive advantage and sustain it only if it is able to understand the needs of the customer and track the changes in the customer needs. In this context, the analysis of the needs of customer gains importance. An organization should assess the resources and capabilities, before formulating a strategy, since the resources and capabilities should aid the operationalization of the chosen strategy. The right combination of resources and capabilities in the context of a strategy can be discovered through the process of knowledge management. In short, today? s organizations act with the theme of â€Å"Knowledge sharing is the power† instead of â€Å"Knowledge is the Power†, in order gain competitive advantages, by keeping a knowledge supporting culture, that management can support the knowledge creation and sharing, maintaining a perfect human resource policy which lead to minimize the employee turnover for the purpose of securing organizational memory in the organization.