The role of the knowledge worker
R. A. Weerawardane
With Sri Lanka moving towards becoming the wonder of Asia, many
innovative and strategic development initiatives are being introduced
and carried out to accelerate the country’s growth, in keeping with the
milestones set.
In this context, it becomes imperative that Sri Lanka has a skilled
work force to drive these initiatives to its successful completion.
With Sri Lanka making significant advances in the field of ICT, and
with IT penetration reaching village level, the time has now come for us
to embark upon creating
Knowledge management and social learning plays a pivotal role in
the growth of an individual |
a new era, where Sri Lankans would be on par or even surpasses
developed nations with relation to the level of literacy and creating a
knowledgeable and skilled workforce who would be sought after by every
nation.
This paves the way for individuals to develop themselves, thus,
fostering innovation and research.
In the current context where the world has globalized, connecting
many countries and people and with the advancements in information
technology, which has created a ‘Information Society’, it has further
evolved into the ‘Knowledge Economy’ or ‘Knowledge-based Economy’ which
we see today, where people seek and gain knowledge through the use of
the internet or various publications and through one’s own insights and
experience.
With an ever increasing competition amongst organizations, countries
and even among individuals, the sharing and retention of knowledge has
become a key factor in ensuring one’s competitive advantage and
reinforcing one’s position as ‘the key player’.
Knowledge is in essence, experience, information and insights gained
by an individual through time, or processes and practices of an
organization.
Knowledge Management (KM) comprises capturing, retention,
dissemination and refinement of this knowledge into meaningful
information.
With eLearning solutions that provide formal learning becoming quite
popular and widespread in commercial organizations, managers of Human
Resource and Training departments are now comfortable with the idea that
an increasing number of training programs can be provided in e-mode.
With this growing acceptance, there is also increasing interest in
the area of informal learning or social learning.
The delivery of informal learning itself is undergoing a
transformation, driven and inspired by the success of knowledge and
content sharing sites such as Wikipedia, Flickr and YouTube and social
networking sites such as Facebook.
Two facts have been made apparent with the success of these websites;
first, that though many mediums of solitary entertainment are now
available people still yearn for human interaction and second, that a
majority of people who are in the possession of information, knowledge
or entertainment content do like to share it with others, be it for
fame, prestige, the simple need to help someone else or the desire to
make the world a better place.
Another aspect that affects the sphere of e-learning is the success
of “Professional Networking” sites such as LinkedIn, where increasing
numbers of people stay in contact with ex-colleagues and professional
associates, be it to create new business or career opportunities or
simply to maintain relationships.
What is interesting is that this mechanism, with information that is
only validated by one’s community of associates, is quite effective when
the need to locate a Subject Matter Expert arises.
In today’s Information Era, where individuals require instant and
easy access to information and the ability to transfer knowledge freely,
it is imperative that organizations and institutions consider the
retention and dissemination of knowledge and invests on a mechanism
which would enable them to have an edge over competitors and to secure
this invaluable asset of information for future use.
In order to succeed in this rapidly evolving context, an individual
as well as an organization must equip themselves with the latest
information, secure age old trade secrets and also retain the wisdom and
knowledge, which a person gains through experience.
In the context of an organization, due to employee turnover, the
organization faces the risk of not only loosing experienced employees
but also the knowledge and expertise gained by the individual.
The only mechanism of securing this knowledge is by creating a
knowledge sharing culture, where individuals are encouraged to share
their experiences, thoughts and practical know-how, thus, creating a
knowledge empowered worker.
With the advent of blogging, social networking, micro messaging and
the creation of distributed corporate cultures, knowledge management has
taken on a new face where social learning components, such as, rating,
tagging and ranking has been introduced into knowledge management
solutions along with collaboration mechanisms of commenting,
suggestions, bookmarking and creating a complete knowledge management
solution.
The iKnowledgeKMS was developed after an in-depth study of this
sphere, incorporating Web 2.0 functionality, using Microsoft. NET as the
platform.
The product encompasses the capture of knowledge, in any digital or
non-digital form, through documents, images, audio and video clips, and
customizable work flows, to ensure that knowledge items submitted by
users are verified before publication for mass consumption.
The product reinforces collaboration and includes social learning
features through commenting, rating, ranking, tagging, suggestions and
flagging to motivate contributors and to ensure accuracy and the
continuous improvement of the knowledge base.
In this information age, knowledge management and social learning
plays a pivotal role in the growth of an individual, an organization as
well as a nation as a whole.
Hence, it becomes crucial that we as an organization and as
individuals, look into the use of this practice to gain and retain a
competitive advantage and to retain knowledge and expertise of
individuals within an organization, and finally in the country itself,
thus, making Sri Lanka the true wonder of Asia.
(The writer is a
Project Manager at i-Context Content Convergence (Pvt) Ltd., Colombo.)
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