Decision Support System Based on Effective Knowledge Management Framework To Process Customer Order Enquiry [chapter]

Chike. F.
2010 Decision Support Systems  
Decision Support System Based on Effective Knowledge Management Framework To Process Customer Order Enquiry 337 3. Formalize and Present; how knowledge can be formalized and presented to ensure its use in existing and future projects. 4. Utilization; how the knowledge identified, captured and formalized can be integrated into products and decisions, and applied in other projects. Western and Japanese cultures both view knowledge differently; while the Japanese view knowledge as being primarily
more » ... acit (not easily seen or expressible), the West focuses on explicit knowledge expressed in words and numbers and therefore more easily communicated than tacit knowledge. Perceptions of knowledge seem to be rooted in culture. Nonaka, and Takeuchi (1995) , adopt a traditional definition of knowledge as" justified personal belief" and closely tied to an individual's or group's values and beliefs. On the other hand, Miller and Morris (1999) suggest that knowledge is gained when theory, information, and experience are integrated. Enterprise knowledge is thought to be a dynamic mix of individual, group, organisational and inter organisational experiences, values, information and expert insights. This concept originates in the minds of the individual knowledge workers, and then emerges as knowledge workers interact with each other and the environment, and finally knowledge is leveraged for efficient customer management and competitive advantage. Knowledge management is thought to be a discipline whose major objective is to develop methods and tools for detecting, leveraging, distributing and improving the knowledge assets of organisations (Cortes et al (2001) . Knowledge management background is thought to comprise organisational theory, information systems, knowledge representation, and human and machine learning. It is thought to be the systematic, goal oriented application of measures to steer and control the tangible and intangible knowledge assets of organisations, with the aim of using existing knowledge inside and outside of these organisations to enable the creation of new knowledge and generate value, innovation and improvement out of it. (Jaime et al 2006) . Global business enterprises are aware that access to essential operations information will enable them maintain competitive advantage and thereby stay one step ahead of other businesses. They therefore need to develop an effective knowledge management strategy both for the benefit of their employees and customers in order to support decision making process and thereby remain sustainable. Knowledge management concept has increasingly become fashionable however, many organisations are still unable to develop and leverage knowledge to enhance business performance. In most cases organisational knowledge are fragmented, sometimes difficult to locate and therefore to leverage, share and reuse. Tacit knowledge exists in the minds of employees and therefore may not be available to process customer queries and enquiries. There is a need therefore to develop robust decision support systems to capture, store, share and leverage data, information and knowledge. Decision support systems will enable the transformation of tacit to implicit knowledge to be shared and leveraged for improved decision making. They will also enable the conversion of explicit to implicit knowledge a process of internalisation. There are various perspectives of knowledge management; strategic knowledge management -deals with pinpointing opportunities to find, distribute and transfer knowledge related to long term goals of an organisation; tactical knowledge management finds, distributes and transfers knowledge for the medium term organisational goals; operational knowledge management is associated with daily or short term operations . They developed a knowledge management framework demonstrating how design information and knowledge, manufacturing information and knowledge,
doi:10.5772/39455 fatcat:usqqtfn6qvcvjncgwdualwypnq