Artifact

Service Delivery: Key Benefits and Issues of Knowledge Management for Businesses

Introduction

Knowledge management practices play a significant role in improving service delivery. The significance of knowledge management in service delivery takes many forms, such as enhancement of quality and accessibility of services, provision of efficient electronic service delivery, as well as raising the degree of sufficiency of organizational decisions to meet customers’ interests. Furthermore, knowledge management ensures that there is an increased degree of transparency and effectiveness of the organizational spending in different services.

Improvement of services delivered to clients is viewed as one of the essential themes of an organization’s knowledge management initiatives. For instance, knowledge management helps in properly defining services and developing methods of measuring the quality of services. Further, knowledge management forms an essential part of an organization’s efforts to improve service delivery programs by establishing centralized front-office structures and call centers. Provision of important services to customers and users is a significant aspect of any business. Thus, many firms strive to offer excellent services to consumers. The role of user services or helpdesk service is to offer information regarding the operations of products and solving the challenges met by different user groups.

A Synthesis of the Literature Reviewed

Needs and Issues

Knowledge management plays an essential role in service delivery to users and customers. As service organizations continue to assume a major place in the improvements of economic development, there is an urgent need to understand the different service needs in order to operate efficiently. One such significant area where this understanding is absent is knowledge management Kianto and Andreeva (2014) assert that the service sector of the economy currently applies an increasing proportion of labor force in the developed world. Economic systems where the proportion of those employed in the service sector is adequately high merits being regarded as service-oriented economies. Thus, Kianto and Andreeva (2014) identify the need to utilize knowledge management in value creation and production services. To them, this requires a new specialized knowledge that is founded on the presumption that service activities basically differ from production. They define knowledge management as a set of deliberate organizational and managerial efforts aimed at improving knowledge procedures of the firm. To better improve the service sector, Kianto and Andreeva (2014) state that knowledge management must effectively improve the key features of services, which are inseparability and perishability. These features suggest that the generation, delivery, and consumption phases should be closely intertwined. This requires a form of heterogeneity, which inevitably results in high consumer involvements in the processes, as well as a more in-depth knowledge sharing between service suppliers and clients.

Dong, Johar and Kumar (2011) also identify the need for an improved service delivery mechanism for employees who work in widely dispersed localities and interact with each other to constitute knowledge-intensive service delivery networks. Due to the complexities associated with having to deliver services to consumers from such locations, Dong, Johar and Kumar (2011) maintains that these employees require an efficient knowledge management system that improves the interactions between workflow decisions, structures of information flow networks, as well as knowledge management decisions. As such, they recommend that knowledge regarding information flow networks and employee competence should be effectively utilized for making workflow decisions.

The study conducted by Dong, Johar and Kumar (2011) plays a significant role in the improved understanding of service systems and service system improvements. The above scholars assert that a good knowledge management system should improve service delivery through value co-creation and configurations of individuals, technologies, value propositions linking internal and external service systems, as well as shared information. As a way of meeting the need for value co-creation, Dong, Johar and Kumar (2011) present a mixed integer programming model that contains basic features of these value co-creation configurations. This is important for investigating the above research problem. They also suggest the utilization of IT-based knowledge management system for performing integrated business analytics that merges the aforementioned factors in support of the service workflow procedures. To them, the significance of such modeling can be found in their capacity to identify the essential factors and organize the controversies relating to trade-offs that influence the link between service orientation and business values. To them, their proposal can help in inducing organizational change. Moreover, such an endeavor would be in line with the overall of service understanding for the advancement of an organization’s capacity to develop, improve, as well as scale the service systems for the purpose of business and society.

How Knowledge Management Strategies Support and Inform Management Decisions, Innovation, and Key Business Processes

In view of the above challenges that need, various scholars have proposed ways in which knowledge management can be instrumental in supporting and informing management decisions, innovation and basic business processes for service delivery. For instance, Stewart and Wadell (2008) argue that knowledge management supports management decisions in service delivery sectors by improving the level of quality management. They assert that knowledge management is composed of two main components-knowledge acquisition and knowledge dissemination. Knowledge acquisition includes the procedures that the firm pursues as a way of determining what the clients’ expectations are of the services. Managers utilize quality procedures to ensure that they gather the kinds of data that they require to be able to better inform key decisions regarding consumers’ expectations and future needs. These formal quality procedures are considerably rampant and are regularly present in organizations that have achieved ISO 9000 certification.

While Stewart and Wadell (2008) hold that knowledge management in the service sector promotes managerial decision making through supporting quality management, Galanc, Kolzwan and Pieronek (2014) affirm that knowledge management helps to improve management decision making by organizing and structuring data gathered in a logical fashion. Through knowledge management, organizational decision makers are able to decide the kind of information processed is important, that is, what is true and what is hearsay. They argue that logic is a major component of science, and is being utilized by knowledge management teams to make decisions through operationalization of logics.

Departing from the significance of knowledge management systems in management decision making in service sectors, Mangiarotti and Mention (2015) choose to view knowledge management with respect to innovation. To them, knowledge management in the service sector improves innovation through codification and personalization efforts at both personal and joint levels. This helps in enhancing innovation propensity and innovation outputs. After gathering data from the Community Innovation Survey for Luxembourg, Mangiarotti and Mention (2015) found that personalization and codification impacts on innovation are strongly comparable. This is especially true on personalization, which exerts a firm impact on innovation output.

In sharp contrast to the above findings on innovation, Leal-Rodriguez et al. (2013) maintain that knowledge management boosts innovation through relational learning. Focusing on healthcare services as a case study, they reveal that knowledge management systems necessitate the sharing, gathering and use of explicit and tacit knowledge play a significant role in supporting organizational innovation. Further, they found that relational learning and innovation results are strongly correlated. This is because deep and wide knowledge base results in improved innovation outcomes, Furthermore, their survey showed that service industries such as hospitals that allocate much funds and take part in relational learning strategies are more likely to enhance innovations. Thus, they agree with Davenport’s views that knowledge management as a new discipline links it to innovation.

Long-Term Stability

The significance of knowledge management in service delivery extends to have major impacts on long-term stability. This fact is widely recognized by many scholars, but they conceive it in varying ways. For example, in his discussion of the significance of knowledge management on customer relationship management services, Wilde (2011) asserts that firms can only be able to survive in a highly turbulent surrounding if they initiate consumer –oriented learning procedures. Wilde (2011) adds that important knowledge management trends involve promotion of knowledge sharing culture within an organization and the collaboration between firms and their consumers. For Wilde, these practices are prerequisites for ensuring long-term stability in a tightly competitive environment that is characterized by tough economic times. Therefore, he links long-term stability to customer relationship knowledge management initiatives.

Al-Shammari (2010), however, views the relationship between knowledge management and long-term stability of a firm differently. He argues that long-term stability is primarily motivated by long-term commitment, which requires knowledge management systems. Al-Shammari (2010) describes long-term commitment as the urge to develop a stable relationship, readiness to make short-term sacrifices to keep the relationship, as well as having the confidence in the stability of the relationships. When an organization is devoted to a long-term relationship, the benefits that stem from the relationship will call for establishing utmost efforts to maintain it. The repetition and enhancement of tasks over time pushes people involved to come up with common knowledge and shared interpretations, thereby making sure that they understand where to seek data when needed. These conditions are important for long-term stability.

Conclusion

From the above discussions, knowledge management plays a significant role in service delivery. These include: increased accessibility to services by consumers, strengthening customer relationship services, enhancing innovation in the service sector, as well as informing management decisions. Most significantly, knowledge management ensures that there is long-term stability in organizations.

The information that I have amassed from the above discussions has reshaped my thinking and perception of knowledge management. This is especially true when it comes to strengthening long-term stability by improving commitment and a culture of knowledge sharing. Furthermore, I have learned that knowledge management plays a significant role in supporting management decision-making for the strategic benefit of an organization.

References

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