AUDIT REPORT & RECOMMENDATIONS

3. AUDIT REPORT 

Knowledge Audit report, present conclusions and suggested list of suitable actions in facilitating the KM implementation. The audit report reflected on the following issues that were found as a result of the  report and survey instrument used to collect first hand data.

• There has been lack of knowledge sharing from the top to the bottom of the organization. Information has been residing with people more than being made available and shared. The culture of knowledge sharing has been distorted.

• Information has been available in various areas of the organization, such as intranet, website, folders and in various format. Staff and tutors lacked the knowledge of retrieving such information, as well as understanding how the information is organized

• Tutors consultation and administrative activities was not organized as this was performed manually, hence the recommendation of technology to streamline the activities.

• There was not enough budget to maintain the tutor program activities, such as creating career development for the tutors and the program to have more support for students learning. such as extra curricular activities

As a results these are the issues that were raised by the audit as concern and requires attention for improvement, below are the recommendations made to sole the issues discussed.

4.RECOMMENDATIONS

In flagging the findings addressed by the knowledge audit conducted in the Independent Institute of Education, the assignment discusses the recommendations made by the audit team that can be applied to achieve the goals of the organization. This further includes the results of the survey that came out and guide the issues to be addressed and recommendations to be made.

4.1 The result of the knowledge audit and survey conducted indicated that there is lack of knowledge sharing in the organization, little is done in the area. Most of the information is available in strategic documents online in various platforms. The audit team suggested that this should be promoted starting from the top management filtering down to staff. The management should take the lead in driving the culture of knowledge management. Tools and resources should also be made available for utilization and promotion of knowledge sharing.

 4.2 There should be  creation of social activities where tutors and other staff can have formal and informal conversation. This is another method of promoting knowledge sharing. An example of this is the case where an experienced tutor (7 years) is having a conversation with a new tutor. In this case tacit knowledge is being shared so easily. The SECI MODEL created by (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995) thus, is adopted in this context since it ties in with socialization frame in the model as an activity that promotes knowledge sharing through social interaction. The SECI MODEL sees socialization as sharing of tacit knowledge. An example is tutors sharing tacit knowledge with other tutors during social settings. Tacit knowledge can also be converted to tacit knowledge. 

 4.3 Lack of organizing and storing of the information within the institution. Some of the information is available and stored in  documents but is not systematically organized according to a certain format that makes it easy for staff and tutors to find information, such as no coding, or including creation and naming of folders for an example. In this case knowledge is present in the form of tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge. In this case Jasimmudi & Zhang (2014) suggest that explicit knowledge can easily be communicated and stored because such knowledge is codified. Codification of knowledge as suggested implies the order that can help the staff to transmit, making it easily available. This is further supported by Jasimmudi and Zhang (2014) statement of the codification strategy which focuses on explicit knowledge, allowing knowledge to be easily articulated and store in the computer, so that relevant knowledge is available to use.

4.4 As a result of this idea, some of the organizations are investing on electronic systems to organize and store organizational knowledge. In this case for tutors the author is suggesting the use of the libstats-online as an electronic system to capture, organize and store information for the tutoring program. As indicated earlier the process and workflow for tutoring program is done manual especially the application forms and other administrative activities such as use of excel spreadsheet to capture the consultation sessions. The application of this system within tutoring program administrative activities, will create smooth running of the process, there will be proper record keeping and will assist in making informed decision based on the program

Finally, the last recommendation made and encouraged was benchmarking and partnering with other universities on the same program to share best practice which can assist in developing the program within the institution. 

5.CONCLUSION

Despite the limitations based on lack of time and shortage of staff to conduct knowledge audit, the audit methodology used has been very useful in collecting data  to improve various areas of the business performance. Numerous lessons have been learned when conducting knowledge audit, one of the significant aspect noted is that, to conduct Knowledge Audit, the knowledge audit team needs to acquire a through overview  of the operations and workflows and to get a strategic  vision  for knowledge management road map development. Knowledge Audit  process needs a strong support  from the organizational leadership, commitment and engagement of all employees. 

Employees should understand and support it. Without the application of the issues highlighted, there is a possibility of failure in the process of conducting the audit. However it would be interesting for further research to investigate  numerous best practice cases and make comparative study. This will assist other researchers to draw on that practice for planning on implementing KM strategy that is in line with the objectives of the organization.

On that note, companies should be encouraged to invest in knowledge audit as it yields beneficiary results that boost the performance of the organization.

References

Jasimuddin, Sajjad M, & Zhang, Zuopeng. (2014). Knowledge management strategy and organizational culture. The Journal of the Operational Research Society, 65(10), 1490-1500.

Nonaka IO, Takeuchi H (1995) The knowledge-creating company: how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation. Oxford University Press, New York. GoogleScholar