1. Academic Staff College
Vallabh Vidynagar
th
20 orientation programme
Book Review
Knowledge Management: Tools & Techniques
Author: R. C. Agarwal
Publisher: ABD Publishers, Jaipur, India
Edition: First-2010, Pages: 232, Price: Rs. 725
Knowledge management is the discipline which promotes a systematic way of
capturing, organizing accessing and reusing of knowledge. Looking to the vast
importance attached to the field, many organizations are turning to knowledge
management initiatives and technologies to leverage their knowledge resources.
“Knowledge management: Tools & Techniques” is an attempt to bring before the
readers various tools and strategies in Knowledge management. In this endeavor, the
book explains each tools and strategy with reference to Knowledge management in
various organization and industries. Through deep investigation, the book brings to the
fore findings through analysis of Knowledge management in many organization and
industries.
The book has been divided into eight units. The book highlights the tools and
techniques of knowledge management in different areas like Beverage Industry, Law,
Public Transport Corporation., Telecommunication Industry, Public Organization, School
and Catering Industry. Each part of the book consist of research paper, article and case
studies.
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2. The first unit focuses on the implementation of knowledge management (KM) in
beverage industry in Asia. Various KM tools and strategies employed by food and
beverage organizations are discussed in worldwide aspect. It can help getting an
overview of the environment of the industry. Problems solved by those tools and
strategies are mentioned too. Real cases of e-learning portal establishment in an Asianbased beverage company are investigated to get deeper understanding on the
planning, implementation, maintenance and evaluation of KM project. Future
development trend of KM on an industry-wide base are covered as well.
The second unit is related to knowledge management in a Law Enforcement.
The increased adoption of information technology within law enforcement units and the
increasing of overall quality and information technology competence of law enforcement
officers, law enforcement units are well positioned to leverage knowledge management
principles and practices. This complemented by the enhanced skills, equipment and
empowerment given to the officers that will enable them to perform their duties at an
optimal level. In discussing the scope of knowledge management in law enforcement
units, Luen and Al-Hawamdeh (2001) mentioned two definitions of knowledge within the
context of knowledge management. There are two types of knowledge that need to be
managed within law enforcement units, explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge
The third unit focuses on Customer Knowledge Management (CKM) System in
a public Transport Corporation. In this unit the author has investigated how the concept
of CKM is implemented in the Asian public transport organization. An organization’s
understanding of the importance of customer knowledge will encourage the expansion
of its current knowledge management practices to beyond the organizational boundary.
The fourth unit is on role of Knowledge Management in telecommunication
industry. This report first presents briefly the importance of knowledge management to
the telecommunication industry; then it proceeds with a literature review that covers the
following
areas:
knowledge
management
strategies
and
tools,
KM
in
Telecommunication Industry, the challenges of KM in China and the future development
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3. of knowledge management. The third part of the report is the research methods. We
adopted the case study method approach with semi-structured interview with a senior
knowledge management consultant.
The fifth unit is on Knowledge Management Strategies in Public Organization.
There is relatively little information on knowledge management in the public sectors,
thus the knowledge management theories and frameworks applied in the public sectors
are not well understood. This report aims to study on the knowledge management
strategies in public organizations in Asia.
The
sixth
unit
is
about
Strategies
and
implementation
of
KM
in
telecommunication industry In this unit case study is used to illustrate some benefits in
KM Implementation like knowledge sharing allows staff tom learn other’s experience
and e-learning cultivates the self –learning motivation.
The author focuses on the tools and strategies the various organizations
employed and how the operational problems being solved and the improvement being
made after engaging such tools and strategies. The review also discusses the future
trend and development of knowledge management.
The seventh unit is related to KM in a school. A secondary school in Hong Kong is
used to see how KM support leaning and teaching. Although there has been a great
deal of recognition in the business world that information and knowledge management
can be vital tools in organizations, it is only recently that educational administrators and
teachers have begun to look at how they might use information systems to assist in
creating effective learning environments. This chapter explores how knowledge
management can be applied into school environment.
The last unit is about Knowledge management in Catering Industry. This unit
focuses how KM is important for facing competition and survives. In this section the
Chinese dining corporation is studied to find out how KM is implemented in catering
industry.
In my view, this book is a significant development for the field of knowledge.
Areas like Beverage Industry, Law, Public Transport Telecommunication, Catering and
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4. school is cover in this book. In this book new concepts are explained with additional
examples. The main limitation of the book is that all the cases and papers discussed in
this book is not related with Indian context. The language used in some units is also not
clear. There is also problem of organization of various units. Other important area like
marketing, HRM Government sector etc. should also be used for making the book more
effective.
The overall book is view is good .The book is based on KM research and details how to
develop a meaningful and measurable KM strategy. I found particularly helpful the
detailed discussion in the various chapters of the book
Ashok Gaur
Asst Prof.
C. P. Patel & F.H .Shah Commerce College,
Anand.
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