UTAR Department of Soft Skills Competency (DSSC) of Kampar Campus organised an online workshop titled “Knowledge Management’s theory and practice” on 17 July 2020 via Zoom.

The webinar was conducted by Distinguished Professor of the Department of Counselling Psychology and Human Resource Development, Institute of lifelong learning and Human Resource Development, National Chi Nan University (NCNU), Taiwan Prof Dr Wu Ming-Lieh. During the workshop, he explained the meaning and implication of knowledge management, stages of knowledge management, strategies and practices of knowledge management and the practical application of knowledge management.

Prof Wu graduated from the Free University of Berlin. His research interest included lifelong learning, organisational learning, knowledge management, human resource development and adult education.

Also present at the webinar were UTAR Vice President for Student Development and Alumni Relations Prof Dr Choong Chee Keong, HRDF Approved Service Provider and Trainer Ng Thian Watt, DSSC Head of Kampar Campus Hee Chwen Yee, Senior Assistant Manager Lee Sie Yun, staff and students.

In his welcome address, Prof Choong thanked Prof Wu for his support, Ng for the connection and DSSC for their effort in making the event a success. He said, “The COVID-19 outbreak has affected the normal learning environment of all higher learning institutions. One of the difficulties include students unable to participate in short-term exchange programmes or study abroad. However, as the Chinese verse says, ‘After endless mountains and rivers that leave doubt whether there is a path out, suddenly one encounters the shade of a willow, bright flowers and a lovely village’ (山重水复疑无路，柳暗花明又一村), the pandemic, coupled with the convenience brought by technology has brought a new norm to people’s work, study and lifestyle. Therefore, UTAR believes that by making good use of the technology, it will help to guide the students to connect with the international communities and learn from the world, thereby improving students’ international experience. Just like this ‘new norm’ online workshop, all participants can directly participate in Prof Wu’s sharing with the convenience of technology without any environmental and geographic limitations.”

Prior to this, Prof Wu has visited Malaysia several times to conduct interviews, exchanges and courses. He had also led a number of students to visit UTAR last year.

He first gave a brief introduction on knowledge management and explained, “Knowledge management is highly valued in society today. Its origin lies in the organisation’s demand for the development of Science, manpower and intellectual capital, and it has become an independent discipline. This can be attributed to the change from labour management to brainpower management, and the growth of a large amount of knowledge caused by technology integration of computer, scientific research, telecommunications, digital television and internet.”

“In modern society, everyone is a knowledge worker because we use knowledge to engage in knowledge-related professional work and exert professional influence. Therefore, in the process of the development of a knowledge-intensive society, we need to cultivate the ability of knowledge management, so that we can have better dedication in our profession in the future,” he said.

He also stated the difference between individual and organisational knowledge management, and added, “According to the American Productivity and Quality Center, knowledge management is a deliberate strategy to encourage the right people to obtain the right knowledge at the right time, and help people to share information and take actions to improve organisational effectiveness. Knowledge management is the process of promoting people’s implicit knowledge to be externalised, so as to effectively use the efficiency of knowledge in the organisation. Knowledge management is the process of effectively acquiring knowledge, storing knowledge, sharing knowledge, applying knowledge, and innovating knowledge, so as to exert the best value of knowledge and promote the sustainable development of individuals and organisations.”

Later, he analysed the importance of knowledge management and said, “Knowledge is an important asset of an organisation. Knowledge management helps to activate organisational communication and interaction to obtain the best inheritance and continuation of knowledge, to establish best practises, to promote the development of organisation members and to enhance organisational effectiveness. The pace of society is getting faster and faster, and the challenges facing mankind are getting bigger and bigger, and knowledge management allows individuals and organisations to obtain better sustainable development. Effective knowledge management strategies are not simply technological strategies, but a balanced mix of technology, cultural changes, and new reward systems, and it is consistent with the pace of organisational strategies.” 

Regarding the selection of team members, he mentioned, “It is inevitably difficult to promote knowledge management by one or two people. It is recommended to form a cross-departmental knowledge team to promote knowledge management, and it is also best to look for people with considerable qualifications and expertise, enthusiasm, and willingness to communicate and share. Today, people and organisational knowledge have become the most important organisational assets in the age of lifelong learning. An organisation is an entity made up of people. The main body that is really absorbing, using and producing knowledge is the members of the organisation. Therefore, to effectively manage organisational knowledge, it is necessary to fully grasp and gather the members’ personal knowledge of the organisation first, and then transform it into organisational knowledge.”

“However, there are a lot of obstacles to be overcome when promoting knowledge management in an organisation, including the vagueness of the organisation members on the concept of knowledge management; the ideal of knowledge sharing has always been easy to accept, but not easy to be implemented; and knowledge management fails to connect with the goals of the organisation, hence leading to insufficient attention by the management on knowledge management. Therefore, if an organisation wants to manage knowledge effectively, it must eliminate these factors that affect changes,” he revealed.

He also shared a few action research cases related to knowledge management to enable participants to have a more specific understanding on the practice of knowledge management.

“Facing the advent of the knowledge economy era, the key to making organisational reform successful is to create value through knowledge and enhance organisational competitiveness. Most importantly, I hope that today’s sharing will be insightful to the participants, especially students, to improve personal professional ability, and be well used in the future workplace,” Prof Wu concluded.