INVESTIGATING ORGANIZATIONAL KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN CONTROL AND SUPERVISION (GENERAL INSPECTION ORGANIZATION) Mohammad Mehdi Davali 22 ( Corresponding Author) Mohammad Esmaeil Ansari 23 Abstract In today s world in which changes occur quickly and knowledge has a special position, knowledge management has particular importance and this has led organizations realize the importance of knowledge management in their policy-makings and giving services to people. The main purpose of this research is the application of organizational knowledge management for controlling and supervising in General Inspection Organization of Iran. To do so Juching Lin and Ping Tsring model was used and knowledge management process in this model includes: 1- data collection 2- knowledge extraction 3- forming and reserving the knowledge 4- distributing and sharing the knowledge 5- updating the knowledge. In this study questionnaire and confirmed by experts is used. Thirty pre-test questionnaire distributed through the reliability by Cronbach's alpha coefficient (0.90) and validity was determined by face validity. The study population included 830 patients who were 209 people, including service personnel (67) and administrative staff (142) were excluded from society. The sample size was calculated using the formula Cochrane 201 and questionnaire return rate was 94% Data were analyzed by SPSS software in two descriptive and inferential level and it indicated that there is a significant relationship between knowledge management and control and supervision process and it means knowledge management has been effective in control and supervision process through affecting on decrease in costs, decrease in time, prevents of repetitions, decrease in the risk of losing knowledge when individuals leave the organization, decrease in dependence of knowledge to individuals and increases the speed of access to organizational knowledge and this effect has been higher than mean in all indices. Key Words: Data, Information, Knowledge, Knowledge Management, Control and supervision 22 Faculty member, Department of Management, Payam-e-Noor University,Tehran,IRAN 23 Faculty Member, Department of Management, Isfahan University COPY RIGHT 2012 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 1077
Introduction Nowadays, many large companies of the world move toward growth and development by applying and operationalizing knowledge management. They have found that knowledge management prevents many repetitions in tasks and reduces the expenses and time required for doing things in organization. The environment of the organization is always changing which requires accurate and update control and supervision. Also, control is one of the main bases of management. Thus, in order to enhance effectiveness and efficiency of control and supervision, transformation from traditional view to the modern one is necessary. It seems that applying knowledge management in control and supervision can improve the process of supervision and can help to accomplish this basis of management in the competitive arena of today. Since the General Inspection Organization is one of the pioneers and main supervisory organizations, in the present study, it was attempted to investigate the application of knowledge management in this organization. 1.1. Statement of the problem The issue of control and supervision is one of the main bases of modern management in all systems, and one of the inevitable requirements of healthy and efficient management. The studies conducted in Iran indicate that supervisory structures and processes are generally faced with problems. Perhaps, the most important problem is when control and supervisory processes occur and experiences are gained in this regard. These experiences remain in the minds of people involved in the processes of control and supervision. If those people go out of the organization for any reason (e.g. retirement, resignation, transfer, dismissal, death, etc.), the experiences would never be applied and the new staff or substitute individuals are required to repeat the jobs to gain experiences. This leads to increase in expenses and waste of time in control and supervision which prevents realization of supervisory goals. Organizations use knowledge management for numerous reasons, one of which is the enhancement of innovation within the organization. Other important reasons for employing knowledge management are preserving knowledge, preserving people or human capital, and benefiting from the knowledge and insight of the staff. Now, if previous knowledge and experience is maintained, two advantages are obtained: COPY RIGHT 2012 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 1078
1. Increase in the speed and accuracy of supervision due to prior experiences which reduces the costs and prevents waste of time. 2. Prevents reliance of supervision and control system upon specific individuals in the organization (Zarabadipoor, 2006: 4). Since The General Inspection Organization, as the main supervisory organization of the country aims at establishment of an organization with effective, efficient, and trustable supervision, it needs to change the view from traditional supervision to the modern one. In this regard, it seems that applying knowledge management in control and supervision can improve this process and enhance this basis of management in today s competitive environment. The present study intends to find out the answer to this question: is knowledge management applied in control and supervision? 1.2. Significance of the study The knowledge environment where today s organizations function is very complex than that of some centuries ago. This is mainly due to three interrelated trends, i.e. the rate of knowledge growth explosion, the level of knowledge experience (specialism), and globalization of knowledge (Probest, Robe and Romhardt, 2006:16). The organizations must be aware that they need the skill of knowledge leadership not only for remaining competitive but also for becoming innovative. Since knowledge is the main factor for competition and the main resource of governmental organizations, the effective performance of these organizations depend upon the accurate and effective distribution of knowledge. Considering the fact that the unconditional exit of organizational knowledge and experience due to various reasons (e.g. resignation, dismissal, death, mission, transfer to other organizations, etc.) is one of the drawbacks in organizations which leads to decrease in the speed of access to organizational knowledge, repetitions, high expenses, and waste of time, and presents a new challenge for retaining organizational knowledge and memory, proper management of knowledge can solve these problems faced by the organizations. Supervision and control of the performance of many organizational factors is one of the bases of management which ensures the movement of all factors toward predetermined goals. COPY RIGHT 2012 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 1079
The process of supervision and control deals with the analysis of previous (past-oriented or feedback), present (control of the time of occurrence), and future (future-oriented control) data and information (Alvani, 2004: 120). Hence, disregarding knowledge, not implementing knowledge management, and lack of practical application of its processes in the organization lead to decrease in organizational effectiveness and efficiency. Due to the fact that the General Inspection Organization is the main supervisory institute of the company and one of the bases of Judicial Power, its supervisory role guarantees the health of administrative organizations. Thus, use of update knowledge and access to the most recent scientific and research findings is mandatory. On the other hand, success and improvement in every system are realized by effective and efficient supervision which is exerted in various stages which, in turn, doubles the importance of applying knowledge management in the supervision process. 1.3. Research hypotheses 1. Knowledge management prevents repetitions in the process of control and supervision. 2. Knowledge management in the process of control and supervision reduces the risk of losing knowledge due to individuals leaving the organization. 3. Knowledge management reduces the time spent for control and supervision. 4. Knowledge management reduces the cost of control and supervision. 5. Knowledge management reduces dependence upon individuals knowledge in the process of control and supervision. 6. Knowledge management increases the speed of access to organizational knowledge in the process of control and supervision. 2. Knowledge management 2.1. Yu-Cheng Lin and H. Ping Tsering Model Yu-Cheng Lin and Ping Tsering from Taiwan State University (2004) developed the system of explicit and implicit knowledge management on the basis of project activities in order to maintaining and reusing knowledge. In this system, they documented the implicit knowledge of project including experiences, innovation, know-how, problem solving, reasons of delay, etc. and the explicit knowledge of project including reports, plans, guides, etc. based on the COPY RIGHT 2012 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 1080
structure of job failure and placed them under a knowledge management system. They followed the following objectives in this system: 1. Decreasing dependence upon individuals knowledge; 2. Reducing the risk of losing knowledge due individuals abandoning of project; 3. Increasing the speed of access to knowledge; 4. Preventing repetition of jobs; 5. Reducing project time and cost. To this aim, they employed the system for constructing a bridge. The bridge was constructed in one month for the first time and all resulting knowledge and experiences were put in the system. A similar bridge was construed in only two weeks using this system. In the system of knowledge management, they used a cycle of 5 stages each of which had a lower level. A) Data collection One method of gaining new knowledge is cooperation with and participation in other sectors of the industry and competition in the working area of the organization to make use of the innovations of other organizations. Data can be collected both within and outside of the organization; within the organization, by decision-making about how knowledge enables individuals to do things and what progress must be made to make individuals learn; and outside the organization, by trying to obtain knowledge and skills from other organizations and institutes through recruiting appropriate staff with enough experience, or by making relations with other organizations. Practically, tools such as telephone, video conference, Internet, Intranet are useful by which the organization can purchase the knowledge that cannot develop itself (Alvis and Hartman, 2008: 138). B) Knowledge extraction After data collection, the knowledge is extracted which includes lessons learners and suggestions. This knowledge is usually in the minds of people involved in the organization. C) Shaping and saving knowledge COPY RIGHT 2012 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 1081
The processes of maintaining knowledge includes which knowledge is maintained where and up to what time, and how this maintenance must be to provide the possibility of maximum evaluation. The knowledge of potential value for the future must be regularly selected, saved, and updated. This is the responsibility of libraries and information centers because saving of existing knowledge depends upon effective use at the appropriate time. D) Publication and sharing of knowledge Knowledge management is beyond technology; through knowledge technology is undoubtedly part of knowledge management. It is clear that access to some new technologies such as Web networks and Internet accelerates and facilitates the movement of knowledge management (Rahmanseresht, 2000: 183). Knowledge without Information Technology (IT) has very limited capability. The greatest advantage of technology in knowledge management is increasing the access to knowledge and accelerating its transfer. IT provides the possibility to extract knowledge from the minds of its owners (Afrazeh, 2005). In fact, one of the best ways to publish knowledge is the use of IT. Distribution and sharing of knowledge by experienced and specialized people among all individuals is one of the main tools of knowledge management. E) Updating knowledge Along with environmental changes and the passage of time, it is necessary to update the existing organizational knowledge and information, and to equip ourselves with the most recent information and knowledge to be able to compete with other competitors and provide services with highest quality. 2.2. The reason of selecting the model The goals mentioned in the model were the same as the goals of effective and efficient control and supervision stated in the study, therefore, Yu-Cheng Lin and H. Ping Tsering Model was selected to achieve better and acceptable results. COPY RIGHT 2012 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 1082
Since it is expected to determined indices for measuring the expected results, there must be indices in the process of control by which the achievement of specific results can be measured. The indices must be selected in a way to have direct relationship with the issue of control (Alvani, 2004: 124). The selected indices affecting the process of control and supervision are the goals of selected model that must be achieved by running the model. 3. Organizational control and supervision Basically, the necessity of control refers to the necessity of management; for, management is always faced with a percentage of error and deviation in implementing its plans and realizing its goal. This is called Murphy law in the literature of management, i.e. an individual can almost be sure that the events will not proceed according to the plan (Kritner, 1992: 522). Nowadays, the environmental conditions reveal the necessity of control more than ever before. Some of these conditions include: The speed of changes (the necessity of continuous supervision and appropriate reaction to changing condition); Intensification of errors (the errors will progressively increase if they are not corrected in timely manner); Organizational complexity (the necessity of a comprehensive control system in today s large organizations of with various products) The necessity of reducing expenses and improving the quality in today s competitive situation (Griffin, 1993: 477). As it can be seen, the most important reason of failure of controls and the main outcome of inappropriate controls are related to human forces. Nowadays, specifically with increasing training of the workers and qualitative growth of professions, the situation has been changed. Most American managers believe that accurate control leads to decrease in the production and motivation of the workers and it is not possible to motivate the workers through past structures and official hierarchies. From the new perspective, the process of control enables managers to monitor the progress of jobs without interfering in staffs jobs and obstructing their innovation (Stoner, freeman, 1996: 1262). COPY RIGHT 2012 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 1083
Considering the above-mentioned points, the goals of organizations from control and supervision can be summarized as following: 1. Preventing the errors and deviations, and doing things according to the defined laws and standards; 2. Keeping update and gaining enough awareness from environmental changes; 3. Decreasing expenses; 4. Reducing the time of doing jobs 5. Preventing repetitions; 6. Increasing the quality; 7. Making profit, etc. 4. Research methodology In this study, library research and literature review, as well as experimental methods, such as questionnaire are used. Thus, it can be argued that the methodology employed in present study is descriptive-survey. 4.1. The statistical population and sample The statistical population involved all the staff of General Inspection Organization, except for service workers (67 individuals) and office clerks (142 individuals). In sum, the total number of the sample was 621. Stratified random sampling relative to sample size was used for sampling, and the units of statistical sample were selected through random sampling. In this study, in order to determine the size of the sample, a pilot study was conducted by administering the questionnaire among 30 staffs. In this way, the sample size was calculated to be 201 by Cochran formula at 95% of significance level. 4.2. Data collection instrument A researcher-developed questionnaire was used in this study. It included 30 main and 6 minor questions developed in Likert format in order to test research hypotheses. In this study, face validity was used to estimate the validity of the instrument. Face validity of a measure is usually estimated by the experts and specialists of a field of study. COPY RIGHT 2012 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 1084
The Alpha Cronbach coefficient of the pilot study conducted with 30 questionnaires was calculated by SPSS software to be 0.90. 4.3. The site of the study: Iran, Tehran, The General Inspection Organization 4.4. Data analysis In the present study, the methods of descriptive statistics such as tables of absolute frequency, percentage, and mean were used for comparing the data collected by the questionnaire. In inferential statistics, univariate t-test and Fridman test were utilized. 5. Statistical analysis 5.1. Descriptive analysis The results of descriptive analysis are presented in the following Tables: Frequency distribution of respondents according to education Education Abundance Frequency Ph.D 12 6.3 MA 70 37 BA 94 49.7 Resourceful 8 4.2 Diploma 5 2.6 Sum 189 100 Frequency of Respondents by Gender Gender Abundance Frequency Male 158 83.6 Female 31 16.4 Sum 189 100 Frequency of Respondents by Job Category Gender Abundance Frequency Manager 14 7.4 Expert 175 92.6 Sum 189 100 Frequency distribution according to employment field Occupation Abundance Frequency Formation 112 59.3 Staff 77 40.7 Sum 189 100 Statistical indicators of age-related Age Abundance Frequency 25 to 40 130 68.8 40 to 55 42 22.2 55 to 70 17 9 Sum 189 100 COPY RIGHT 2012 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 1085
5.2. Inferential statistics: Hypothesis 1: Knowledge management prevents repetitions in the process of control and supervision. Table 1. Comparison of the mean score of preventing repetitions Value=3 Variable Standard deviation mean T-value df Level of significance Prevention of repetitions 0.825 4.04 17.32 188 0.001 According to Table 1, the level of prevention of repetitions in the process of control and supervision is t = 17.32 which is significant at level of P<0.001. therefore, the hypothesis of knowledge management prevention of repetitions in the process of control and supervision is confirmed and the null hypothesis is rejected. Hypothesis 2: Knowledge management in the process of control and supervision reduces the risk of losing knowledge due to individuals leaving the organization. Table 2. Comparison of the mean score of reduces the risk of losing knowledge due to individuals leaving the organization Value=3 Variable Standard mean T-value df Level of significance deviation reduces the risk of losing knowledge due to individuals leaving the organization 0.635 3.92 19.81 188 0.001 According to Table 2, the level of reduces the risk of losing knowledge due to individuals leaving the organization in the process of control and supervision is t = 19.81 which is significant at level of P<0.001. therefore, the hypothesis of knowledge management in the COPY RIGHT 2012 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 1086
process of control and supervision reduces the risk of losing knowledge due to individuals leaving the organization is confirmed and the null hypothesis is rejected. Hypothesis 3: Knowledge management reduces the time spent for control and supervision. Table 3. Comparison of the mean score of reduces the time Value=3 Variable Standard deviation mean T-value df Level of significance reduces the time 2.40 4.18 6.73 188 0.001 According to Table 3,the level of reduces the time in the process of control and supervision is t = 6.73 which is significant at level of P<0.001. therefore, the hypothesis of knowledge management reduces the time in the process of control and supervision is confirmed and the null hypothesis is rejected. Hypothesis 4: Knowledge management reduces the cost of control and supervision. Table 4. Comparison of the mean score of reduces the cost Value=3 Variable Standard deviation mean T-value df Level of significance reduces the cost 0.95 3.81 11.65 188 0.001 According to Table 4, the level of reduces the cost in the process of control and supervision is t = 11.65 which is significant at level of P<0.001. therefore, the hypothesis of knowledge management reduces the cost of control and supervision is confirmed and the null hypothesis is rejected Hypothesis 5: Knowledge management reduces dependence upon individuals knowledge in the process of control and supervision. COPY RIGHT 2012 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 1087
Table 5. Comparison of the mean score of reduces dependence upon individuals knowledge Value=3 Variable Standard deviation mean T-value df Level of significance reduces dependence upon individuals knowledge 0.71 3.72 13.92 188 0.001 According to Table 5, the level of reduces dependence upon individuals knowledge in the process of control and supervision is t = 13.92 which is significant at level of P<0.001. therefore, the hypothesis of knowledge management reduces dependence upon individuals knowledge in the process of control and supervision is confirmed and the null hypothesis is rejected Hypothesis 6: Knowledge management increases the speed of access to organizational knowledge in the process of control and supervision. Table 6. Comparison of the mean score increases the speed of access to organizational knowledge Value=3 Variable Standard deviation mean T-value df Level of significance increases the speed of access to organizational knowledge 0.611 4.02 22.88 188 0.001 According to Table 6, the level of increases the speed of access to organizational knowledge in the process of control and supervision is t = 22.88 which is significant at level of P<0.001. therefore, the hypothesis of knowledge management increases the speed of access to organizational knowledge in the process of control and supervision is confirmed and the null hypothesis is rejected Conclusion Analysis of the findings related to research hypotheses revealed that according to the views of the staff of General Inspection Organization, the effect of knowledge management process on the COPY RIGHT 2012 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 1088
control and inspection is more than average. This means that there is a significant relationship between the process of knowledge management and control and supervision. According to the results obtained from Friedman test, it can be concluded that the highest impact of knowledge management is through the influential indices selected based on the views of the staff. That is to say, in the first place, knowledge management in the process of control and supervision leads to the decrease of dependence on the knowledge of the individuals, and secondly, results in the reduction of risk of losing organizational knowledge due to leaving the organization by the individuals. It also reduces the costs and time. It prevents repetition of jobs and increases the access to organizational knowledge in the process of control and supervision. COPY RIGHT 2012 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 1089
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