Learn how to manage and retain, communicate and transfer critical knowledge  in small and medium size organizations with powerDOCUMENTS.

White-Paper "Knowledge Retention: How to manage knowledge in small and mid-size companies."  
(pdf, 200kb)

White-Paper "Wissen managen in kleinen und mittelständischen Unternehmen (KMU)." (german, pdf, 200kb)

Management of Intellectual Capital is gaining in meaning in today´s age of knowledge society in all forms of organizations. In an environment of global markets and ever increasing integration of products and services, the use of purposeful and critical knowledge and the expertise of employees is becoming more important. The conditions to persue this, are often more favorable in small and medium size companies than in the large organizations. Large organizations spend significant amount of resources towards downsizing their knowledge management solutions into small units. This is to take advantage of small and manageable solutions. For example, to simulate the advantages of informal face to face contacts, a lot of technical effort is involved. In small and medium size organizations, this is everyday work.

So small and medium size organizations can use this natural advantage to a better management of their "Knowledge" and motivate their employees for :

• Transparency and a flat hierarchy structure
• Possibility of a quick and an informal exchange of information
• Trustworthy and homely corporate culture

It is much easier in small and medium size organizations to support the management through "Knowledge" using proper IT infrastructure . This reduces the cost per employee and furthermore, the success is achievable in a much shorter period.

Knowledge Loss and Knowledge Retention
Problem Areas of Knowledge Loss and Knowledge Retention

Six Steps to successful "Sharing and Retention" of Knowledge using powerDOCUMENTS
Step 1: Identification of the "real" Problem.

Step 2: Identify which knowledge is to be retained, and specify how and in what form.

Step 3: Definition of the Knowledge Retention Process and the role of employees to capture and manage critical and valuable knowledge.

Step 4: Integration and Setup of Knowledge Retention Process as a firm component of added value in your Organization.

Step 5: Customizing powerDOCUMENTS in a hierarchical tree structure, creating knowledge documents and laying down the rules for "Knowledge Retention Process" with its role models.

Step 6: Supervision and Assistance in feedback and transfer of Knowledge back into the Organization.

Further Assistance

We wish you a lot of luck to create your own knowledge retention solution using this concept and the software tool powerDOCUMENTS. If you have any further questions regarding knowledge retention in small and medium size organizations, we would be happy to help you. The team can be reached at the following email address: km@powerdocuments.com

Sources

Lehner F. (2000). Organizational Memory. Konzepte und Systeme für das organisatorische Lernen und das Wissensmanagement. München.

North K. (1998). Wissensorientierte Unternehmensführung: Wertschöpfung durch Wissen.

Probst G., Raub S., Romhardt K. (1999). Wissen Managen. Wie Unternehmen ihre wertvollste Ressource nutzen. 3. Auflage. Wiesbaden.

Romhardt K. (2002). Wissensgemeinschaften: Orte lebendigen Wissensmanagements. Dynamik, Entwicklung, Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten.

Wuppertaler Kreis e.V. (2000). Wissensmanagement in mittelständischen Unternehmen.

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