Deck 5: Organizational Impacts of Knowledge Management

Question 1

The importance of KM and KM processes is well recognized.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

KM will impact organizational performance at one level: people.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

The joint survey by IDC and Knowledge Management Magazine found that one of the three top reasons why U.S. firms adopt KM is the need to efficiently organize increasing quantities of knowledge.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

KM can enhance employees' learning and exposure to the latest knowledge in their fields.

Question 5

Employee learning can be accomplished through direction and routines.

Question 6

One important way in which learning through socialization may be facilitated is through communities of practice.

Question 7

The community of practice required of specific Xerox employees is a traditional community of practice.

Question 8

Continual learning enables employee adaptability.

Question 9

KM-based learning and increased employee adaptability cause employees to feel better about themselves.

Question 10

KM improves employees' effectiveness in their jobs, which may serve as a demotivator.

Question 11

Increased knowledge, improved market value, and greater performance improve employees' job satisfaction.

Question 12

Effectiveness is performing processes quickly and at low cost.

Question 13

Innovation is performing the most suitable process and making the highest quality decisions.

Question 14

KM can improve the interrelated aspects of organizational processes through several means, including knowledge sharing of better knowledge and knowledge application of workable solutions.

Question 15

Problems with process effectiveness result for organizations lacking KM when employee turnover occurs.

Question 16

KM can only impact knowledge-based products.

Question 17

Providing telephone customers with better service through use of a knowledge-based customer relationship management (CRM) system is an example of KM's impact on value-added products.

Question 18

Knowledge is the product of consulting companies and as such consulting companies do not benefit as much as other types of organizations from KM.

Question 19

Investment in KM should be viewed as capital investments.

Question 20

KM can contribute to economies of scope, through new product design, but not economies of scale, which are purely econometric.

Question 21

At what level does KM affect organizations and organizational performance?

A)People.
B)Processes.
C)Products.
D)Overall organizational performance.
E)All of the above.

Question 22

What are the two main ways that KM can impact organizations?

A)Through creation of knowledge and direct improvements.
B)Through the creation and sharing of knowledge.
C)Through employee retention and increasing customer satisfaction.
D)Through knowledge capture and knowledge action.
E)Through the education of individuals and the organization as a whole.

Question 23

According to the joint IDC and Knowledge Management Magazine survey, which of the following is one of the top three reasons that US firms adopt KM?

A)Organizing ever-increasing quantities of knowledge.
B)Developing a knowledge sharing organizational culture.
C)Because it's hard to measure.
D)Retaining expertise of employees.
E)Because it's the latest management fad.

Question 24

Which of the following is not a way described in the text for KM to impact people?

A)Facilitates learning from other individuals.
B)Enhances job satisfaction.
C)Increases an employee's net pay.
D)Enables employees to be more flexible.
E)Facilitates learning from external sources.

Question 25

One important way in which learning through socialization may be facilitated involves the use of a __________.

A)electronic books (e-books)
B)community of practice
C)learning management system
D)online help system
E)performance support knowledgebase

Question 26

Why is the strategic community described at Xerox different from a traditional community of practice?

A)Participation in the group was not voluntary.
B)All members were collocated.
C)The community did not share a common interest.
D)Meetings were conducted over the Internet instead of face to face.
E)None of the above, the strategic community is a traditional community of practice.

Question 27

Knowledge sharing can lead to reduced turnover rates, which positively affects __________.

A)costs and market value
B)learning and adaptability
C)revenue and profit
D)technology infrastructure
E)culture and management

Question 28

Which of the following is not a KM-related facilitator of employee job satisfaction?

A)Increased knowledge.
B)Improved market value.
C)Improved job performance.
D)Increased salaries.
E)Increased adaptability.

Question 29

Communities of practice provide participating employees _________ over their own work practices.

A)reduced managerial interference
B)cost reduction practices
C)externalization mechanisms
D)KM technologies
E)socially validated control

Question 30

KM impacts processes along three dimensions. What are the process dimensions?

A)Knowledge discovery, capture, and sharing.
B)Effectiveness, efficiency, and degree of innovation.
C)Learning, process adaptability, and job satisfaction.
D)Value added, knowledge-based, and service.
E)Economy of scope, economy of scale, and competitive advantage.

Question 31

How does KM affect process effectiveness?

A)KM enables organizations to make well-informed decisions in a shorter period of time.
B)New and novel processes can be developed utilizing KM knowledge discovery methods and technologies.
C)KM keeps organizations informed of changing circumstances making the organizations more adaptable.
D)KM identifies cost saving opportunities for organizations or organizational units.
E)Informed employees have increased job satisfaction which in turn leads to more effective performance.

Question 32

Which of the following is not one of the fundamental issues of knowledge sharing solved by Toyota's KM-based production network?

A)Prevent free riders.
B)Evaluate knowledge quality.
C)Reduce information access costs.
D)Motivate employee participation.
E)None of the above.

Question 33

Which KM process and KM technology helped BP to save $600,000 through process efficiency when drilling for oil in the Caribbean?

A)Knowledge discovery and electronic brainstorming.
B)Knowledge capture and automated database encoding.
C)Knowledge application and video direction.
D)Knowledge sharing and quick knowledge distribution.
E)Knowledge management and process innovation.

Question 34

What impact does KM have on products?

A)KM impacts only knowledge-based products.
B)KM impacts only value-added products.
C)KM impacts both value-added and knowledge-based products.
D)KM only impacts people, processes, and performance, not products.
E)KM can only have an indirect impact on products through process innovation.

Question 35

Which of the following is not a way in which KM impacts value-added products?

A)Improve existing products to provide additional value to customers.
B)Indirectly, due to the effect of KM on organizational process innovation.
C)Develop new products.
D)All of the above, since KM cannot impact value-added products.
E)None of the above.

Question 36

In knowledge-based product organizations, such as consulting firms, KM is __________.

A)necessary for survival
B)not utilized due to the knowledge-based nature of the industry
C)failing to provide any return on investment (ROI)
D)used for process re-engineering, but not for specific products
E)inexpensive to perform

Question 37

Investments in KM should be viewed as __________.

A)revenue
B)capital investment
C)sunk costs
D)unavoidable costs
E)short-term investment

Question 38

How is the direct impact of KM on organizational performance measured?

A)Enhancement of customer loyalty.
B)Development of innovative products.
C)Increased advantage in negotiating positions.
D)Improvement in return on investment (ROI).
E)Improvement in employee job satisfaction.

Question 39

Which of the following is not an indirect impact of KM on organizational performance?

A)Enhanced customer loyalty through perceived intellectual leadership.
B)Economies of scope from deployment of general marketing skills across businesses.
C)Enabling a sustainable competitive advantage.
D)Economies of scale from leveraging knowledge related to products and customers.
E)Creation of innovative products that generate revenue and profit.

Question 40

How does KM enable a sustainable competitive advantage?

A)Knowledge needed to effectively exploit resources must be learned, which takes a long time to duplicate.
B)Knowledge-based products are difficult to imitate due to copyright and patent laws.
C)Knowledge-enabled improvement in process efficiency produces a large return on investment (ROI).
D)Employee job satisfaction is difficult to replicate across organizations.
E)Staying informed of changing business circumstances improves employee adaptability.

Question 41

Describe the ways in which KM impacts employees as people.

Question 42

How does effective KM affect employee adaptability?

Question 43

How does effective KM impact employee job satisfaction?

Question 44

Describe and discuss the impact of communities of practice on people. Use the KM processes and subprocesses in your discussion.

Question 45

Define the three dimensions on which KM impacts processes.

Question 46

Discuss how KM and knowledge acquired through KM can impact process innovation. How can process innovation from KM directly affect process effectiveness or efficiency?

Question 47

How does KM impact value-added products? Explain using a real-world example.

Question 48

How does KM directly impact organizational performance and how are such impacts measured?

Question 49

What are the indirect impacts of KM on organizational performance?

Question 50

How does KM provide a sustainable competitive advantage to organization?