Knowledge Management System for Supporting Organizational ...

The 9th International Conference on Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (ICITEE 2017)

Knowledge Management System for Supporting Organizational Management and Sustainable Development: A Case Study of a Research Group in a University S. Nupap School of Information Technology Mae Fah Luang University Chiang Rai, Thailand [email protected] Abstract— Knowledge management system (KMS) plays a crucial role as a knowledge repository to support organizational management and sustainable development. Based on the previous study which demonstrated the success of balanced scorecard (BSC) implementation for quality assurance in educational management, this paper aims to propose a framework for the same case study which is a research group within a department in a university by implementing KMS based on BSC notion in order to improve the knowledge sharing and learning environment for sustainable development. It reveals the proposed methodology in which the KMS initially implemented for improvement in the corporation sector accelerates educational management and supports knowledge sharing and learning environment for long-term improvement.

Hench, a chief executive officer or a manager can focus on the highest priority perspective and improve a list of tasks which has to take an action on instantly in order to reach the organizational goal or mission. Furthermore, to specify strategies in each perspective of BSC entails to follow the strategy map strictly [6]-[11]. Therefore, each perspective must indicate its objective(s), goal(s), measurement(s), initial value and target value of each measurement respectively and initiative methodology which will be implemented for objective(s) and goal(s) accomplishment as demonstrated in Fig. 1 [6].

Keywords—Knowledge management system, balanced Scorecard, quality assurance, educational management, sustainble development

I. INTRODUCTION Knowledge plays an important role in organizational management and development in this era because it indicates standard and success of an organization. In case of an organization has a well-prepared knowledge management (KM), the organizational competency improvement will be expected. Likewise, in order to gain more competitive advantage than other competitors in the same cluster, KM is essential to support organizational management [1]-[5]. Balanced Scorecard (BSC) has been recognized as a wellknown strategic performance management tool in KM proposed by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton in 1992 [6] which has been employed worldwide in both profit and nonprofit organizations. The BSC model emphasizes on performance measurement for organizational behavior development and sustainable achievement by balancing 4 main perspectives: financial, customer, internal process (IP) and learning and growth (LG) [6]. In addition, each perspective must have its indicator(s) for performance measurement. To apply BSC in an organization, the notion requires strategy map which is the organizational guideline or plan for specifying priorities of each perspective as well as an organizational goal.

ISBN: 978-1-5090-6476-2

Fig. 1 Balanced Scorecard Framework [6]

My previous study [12] is relied on applying the BSC notion for quality assurance (QA) in educational management to a case study of a research group in a university in Thailand in order to solve the problem of unqualified standard on element number 4, topic “Research”, indicator number 3, “research or creative artworks subsidy or funding per number of full-time lecturers and researchers” from the Office of the Higher Education Commission (OHEC) QA standard which has been utilized for controlling the educational quality of each

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school or department within universities in Thailand. The OHEC QA standard is recognized by the international standard in education which comprises of 9 elements consisting 23 indicators. In the study, a health research group working under school “B” of a university “A” was selected as a case study. The university “A” is one of a university in Thailand which is controlled by the Royal Thai Government (RTG). Hence, it has to be evaluated by the OHEC using OHEC QA standard every year. The school “B” had 28 working lecturers at that particular time and has been evaluated by the OHEC using the OHEC QA standard. The research group consists of 14 members which were the working lecturers of the school “B”. Due to the problem of unqualified standard on OHEC standard in element number 4, topic “Research”, indicator number 3, “research or creative artworks subsidy or funding per number of full-time lecturers and researchers” as aforementioned for last three years, this reflected the low performance of the school on this OHEC QA topic. Therefore, to overcome the particular problem, the proposed strategy map which must identified before applying BSC model was created as illustrated in Fig. 2 [12]. The strategy map demonstrates the relationship between cause-effect actions in each perspective of the BSC. The arrows identify the cause actions from one perspective pointing to the effect accions in other perspectives [6][12].

Fig. 3 The BSC model of Previous Study

Fig. 2 Strategy Map of Previous Study [12]

The BSC model applied in the previous study [12] following by the strategy map in Fig. 2 is demonstrated in Fig. 3. The result of the previous study demonstrated the approach in which the managerial tool initially implemented for improvement in the corporation sector facilitates educational management effectively during May 2015 to February 2016 as shown in Fig. 4 [12].

ISBN: 978-1-5090-6476-2

Fig. 4 Results of Previous Study

Based on the success of the previous study [12], this study continues with the same case study and aims to create the framework of knowledge management system (KMS), a system deployed for sustainable development [1],[13]-[20] which integrates knowledge sharing and information system (IS) in order to enhance the effectiveness of IP1: Conduct meeting for knowledge sharing and LG3: Implement high

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performance technology as shown in Fig. 4 and to change tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge for 1) a new member who would like to join the research group and 2) current members who would like to share and exchange knowledge. The members of the research group are identified as internal stakeholder who considered as customer perspective in BSC. Therefore, the study is organized as follows. Section 2 describes the research methodology while section 3 analyses the results. Finally, Section 4 concludes the research. II. METHODOLOGY Based on the aforementioned reviews, this study aims to propose a framework of KMS implementation for the case study based on BSC notion and web-based development as illustrated in Fig. 5.

introduction section, the requirement relied on the notion of BSC and knowledge sharing as a requirement from the users who are internal stakeholder. c) Design phase: based on the requirement from the analysis phase, this phase devided into 2 parts: logical and physical designs. In logical design, functional specification were specified including data, processes, inputs and outputs. The main and features of the KMS are demonstrated in Fig. 6. In physical design, technical specifications of all KMS elements were detailed including programs (php myadmin, eclipse, dreamweaver, photoshop), network (ICP/IP) and system software (windows OS).

BSC-based KMS development

Login

KMS

Internal Stakeholder

Tacit Knowledge

KMS for the case study

Setting Home

Meeting

BSC

Webboard

Fig. 6 KMS Structure Explicit Knowledge

Knowledge Repository

i. Login: This page consists of the following features: a. Login to the KMS b. Register to be a member of the research group, this will be verified an authorization by KMS administration. c. System verification for authorized users

Key Performance Indicators

Performance Evaluation Fig. 5 Research Framework

The implementation of the framework was divided into four main stages, as follows. 1) BSC-based KMS development: Here, the software development life cycle (SDLC) [21] was adapted for implementation. It had been divided into 4 phases: a) Planning phase: specified scope, preliminary schedule and budget, and development team for the KMS. Defined data architecture, networks, and selection hardware. Detailed steps of development: 1) KMS project initiation and planning, 2) requirement determination, 3) requirement structuring, 4) logical design: input data and model, 5) physical desgin: file, database, graphic user interface, and network , 6) coding, 7) unit testing, 8) interation testing, 9) system testing, 10) documentation and 11) KMS deployment and high-level KMS requirements or features: 1) login page, 2) homepage (news and announcement), 3) meeting page (create, view meeting, view report), 4) BSC page, 5) webboard (post, poll) and 6) setting (profile management, change password, logout). b) Analysis phase: studied and structured system requirement. Based on the critical review from the

ISBN: 978-1-5090-6476-2

KMS

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ii. Home: The page will be demonstrated the following features after user login to the KMS: a. Display user’s name with profile picture on the left frame under a logo and an organization name which demonstrate on the top left of the page (frame size equals to 15% of the page) b. Display recent group announcement on the right frame (frame size equals to 85% of the page) c. Display recent news of health research on the right frame (under the group announce) d. Members can display all announcement and news by selecting “view all” option on the top right of the frame e. Members can create posts and update news to show them on other members’ home. This is separated from the announcement and news and appears under the news. f. Main menus: Home, Meeting, BSC, Webboard, and Setting appear on the top right of the page


iii. Meeting: This feature created to support knowledge sharing environment for the members composes of 3 main functions. a. Create meeting: Based on the measurement from IP perspective: number of meeting as shown in Fig. 3, this function supports member to conduct the meeting. In order to create a meeting, a secretary of each meeting has to specify academic year, date and time of meeting, inviting the members of the group showing in the list, and topic(s) of meeting. The KMS will generate number of meeting for that academic year and send the invitation email to all participants the secretary selected automatically. b. View Meeting Files: This function supports the members to display the meeting file created as mentioned previously, create a meeting report, export it to pdf format, and store within the database as a knowledge repository. This function allows members to write and edit comment and recommendation for each topic in each meeting. c. View Report: The function here supports members to view all report in every meeting and download it in pdf format. iv. BSC: This feature was designed based on the strategy map and BSC model as shown in Fig. 2 and Fig. 1 respectively. The functions here are described as follows: a. Create strategy map: In this function, the user sets up organizational mission. The BSC perspectives must be specified and prioritized. The purpose it to consider of which components in the strategy map should be focused and reviewed the relationship between them. b. Create BSC: Based on the created strategy map mentioned previously, user must input objective(s), measurement, baseline, target value and initiative respectively for each perspective. c. View BSC: After input all information above, the strategy map and BSC are now created. Members use this function to display strategy map and BSC information as well as history of them. d. BSC Performance Evaluation: When members display BSC information, after implementing the initiative specified in each objective of each

ISBN: 978-1-5090-6476-2

e.

perspective, members can input a result after implementation and check on the target value to compare the success or failure between result and target value. Then, the evaluation results can saved to the KMS. View BSC Evaluation File: this function allows members to display the BSC with the performance evaluation.

v. Webboard: Members can create new topic for either writing new post or asking a poll to request for other members’ opinions. vi. Setting: Members can use this function to edit their profile: name, email, school, major, and phone number and log out from the KMS. d) Implementation phase: developed the KMS relied on the required features as aforementioned and web-based technology by coding and testing. After the KMS was validated, then installed it for the case study. 2) Members shared their tacit knowledge to the KMS: Here, the members use Home, Meeting, BSC, and webboard as describe before to their tacit knowledge onto the KMS. 3) KMS transformed tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge: The tacit knowledge shared by internal stakeholder or members were stored in the KMS database as a knowledge repository for supporting the members in the research group. 4) Performance Evaluation: This stage, internal stakeholder known as members or users of the KMS defined the key performance indicator (KPI), baseline and target value for performance measurement of the case study as demonstrated in Table I. TABLE I.

KMS PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Number of meeting Average of number of members using the KMS per meeting Average of number of invited members attending the meeting Average of number of members sharing knowledge per meeting Average of Percentage of knowledge losing after each meeting

Baseline 10 0

Target 20 11

7

10

3

10

>90%

90%