The new trend, which should help solve some incertitudes which are caused by permanently changed enviroment, is founded on building of economy that is based on the knowledge managament. It is a challenge either for single countries and also for companies. Accomplishments of research performed in Czech enterprises show that many managers are not aware of this request of the era. They simply do not appreciate benefit of knowledge managament that is why they might become „the brake“ of the next successful development of Czech enterprises.strenghtening comptetition, knowledge managementc, creative work, ability to mobilize the quality assurance, permanent process, organisation of the future

Gabryšová, Marie

English

Research Papers in Economics

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AS A TOOL FOR MANAGING 
NEW COMPANY
Marie Gabryšová
Keywords: strenghtening comptetition, knowledge managementc, creative work, ability 
to mobilize the quality assurance, permanent process, organisation of the future.
 
1.   MANAGING A NEW COMPANY
New trend that is expected to solve some insecurities that continuously brings 
constantly changed environment is economy based on a science management. It is a 
challenge both for individual states and enterprises. In the matter of the fact, question is 
in transformation into new corporation, which as Peter Drucker says, will be corporation 
of science and knowledge and science experts will be new capitalists.
1
Theory of science management is relatively new conception within the frame of 
economical sciences. Many aspects creating this conception have their beginnings in 
eighties of the last century, but comprehensive theory of science management arose 
considerably a short time ago, about 10 years ago. The main economical subjects that 
contributed   considerably   to   wide   spreading   of   the   concepts   united   with   science 
management, were advisory and consulting firms. These firms were the first that begun 
to exercise knowledge management and their methods begun to applied in other 
organizations. Those firms also played significant role in motivation of research workers 
and in forming of the need of new researches in given sphere. 
The first scientist who was cognizant of significance of science for economy 
was above mentioned Peter Drucker. He introduced such terminology as “work with 
science” and “worker of science”. Drucker also supposed that we are living in time of 
“society of science” and where science and workers of science are the source of the 
higher order, whilst conventional resources as capital, land labour are loosing their 
privileged position.
2
We can comprehend the knowledge management as:
· complex of processes making production possible, introducing into practice 
and utilization of science for realization the goals of the organization. 
Practically it is process of producing and transfer of science.
3
· complex of specific activities and initiatives, that firms introduce with a 
view to increase the amount of organizational knowledge and abilities 
4
· complex of repetitive science processes, i.e. ability to adapt themselves and
1 The Ekonomist, November 3, 2001.
2 DRUCKER, Peter F. Społeczeństwo pokapitalistyczne. 1. wyd. Warszawa : PWN, 
1999. 180 s. ISBN 83-01-12799-6., s.13.
3 Computerworld Polska, 1999, no. 23.
4 DAVENPORT, Thomas H., PRUSAK, Laurence. Working Knowledge : How 
Organizations Manage What They Know. 1st edition. Boston : Harvard Business School, 
1997. 199 s. ISBN 0875846556.coming into the limelight 
5,
· learning even from the customers, accepting science and knowledge from 
other organisations and persons, organizing and transfer of science already 
accumulated within the company. 
6
Basic elements of knowledge management are science, information and data. 
We   transpose   data   into   information,   that   in   connection   with   experience   creates 
knowledge, and managing based on this knowledge is an important part of integrated 
managing systems.
Utilization of science on management has its place as an element forming 
creative labour. Science (knowledge) management becomes the basis for creative 
thinking that rises the organization on a higher function degree. And creative thinking 
requires on many occasions “destruction and changing the structure of our hitherto 
knowledge with the aim to obtain new point of view on the heart of the matter.”
7
2.   THE TASKS OF MANAGERS IN THE FUTURE
         In the course of the last fifty years requirements for proficiency, knowledge, 
productivity,   responsibility   and   others   required   characteristics   of   managers   were 
minimally doubled. Today from young graduates such today knowledge is expected, that 
only small group of scholars could be proud of in the twenties. In case, this tendency 
will continue, what demands will be put on the managers in the future? The tasks of the 
managers in the future can be put into these points:
· Managing must be realized by means of goals.
· They must be able to risk more, namely be ahead of schedule. Even the 
representatives of lower degrees of management must be able to make 
decisions based on risk. Manager will have to carry out calculation of 
possible risks, decide for the most optimal variant and exactly delimit his 
expectation.
· His decisions must be of strategic nature.
· He must be able to create a team, where each member will be able to 
evaluate his output from the view of corporate goals. Education of 
managers who will fit the bill of the future is a significant task.
· He must be able to hand over information quickly, exactly and 
comprehensibly.
· He must have ability of motivation.
5 NONAKA, Ikujiro, HIROTAKA, Takeuchi. The Knowledge-Creating Company: How 
Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation. 2nd edition. New York : 
Oxford University Press, 1995. 284 s. ISBN 0195092694.
6KAO, John. Jamming: the Art and Discipline of Business Creativity. 1st edition. New 
York : Harpercollins, 1996. 204 s. ISBN 0887307469.
7 BELL, Daniel. The cultural contraditions of capitalism. 2nd edition. New York : Basic 
Books, 1978. 301 s. ISBN 0465097278.· Manager cannot be oriented only in one or two functions. Manager of the 
future must consider enterprising as a whole and must be in integrative 
connection with the whole.
· He   will   have   to   learn   to   perceive   economical,   political   and   social 
phenomena not only from the market view, where his company deals, but 
to perceive also global trends and make his decisions with taking account 
of them.
8
In order that these goals could be met, thy must be simplified. To meet these 
goals, any special people with extraordinary talents will not be to disposal. They will be 
people equally liable to tiredness, various weaknesses and with various limitations. We 
owe for development and abilities that humankind gained only to simplification of 
complicated thinks, that they are comprehended as a system. Both in large and small 
enterprise, the managers will have to master management practices.
           
3.  KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AS A PART OF QUALITY SUPPORT
Quality improvement is a process that interferes into all spheres of activity of an 
organization. Compiled, established and checked up quality system, which has chance to 
be successful on the market is based on searching for systems and tools for continuous 
improvement   of   the   company.   Such   tools   as   quality   management,   knowledge, 
information, technology etc. belong here. 
Quality improvement refers to economical, market and operative efficiency and 
productivity of the company. Practice proves the existence of strong relations between 
quality improvement and financial result. From the view of optimization of quality 
improvement processes, relations between quality management, TQM and reengineering 
make important problem. Questions concerning the spheres, speed and methods of 
quality improvement in the organization are important here. Companies look for 
methods and tools which enable them to be competitive. Among the factors that have 
influence on competition in Europe belong: schooling – 30%, innovation – 27%, 
knowledge of managers – 24%, benchmarking – 9%, reengineering – 4%, certifications 
-3%. Therefore schooling and knowledge of managers carry out the most important role 
in the organization. According to the same source the lack of abilities of company 
management, low interest of middle management, unfamiliarity with methods and 
management technology, clients´ demands and lack of financial background prove to be 
barriers for competition.
 9
In the process of quality improvement important role falls on the employees, 
who are the most precious source of every organization and they just must be aware of 
necessity of continuous quality improvement that has influence on the whole company. 
Need for improvement should issue from the man himself, motivation must issue from 
his heart and man himself should have desire to utilize the most hidden wealth of his 
intellect.
8 DRUCKER, Peter F. Praktyka zarządzania. Tomasz Basiuk, Zygmunt Broniarek, 
Janusz Gołębiewski. 2. wyd. Kraków : Akademia ekonomiczna, 1998. 431 s. 
ISBN 101-090590-000 ., s. 397-399
9 European Quality convention, EOQ Plenary Session, The Roots of Quality, Paris 1998.For the efficient realization of the process of quality improvement, there are 
indispensably necessary: knowledge that we can mark as a sorted picture of spiritual 
condition of a man, standpoint to the creative work, setting up new solutions and 
processes. Beside that it is necessary to realize that if we really want to take an interest 
in the concrete problem, it is always important to take into account: place, time and 
reflections. It is important to encourage continuously the thinking.
Person  who   owns   such   appropriate   knowledge,   has   also   chance   to   be 
responsible. Therefore it is essential to find in the people what they know, in what they 
are skilled.
10 It means that knowledge and science must be inseparably connected with 
responsibility. If it is not like that, science and knowledge become arrogant. P. Drucker 
warns on necessity for transformation of worker´s knowledge into his responsibility 
towards the company and also on his responsibility in work and function
11. Already 
Diogenes said once that:  Knowledge is prudence for the young, consolation for the 
elders, wealth for the poor, adornment for the rich.
4. LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS AND QUALITY OF PEOPLE
Schooling in organizations means that we establish so called group of scientific 
workers, who will be permanently educated, they will acquire knowledge and new 
abilities, they will reach high productivity and form people able to generate innovations 
and at the same time people who will quickly master qualifications that allow them 
quickly adapt to conditions, so that they rigorously and professionally establish new 
ideas. These are features the employees of the 21
st century should be marked with. The 
employees will have to be devoted to their company, inspire confidence with chiefs and 
clients, they should be accepted by their colleagues and workmates. As the roots of their 
abilities should be lasting development  of personality and professional career as well as 
abilities  needed  for smooth relations:  chief -  employee,  employee  –  chief.  This 
restructuring will demand lasting improvement of mutual relations, so that favourable 
ability of company management could be reached.
All well known large groups of companies, that influence global economy, were 
launched by persons with outstanding personality characters.  Excellent organizations 
accept managers – leaders only with below given characteristics:
· ability to mobilize people to activity,
· ability to generate values,
· ability to comply with function  of  “social architect” (ability to create 
understanding, mutual respect, culture of the company and ethical bases).
Such social architect acts with the help of values and ethical evaluations, that 
influence not only a judgement, but also emotive sphere of individual person. These 
characteristics are also considerably reflected in his professional deciding. 
10 SKRZYPEK, E.: Zarządzanie wiedzą jako narzędzie doskonalenia jakości, Problemy jakości 
1999, č. 8, s.40.
11 DRUCKER, P.: Zarządzanie w czasach burzliwych, Kraków: Biblioteka Nowoczesności, AE 
Kraków, Czytelnik, , 1995, s. 191 – 192.5.  STANDPOINT OF COMPANIES TOWARDS SCHOOLING AND 
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Within the frame of research that was executed together with the students of 
Commercially Entrepreneurial Faculty of Silesian University in Karvina, 300 managers 
of companies dealing at the territory of the Czech Republic were addressed. The 
research was realized in the course of the year 2005. Questionnaire was targeted on 
quality support, cooperation with surroundings and reactions on global and integration 
changes. Among the addressed companies there were 43% production ones, 39% service 
ones, 13% trade ones and 5% mixed ones. Because of objectivity assurance, most 
addressed companies were small ones (54%), further 18% middle ones and 28% large 
companies. One of the goals was also screening how differently purely Czech companies 
and companies with foreign capital participation approach the explored problems. That 
is why character of the addressed company was explored. The following chart shows 
division according to this view.
Graph No.1.  Character of the firm
71%
14%
15%
purely Czech
partly with foreign capital       
subsidiary company of the foreign company
To the question “whether they participate in educative actions because of 
raising their qualification and gain new knowledge” answers were collected, that cannot 
be a cause for satisfaction. Up to 12% questioned managers do not see necessity of 
additional education.Graph No. 2.  Participation in schooling actions
10%
5% 12%
73%
No, I do not see such need
Rather not, such actions do not bring new knowledge
Yes
I utilize others forms of education
If we add yet 10% of those who have provisos toward schooling actions, 
whether reasonable or not, almost quarter of all companies are managed by people who 
do not assert the foundations of knowledge management. 37% questioned ones utilize 
schooling seminars and conferences only in case of legislation changes.
The exercised research showed considerable differences among purely Czech 
companies with considerably many ones that do not yet realize the significance of 
knowledge for the manager of the future. The best situation was marked in companies 
that are subsidiaries of foreign firms. Managers of those firms regularly participate in 
educative actions, on an average  once a month, some even more. Even though 
participation in further schooling is only one component of knowledge management and 
learning organization, yet it gives evidence on orientation of given firm.
6. CONCLUSION
In condition of stimulating competition, knowledge must lead up to 
improvement of comprehensively understood quality, which refers to products, 
information, processes and life. We have been living in time, when mainly man and his 
notions decide about success in life and entrepreneurship. Just those dynamical and 
creative people and their notions change such considerably our surroundings during last 
years. Of course, their successes should not be possible, if they should not know their 
significance and value of information and knowledge.
12 Managers, who did not yet 
appreciate the significance of lasting changes and demands they bring, will be a break in 
development and reason for stagnation in the Czech companies. Nowadays, every 
enterprise, which wants to be able to compete must solve two basic objectives. The first 
one is to acquire exact information and the most up-to-date knowledge and to dispose of 
12 SKRZYPEK, E.: Efektywne zarządzanie wiedzą, [w:] Materiały konferencji naukowej nt. 
„Jakość w edukacji w nowej strukturze administracyjnej kraju“, ITE, Radom 1999, s. 148-158.it. The second objective is based on the fact that enterprise is able to use this information 
and knowledge for estabilishment of competitive domination and assurance of its 
position on domestic and global markets.
Summary
Novým trendem, který má pomoci vyřešit některé  nejistoty, které přináší trvale měnící 
se prostředí je budování hospodářství založeného na vědním managementu. Je to výzva 
jak pro jednotlivé státy, tak i pro podniky. Výsledky výzkumu provedeného v českých 
podnicích   ukazují,   že   mnoho   manažérů   si   neuvědomuje   tento   požadavek   doby, 
nedoceňují přínos vědního managementu a proto mohou být brzdou dalšího úspěšného 
rozvoje českých podniků.
The new trend, which should help solve some incertitudes which are caused by 
permanently changed enviroment, is founded on building of economy that is based on 
the knowledge managament. It is a challenge either for single countries and also for 
companies. Accomplishments of research performed in Czech enterprises show that 
many managers are not aware of this request of the era., they simply do not appreciate 
benefit of knowledge managament that is why they might become „the brake“ of the 
next successful development of Czech enterprises.
REFERENCES
[1] BELL, Daniel. The cultural contraditions of capitalism. 2nd edition. New York : 
Basic Books, 1978. 301 s. ISBN 0465097278 [2] Computerworld Polska, 1999, č. 23.
[3] DAVENPORT, Thomas H., PRUSAK, Laurence. Working Knowledge : How 
Organizations Manage What They Know. 1st edition. Boston : Harvard Business School, 
1997. 199 s. ISBN 0875846556
[4] DRUCKER, Peter F. Społeczeństwo pokapitalistyczne. 1. wyd. Warszawa : PWN, 
1999. 180 s. ISBN 83-01-12799-6., s.13.
 [5] DRUCKER, Peter F. Praktyka zarządzania. Tomasz Basiuk, Zygmunt Broniarek, 
Janusz Gołębiewski. 2. wyd. Kraków : Akademia ekonomiczna, 1998. 431 s. 
ISBN 101-090590-000 ., s. 397-399
[6]  DRUCKER, P.: Zarządzanie w czasach burzliwych, Kraków: Biblioteka Nowoczesności, AE 
Kraków, Czytelnik, , 1995, s. 191 – 192.
[7] European Quality convention, EOQ Plenary Session, The Roots of Quality, Paris 
1998.
[8 KAO, John. Jamming: the Art and Discipline of Business Creativity. 1st edition. New 
York : Harpercollins, 1996. 204 s. ISBN 0887307469.
[9] NONAKA, Ikujiro, HIROTAKA, Takeuchi. The Knowledge-Creating Company: 
How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation. 2nd edition. New York : 
Oxford University Press, 1995. 284 s. ISBN 0195092694.
[10] SKRZYPEK, E.: Zarządzanie wiedzą jako narzędzie doskonalenia jakości, 
Problemy jakości 1999, č. 8
[11] SKRZYPEK, E.: Efektywne zarządzanie wiedzą, [w:] Materiały konferencji 
naukowej nt. „Jakość w edukacji w nowej strukturze administracyjnej kraju“, ITE, 
Radom 1999, s. 148-158.
[12] The Ekonomist, November 3, 2001.

Efektywne zarządzanie wiedzą, [w:] Materiały konferencji naukowej nt. „Jakość w edukacji w nowej strukturze administracyjnej kraju“, ITE,

European Quality convention, EOQ Plenary Session, The Roots of Quality,

Praktyka zarządzania. Tomasz Basiuk, Zygmunt Broniarek,

Społeczeństwo pokapitalistyczne. 1. wyd. Warszawa : PWN,

The cultural contraditions of capitalism. 2nd edition.

The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation. 2nd edition.

Working Knowledge : How Organizations Manage What They Know. 1st edition. Boston : Harvard Business School,

Zarządzanie w czasach burzliwych, Kraków: Biblioteka Nowoczesności,

Zarządzanie wiedzą jako narzędzie doskonalenia jakości, Problemy jakości

Knowledge management as a tool for managing new company

Knowledge management as a tool for managing new company

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Research Papers in Economics