Xerox and Knowledge Management

Abstract

This paper will discuss the perception of knowledge management to Xerox, the definition of knowledge management, the goal of Xerox and the implications of tacit and explicit knowledge dealing with the Xerox Corporation.

What does a company do with the knowledge that employees take with them after they are let go? How does the company keep the knowledge attained in the company without the employees? New technology that keeps cultivating with age helps aid organizations keep the knowledge preserved in the company. Knowledge management has taken part in our business world since the early 1900's and is now still developing into something different and something fundamental in the success of our businesses, companies and organizations.

Knowledge management is a system fixated on gathering an organization's knowledge, technology, skills and assets and sharing them with the rest of the organization. Technology and assets are the key attributes of knowledge management in the Xerox company. They rely on the skills of their engineers to fix their customers' issues. Sharing these solutions to other engineers will decrease the labor cost and save time to look for a solution when the situation is already resolved. "Gathering information and knowledge" is the strength of the definition. Although the term is self-explanatory it does not explain that knowledge management is to share the knowledge and not just to collect it. I believe the definition is suitable for the term and does not need changing. The only problem with knowledge management is deciding how to maintain and develop a system to gather and share the knowledge and solutions within a company.

Xerox corp. realized this as their main issue with engineers and being able to share and learn solutions was becoming to be difficult. Xerox recognized their "invaluable on-site solutions created by engineers in its 24,000-member customer service unit couldn't be efficiently shared among the engineers and the support staff" (Mottl, 2001). Xerox wanted to put all the network solutions in one area so that other engineers could access them. By using a knowledge management system Xerox found a way to keep their knowledge and solutions created by their engineers within the company and can be accessed with ease.

Eureka, created by Xerox, is a Web-based DocuShare tool, powered by Oracle which engineers can log in to share and document their solutions, (Mottle, 2001), has been the biggest asset to Xerox. Now, just because this tool is created does not mean that staff members were filled with joy in submitting their solutions in the database. With already such a bulky and timely workload, it was challenging for staff members to share their knowledge. Without incentives staff members are not driven to go that extra mile, so the company permitted the staffers to attach their names along with their work. This tactic increased the input of solutions in no time. Creating such a system I believe Xerox perceives knowledge management to be of solid substance of