KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PROCESSES IN SMALL-MEDIUM ENTERPRISES

The combination of organizational resources and capabilities needs to be developed, deployed and protected in order to enhance organizational performance. The performance among organizations differs as a result of their different knowledge bases and differing capabilities in developing and deploying organizational knowledge. The attention is focused on the implicit knowledge and skills required to co-ordinate heterogeneous resources in distinct, organization-specific resource bundles in such a way that current capabilities are leveraged and new capabilities are created. The development of a new product and service is an example of an organization attaining a competitive advantage resulting from learning processes that have been incurred with the integration of knowledge management processes and organizational assets. The trend for knowledge-based organizations is to move towards knowledge adaptation where knowledge serves two vital functions within an organization, acting as resources for organizational growth, and providing valuable assets for organizational survival.