Measuring Knowledge Management: A Strategic Approach to Library Information Services

Introduction

When the organizations think in their future, they think about improvement process with the perfect symmetry of innovation and order to the very common of its operation. The relationship itself geared input services and employees or products and consuming, they become an organizational concern in how to do your products; how to do the best way to the market and how to make your goals possible.

The construction of a connection among administrative theory streams, and the management process of an organization, aims at formalizing the necessary knowledge for the growth of their structural and environmental frames.

The research aims at developing an organizational model based on knowledge and contributing for the formulation of a theory on the information for libraries, within acquired knowledge and administration experience of human resources.

The knowledge is appreciated, not only as a value itself, but also as power of wealth generator. However, to apply the knowledge in the organization involves intelligence and learning. Intelligence and learning are understood as faculties of thinking and innovation of the processes.

In order to understand the analysis of knowledge the steps demonstrate an illustration sampling has been developed for the learning organization.

Another step was necessary data collect to find the creation of a model organization specifically for library. The scientific methodology was to do activities using qualitative research methodology for Portugal’s Library.

And the work research analysis involves collecting information for the organization using several methods: observation in technical visits, interviewing and other more specialized job analysis methods such as position or functional analysis. Organizations sometimes use a combination of job analysis methods.

With the continuous analysis in the field of administrative theory for libraries and the social progression impact for the organizational environment is possible to understand the need of valuing generation programs for the knowledge management in these areas.

Effective help is mportant to create job descriptions and performance standards that are useful tools for development and performance knowledge management.

In future researches, could demonstrate that universe of organizational knowledge by means of statistical analysis, and evaluation of the data collect for the models in the European Union. Today these models are concept and practical net for the urban knowledge management of the human capital. 

Development of Management Thought

In a research study by Chiavenato (2000) one organization is a community of persons with one goal. One organization is a better union for: Human resource; structure; environment; management processes; information. Organizations are social construction of knowledge for the organization’s goals.    

The theoretical movements look forward to a reflection on the way in which information is processed and offer support to the functioning of the organizations through their historical process.

The administration process involves people and resources in the search for the realization of organizational objectives and when conscientiously carried out — according to the spheres inserted in this ambit — develops the variety of activities implied while: planning, organizing, leading and controlling. Traditional functions in this process may be improved with the influence of the experience of the organizations’ employees, structuring self-confidence and the connection amidst the speciality of the operation developed by the individuals.

With the development of the way of thinking of the administrative theories, the quality improvement of the offer of a good and/or product and the best management practises in the administration appeared. There isn’t a best unique formula to reach the organizations’ highly varied objectives, since their environment becomes highly varied as well.

According to Bateman and Snell (1998), the administrative approaches developed according to the needs of confronting the administrators and their modifications along the years while attempting to explain real questions faced by them with the objective of providing tools for the resolution of future problems.

In the applicability of the administrative functions, the theory strengthened the belief of management supremacy in the organizations. It didn’t only refer to producing in a great way, like the Scientific Management School proposal, but managing the rising production, which took place after the Industrial Revolution.

The relations of interaction between organizations and environments started to explain more deeply, aspects of the organizational structure and operational processes used in companies. For example, the Systems Theory defended the importance of inter-relations among parts of an organization with its surroundings. The result was that the study of internal factors of an organization weren’t enough to help managers in decision making.

The evaluative condensing of the administrative thought appeared through the construction of the steps of different theoretical movements.

The results converged since diverse branches of knowledge, were able to be explained well when they started considering their study objectives as systems. We can see, therefore, the growth of the more contemporary organizational administrative management, from the use of topics exposed by the Systems Theory.

It is possible to notice that the evolution of the administrative theories accompanied with the civil movements’ history and through this course the developments of the organization were defined. Thus, in the 60s we could already observe attitudes in the human conception of the organizational values as a reflection of the great dissatisfaction of the social revolutions witnessed.

In the 80s, Japan reappears as an example of culture to be followed by world economy, culture of competitive strategy which the rest of the nations describe the epistemology of the word with its organizational cultures. In the 90s, subsequently, is adopted the managerial focus of culture while strategy of survival and change in the political, social and ethical sphere and leadership as a promotion of this focus.

Modern and contemporary society, lies on the organizations: it is basically a society of organizations and its different ways of evaluating objectives shows that the managers should consider factors of constant change originated from the new administrative management attitudes, in its decision making (Kaplan and Norton, 2000).

One of the great changes seen in the construction of the administrative theories is the creation of values that cannot be measured anymore. The value of information, knowledge, is the capital that holds the current table of the administrative theories.

Current society and its organizations possess new communication channels, new ways of work and interaction which change the structure of a former power, to the power of knowledge. Capital society now becomes classified and described as the society of knowledge (Figure 1).

In the information based society, the resource that stands out the most to an organization is the intellectual capital based on knowledge. Knowledge may be understood as information which is structured, contextualized and full of content to who detains it. Costa, Krucken and Abreu (2000, p. 31) considers that knowledge is a cognitive process, which needs information as raw-material to let it happen.

Another question pointed out by Drucker (1994) in this society characterized by knowledge, is the capacity of decision making, based on the proximity to performance, market, technology and environment, all should be seen and used as opportunities for innovation, all should understand what each one is saying. Technology is one of the components of Knowledge Management. Thus, human talent, supported by computational technology and communication could be considered the competitive differential among organizations.

Methodology
 
The European Union, worried about constant prosperity, possesses guidelines to care for stability maintenance and promotion of certain social spheres, and, therefore, has certain responsibilities in what concerns its stability.

This follows the decisions made by the heads of government and their delegations in a strict control of the process. In the strategy of sustainable development, a concept of assuring a high level of social cohesion and economic prosperity was created.

The issue of generalization has appeared in the literature with regularity. It is a frequent criticism of case study research that the results are not widely applicable in real life. Yin in particular refuted that criticism by presenting a well constructed explanation of the difference between analytic generalization and statistical generalization: In analytic generalization, previously developed theory is used as a template against which to compare the empirical results of the case study (Yin, 1989).

The collect data was made in Guimarães City, Portugal. In the General Report on the activities of the European Union (2006), this city is the next step for the Europe model in net of the practice management urban knowledge. Some cities models are examples as well as in France or Scotland. The local for the interview and technique visit, was the Raul Brandão Library (Figure 2).