SHS Web of Conferences 74, 01026 (2020) https://doi.org/10.

1051/shsconf/20207401026
Globalization and its Socio-Economic Consequences 2019

Knowledge management and its application in

human resources management in the context of
globalization
Olga Ponisciakova1,*
1University of Zilina, Univerzitna 1, 010 26, Zilina, Slovak Republic

Abstract. Business management is a set of specific activities that a daily

manager performs. Many facts and their course are influenced by their
intuitive or cognitive decision-making. It has the ability to manage
traditionally, dogmatically, or innovatively, which also depends largely on
its personality profile. However, all executives jointly influence the
environment in which they can apply their skills. It is an environment that
is changing globalization. Managers need to recognize and interact with
their impacts if they want to manage competitive businesses. They are
looking for ways to reveal and use the dynamics and complexity of the
predominantly variable business environment. In doing so, they use a
variety of progressive management support tools that evolve as a reflection
of environmental variability and turbulence. One of the options offered for
more effective management is knowledge management. This form of
management is an effective and efficient acquisition, creation and sharing
of knowledge in all their manifestations and forms within and around the
enterprise. Knowledge management is based on the principles of a holistic,
systematic approach to data management and processing for the purpose of
sustainable business development. In order to fulfill this ambition,
however, the decisive factor is, above all, the level of knowledge
participation based on the creation of new values as well as wealth itself.
The paper highlights the importance, mission and functionality of
knowledge management in human resource management, with a great deal
of knowledge, given the importance of corporate assets at the forefront,
presents and evaluates the results of the knowledge management survey in
the selected company in the Slovak Republic.

1 Introduction
At the present time of globalization, which is characterized by high dynamics of
continuous change, the notions of competitiveness and productivity resonate in assessing
the success of businesses. As the autors [1] claim: „Enterprises (regardless of size, hence
small and medium sized including), in order to flourish and stay competitive in the future,
have to face and properly address current challenges of market economy. To address them
properly, means to adapt and adjust to changeable market conditions, e.g. they can and use

*
Corresponding author: [email protected]

© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
SHS Web of Conferences 74, 01026 (2020) https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20207401026
Globalization and its Socio-Economic Consequences 2019

20th century business management in conditions of 21st century. One of essential changes
in market economy is the new system of creation of welfare and wealth of both enterprises
and countries that is the knowledge economy”. Business competitiveness depends to a large
extent on how businesses can respond to globalization itself, with pressure to increase
competition from both developed and some developing countries, as well as to a permanent
and rapid change not only in technology but also in markets, trends and business models
and, last but not least, chronic economic and political instability that affects energy supply,
migration trends, the wider economic environment and the European Union's geopolitical
role, including competition between different economic and social models. To remain
competitive, it is essential to constantly find ways to improve the use of all business
resources - people, machines, materials, information and other inputs. Their finding is at the
core of the activities of managers who, with their qualified decisions, can contribute to the
development of the company. For the right decisions, it is necessary to have the necessary
information and knowledge. People are the most important resource in a business and their
education is a fundamental category of sustainable growth. The ability of workers to use
their acquired knowledge in their daily work enables them to react flexibly and quickly to
emerging situations and to address them immediately with regard to business efficiency.
Depending on the constant changes that are being made today, it is necessary to adapt
knowledge and skills to current requirements.
Knowledge management helps business management to respond to present-day
processes through lifelong learning and make decisions about the future based on
knowledge of the past and the ability to analyze future developments. Knowledge becomes
the most important form of capital of a modern enterprise. In spite of the fact, as the authors
[2] point out: „The use of knowledge management in the context of sustainability has been
increasingly important over the years. Despite this importance, it is observed that this area
is still little explored and there are many possibilities of academic research”. The authors
[3] also support this: „… that there are four main knowledge gaps in this area. First, there
are moral dilemmas created by boundary shifts, arising from the development of quasi-
markets. Second, the phenomenon of "tactical mimicry" represents a key theoretical
platform not yet fully explored. Third, the lack of clear, comparative assessments of social
enterprises across quasi-markets, and other types of service providers is also apparent
despite offering a significant methodological opportunity for scholars. Fourth, there is the
issue of how social enterprises engage in and resource the operational functions that will
support their management of conflicting logics, especially rigorous impact measurement.
“They are all employees of the company actively involved in business processes. However,
it is important that the importance of knowledge management should not only be
emphasized on a theoretical level, but also be practical. In the context of theoretical
knowledge, the paper presents findings on the use of knowledge management in business
practice.

2 Characteristics of knowledge management

Knowledge management began to shape in the United States, and development is
reflected in four development phases that replicate the development of management itself
as a scientific discipline. The first is the stage of classical and neoclassical management
from the late 19th and early 21st centuries, whose founders focused on an organization
which they perceived as a well-designed impersonal mechanism and did not regard human
beings as a psychological-social personality, but only as a technical-economic element.
This has led to social contradictions and misunderstandings. The further development of
management also focused on this deficiency and the position of man in the organization
changed in the connection of the technical-economic and social-psychological system. The

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Globalization and its Socio-Economic Consequences 2019

second stage dates back to the 40-70s of the 20th century and is referred to as a behaviorist
approach. As part of the development, it was necessary to focus on human resources
themselves, as well as on their use, human resources management and proper human
resources records. The third stage of knowledge management developed in the 1980s and
1990s, and knowledge management was seen as a lean management that seeks to find the
most appropriate way to reduce costs while increasing product quality. Management was
used as a competitive advantage and therefore had to be resistant to competition. The fourth
stage developed around the beginning of the 21st century, with globalization coming to the
forefront. Businesses have crossed the borders of the country and have risen from national
to international level. All the economies of the world were interconnected, corporations,
mergers and communities were formed. Trade liberalization has taken place; virtual
enterprises have been created in borderless capital markets. It was about interconnecting
businesses, finding flexible and simpler structures, and creating and ensuring efficient
logistics. [4, 5 ,6]. They also point to the justification of the benefits in this era in [7] who
claim that „...managers need to implant KM, as they will enable a better understanding and
awareness regarding the global dangerous impacts from unsustainable operations mainly
focused on sales and cost reduction.“
In the context of knowledge management, the importance of which the authors in [8]
point out, it is necessary to understand the concepts of data and information correctly.
These are essential for defining the most important concept of knowledge.
Data (data) are expressed as symbols (letters, text, sound, image), but it can also be
sensory sensations (smell, touch). They reflect the objective reality and specific events
without any link to other influences. They are all we can monitor with the senses. They are
objective facts about events and exist independently of human consciousness. [9] The
information includes a message, together with its content meaning for the recipient, a
message that expresses a certain status. This status serves a specific goal, or induces an
action. The message becomes information by human interpretation or by processing it by
algorithms or by storing it in certain files. They answer the questions: who ?, what ?,
when?, Where?, How ?, how much?, Why? They arise from an understanding of the
relationships between data or other information, or contextualization. Information is data to
which the user assigns importance and meaning to the interpretation.
Essentially, they are relevant data containing a purpose and, being bound to a human
factor, are subjective in nature. In the next stage, information is raised, a personal computer
is being developed, and new educational methods are being developed. The information
society has guaranteed the emergence of new technologies and the transition from industrial
society to the information society. [9, 10]
Knowledge is a semantic unit formed by a system of knowledge. It is an interconnected
(changeable, complementary) structure of related knowledge that can be used in interaction
with the world. Knowledge of something means possessing a corresponding representation
in the form of a fairly accurate and accurate cognitive model, including the ability to
perform various cognitive operations with what is represented. Based on and to the extent
of these operations, man (and computer) can predict and predict what must or can happen in
the real world. Knowledge is the final comprehensive information with practical use, it is
transformed into the level of practical application and use [9, 10] and as the autors [11]
claims: „Drawing in knowledge management theory, all the organizations require a suitable
knowledge management strategy to perform successfully”.

3 Knowledge management in practical application

It is interesting to confront the whole spectrum of theoreticians' opinions on the
importance of knowledge management with its practical use, not only in Slovakia but also

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Globalization and its Socio-Economic Consequences 2019

in other countries. The authors in [12] claim that „Despite the acknowledged importance of
knowledge management (KM), many employees avoid practicing KM at the individual
level. This avoidance often leads to loss of the intellectual capital due to employee turnover
Knowledge Management (KM) many employees avoid practicing KM at an individual
level. This exclusion often leads to a loss of intellectual capital due to staff turnover. The
authors' argument [13] is important in this context: „The process of knowledge creation,
transformation, and application helps to integrate and transform big data into useful
business information, thus provides an endless driving force conducive to the establishment
and promotion of the core competencies of enterprises”.
Greater interest in the application of knowledge management can be seen in different
sectors across different countries, as exemplified by the authors in [14] who point out that
„....have developed knowledge management capabilities to address low organizational
engagement (higher turnover rates) and knowledge workers' performance and, as a follow-
up to this,.“.........examine the mediation role of organizational commitment in the
relationship between knowledge management practices and knowledge-worker
performance“. The intermediary role of organizational commitment in the relationship
between knowledge management practices and knowledge workers' performance.

4 Methods
In the following part, we will focus on the research of knowledge management in the
selected company in the conditions of the Slovak Republic. This was realized by the
method of inquiry, in the form of a questionnaire and the results were processed by the
method of analysis and synthesis. Employees, mostly male (63%) aged 25-45 (56%),
mostly working in the company for more than 5 years (38%) participated in the survey.

5 Results
Their awareness of knowledge management is satisfactory, as confirmed by 41.18% of
the positive answers to the question of whether they know what knowledge management is.
In answering the question of whether they are using knowledge, information and data in
their workload, 36.76% of respondents confirmed a positive answer to their daily workload.
It was interesting to find out that up to 30.88% of respondents consider using knowledge
management in the company as insufficient. Positive cognitive attitude to the question „Do
you consider knowledge management to be necessary in society?“ expressed by 57.35% of
respondents. Positive impacts from the use of knowledge management in the company in
relation to the competition were not confirmed by employees and 38.24% said that
knowledge and their use are rather not a competitive advantage. Questions „Do you know
what the SAP PLM system is?“ and „Are you familiar with the new SAP PLM system?“
they are closely linked and the answers also confirm this fact. 90% of the respondents know
the terms and 95.59% are familiar with them. Next question Are you identified with the
new SAP PLM system? and the most numerous response was rather than 39.71%, probably
because of the habit of the old computer system, and there was a problem getting used to
the new system. 61.76% of respondents (regardless of whether they are executive or
managerial) said they were using the PLM system SAP. The survey also showed that
42.65% of respondents think they have a good command of the PLM system SAP. When
asked whether the PLM SAP system has the most numerous answer - 57.35% - the answer
was yes: the SAP system has advantages. On the contrary, to the question Does the PLM
have SAP disadvantages? therefore, the most numerous response was 45.59%. Question Do
you think that the implementation of the PLM system has made work more efficient? was

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Globalization and its Socio-Economic Consequences 2019

answered positively - 48, 53% of respondents. Rather, what constitutes 51.47% of the
answers reflects the question "Do you think that knowledge management in the company is
of a sufficient standard?" Respondents to the question "Would you change the established
SAP program to another or the original one used in the company?" responded most
negatively - 44.12%.

6 Discussions
Utilization and evaluation of knowledge, their continuous development is crucial for the
selected society. The importance is decisive especially in terms of further new development
of society. The company is able to gain a competitive advantage by good and quality
knowledge management and above all to maintain this competitive advantage for a very
long time. Other forms in society such as technology, products, sales and all the activities
of the company come under the strong subordination of knowledge management. The
company has significantly changed its priorities in terms of need and, above all, the
importance of individual forms of capital. The company is well aware of what it can gain
from quality knowledge management and has therefore been actively paying attention to it
recently. Knowledge management in the PLM system could have a better level than it
currently has, even though the company has problems that still exist in the company with
the implementation of the new system, especially by getting used to the new system.
However, the introduction and improvement of the new system is in its infancy. The
company still has a long way to improve, as long as knowledge management is at the same
level as planned when implementing the new strategy, the strategy to focus on knowledge
management. The knowledge survey carried out among employees assessed the level of
knowledge management in the company as insufficient. On the other hand, employees are
satisfied with the new system in place despite the finding that the level of knowledge
management is not sufficient. Employees adapt to the new system and try their best to work
in SAP, to communicate with IT managers and technicians to correct errors and help
improve the new program. Despite the problems encountered in getting used to the new
PLM system, employees would no longer want to return to the original program that the
company has been using for years. In the area of knowledge management, the company
should focus more on achieving a shortening of the product development cycle, as this will
guarantee the company a competitive advantage. Indeed, shortening the product
development cycle will allow you to be different, to be fast, to be at the forefront of
competition. Guaranteed innovation and development of new products will make the
company prosper. The company must also improve in the area of innovation management
and organizational learning. In particular, investments will guarantee the new development
of the company in the field of knowledge management. Another possibility to increase the
level of knowledge management is to invest in the dissemination of expertise to all
employees and people throughout the company. The company must interconnect the
network between all internal and external entities, which will facilitate communication
between these entities, making it easier to order goods, from quicker order processing to
delivery to the final consumer. The company should ensure that all employees receive the
insights and ideas that are needed for their daily work. Another possibility to increase
knowledge management is to solve all problems related to information and data, even those
intractable or threatening. The company should ensure the management of the intellectual
capital and intellectual assets of workers, such as know-how from their own employees in
the company. The company must focus more on its employees who use knowledge in their
work and, above all, it should communicate more with them. Employees who work with the
system on a daily basis know what deficiencies the SAP system has, but are not able to
remedy them, they only recommend what and how it could work better. Therefore,

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communication is needed between employees and IT managers who are trying to improve
the program and try to eliminate the deficiencies that the program is supposed to eliminate
and remove. More frequent meetings and more regular training will ensure effective
improvement of the level of knowledge, on the one hand in terms of good program control
and on the other hand, remedying the shortcomings. It is therefore necessary to remedy any
internal weaknesses in the system that employees use every day. It is necessary to eliminate
the problem of lengthy loading of information into text documents, which employees can
then print and put into their folders. Another drawback of the system that needs to be
eliminated is easier interconnection between all warehouses, so as to guarantee the up-to-
date status of the products of each warehouse, e.g. if one warehouse needs a certain volume
of products that it does not have but has another warehouse. The system in place should be
a double backup of data, not just one server. The system should be easier to use, especially
for most employees who need perhaps half the data for their work. Certainly there could be
fewer icons, as some are still not used. It would certainly make it easier for all employees to
work as well as lengthy data retrieval by dividing the program by work level itself, top
management or managers. Increasing the level of knowledge management can also be
ensured by the participation of managers at various knowledge management conferences.
Executives have the opportunity to participate in these conferences and trainings where
they can learn to work with knowledge and how to use them more effectively. Indeed, the
growing content of knowledge is made available to develop and ensure the creation of
products and services. The company should also use association rules as a data mining
technique. This data mining is dedicated to the process of acquiring new knowledge from
large amounts of data. Association rule techniques are applicable to narrower external
systems as well as to more general knowledge-based systems. Association rules as a data
mining technique are applicable in a variety of applications such as shopping cart analysis,
discovering hidden item dependencies, or referrals. The company has the potential to
improve the quality and level of knowledge management based on recommendations. [15]
Knowledge management is considered to be one of the decisive factors for the
successful functioning of economic entities. It is one of the new perspectives on
organization management. On the one hand, it has its supporters and, on the other, its
opponents.
The actual process of transforming information into knowledge takes place within the
functioning of the whole organization, it is not enough in one department or department.
The process of turning information into knowledge is primarily a process of maximizing the
value of an organization. However, it is essential to be aware of the fundamental difference
between information and knowledge. Especially the difference is that information is an
input into the knowledge process itself where coordination of all activities is needed. All
knowledge that is not applicable and which is not used will remain information until it is
transformed into a value creation process.

The acknowledgements: Sustainable human resource management in the era of globalization ' 4 /
PEDAS / 2019

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