Leadership and Knowledge

Introduction

In the present world, it is easy for people to gain knowledge and in almost every part of the world one can access knowledge. With the development of the latest technology, knowledge can be gained from various sources and the time has gone when people are only using books for the attainment of knowledge. Now, anyone can benefit by using different tools that modern technology has introduced and also by the usage of multimedia.  The most important factor is the clear understanding of knowledge, which is essential in this era of globalization and unified atmosphere, because knowledge is the main part of one’s life that can make the difference between civilized and uncivilized people. In this world, there are many examples of nations that have progressed by gaining knowledge (McDonald, 1997). Knowledge has a vital role in developing a great leader and there are several examples that knowledge created many leaders who changed the world.

Knowledge

Knowledge is related to the skills or the abilities of people about some specific thing, or it sometimes relates to the true beliefs that are associated with some concepts about a particular area. These skills or abilities have also their role in the exploration of the leadership qualities. There are different ways that can be used to gain knowledge. For example, one can gain knowledge by studying, practices and also from experiences. There are two types of knowledge. One of them is tacit knowledge while the second type is explicit knowledge. Both types of knowledge have their own unique importance for the effective leadership. Knowledge is also important in the business world because it can help business people to make worthy decisions (Dixon, 1994). Furthermore, by the usage of knowledge they can also build a trust among their customers and also increase customer numbers along with the expansion of their market share. This is because knowledge is important in almost every walk of life and this is the main reason that knowledge helps to understand market trends, the customer’s needs and to develop the plans and strategies that can contribute to the success of a company. These are all the benefits of knowledge that can contribute to the competitive advantage of the business in comparison with other competitors in the same area (Hansen, 1999). Although there is another side of knowledge that also leads to destruction. This is why we are still looking at how to get the benefits of knowledge and to use knowledge for a better leadership.

Tacit Knowledge

In Tacit knowledge, the knowledge is already present in someone’s brain and this knowledge comes from life experience, by studying or by having a deep understanding regarding a particular situation (Polanyi, 1966). This type of knowledge is tacit and it can be hard to express by explanation, words or data. This knowledge has an impact on a person’s life: how one has reacted in situations and what that person has gained from that experience. This is why this knowledge plays an important role in someone’s personality and also to the life of a leadership. Furthermore, this knowledge is only associated with the individuals and it is difficult to share with others. For example, a player has a lifetime that he has spent on a particular game and in this way he has learned a lot of lessons from the experiences that he had while playing. So by gaining knowledge from the experiences one can become the top player in a particular game, but on the other hand it is difficult to express all the experiences and the knowledge that have been gained in his life to become a better player. This is also a fact that some of the leaders are born leaders and this is mainly due to the tacit knowledge.

Explicit Knowledge

The second form of knowledge is a little bit easier to gain. With explicit knowledge, the knowledge can be gained by numbers, words or by using other types of information including images and videos and other similar data. In this way, one can have a deep understanding of a particular process or situation (Menon, 2003). One problem that exists in this type of knowledge is that the knowledge that is gained can take a long time to convert into the explicit form because in this form of knowledge one can gain knowledge from experiences and practices and then convert it into the explicit type of knowledge.

For example, a student gets a job in an industry. At this stage, the knowledge that the student has gained and learned from school is in a tacit form. When the student spends many years working and gaining experiences from the working process, he will have sufficient knowledge about how the process works and how he can work efficiently on a particular problem in accordance with the knowledge that he has gained along with the experience that he has from the past. This is the stage where he gets the explicit knowledge that he can use in the current situation and also in the future. This also applies to the leaders because by using their experiences and the situations in which they have survive, they become the best leaders through the explicit knowledge.

Ways of Knowledge

There are different ways of getting knowledge and there are also different factors that help to gain knowledge in both of the types that are described above. The key factor is to build knowledge and this is also known as the initial step that one can take to enter into this process of effective leadership. Furthermore, there are also different ways that can help to establish knowledge. Almost everyone has some knowledge about some situations according to the experiences that they have in life. There are different types of basic knowledge that include research, results that one gets from some particular situations and also from the outcomes (Huber, 1991). But this basic knowledge is only limited to the tacit form of knowledge and it is difficult to expand or to share this knowledge.

In the next step, knowledge can be gained from the explicit form and this includes accumulating, embedding or even remembering. In this sort of knowledge people usually analyze and organize their tacit knowledge to explore it more so that they have a better understanding about the practical situations that occur in life. This relates to the first step in which the knowledge was in tacit form and now in the second stage they practically use this knowledge to gain more experience. The next step in the process of knowledge is known as pooling knowledge. In this stage, leaders can easily access, retrieve and coordinate knowledge. In the last step, the knowledge can be applied to get the desired results. This is the main factor that most of the top leaders of the world uses to deal with a particular situation.

There is also the competitive advantage of knowledge that can be used for business purposes and also for the effective leadership. This sometimes also leads to different practices of knowledge management that are helpful for business purposes. For better business and especially in major corporations there is a need to have knowledge in accordance with the market (Levitt, 1988). For this purpose a clear understanding about knowledge related to market trends is required along with market behaviors. This knowledge is must for a company to succeed in business or even compete with the other players that are in the same niche. There are further stages of knowledge that include the development and the research process. This is the higher level of knowledge, but it requires more effort and time on this stage because in the higher level working environment it is hard to focus and gain knowledge.

Furthermore, knowledge can influence business and can also make the difference between success and failure of a business. In addition, there are many ways that one can use to gain knowledge and with the development of the latest technology, it is now easier to gain knowledge in a better environment than it ever was before. There are now many policies and regulations that have been made by different governments in order to facilitate knowledge and to offer the best opportunities so that anyone can easily gain knowledge and contribute to the society for a better future (Earl, 2001).

Conclusion

Knowledge is the most important asset in the world that one should gain at any cost. Knowledge can make or break the leaders. In the history most of the successful leaders had the ability to utilize knowledge. Knowledge is also a field that is vast and so huge that it takes lifetimes to cover this, but even then one cannot cover all the aspects of knowledge. This is also essential for every single individual to gain knowledge and there are different forms of knowledge that can also lead to business knowledge as well. Knowledge also explores the qualities of leadership in a person. If one is in a sufficient environment to gain knowledge, then it can be helpful to avoid the unnecessary faults that come in the way. Knowledge also helps to give your best work performance. There are many sources that one can use to gain knowledge, but there should be credible sources that one can use to avoid any hurdle that leads to the wrong direction (Nonaka, 1994). This also helps to analyze and leads to a better way that can further provide more specific experiences for the practical life in which knowledge can be used to deal with situations.