Table of Contents

1.0

INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 2

1.1

Background Of Organizations..................................................................................... 2

1.2

Problem Statements ..................................................................................................... 3

1.3

Research Questions ....................................................................................................... 3

1.4

Research Objectives .................................................................................................... 4

1.5

Research Scope ........................................................................................................... 4

1.6

Research Contributions ............................................................................................... 5

2.0

LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................... 6

2.1

Knowledge Management (KM) .................................................................................. 6

2.2

Need for Knowledge Management ............................................................................. 7

2.3

Knowledge ................................................................................................................. 7

2.3.1

Tacit ..................................................................................................................... 7

2.3.2

Explicit ................................................................................................................. 8

2.4

Knowledge Conversion ............................................................................................... 8

2.5

Knowledge Management Process ............................................................................... 9

3.0

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.................................................................................. 10

3.1

Research Design ....................................................................................................... 11

3.2

Research Method KeKma ....................................................................................... 12

3.3

Research Instrument .................................................................................................. 13

3.4

Data Collection Procedures ....................................................................................... 13

3.5

Data Analysis Methods ............................................................................................. 14

4.0

FINDINGS .................................................................................................................... 15

5.0

DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................... 16

6.0

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGIES ................................................ 17

7.0

CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................. 21

8.0

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................. 22

9.0

APPENDICES .............................................................................................................. 23

1.0

INTRODUCTION

1.1

Background Of Organizations
Agensi PekerjaanThe Recruiter Sdn. Bhd is an organization who is providing the

service of source and recruit quality talent to their customers in various industries. Agensi
Pekerjaan The Recruiter Sdn. Bhd is located in Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia. This agencys main
aim is to deliver great jobs to great people.
They will ensure their best service always deliver as they committed. Their principal
is to make sure every candidate that they recommend will be the best to their valuable
customers for all levels of positions and fields in permanent, contract or temporary placement
that required. The Recruiter is one of the specialist professional recruitment consultancy in
Malaysia. They provide candidates on a permanent, contract and temporary placement
services in engineering, accountancy & finance, supply chain, human resource, support &
administration, information technology, sales & marketing, operation, procurement, logistics
and many more.
In related to that,this organization is also related with knowledge management
because the people in this organization should know how to manage their knowledge and
organize their company to recruits the new talented customers to other industries. Nowadays,
the importance to manage knowledge in organisations has become the key factor for success
in the knowledge economy. Organisations throughout the world are engaging with knowledge
management projects and strategies to harvest the value of knowledge in order to stay
competitive and be innovative. Knowledge management is the process of systematically
managing individual, group and organisational knowledge (Harmath, P. (2013).

1.2

Problem Statements

There are some problems we can sort out in this organization knowledge
management. Basically,knowledge management implementation is so costly and timeconsuming project that has to be well defined, coordinated and well executed. Besides that,
prior to conducting any knowledge management organization, the need to implement
knowledge management and knowledge audit processes must be conducted to access the
current knowledge activities. Therefore, before embarking on any large scale knowledge
management initiatives, Agensi Pekerjaan The Recruiter Sdn. Bhd needs to study how
knowledge management can be implemented to support its core business functions and
processes and how would knowledge management will support their organizations to grow up
in business market (Harmath, P. (2013).
1.3

Research Questions
Agensi PekerjaanThe Recruiter Sdn. Bhd need to study why it needs to engage in

knowledge management initiatives and identify the areas that can be supported by knowledge
management. Therefore, the research question for this case study is:
a) How can Knowledge Management Practices be Successfully Implemented at Agensi
PekerjaanThe Recruiter Sdn. Bhd for recruiting the quality talented customers to the
various industries?
b) What is the response and contribution will the organization gets by implementing the
knowledge management practices in their organization?
c) How would knowledge management will support their organizations to grow up in
business world?

1.4

Research Objectives
The overall objective of this research is on to study the needs for implementing

knowledge management at Agensi Pekerjaan The Recruiter Sdn. Bhd in managing the
recruiting quality talented customers to the various industries. In particular, this research aims
to:
a) To investigate the need for knowledge management in recruiting quality talented
customers to the various industries.
b) To assess the current practices of knowledge management.
c) To propose suitable knowledge management tools and techniques.
1.5

Research Scope
The requirements study of knowledge management (KM) practices in recruiting

quality talented customers to the various industries at Agensi Pekerjaan The Recruiter Sdn.
Bhdcan be carried out by conducting knowledge audit at selected at the organization in Kuala
Lumpur, Selected locations in Malaysia, which are Penang, Selangor, Johor, Terengganu,
Sarawak and Sabah. The pilot study will be conducted at Kedah as this is the closet location
to the research group base. A focus group involving Agensi PekerjaanThe Recruiter Sdn.
Bhd. senior officers was also conducted in Sungai Petani. Knowledge audit is a step by step
examination and evaluation of organisational knowledge health that examines the following:
Organisations knowledge requirements

Identification of existing knowledge assets and resources

Knowledge flow

Future knowledge needs

Knowledge gap analysis

Employees behaviour in creating and sharing knowledge

1.6

Research Contributions
The knowledge audit revealed Agensi Pekerjaan The Recruiter Sdn. Bhd recruiterss

knowledge strengths, weakness, opportunities, threats and risks. The audit process also
included an examination of the organizations strategy, leadership, collaborative, learning
culture, and technology infrastructure in its various processes.
This would help transform the Agensi Pekerjaan The Recruiter Sdn. Bhd into a
learning organisation by providing the current state of knowledge management practices of
the organisation and a direction of where and how to improve the knowledge capability. This
organization also will have a chance to step into the best marketing place in the world by
contributing their service in a proper knowledge management practices level. In related to
this, many of their customers may get benefits by approaching and accessing the recruiter
services.

2.0

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1

Knowledge Management (KM)

Knowledge Management (KM) may simply de defined as doing what is needed to get

the most out of knowledge resources. In general, KM focuses on organizing and making
available important knowledge, wherever it is needed. KM also related to the concept of
intellectual capital.
Forces driving Knowledge Management
a) Increasing Domain Complexity Intricacy of internal and external processes,
increased competition, and the rapid advancement of technology all contribute to
increasing domain complexity.
b) Accelerating Market Volatility The pace of change, or volatility, within each
market domain has increased rapidly in the past decade.
c) Intensified Speed of Responsiveness The time required to take action based upon
subtle changes within and across domains is increasing.
d) Diminishing Individual Experience High employee turnover rates have resulted in
individual with decision making authority having less tenure within their
organizations than ever before.
Agensi Pekerjaan The Recruiter Sdn. Bhd faced with increased complexity, market
volatility and accelerated responsiveness, todays young manager feels less adequate to make
the difficult decisions faced each day. KM is important for organizations that continually face
downsizing or a high turnover percentage due to the nature of the industry.

2.2

Need for Knowledge Management

Knowledge has become the key resource, for a nations military strength as well as

for its economic strength. This is fundamentally different from the traditional key resources
of the economic such as labor, even capital, and land. Agensi Pekerjaan The Recruiter Sdn.
Bhd need systematic work on the quality of knowledge and the productivity of knowledge.
The performance capacity, if the knowledge society will come increasingly to depend on
those two factors.
2.3 Knowledge
Knowledge is defined as a familiarity, awareness or understanding of someone or
something, such as facts, information, descriptions, or skills, which is acquired through
experience or education by perceiving, discovering, or learning. Knowledge can be divided
into two types which are tacit and explicit knowledge.
2.3.1 Tacit
Tacit knowledge includes insights, intuitions, and hunches. Tacit knowledge is a
subjective, also based on experience, and simultaneous. Unwritten, unspoken, and hidden
vast storehouse of knowledge held by practically every normal human being, based on his or
her emotions, experiences, insights, intuition, observations and internalized information.
Tacit knowledge is integral to the entirety of a person's consciousness, is acquired largely
through association with other people, and requires joint or shared activities to be imparted
from on to another.

Like the submerged part of an iceberg it constitutes the bulk of what one knows, and
forms the underlying framework that makes explicit knowledge possible. Concept of tacit
knowledge was introduced by the Hungarian philosopher-chemist Michael Polanyi (18911976) in his 1966 book 'The Tacit Dimension. Also called informal knowledge. Tacit to Tacit
through a process of socialization. Tacit to Explicit through a process of externalization.
2.3.2 Explicit
Explicit knowledge refers to knowledge refers to knowledge that has been expressed
into words and numbers. Explicit knowledge can quantified or objective, also rational,
sequential, and digital knowledge. Articulated knowledge, expressed and recorded as words,
numbers, codes, mathematical and scientific formulae, and musical notations. Explicit
knowledge is easy to communicate, store, and distribute and is the knowledge found in
books, on the web, and other visual and oral means. Opposite of tacit knowledge. We can
convert explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge. Explicit to Tacit through a process of
internalization. Explicit to Explicit through a process of combination.
2.4

Knowledge Conversion
Nonaka and Takeuchi introduced the SECI model (Nonaka& Takeuchi 1996) which has

become the cornerstone of knowledge creation and transfer theory. They proposed four ways
that knowledge types can be combined and converted, showing how knowledge is shared and
created in the organization.

The model is based on the two types of knowledge outlined above.

Socialization - Tacit to tacit. Knowledge is passed on through practice, guidance,

imitation, and observation.

Externalization - Tacit to explicit. This is deemed as a particularly difficult and often

particularly important conversion mechanism. Tacit knowledge is codified into
documents, manuals, etc. so that it can spread more easily through the organization. Since
tacit knowledge can be virtually impossible to codify, the extent of this knowledge
conversion mechanism is debatable. The use of metaphor is cited as an important
externalization mechanism.

Combination - Explicit to explicit. This is the simplest form. Codified knowledge

sources (e.g. documents) are combined to create new knowledge.

Internalization - Explicit to tacit. As explicit sources are used and learned, the
knowledge is internalized, modifying the user's existing tacit knowledge.

2.5

Knowledge Management Process

Knowledge Management Strategy process started with KM theories, that are develop

a working definition of knowledge, and develop a working definition of KM. Next,

knowledge audit, KM Objectives and Strategy approaches, Strategy implementation (strategy
option) and lastly, Quality measures.

Figure 1: Knowledge management process

3.0

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The phases of conducting the evaluation of KM practices in Agensi Pekerjaan The Recruiter
Sdn. Bhd are:

Knowledge Need Analysis

Identifying exactly what knowledge Agensi Pekerjaan The Recruiter Sdn. Bhd possess
currently and what knowledge they would require in the future in order to meet their
objectives and goals.

10

Knowledge Inventory Analysis

The process of knowledge inventory checking is to identify and locate knowledge assets and
resources throughout the entire Agensi PekerjaanThe Recruiter Sdn. Bhd unit. Knowledge
flow analysis-determine how employees in Agens iPekerjaan The Recruiter Sdn. Bhd find
knowledge and how do they share the knowledge they have focuses at people, processes and
systems.

Knowledge Mapping

The knowledge map is a navigation aid to explicit (codified information) and tacit
knowledge, showing the importance and the relationships between knowledge stores and
dynamics.
3.1

Research Design
Exploratory study as little is known about the knowledge management practices in

recruiting quality talented customers to the various industries at Agensi Pekerjaan The
Recruiter Sdn. Bhd. The type of investigation is clarification which as the main focus is
obtaining a clearer understanding of KM practices. Interference with the flow of work at
Agensi Pekerjaan The Recruiter Sdn. Bhd. will be minimal as the study will be conducted in
the natural (non-contrived) setting of Agensi Pekerjaan The Recruiter Sdn. Bhd. work. This is
a cross-sectional study as the data required are gathered once at every identified treatment
location over a period of 2-3 days. Unit of analysis is groups that are working on the
recruitment unit of Agensi Pekerjaan The Recruiter Sdn. Bhd.

11

The scope of this study was on evaluating the KM practices in recruiting quality
talented customers to the various industries by focusing on the following:

Selected important type of recruitment as advised by Agensi Pekerjaan The Recruiter

Sdn. Bhd.

Selected locations in Malaysia, which are Penang, Selangor, Johor, Terengganu, Sarawak
and Sabah. The pilot study will be conducted at Kedah as this is the closet location to the
research group base. A focus group involving Agensi Pekerjaan The Recruiter Sdn. Bhd.
senior officers was also conducted in Sungai Petani.

3.2

Research Method KeKma

Figure 2: Research method- Kekma

12

3.3

Research Instrument

The research instrument used in this study was adapted from:

The Knowledge Audit questionnaire developed by KekMa ((http://kekma-audit.com) and

the knowledge audit instrument developed by Liebowitz et.al (2000).

These questionnaires will be translated into Bahasa Malaysia (BM) to be administered

amongst the selected Agensi Pekerjaan The Recruiter Sdn. Bhd. staffs as the major
communication language here is BM.

3.4

Data Collection Procedures

The knowledge audit is a qualitative research as the study is interested in obtaining

the subjective perception of the respondents and the goal is to discover patterns that emerge
after close observation, careful documentation and thoughtful analysis.Data for this study was
obtained from structured and unstructured face-to-face interviews, focus group to obtain
information from different groups on the KM issues determined by the researcher,
observations on Agensi Pekerjaan The Recruiter Sdn. Bhd. staffs in performing their job
functions related to job recruitment.The population of this study are the Agensi Pekerjaan
The Recruiter Sdn. Bhd. staffs from the job recruitment unit and the samples are selected
through non-probability sampling method of quota sampling to ensure that creating groups
are adequately represented in the study through the assignment of quota. Quota sampling will
ensure all Agensi Pekerjaan The Recruiter Sdn. Bhd. staffs from different levels (managerial,
administrative, clerical, technician and others) are adequately selected on a convenience
basis. The samples were selected based on staffs from different levels who are available to
provide the necessary information regarding knowledge management practices at the job
recruitment centres during the data gathering and data validating sessions (Albert L.
Lederer, 2002).

13

3.5

Data Analysis Methods

Data collected in this study will be analysed using:

Content Analysis Method

Content analysis is the analysis of texts of various types including writing, images,
recordings and cultural artefacts. Content analysis includes both qualitative and
quantitative approaches. Content analysis is used for a variety of purposes including
attribution of texts to authors, testing of hypotheses, theory building, and evaluation
research.

SPSS Cross Tabulation & Distance Analysis

SPSS Statistics is a software package used for statistical analysis.

14

4.0

FINDINGS

The stuff at Agensi Pekerjaan The Recruiter Sdn. Bhd are very motivated and enthusiast.
Acquiring knowledge is more important to them and they believe that the necessity of
funding it from the organizations fund is not always relevant. In the weekly and monthly
official and unofficial gatherings and sessions they like to share their knowledge.
Being an Online agency for recruitment the selected Agensi Pekerjaan The Recruiter Sdn.
Bhd tries their best to capture knowledge from all sorts of medium, which is both online of
course and also raw data and information as well. The staffs strongly believe that the way
forward in performing their job function is through transferring knowledge learned in the
organisation

to

employees

using

both

printed and online documents. It is also a learning organization as well. The stuffs, the
employers, the clients and also the stake holders also have the same outlook towards the
organization which holds the value that knowledge is power and learning is the only way to
enrich their capabilities. They understand the value of knowledge management and they
peruse knowledge as a unique valuable resource to acquire.
The Agensi Pekerjaan The Recruiter Sdn. Bhd Staff are being trained and evaluated based on
their capabilities and work efforts to meet the organizations goal and mission which is to
serve better and serve right. In order to maintain the service quality the staffs are always
under performance check.
The organization and its staffs also believes in sharing knowledge as well. They are engaged
in forum, blogs and insiders as well. They believe that sharing knowledge would definitely
increase their cognitive domain and also spread their outlook towards the subject of
knowledge management.

15

They are maintaining communications online through Q&A forums, micro blogs , video
conferencing and such more. Not only online but also meeting, gatherings and sessions as
well which keeps them updated and also maintains relationship with the stakeholders. They
also support and facilitate knowledge transfer and sharing activities as well.
While serving the clients the staffs knowledge sharing activities comes at hand which
enables them to serve better. Also by being a learning organization their capabilities of
competing with the outside world in the ever-changing market will provide them with
advantage to meet the requirements of the new environment.

5.0

DISCUSSION

Even though the Agensi Pekerjaan the Recruiter Sdn. Bhd is an online recruitment agency but
they are having some issue regarding the information technology and knowledge
management tools which should be the driving force of this organization. By being not using
the full capabilities and resources the selected Agensi Pekerjaan The Recruiter Sdn. Bhd
organization may face failure to deliver. This may lead to market fall and client
disappointment and stakeholders loss.

Every state that this selected Agensi Pekerjaan The Recruiter Sdn. Bhd is working on should
have a centralized data system that will enable them to work efficiently. The System should
be updated in real time or batch update so that there would not be any kind of confusion. The
company that values knowledge and information as valuable resource should take better care
of that.This selected Agensi Pekerjaan The Recruiter Sdn. Bhd should apply the techniques
and tools such as Knowledge Portal, Knowledge profiles, Collaboration workspace. Urgent
request, Knowledge server and services which have been detailed in the knowledge
technology part of this report and all the tools available to get the most out of it.
16

The human resource of this selected Agensi Pekerjaan The Recruiter Sdn. Bhd should also be
managed betted because this resource can contribute greatly in the management of its
valuable resources. The expertise should be dealt with care because their experience will
hugely contribute to enrich the cognitive domain and also help them to lead and react swiftly
in the challenging market.

6.0

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGIES

First and foremost, technology has been an enabler in Knowledge Management . Whereby,
technology alone cannot deliver successful knowledge management, but knowledge
management in any but the smallest organization will need technology especially in this
context for Online Agensi Pekerjaan. Furthermore, in knowledge management requires
technologies to support the new strategies, processes, methods and techniques to better
create, disseminate, share and apply the best knowledge, anytime and anyplace, across the
team, across teams, across the organization and across several organizations, especially its
clients, customers, partners, suppliers and other key stakeholders. The main matrix key
technologies are shown as below:

17

Figure 3: Matrix key technologies in Knowledge management

However, not all of these technologies will be applied in this case study for online Agensi
Pekerjaan The Recruiter Sdn. Bhd.. Thus, we have identified and selected the technologies
that should be include in this online Agensi Pekerjaan The Recruiter Sdn. Bhd. are:
1. Knowledge Portal
2. Knowledge profiles
3. Collaboration workspace
4. Urgent request
5. Knowledge server and services
1. Knowledge Portal
An informational portal is often described as a gateways to information to information
to enable the user to have one, more simplified way of navigating towards the desired
information. However in this context, knowledge portal is far more than an information
portal because, as well as information navigation and access, it contains within it software
technologies to, at least, support the processes of virtual team communication and
collaboration and software technologies to support the 9 step process of managing
knowledge. Furthermore, it contains intelligent agent software to identify and automatically
distribute information and knowledge effectively to knowledge workers based on knowledge

18

profiling. For example, in this case study for agensi pekerjaan, portal plays important part to
deliver latest information to all users or clients on latest job opening.
2. Knowledge Profile
Knowledge profile is a portion that within the knowledge portal. Where, each
knowledge worker and clients can update and maintain a personal knowledge profile which
identifies his or her specific knowledge needs, areas of interest and frequency of distribution.

3. Collaboration workspace
Within the knowledge portal, shared work spaces can be set up for each new team or
project. These will become knowledge repositories from which new knowledge will be
distilled regularly and systematically and shared across other teams in the organization.
Within the shared and collaboration workspace, at least the communication and collaboration
function could be performed. For example in this Agensi Pekerjaan The Recruiter Sdn. Bhd.,
based on their portal, they should shared vision and mission, specific team objectives,
knowledge plan and many more.
4. Urgent Request
Urgent request is within the knowledge portal. It is very useful to have a facility and
underlying process to enter any Urgent Request into the portal and receive back any
responses from across the organization. Rather than needing to know who might know the
request is entered blindly and responses will be made if it is known in the organization and
people are willing to support and respond to this activity. This is a very effective way of
better leveraging the knowledge across the organization.

19

5. Knowledge Server and Services

In order to foster knowledge networking across the entire organization and support
knowledge processes for creating, retaining, leveraging, reusing, measuring and optimizing
the use of the organizational knowledge assets, a centralized knowledge server is required
that will:
a) Manage the communications and collaboration between networks of people
b) Enable the access, creation and sharing of knowledge between them.

Thus, the key components of a generic knowledge server are:

a) A knowledge portal interface designed around a knowledge assets schema
b) Knowledge banks
c) Advances search capabilities
d) An intranet infrastructure for integrated email, file servers, internet/intranet services
and more.

20

7.0

CONCLUSION
This case study demonstrates how the knowledge management systemcan be used in

AgensiPekerjaanThe Recruiter Sdn. Bhd to manage the recruiting quality talented

customers to the various industries. Quality remains the important and vital factor in this
study, but technology such as the knowledge management systemcan be a powerful tool for
recruiting talented customers(Albert L. Lederer, 2002). Our results haveidentified
compelling benefits to using knowledge management technology and strategies in higher
dominant perspectives to achieve an organization goals. This study also demonstrate that
knowledge management is perhaps, best considered as a meta-discipline, within a variety of
themes can be pursued in Agensi Pekerjaan The Recruiter Sdn .Bhd. All these
characteristics of the KMS enable recruiter to develop a critical thinking process that is
methodical and intentional, resulting inimproved clinical reasoning.Integrating the
knowledge management systemas perfect technology into quality recruit curricular is a
dynamic and innovative strategy.

21

8.0

REFERENCES

Harmath, P. (2013). How To Offer Theoretical Solution For Practical. Problems in

Organizational, 40.
Lederer, A.L., Sethi V. (1988). The Implementation of Strategic Information Systems
Planning Methodologies. Journal of Technology Management and Innovation, 445.
Waston. (1987). Information Systems for Management. International Journal of Reviews in
Computing.
Knowledge Management Online.(n.d). Knowledge management Technology. Retrieved from
http://www.knowledge-management-online.com/KM-Technologies.html

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9.0

APPENDICES

The View of Website Agensi Pekerjaan The Recruiter Sdn. Bhd

23