The restructuring of Russian enterprises towards the use of progressive methods and forms of management is a major task and vital for the successful transformation of the market and the development of the whole economy. Changes in technologies, organization, and leadership that occurred over the past decades exerted a decisive influence on management activity and the mastery of knowledge in various spheres. The utilization of new information and communications technologies has raised the levels of interconnection in the market environment by leaps and bounds.
Under these conditions, the mastery of knowledge and its distribution and utilization is becoming indispensable for steady economic growth. Modern markets cannot function without information. Therefore, it is the most important job of managers to ensure the adaptability of knowledge management to the new conditions.
According to the author, the central task of the knowledge management function consists of seeing that internal resources are uncovered and additionally utilized based on the search for progressive experience while avoiding a repetition of what has already been done. In a “knowledge spiral” unknown or unclear knowledge must be discovered and spread so that it can become part of the database. In the long run, knowledge management is expected to lead to the division of a major organization into small self-managing structures. Intelligent information systems again will ensure the integration of all operations into a unified whole.
An organization should possess the following characteristics in order to ensure constant adaptation to a dynamic environment: greater flexibility, changes in the role of individual employees, preferential use of groups (teams), high internal competitiveness, and a drive for diversification.
Most of the corporations that close prematurely show an inability to learn, adapt, and develop as the environment around them changes. In contrast, corporations with a long life span are cautious towards the environment; tend to have a high degree of cohesiveness and identity of organizational culture; tolerate new and opposite ideas or types of activity; and have a conservative financing.