Laura Ashley is a global British iconic brand. With reference to Assignment

Laura Ashley is a global British iconic brand. With reference to knowledge management strategies and effective use of technology - Assignment Example Through KM, knowledge is appropriately distributed among every member of the organisation in order to enhance knowledge based productivity (Henczel, 2000). Contextually, it has been observed that since the past few decades a majority of the organisations have begun to emphasise on managing workforce in order to survive in a rapid changing competitive environment. KM primarily focuses on this accelerated changing environment through which organisations can transform their entire activities into ‘knowledge work’ and all of its employees into ‘knowledgeable workers’ (Uriarte, 2008; Fao, 2013). Laura Ashley plc is considered one of the leading United Kingdom based organisation whose operations are primarily based on dealing with designing, distributing, sourcing and selling of apparel items, accessories as well as home furnishing products. In the UK, the company operates with over 211 stores in which 134 stores deal with selling activities of various product cat egories, 54 home stores operates under home furnishing and accessories products and 21 stores act as a gift as well as clearance outlets (Laura Ashley, 2013). The essay intends to discuss the aspect regarding the way Laura Ashley implements KM strategies in order to attain competitive advantages. Additionally, this essay intends to delineate regarding the various approaches of KM strategies which Laura Ashley execute and follow in order to enhance its overall operational performance. Knowledge Audit Link to Strategy Codification Knowledge audit is considered as a systematic and strategic approach towards the dimension of KM by which managers obtain an opportunity to incorporate its diverse operational activities within their organisation. Knowledge audit facilitates to bring efficiency within the productive procedures and also assists to share valuable knowledge amid the internal as well as external shareholders (Botha & Boon, 2003). With the help of well-developed knowledge audit s trategies, an organisation can be able to identify suitable strategic directions in order to improve its knowledge based productivity. The objective of this strategy is to influence an organisation to maintain collaboration, coordination and make more consistent approach towards its goals (Hansen & et. al., 1999; Janicot & Mignon, 2012). In order to understand the role of knowledge codification, it is necessary to evaluate the attributes of the strategic options which are primarily implemented by Laura Ashley. With the aid of the KM strategies, the company can improve its work performance and also identify the sources of competitiveness. By emphasising on knowledge codification strategy, the company’s Information Technology (IT) and Research & Development (R&D) departments play an imperative role for sharing the knowledge production information by which it can instantly access and distribute valuable knowledge amid its team members (Che Pa & et. al., 2012; Laura Ashley, 2013) . Laura Ashley has primarily adopted and follows two major knowledge audit strategies i.e. codification and personalisation which helps the company to improve