The Reason Expert The Problem As One Related To Knowledge Management
Knowledge management describes a process if developing, sharing, utilizing and managing the information and knowledge of an organization (Groff and Jones 2012). With increasing challenges in the market, it has become extremely important for the businesses to focus on maintaining the knowledge at the desired level for achieving competitive advantage in the market. Knowledge management refers to a specific multidisciplinary approach for fulfilling business objectives by making the best use of the knowledge. Knowledge management covers areas like information system, business administration, information sciences and management libraries that can have major impact on the effectiveness of the operational procedure. The case study has illustrated the kind of business related issues that Snapshot Industries is facing due ineffective use of knowledge management procedure. Snapshot Industries was extremely successful in early 25 of business under the leadership of Sam. The case study has mentioned that Sam has kept 95% of the employees for more than 20 years with the organization. It has allowed Snapshot Industries to achieve continues success in the market. However, after death of Sam, Snapshot Industries have faced massive challenges in keeping their employees associated with the organization under the leadership of Jim. The study illustrates the prime reason for increasing organizational challenges of Snapshot Industries in order to highlight the way lack of knowledge management process is associated. It also highlights the prime areas of problem that Snapshot Industries is facing due to the structural changes. It would also focus on assessing the way knowledge management strategy will create positive impact on handling different types of challenges and procedures.
From the case study, it can be assessed that Snapshot Industries started to face different problems due to sudden structural changes initiated by the new direct Jim. Over the years, Snapshot Industries have not implemented any changes in their operational procedure. As a result, employees working in the organization have become very used to the daily completion of their roles and responsibilities. Moreover, maintenance of similar strategies has allowed employees to understand their roles within the operational procedure (Becerra-Fernandez and Sabherwal 2014). Hence, Snapshot Industries has not faced any operational challenges for long period of time. However, Jim has initiated different structural changes like acquisition of different small business entities, increasing the number of employees from 200 to 600 and reduction of product offering for maximizing the production volume for the rest of the amount.
As per the article by Dent and Whitehead (2013) knowledge management focuses on four prime factors of identifying the source of problem, disseminate the identified issues across all the stakeholders, organize the activity for creating positive impact and capture the expected impact on the operational procedure. Now, the evaluation of the case study has highlighted the fact that existing employees of Snapshot Industries are not collaborative enough with the new inclusion of employees. As a result, many new employees have not received required amount of information for performing their responsibilities. In addition, different old staffs of Snapshot Industries have shown their unwillingness to share information to the new employees. Therefore, it has created challenges for the new staffs to locate source of expertise in an effective manner (Serenko and Bontis 2013). It illustrates the fact that employee practices of Snapshot Industries have not focused on maintaining the basic principles associated with the knowledge management procedure. Moreover, the operational procedure of Snapshot Industries has not focused on documentation procedure, as transfer of tacit knowledge is much more difficult.
Types Of Knowledge Associated With The Snapshot Industries
From the evaluation of the case study, it can be assess that Snapshot Industries is primarily dealing with tacit and explicit knowledge for fulfilling the requirements of the operational procedure. As describe by Rao (2012) tacit knowledge is the type of knowledge that is extremely hard to transfer across people. Now, old staffs of Snapshot Industries are working in the operational process for more than 20 years. As a result, they hold expertise in performing all the tasks in an effective manner. Moreover, previous predictable and routine work has allowed old staffs of Snapshot Industries to fulfil all the requirements in an effective manner. Therefore, it can be mentioned that the old staffs of Snapshot Industries holds tacit knowledge, which will require more time in order to transfer to the new employees. On the other hand, Snapshot Industries also holds explicit knowledge, as all the departments of the organization are computerized. As stated by Noruzy et al. (2013) explicit knowledge refers to the procedures, manuals, documents, procedures that allow easy transfer of information. Now, Snapshot Industries possesses centralized records systems. It highlights the fact that Snapshot Industries holds explicit knowledge.
Out of the highlighted tacit and explicit knowledge, Snapshot Industries will have to focus on utilizing specific factors as strategic knowledge. For instance, Snapshot Industries will have to focus on utilizing the expertise tacit knowledge of the old staffs for educating the new employees. Moreover, it will also have to use expertise knowledge as special input in order to deal with different challenges associated with the operational procedure (Reich, Gemino and Sauer 2012). It will also have to use explicit knowledge through management information system and knowledge about markets and customers for fulfilling the objective of strategic expansion.
As emphasized by Durst and Runar Edvardsson (2012) maintenance the knowledge and skill base within the organization is extremely important for achieving sustainable growth the market. With increasing competition, different companies have focused on capturing the knowledge base of other companies for achieving competitive advantage in the market. However, too many changes in the operational procedure of Snapshot Industries have induced existing and new employees of Snapshot Industries to resign or retire from the organization. Now, the resignation or retirement of expertise people will increase the challenges for Snapshot Industries in fulfilling all the requirements of the operational procedure. It will induce Snapshot Industries to invest more on the operational process, which is likely to increase the cost of production in a major way. Moreover, absence of expertise knowledge will create challenges for Snapshot Industries in dealing with any failure in the production procedure (Meihami and Meihami 2014). Hence, it will also affect the productivity of the organization, as it happens in case of Snapshot Industries. Moreover, resignation of key people in likely to reduce the quality of the operational procedure. In addition, it is likely to provide more opportunities to the competitors to increase their knowledge base in an effective manner.
Elements Of Strategic Knowledge
In order to handle the challenges associated with the resignation and retirement, Snapshot Industries will have to focus on developing clear formal and informal communicational structure across the departments. It will help to reduce the present stress level of old and new employees in a major way. Moreover, appropriate use of communicational process will help the employees to adjust with the operational procedure in an effective manner. In addition, Snapshot Industries will also have to focus on utilizing the expertise knowledge of the existing employees for educating new staffs. It not only helps new employees to deal with the operational challenges effectively but also encourage old employees to remain associated with the organization for long period of time (Lai et al. 2014). Snapshot Industries will also have to provide proper training and development facilities to the existing employees so that they can able to deal with new working culture. Finally, Snapshot Industries will have to focus on using its explicit knowledge to provide information to all levels of employees.
The evaluation of the present situation of Snapshot Industries has highlighted some flaws in the leadership styles of Jim. The consultant has assessed the fact that leadership style of Jim has not focused too much on the identification of specific goals. In fact, it has just acquired different small size companies randomly for expanding the size of the organization. Moreover, the consultant has emphasized the fact that leadership style of Jim has unable to utilize the expertise knowledge of the existing staffs in an appropriate manner. Moreover, the structural changes strategy of Jim has not focused too much on the kind of impact it will create on the cultural aspect (Sung and Choi 2012). As a result, Jim unable to predict the current situation before it has already become extremely serious.
According to Jones and Sallis (2013), leaders need to understand the best possible way to initiate changes in the operational procedure so that it does not affect the motivational level of the employees. However, the leadership style of Jim has not focused too much on understanding the perspectives of employees at the time of initiating structural changes. Therefore, existing employees suddenly have to work in extremely competitive environment. It has increased the stress level among the employees in a major way, which resulted into increasing rate of resignation and retirement. Moreover, introduction of centralized and personnel system has increased the difficulty level of the employees even further. The leadership style of Jim has not focused too much on providing proper training and development facilities to the old staffs, which has affected the productivity of the organization (Roy 2012). Moreover, leadership style of Jim has not focused on developing appropriate organizational culture where each employees share required amount of information to the other employees. Hence, it has affected the production and operational procedure of the organization.
Problem Related To Resignations And Retirements
The above illustration has highlighted the fact that Jim will have to focus on different aspect for improving the quality of leadership style. Firstly, Jim will have to focus on leading by examples. For that reason, Jim will have to communicate with the employees of different designation personally. It will help Jim to increase the collaboration level between the management and employees. Secondly, Jim will have to focus on developing collaborative working environment where new and old staffs share required amount of knowledge and information in an effective manner (Von Krogh 2012). Thirdly, Jim will have to focus on providing training to the employees so that they can gain knowledge regarding the stress management techniques. It will reduce the rate of resignation and retirement from the organization. Fourthly, Jim will have to focus on formulating effective communicational network in order to ensure both tacit and explicit knowledge shared comprehensively.
As evaluated by Wiig (2012) knowledge management principles reflects enduring set of guidelines for handling knowledge that are formed by a program, organization or team. Now, management have to focus on developing different actions for establishing knowledge management principles within the workplace. From the assessment of case study, it is obvious that Snapshot Industries is primarily facing challenges regarding the inappropriate use of expertise knowledge of the old employees. It has been assessed that majority of the old people of Snapshot Industries has not focused on sharing relevant information to the new employees. As a result, it has affected the overall effectiveness of the production procedure. For that reason, knowledge management principle will have to focus on recognizing the profitable value of the expertise knowledge of the old experienced employees. It has been assessed that Jim has not focused on handling the issue of resignation and retirement at the initial stage. In fact, Jim has seen this as an opportunity for including new blood within the workplace. However, continues decreasing rate of production and operation capabilities has induced management to focus on this area for using knowledge management principles. According to Fuller (2012), keeping the intellectual property of the organization at the desired level is one of the prime principles of knowledge management. For that reason, Snapshot Industries will also have to focus on developing different strategies for reducing the rate of resignation and retirement for keeping the intellectual asset of the organization at the desired level.
The illustration of the case study has highlighted the fact that ineffective utilization of knowledge management procedure created different types of challenges for Snapshot Industries. The organization has faced challenges with decreasing rate of productivity along with high employee attrition rate. Moreover, sudden changes in the operational procedure have induced old employees to work in completely different atmosphere (Rasula, Vuksic and Stemberger 2012). The leadership of Jim has not focused too much on development of strong collaboration between new and old employees. As a result, Snapshot Industries has struggled to transfer knowledge among new employees, which eventually affected the operational procedure. For that reason, Jim will have to focus on utilizing knowledge management as a strategy for enhancing the effectiveness of the operational procedure. Moreover, utilization of knowledge management as a strategy will allow Snapshot Industries to enhance the skill and knowledge level of new employees in an effective manner. In addition, appropriate use of knowledge management strategy will help Snapshot Industries to develop strong communicational network across the departments, which eventually reduce the probability of confusion regarding the roles and responsibilities of the employees.
Possible Counter Strategies
As per the article by Borghoff and Pareschi (2013), knowledge management requires appropriate use of recognition and benefits strategies. For that reason, Snapshot Industries will also have to focus on developing proper strategy of recognizing the expertise of the senior employees so that they remain associated with the organization for long period of time. Hence, appropriate use of knowledge management as a strategy will help Snapshot Industries to handle different challenges associated with the high employee attrition rate. Moreover, it will also reduce the possibility of draining of knowledge to other competitors. Hence, effective utilization of knowledge management as a strategy will help Snapshot Industries to eliminate the current challenges in the operational procedure, which will eventually in achieving sustainable growth in the target market.
The case study has illustrated several operational and leadership challenges of Snapshot Industries, which is affecting the businesses of the organization. The sudden changes in the operational structure have completely transformed the way business activities are conducted in Snapshot Industries. Therefore, both new and existing employees of Snapshot Industries are facing different types of challenges in performing their roles and responsibilities in an effective manner. The evaluation of the case study has illustrates the fact that structural changes have induced employees to handle too much changes in their daily activities. Now, maintaining the quality of new roles and responsibilities has become extremely difficult for the employees in Snapshot Industries (Hislop 2013). Moreover, the management of Snapshot Industries has not focused on providing proper training and development facilities so that they can have required level of knowledge of handling the procedure. As a result, employees of Snapshot Industries will have to go through immense stress level for fulfilling their organizational responsibilities.
Now, appropriate use of knowledge management strategy will definitely help employees to deal with the stress level in an effective manner. For instance, if Snapshot Industries can able to use the expertise knowledge of the experienced staffs for the knowledge enhancement procedure of new employees, it will definitely create massive impact on the effectiveness of the operational roles and responsibilities (Durst and Wilhelm 2012). Moreover, appropriate use of knowledge management can allow Snapshot Industries to handle sudden failure of the machinery of production process in an effective manner. For that reason, it can be mentioned that effective use of knowledge management will definitely help Snapshot Industries to solve all the current problems comprehensively.
Conclusion:
The above illustration has highlighted the fact that effective utilization of knowledge management is extremely critical for the organizations to achieve success continuously. Knowledge management allows businesses to focus on utilizing innovative strategies for creating desired impact on the market. Moreover, it can also allow businesses to develop effective communicational strategy, which is likely to eliminate any possibility of confusion within the workplace. The above evaluation has illustrated the fact that ineffective utilization of knowledge management created difficulties for Snapshot Industries to maintain the effectiveness of the production process. Hence, it can be mentioned that organizations will have to use experienced employees to pass the knowledge among the juniors in order to ensure the effectiveness of the operational procedure remains intact. To conclude, it can be mentioned that Snapshot Industries need to focus on developing strategies related to knowledge management so that it can able to counter the challenges associated with knowledge management.
References:
Becerra-Fernandez, I. and Sabherwal, R., 2014. Knowledge management: Systems and processes. Routledge.
Borghoff, U.M. and Pareschi, R. eds., 2013. Information technology for knowledge management. Springer Science & Business Media.
Dent, M. and Whitehead, S. eds., 2013. Managing professional identities: Knowledge, performativities and the’new’professional (Vol. 19). Routledge.
Durst, S. and Runar Edvardsson, I., 2012. Knowledge management in SMEs: a literature review. Journal of Knowledge Management, 16(6), pp.879-903.
Durst, S. and Wilhelm, S., 2012. Knowledge management and succession planning in SMEs. Journal of Knowledge Management, 16(4), pp.637-649.
Fuller, S., 2012. Knowledge management foundations. Routledge.
Groff, T. and Jones, T., 2012. Introduction to knowledge management. Routledge.
Hislop, D., 2013. Knowledge management in organizations: A critical introduction. Oxford University Press.
Jones, G. and Sallis, E., 2013. Knowledge management in education: Enhancing learning & education. Routledge.
Lai, Y.L., Hsu, M.S., Lin, F.J., Chen, Y.M. and Lin, Y.H., 2014. The effects of industry cluster knowledge management on innovation performance. Journal of Business Research, 67(5), pp.734-739.
Meihami, B. and Meihami, H., 2014. Knowledge Management a way to gain a competitive advantage in firms (evidence of manufacturing companies). International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, (14), pp.80-91.
Noruzy, A., Dalfard, V.M., Azhdari, B., Nazari-Shirkouhi, S. and Rezazadeh, A., 2013. Relations between transformational leadership, organizational learning, knowledge management, organizational innovation, and organizational performance: an empirical investigation of manufacturing firms. The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, pp.1-13.
Rao, M., 2012. Knowledge management tools and techniques. Routledge.
Rasula, J., Vuksic, V.B. and Stemberger, M.I., 2012. The impact of knowledge management on organisational performance. Economic and Business Review for Central and South-Eastern Europe, 14(2), p.147.
Reich, B.H., Gemino, A. and Sauer, C., 2012. Knowledge management and project-based knowledge in it projects: A model and preliminary empirical results. International Journal of Project Management, 30(6), pp.663-674.
Roy, R. ed., 2012. Industrial Knowledge Management: a micro-level approach. Springer Science & Business Media.
Serenko, A. and Bontis, N., 2013. Global ranking of knowledge management and intellectual capital academic journals: 2013 update. Journal of Knowledge Management, 17(2), pp.307-326.
Sung, S.Y. and Choi, J.N., 2012. Effects of team knowledge management on the creativity and financial performance of organizational teams. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 118(1), pp.4-13.
Von Krogh, G., 2012. How does social software change knowledge management? Toward a strategic research agenda. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 21(2), pp.154-164.
Wiig, K., 2012. People-focused knowledge management. Routledge.
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
