KM capstone report.docx

KM capstone report.docx

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KMcapstonereport

Runninghead:

KNOWLEDGEMANAGEMENTSTRATEGYFORBOBCO1

AReportforTheImplementationofAKnowledgeManagementStrategyforBobCo

WuShuyu

NewYorkInstituteofTechnology

AuthorNote

ThispaperwaspreparedforKnowledgemanagement311,taughtbyDr.KevinO’Sullivan

KNOWLEDGEMANAGEMENTSTRATEGYFORBOBCO2

AReportforTheImplementationofAKnowledgeManagementStrategyforBobCo

Withthedevelopmentofknowledge-basedeconomy,knowledgemanagementbecomemoreandmoreimportantforcompaniestoachievecompetitiveadvantagesintoday’sintensivecompetition.ThisreporttalkedaboutBobCo’sleadershipissuesandcultureissuesandtheireffectsonknowledgemanagement.SeveralinformationandcommunicationtechnologieslikeLotusNotesarealsorecommendedforBobCotoimplementitsknowledgemanagement.TheimpactsofacquisitionfromFredCoalsoareanalyzed.Ethicalissues,budgetaryissueandcommunicationstrategyinimplementingknowledgemanagementarealsotalkedatthelastpartofthereport

Leadershipissues

Leadershipisoneoftheimportantpillarstoforacompanytoestablishaknowledgemanagementsystem.Companywithgoodleadershiphasalargerchanceofachievingsuccessfulknowledgemanagement.However,severalleadershipissuesinBobCobecomestumblingblocksforittodevelopaknowledgemanagementsystemandachievesuccessfulknowledgemanagement.

Failureofsharingknowledgecultureestablishment

Firstly,managersinBobColacktheinclinationtocreateaorganizationalcultureofsharingandtransferringknowledge.Asitwasmentionedinthecase,JoseRevilla,oneofthevicepresidentofBobCofromBarcelona,opposedtheproposalofestablishingofaknowledgemanagementsystembecausehethinksthatthoseregularmeetingshavehelpedconsultantsinhisgrouptotransferandsharetheirknowledgewellanditisawasteoftimeforhisconsultantstoputtheirreportinadatabase.Healsothinksthatthereisnoneedforconsultantstousetheknowledgemanagementsystem.Inotherwords,heisunwillingtosharetheknowledgewiththewholecompanyorhehasnosenseaboutwhatalargebenefitofknowledgemanagementsystemwouldbringifitisestablishedanddeveloped.

KNOWLEDGEMANAGEMENTSTRATEGYFORBOBCO3

Problemsinstrategicplanning

Secondly,managersinBobCoalsohasproblemsinstrategicplanning.BobCohastwotypesofclients,largeclientsandsmalltomediumsizeclients.ConsultantsfromBobCoworkwithbothofthistwotypesdirectly,whichmeanstheyworkwithclientstohelpthemtosolveproblemandthengobacktothecompany.Theydonotneedtoreporttheirwork

progresstothetopmanagersofthecompanyandtheirmanagersonlycareaboutthefinalresultoftheirwork-solvingtheproblemornot.Therefore,theirknowledgethatarecreated

duringtheprocessofworkingwillnotbeexploredandusedforBobCo.OncethoseconsultantsleaveBobCo,knowledgethatinthoseconsultants’mindwillgoandthecompanywillhavenothingleft.

Recommendations

Tosolvetheseleadershipissues,thefirstthingthatBobConeedtodoisraisingitsmanagers’awarenessoftheimportanceofimplementingaknowledgemanagementsystem.Managersshouldbeencouragedtocreateaorganizationalcultureofsharingknowledge.AsCrawford（2003）pointedoutthat“leadersplayacrucialroleinbuildingandmaintaininganorganizationalcultureoflearning.”Managersareresponsibleforestablishingaculturethatrespectsknowledgeandadvocatesknowledgesharing（Stonehouse&Pemberton,1999）.ManagersinBobCoalsoshouldmakeclearstrategicplanning.Forexample,careerprogramforconsultantsinBobCoshouldbeimplemented.Thiscareerprogramcanprovideconsultantswithworktrainingthattheyneed.Managersofthoseconsultantsareresponsibletocollectconsultant’sworkreportandmakeworktrainingplanforeachconsultantsinthecompany.Therefore,consultants’workexperienceandtacitknowledgecanbecollectedandusedbythecompanythroughthisprogram.Notonlythat,suchacareerprogramalsocanmotivateconsultantstoworkharderandincreasetheirloyaltytothecompany.

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Culturalissues

Asitistalkedabove,BobCofailedtoestablishaorganizationalcultureofsharing

knowledge.Besidesissuesinorganizationalculture,itisalsomoredifficultforBobCotoshareknowledgethoughtheentirecompanybecauseitsmulticulturalcharacteristic.Peoplefromdifferentcountrieshavedifferentculturebackground.Suchadifferenceincultureleadstopeoplehaveattitudetoknowledgetransferringandsharing.Therefore,itbecomesnecessaryforBobcotoimplementaknowledgemanagementstrategy.TheknowledgemanagementstrategyhelpsBobCodealwiththenationalculturalissuesandpromotethedevelopmentofitsinternationaloperations.

Technologies

Technologiesareenablersforcompaniestoachievesuccessfulknowledge

management.Informationtechnologiesarenotonlyusedtostoreandtransferexplicit

information,theyalsohelptostrengthenthecollaborationandconnectionbetweenemployeesinacompany（Gann,2000）.Dixon（2000）alsopointedoutthat“inaknowledgemanagementstrategy,technologyisaninstrumentinacollectionofprocessesthatgovernthecreation,disseminationandutilizationofknowledgetofulfillorganizationalobjectives.”Thereareseveraltechnologiesandtechniquesthatareusedfrequentlybycompaniesororganizationsfromdifferentindustriesinnowadays（seeTable1）.

KNOWLEDGEMANAGEMENTSTRATEGYFORBOBCO5

Table1:

TheUsageandEffectivenessofTechnologiesandTechniquesforKM

（Source:

EgbuandBotterill;ITcon,Vol.7（2002）;pg.130）

TelephonesandIntranetaretwomostcommonmethodsthatareusedbycompany

totransferandsharetheknowledgethroughthecompany.Thistwomethodsalsohavethehighesteffectivenessforacompany’sknowledgemanagement.However,video-conferencingthatarecommonlyusedbyBobCohasthelowesteffectiveness.Therefore,BobCoshouldestablishitsintranetandtransferandshareitsknowledgethoughtelephoneinsteadofusingvideoconferences.Besidesthat,othercommunicationtechnologieslikeIBM’sLotusNotesandDominoalsoshouldbeconsideredtousetoadvocatetheknowledgetransferringandsharingthroughBobCo.TheseinformationandcommunicationtechnologiescanbeintegratedtosetupadatabaseorsystemtosupporttheentireknowledgemanagementsystemofBobCo.

KNOWLEDGEMANAGEMENTSTRATEGYFORBOBCO6

Impactsoftheacquisition

Technologiesarethepipelinesforcompanytotransferandshareknowledge,then

organizationalstructureisthevenationforknowledgetocirculatearoundtheentire

company.Goodorganizationalstructurestrengthenstherelationshipsbetweenemployeesand

managers,andthereforeitcanadvocatetheknowledgesharingandcreationthroughthe

company.AsGelard,HassanabadiandRad（2003）pointedoutthat

Aneffectiveorganizationalstructureshallfacilitateworkingrelationships

betweenvariousentitiesintheorganizationandmayimprovetheworking

efficiencywithintheorganizationalunits.…shallsupport

commandforcopingwithamixofordersandachangeofconditions…

whileperformingwork.Organizationsshallallowfortheapplicationof

individualskillstoenablehighflexibilityandapplycreativity.

LeeandChoi（2003）saidthatknowledgemanagementisacombinationof

severalprocessestomanageknowledgeandthoseenablerslikeinformationcommunication

technologiestosupporttheseprocesses.Theyalsoarguedthatknowledgemanagement

enablersincludesorganizationalstructure,organizationalcultureandinformationtechnology

support（ascitedinGelard,etal.,n.d.）.

Organizationalstructure

BobCohasatraditionalhierarchicorganizationalstructure.Consultantsindifferent

locationsareunderthemanagementofthosevicepresidentswhoareresponsiblefor

correspondinglocations.VicepresidentsofBobCoareequalandindependentofeachother,

butallofthemareunderthemanagementoftheCEO.Suchaorganizationalstructuremaybe

helpfulfortransferringandsharingknowledgeverticallythroughBobCo.AsJoseRevilla,the

KNOWLEDGEMANAGEMENTSTRATEGYFORBOBCO7

vicepresidentofBobCo’sofficeinBarcelona,indicatedthat“consultantsinmygroupmeet

anddiscusstheirworkallthetime.”ConsultantsinBarcelonaworktogetherandachieve

greatknowledgesharingthroughtheverticalorganizationalstructure.However,everything

hastwosides.BobCo’shierarchicorganizationalstructurealsoinhibitsthehorizontal

knowledgetransferringandsharingthroughthecompany.Theindependenceofeach

functionalpartsofBobCohinderstheknowledgetransferringacrossorganizational

boundaries.

Goodimpacts

TheacquisitionbyFredComaybringchangesinBobCo’sorganizationalstructure.

FredCo’sorganizationalstructureiscompletelydifferentfromBobCo’s.It’sorganizational

structureis“customerfacing”andbasedonaPartnerbasedmodel,whichmeansallofits

clientsareservicedbyseniormanagers.Whenseniormanagersdealwiththerequirementora

problemfromclients,theycanfreelyusetheresourcesthatareprovidedfromthepractice

managersassociatedwiththedifferentdisciplines.Theseresourcesorknowledgearecollect

andtidiedbythepracticemanagersfromthoseconsultantstraining,careermentoringor

otherworkprograms.Iftheacquisitionsucceeds,FredCo’sknowledge-basedorganizational

structurewillaffectBobCo’straditionalhierarchicorganizationalstructure,whichmakes

BobCo’sorganizationalstructurebecomeknowledge-orientedandrelymoreonknowledge.

SuchachangeinBobCo’sorganizationalstructureishelpful