Knowledge Management
Gene One’s goal is in three years to realize 40% growth targets, raise capital, and develop new products in the biotech sector. The leadership team identified these goals in a proposal to the board. The team is trying to make the company a success by succeeding in the public entity. The only issue is no one knows how to implement an IPO bringing the company to try and recruit people in the financial sector whom dealt with IPO’s. The company is also using the knowledge that the team already has and educate themselves on IPO’s, because they have competent operators and they have the free will to apply his or her knowledge in anyway.
“The company uses two applications of the knowledge management process. Those are knowledge acquisition and knowledge use. Knowledge acquisition includes the organization's ability to extract information and ideas from its environment as well as through insight. One of the fastest and most powerful ways to acquire knowledge is through grafting —hiring individuals or acquiring entire companies. Knowledge use is acquiring and sharing knowledge are wasted exercises unless knowledge is effectively put to use. To do this, employees must realize that the knowledge is available and that they have enough freedom to apply it” (McShane & Von Gilnow, 2005, p.83-86).
Knowledge management is any structured activity that improves an organization's capacity to acquire, share, and use knowledge in ways that improve its survival and success. (McShane & Von Gilnow, 2005, p.80).
Open-Systems Anchor
To stay in competition with other companies, Gene One had to develop new marketing mixes. The leadership team developed a plan to fit the emerging conditions of public entities so they can stay in contest with public companies.
“A company's survival and success depend on how well employees sense environmental changes and alter their patterns of behavior to fit those emerging conditions” (McShane & Von Gilnow, 2005, p.73-74).
“Open systems is defined as organizations that take their sustenance from the environment and, in turn, affect that environment through their output” (McShane & Von Gilnow, 2005, p.73).
Organizational subcultures and countercultures
Adaptive culture
The organization is trying to expand and doing so would order them to abide by societal values.
General Motors was a leader in the market for selling various brands of vehicles. There is a need to properly measure the success of General Motors knowledge management system. At one period, GM had knowledge experts all over the globe with its best practice teams (Dixon, 2013). GM understood that the knowledge management could capture the necessary knowledge to help the company to continue to expand in the market. Measuring the performance and knowledge of the employees is very important. The knowledge management system must measure information was the past as well as measuring new information.
However, I do not dismiss that actual knowledge management truly exists or is being utilized due to the differing understandings of the terminology. In fact, I have seen knowledge management at its best in a first-hand experience. My organization has a strict rule that certain positions must take a mandatory consecutive 5-days off of work each calendar year. While an employee is out of the office for 5 days, work must continue. Processes, procedures and training have been implemented to assist in passing on information relevant to taking over another position during this time. Cross-training helps in this endeavor, but actually performing the duties of another job for 5 days requires knowledge management implementation to achieve success. Due to this, the organization must “impart knowledge and skills that enable employees to be more effective in their positions” (Avtgis, Rancer, & Liberman, 2012, p.
Bose, R. & Sugumaran, V. (2003) Knowledge and Process Management: Journal of Corporate Transformation, 10(1), 3-17
Harvest/exit: One man’s IPO is another man’s exit strategy. Alibaba’s exit strategy was to take the company public to raise capital, however, according to the governance top management have all the voting rights as opposed to shareholders.
In times of economic change it is important for companies to remain flexible and adapt in order to be sustainable. New theories of management have developed to tap into a company’s core competencies and give it the ability to shift its product offerings and stay competitive. One theory that has gained popularity is Knowledge Management. A 1997 survey of 200 large US firms found that 80% of corporations had initiated knowledge programs of management. Both corporations and non-profit entities have adopted knowledge management practices - Monsanto, Hewlett-Packard and BP as well as the Army, Navy and the World Bank. As Peter Drucker, who coined the term “Knowledge Worker”, wrote in his Managing in a Time of Great Change, “Knowledge has become the key economic resource and the dominant – and perhaps the only – source of competitive advantage.”
Many have said we moving from a post of industrial to knowledge based economy (Drucker, 1993). To be profitable, successful and be ahead of competitors it is critical for a business to look past is physical assets and recognise the value of knowledge and strive for better ways of managing this asset. Today, knowledge management is recognised as one of the key drivers of how organisations do business, develop new product, process and measure their return of investment. Knowledge has a significant impact in the success of an organisation, a survey conducted by Covin et al (1997) shows evidence that companies on top of Fortune 500 list are ones already practicing knowledge management.
Knowledge sharing can be defined as a ‘dispersing’ the knowledge with the colleagues in the company. Hendriks (1999) pointed out that knowledge sharing is composed of two parts: “the knowledge owner externalizes the knowledge; (2) the knowledge demander internalizes the knowledge” (Yesil et al., 2013). It can be also defined as collection the knowledge of your own organization and knowledge of other organizations.
Knowledge management (KM) is extolled by some as being an important intangible asset that enhances an organization’s ability to innovate (Chea, 2009). Broadly defined, KM involves a company’s process of obtaining, consolidating, and communicating knowledge to various members of the firm, in which those individuals use the knowledge acquired to make the organization more productive, efficient, and competitive (Mousavizadeh, Harden, Ryan, & Windsor, 2015). The use of knowledge to create innovations involves having an effective KM strategy. Irizar, a company who at one point faced insolvency, represents a firm whose exemplarily knowledge management strategy led to the organization’s innovation and competitive advantage (Forcadell & Guadamillas,
Pasher, E., & Ronen, T. (2011). The complete guide to knowledge management: A strategic plan to leverage your company 's intellectual capital. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons.
...bjectives and realize growth. Knowledge Management Knowledge management plays a key role in ensuring that the different functions and activities of a company are synchronized. In Google’s case, the purchase of Motorola (which has turned out not to have been the best business decision) probably could have been avoided if the knowledge within the company was managed and used better. Knowledge enables a company to create, recognize and distribute opportunities. When every employee of a company contributes his or her part of knowledge into the knowledge pool, it is very beneficial as it contributes to the overall success of the company. Proper application of the available knowledge in a company can offer several competitive benefits to both the company and the employees. Application of accurate knowledge at the correct situation helps a company to make good decisions.
"All media are extensions of some human faculty -- psychic or physical. The wheel is an extension of the foot; the book is an extension of the eye; clothing, an extension of the skin; electric circuitry, an extension of the central nervous system. Media, by altering the environment, evoke in us unique ratios of sense perceptions. The extension of any one sense alters the way we think and act -- the way we perceive the world."
Hansen M., Nohria N., and Tierney T. (1999), “What’s your Strategy for Managing Knowledge?,” Harvard Business Review (March 1999), 106–16.
Elements of an open system include variants that contribute to the overall function of the working mechanisms of the organization. The ability of these elements to work in unison determines the likelihood of the organization to maintain and grow. McNamara (2005) defined an open system as “a system that regularly exchanges feedback with its external environment” (as cited by Authentic Consulting, 2016, para 1). The contributory factors of the exchanges are considered part of the environment.
In most organizations, effective utilization of knowledge increases productivity, creates competitive advantage and, ultimately, improves profits.
(106) 'Knowledge management means using the ideas and experience of employees, customers and suppliers to improve the organisation’s performance. ' (5) Knowledge management (KM) is best when 'it is in alignment with organizational culture, structure and strategy ' (5). For this reason, the aim of this briefing document is to advise Santander on solutions to potential KM barriers employees may face by discussing three key barriers- culture, technology and leadership.