Managing Professional Intellect - Case Study Example

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT Managing Professional Intellect 1.0 Introduction 1.10 Background Study Knowledge is perceived as something which resides in the individual using the said knowledge and not as a collection database. The significance of the knowledge depends on the approach used by the user in portraying knowledge. The environment of knowledge creation has been found to defeat the normal response of the organization in predicting as well as reacting to the heuristics which are usually pre-programmed. Such environment has been found to demand more responses of anticipatory from the members of the organization who have to move on with the obligation of the knowledge-creation cycle a swell as the action based on the knowledge to be created (Desouza, 2002). In spite of the fact that there has been growing importance of professional intellect, a number of leaders and managers in most organizations have created systematic answers to most of the frequently asked questions concerning professional intellect. These questions include; what is professional intellect How can the organization develop and in what ways can we leverage this professional intellect. 1.11 Case Study Accor group of hotels (China) is one of the major hotel groups in the world. It commands an economy which is constantly growing in most parts of the country. Ibis Hangzhou in Shanghai China is one of the leading hotels of the group. This hotel group offered a good environment for study of the manner in which information is exchanged between the workers, administration and their customers. It also provides good opportunity for one to learn the nature of questions asked as well as the kind of knowledge which is shared around. The major reason for selecting this hotel is because it is in service industry where there is a lot of exchange of information exchanged between customers and stuff workers because of the nature of the services offered. The stuff have to communicate and handle the customers who choose to use their services thus there is need of using information and employ the necessary knowledge to deal with every situation. The hotel was also selected because of the hospitality it offered for one who is willing to conduct any study there. It offered a good environment for one to make enough direct observations of the required information. 1.20 Study of the Knowledge shared and information exchanged in the Hotel. The Study would cover observation the manner in which the stuff workers of the hotel interact with each other and their customers, the way they approach the customers and the manner in which they approach and respond to each other and the administration. It would also study the manner in which Ibis Hangzhou hotel as an organization share and manage the knowledge they have and the kind of questions asked by the workers to clients as well as the questions asked by the administration to the workers. The aim of this would be to investigate the kind of knowledge and information employed in the hotel environment, how this information and knowledge is managed and how it assists the organization generally. The study would be carried out by participating in the hotels daily operation for a whole day. This would involve interacting directly with the customers and the employees while making direct observation and recording of their behavioral reactions to different individuals. There would also be interview of certain customers and workers within the organization to find their perception of the kind of services hence information provided within the organization. The way every information or question was asked and responded was keenly noted as well as the manner in which the customers were treated was also noted. This was necessary it would enable the researcher in evaluating the kind of information and knowledge is available within the organization and the way in which is managed. 2. Literature Review During the postindustrial period, a firm's success laid mainly on its systems as well as its intellectual capabilities more that the corporate assets. The capability of managing human intellect as well as the ability to change the system into useful goods and services became fast and crucial practice as the era of skills come over. This has resulted to flurry of the interest in trying to create innovations, intellectual capital, creativity as well as the learning organization. In spite of this there has been little or less attention given to managing this professional intellect (Anderson and Quinn, 2008). A study by Anderson and Quinn in 2008 indicated that professional intellect in contemporary corporate environments has been known to establish most of the value as far the economy's growth is concerned. The study further elaborated that this has impacted some visible effects which can easily seen in most big service organizations, soft wares, health care, communication industry, financial services industry as well as consulting firms. In manufacturing industries, professionals have also been in their front line in generation of the preponderance of this value via such operations as research and development, product design, process design, marketing, systems management and logistics (Anderson and Quinn, 2008). According to Anderson and Quinn (2008) a real professional runs a collection of Knowledge which must be updated occasionally. Professional intellect of any firm runs on four levels. Levels of Professional knowledge/intellect Cognitive Knowledge: Also known as know-what refers to basic mastery of a discipline which professionals attain via extensive education and certification (Messick, 1999). It is an essential knowledge but is usually far from being enough as far as commercial success is concerned (Anderson and Quinn, 2008). Advanced Skills (know-how) It translates book learning into effective execution. The capability of employing the rules of a discipline to several actual-world problems which are complex has become the most widespread level of value-creation professional skill. Systems Understanding also known as knows-why refers to the deep knowledge of the relationship of network of cause-and effect which underlies a certain discipline. It is a kind of knowledge which permits professionals to move beyond the tasks execution in order to solve more as well as larger problems of really life which are usually complex. Management professionals having know-why have the chance anticipate subtle interactions as well as unintended aftermath. Expressing systems understanding is highly educated intuition. For instance, the seasoned research insight director ought to comprehend instinctively the projects that require funding as well as the most appropriate time to carry out the operation. Self-motivated Creativity (Care-why). Anderson and Quinn (2008) states that self-motivated creativity includes the will, adaptability as well as the motivation for success. Highly creative and motivated groups usually outperform the groups or individuals that have bigger physical and financial resources. If the self-motivation and creativity is not there, the intellectual leaders would not be able to maintain their knowledge advantage via complacency. Such managers and leaders would fail to adapt aggressively to improving the external situations and specifically to innovations which obsolesce their initial skills. This is just like the way the technique of molecular design would supersede chemical screening in any of today's pharmaceutical. This comes out as the reason as to why the highest level of intellect has of late emerged as so significant. Certain organizations which usually nature care-why amongst their employees would be in position to thrive in the today's quick changing world and would be able to renew their cognitive knowledge, systems understanding as well as advanced skills in order to be in a position compete in the next advances waves. Thierauf (1999) asserts that there are two systems regarding knowledge management in the firm. Closed systems (Leibnizian inquiry) have no access to the external environment and their operations are based on certain given adage which might fall into traps of competency regarding the diminishing returns embedded in the processes of inquiry. On the other hand, Lockean inquiries are usually based on the consensual pact and targets to bring about equivocal reduction in the interpretations of the views from the diverse outside world. 3.0 Major Findings from the Hotel Observations There was good exchange of information between the stakeholders and the customers. Freedom of expression was common as the workers operated freely. In spite of this, it was observed that the workers were more concerned with following their professional ethics and code of conduct while serving the customers rather than creativity. Most of the questions asked were regarding the customers' inquiries and the responses were to fulfill these requests. The intellect actually resides in the professionals brains. As per the observations, there were the first three levels of knowledge within the organizational environment while self-motivated creativity was limited in the organization's culture which believed in provision of professional services that would serve customers satisfactorily. This is what made the customers to be loyal to the organization. The intellect value and worth ness goes up as workers and the management navigates up the intellectual scale from cognitive knowledge to creativity which is self-motivated and filled with desire and will to serve better. It was observed that in the organization, the hotel management still concentrated all of its training attention on basic developments instead of focusing on the advanced skills. This resulted to the firm having little focus on the systems and the creative skills. The traditional professional's activity was focused mainly on perfection rather than creativity. The clients usually preferred professional knowledge which was delivered with reliability and the most advanced skills which were readily available. Despite the fact that the call for creativity is continuous professional organizations such as Accor's Ibis hotel just like in several accounting units, software firms, hospitals as well as sectors in the financial industry, as observed in the hotel, there was repeated employment of developed skills which are highly advanced on relatively similar but complex problems and challenges. For example, only a few customers coming to the hotel preferred waiters, cashiers or receptionists to be very creative. On the other hand, managers have assumed the responsibility to prepare the workers for any upcoming emergencies or any special situations which needed creativity. They concentrated on the workload of the attention needed in delivering consistent and highly quality intellectual results. The conception of knowledge management which is enabled by IT was limited by the kind of the processes which were employed in creation of this knowledge. There has been mainstream perception of inquiring systems provided sparse attention to the explicit and tacit dimensions of creation of knowledge, continuously and dynamic evolution of the nature of this knowledge, the constructive nature of this knowledge creation as well as the interpretative and subjective bases for meaning making of the knowledge. 4.0 The Relationship between the Observations from the Hotel and Knowledge Management These are some of the matters which are not meant to be mutually exclusive but they indicate certain limitations in the contemporary conceptualization of managing knowledge. The knowledge observed in the hotel devolved from the nature of the environment where this knowledge was created and aims at offering the underpinnings necessary for inquiring organization's sustenance which have the abilities of creating an environment of continuous learning as well as continuous unlearning environment (Milner, 2000). According to Thierauf (1999) there is unseen cleverness which can change significantly the prevailing limits the organizational ability to alter its course of history in terms of organizational practice and theory. This however is challenged by such issues as the concept of choice that normally presumes that there is existence of purpose, consistency which is essential as well as the primacy of rationality. Although the course of an organization can be changed, there is a lot of the said inconsistence which happens to the administration. One of the two aspects of these problems is that some leadership strategies are derivable from the main decision making properties in various organized anarchies. According to Prusak (2004) this kind of approach may subsequently perpetuate the subordinates expectations especially those who are considered les active, ineffective. This consequently would lead to less or no change in the organization as far as managing the knowledge is concerned. It can also result to psychological as well as physical exhaustion amongst the managers and leaders. For instance, getting advised to work harder and always there for all meetings and offer energy in the system which take part in refusal to energize and facilitate opposition since it is the most appropriate approach to carry out correction for polarizations of positions as well as excesses of the same protocols. This approach also appears to be sanctioning deceit. The way in which effectiveness of a mini-Machiavellian kind of leadership in any organization is based on the notion that the cause of strategy or behavior always remains secret (Thierauf, 1999). As per Anderson and Quinn (2008), since of the workers in the hotel gained some knowledge which is specialized in general and have received training as elite, they have the tendency of perceiving their specific judgment in other fields as sacrosanct as well. These professionals usually hesitate in subordinating themselves to other professionals or even provide the necessary support the objectives of the organization not in a complete congruous approach with such kind of view point. As a result of these, several professional organizations runs as partnerships and don't have hierarchies thus becoming hard for them to adopt a strategy which is unified. Members of every profession have the behavior of watching their peers in order to find out the behavior codes and acceptance standards used by them for performance. This leads such members of the organization to refuse acceptance of evaluations by their peers who happen to be outside their profession. A good example of this is when several doctors resist the insurance firms and HMOs attempting to advice them on the most appropriate approaches for running their firms as well as tackling their profound problems and challenges. As it applies to the hotel, there has been the tendency by most professional to surround themselves with employees who possess similar values as well as backgrounds. Such firms have resulted to discipline-based cocoons and subsequently to inward-looking bureaucracies which are resistant to improve as well as become detached from their clients. In cases of software and basic research firms which become isolated inside some huge firms eventually create conflicts with several other professionals like manufacturing or marketing guys. Nonaka & Takeuchi (1995) indicate that a handful of the best practices for management of intellectual which resemble successful coaching than most of the others have been observed at the heart of the most effective professional organizations. Leveraging of intellect is such a great strategy that only some topflight professionals are in a position to establish an organization which is successful or create a lesser organization with much lesser flourish. The hotel, just like the most flourishing organizations such as Microsoft corporation, Genentech and Intel find its self needing to attract extraordinary talents. The top management has input a large amount of resources in recruiting and that they have screened heavily the top graduates who are fresh from several top flight hotel management schools. Since the workers who have the highest qualifications prefer to work with the best crop in their specific fields, they tend to get the best talent in such hotels more than the ones with the less brand value. Best organizational leaders are usually demanding, intolerant of halfhearted efforts as well as visionary. There has been a general tendency by several organizations who tend to constantly push their employees beyond the comfort of the knowledge they have attained from books, simulation models as well as controlled laboratories (Chatzkel, 2003). They have been indicated to have left their hierarchical structures for organizational patterns which are meant for specific ways that have values which the professional intellect creates. IT Based Knowledge Management With the development of technology especially information technology, there has been enabled management of knowledge. This however has been based mainly upon the syntactic perception of knowledge which specifies the machineries' minutiae. For Ibis hotel, at the same time there has been ignorance on the approach used by people in several departments who acquire, create and share new knowledge. This implies that there has been little human dimension in creation of organizational knowledge. The prepackaged understanding of knowledge have been operating against the creation as well as perception that which are needed for overcoming the challenges created by such wicked environments. Ibis Hotel falls under class of environments which have been found to prevent to organization from gaining learning and adaptive abilities needed for knowledge creation and development. This therefore calls for the need to address the critical aspects of creation and development within the organization. As far as the organizational environment is concerned, the perspective of inquiring organizations regards them as systems which have actions that lead to knowledge creation. Human capabilities within the hotel organization have therefore been having the capabilities which are critical in creation of this knowledge which is necessary within the organizational environment. The organizational increase in interest of creation of knowledge and its management within its environment has been fueled by the increased realization of knowledge as the major competence together with the recent advancements in the information technology sector including the World Wide Web and other internet resources (Campbell, 2006). The hotel needs to adapt such strategies. Conclusion The bright future belongs to firms which are willing and ready to get the best from their organizational environment to build a universal model which creates new knowledge in the organization. The ibis Hotels' success in this kind of new knowledge would be based on the capabilities of the organization to create the desired knowledge (Lesser, 2004). The tendency to surround themselves with workers who have equivalent values as well as backgrounds have resulted to discipline-based cocoons and subsequently to inward-looking bureaucracies which have emerged to being resistant to alter and become detached from their customers. The contemporary conceptualization of knowledge management which is IT enabled indicates that sparse attention has been given to the aspect of human creation of knowledge. These human aspects are critical in creating knowledge in organizations sustenance in order to facilitate inquiry that is based on the meanings and perspectives divergence (Benton, 2004). Human capabilities which are underlying in creation of organizational knowledge for such environments as wicked ones is believed to have contributions in the philosophical bases that are used in evaluation of the management systems for the organizational knowledge. Recommendations The management in Ibis hotel needs to get involved in the firm's provision of the required energy which would influence the major decision making processes. They also need to become informed in order to be valued in cases of information poor system which is usually characterized by organized anarchies. The managers, in addition to these needs to persist in carrying out promotion of their respective views as the may be accepted tomorrow even if they are rejected today. It is also the obligation of hotel management to exchange status for substance and facilitate the factors which are opposing to take part in the decision making process. The managers have to overload the system hence becoming more necessary to it (Bounfour, 2003). More future research is recommended on the technology based conceptualizations that are based on certain heuristics mathematical models, procedure manuals and programmed logics which capture the desired solutions, according to most users of the system, to the organization's problems and challenges. There is need to have them structured well for problematic circumstances that have strong consensual position regarding the kind of the situation the company is facing and in situations which have problems of analytic formulation but with a certain unseen solution to that problem (Delong, 2004). References Anderson, P. and Quinn, J. 2008. Making Professional Intellect: Making the Most of the Best. (Online). Available at: http://www.harvardbusiness.org/making-the-most-of-the-best/an/9t [Accessed March 10, 2010] Benton, C. 2004. 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