Knowledge and Skill as a Key Elements in an Individual that Are Crucial for Organisational Success - Term Paper Example

Knowledge, talents and skill are key elements in an individual that are crucial for organisational success. Definitions Talents - these are capabilities exhibited by individuals naturally. These capabilities depend on individuals experience and knowledge that have gained in the early stages of life. These capabilities are exhibited by individuals at different times and under different circumstances. Talents give the individual energy and enthusiasm. A talent is also defined as a recurring pattern of thought or behavior that an individual can apply in productive activities. Knowledge – These are capabilities that an individual acquires through experience or learning process. Skills - These are capabilities that enable an individual to understand how to do certain things or certain tasks and are gained through experience or learning. The question as to whether knowledge, talent and skills can be either acquired through teaching of the individual at workplace or acquired through experience has troubled many people. Knowledge can be acquired through both teaching of an individual at the workplace and can also be acquired through experience. It is noteworthy that no skills are inborn but they are acquired by an individual as they grow. Many employers write job descriptions requiring skills for certain posts. Most hiring employers look for employees with certain skills rather than an individual with best talents. It is important for managers to understand that skill is a learned competence and everyone can be taught to develop a particular skill. Talent is a gift from God and reflects etymological roots of an individual. Talent cannot be taught in a workplace. If one wants to be a salesman, then with enough training, he or she can be taught to acquire this particular skill. In fields such as accounting, many people can read bank statements but few people can manage to manipulate the statements to identify viable investment opportunities. Communication is another area that clearly differentiates between the inborn or gifted characteristic and skills that can be acquired through teaching. Some people can talk throughout the day and what they are talking about influences other people. Some people have no ability to talk even for one hour. From these, we can note that skills can be acquired through teaching and experience (Santana, 2005). For more than 10 years, I have been hiring talented and skillful personnel to be my operations assistants. Last year, I was looking for a person with high profile in terms of skills that they were taught. I decided to employ a young man who had no skills.. I hired him because he had passion in the job. It was very fortunate that he learned how to do the job within a short period of time; he became the best among my employees. He turned out to be very productive more than the rest of the employees. From this, I learned that skills and knowledge can be acquired through teaching and through experience. Talent is an aspect which does not change over time. Research indicates that trait possessed by an individual does not change with time. It is absolutely fixed hence cannot be acquired through experience or training. Skills can also be acquired through training. Organizations should understand that workers can acquire skills though experience and being taught in the workplace. Different tasks in the organization call for different skills. One can go through practical guided tasks. Tasks are performed under instructions whose importance is stressed. Skills are required and unskillful person can have the responsibility of observing what the skillful person is doing. The individual can also perform these skills as part of his practice. He or she can start doing the task even if he/she will still make errors. It is in the long run that the individual will be able to do the job skillfully because of training that they have undergone (Gurteen, 2006). How knowledge is transferred Many organizations have had worries about losing the knowledge and skills of most experienced persons who are about to retire. Experienced personnel are very important to the organization hence losing the knowledge of such people will be a great loss to the company. Their departure can hinder the growth of the institution very seriously. Companies have established sophisticated knowledge management systems that are used to capture the necessary information. The expertise gained through experience is very important to the organization hence their departure is very disastrous to the organization. Tacit knowledge should be captured or transferred from the leaving individuals to the ones that are left behind in the organization. The organization should identify key knowledge holders who might probably leave the organization. Successful strategies are then established to retain this intellectual capital. The management should identify the knowledge that need to be transferred hence the necessary steps are taken to ensure that it is retained. Those who are at the center of information networks are the key knowledge holders. They are the ones who other employees go for when there is a problem in the organization. The management should determine the staff who are supposed to receive the knowledge possessed by the experts who are about to leave the organization (Santana, 2005). Talent management is an important aspect in the organization. The management needs to anticipate the needs of the organization in terms of human talent and set out ways of meeting this demand. This has not been effectively done in many organizations as it is considered meaningless. Most organizations depend on external hiring. This method has not been effective to most organizations since the external talent pool is shrinking whereas the demand is escalating. This has necessitated many organizations to retain and grow talent internally. Knowledge transfer has made this matter almost possible. Institutions have adopted the memory systems where the knowledge to be retained is resided in the organization memory system. The desired knowledge will not disappear when the employees go. Knowledge can also be transferred to other employees in the organization from the Wise old Turks. These are people known to be experts on specific problems. They members of baby boom generation and they cannot retire before the knowledge is transferred to others (Chandler, 2008). Knowledge can be transferred from one individual to another through STEP program. This involves selection of the individuals who posses very critical knowledge and paring with eligible individuals who are to succeed the retirees. The pair goes through a rigorous process to establish transferring knowledge plan, where the successors are taught. The successors are then given the responsibility to deliver results to the rest of the team. Institutions have also adopted educational strategies as methods of transferring knowledge to large number of employees left by the retirees. The successors or the remaining employees are exposed to the real or simulated problems, and then they are interviewed basing on the action elements. In this case, the experts are the resources and they criticize the outcomes of educational strategy teaching. This strategy enables an organization to transfer knowledge to many individuals. Knowledge transfer is very important and this can be realized when the organization realizes the types of such knowledge (Willmott, & Knights, 2004) Expert versus Tacit Knowledge Knowledge is divided into two categories namely explicit and tacit knowledge. Explicit knowledge- Has the following features: Cannot be disputed, unambiguous and observable It is highly codifiable Can be transferred between individuals within the organization very easily without loss of meaning Explicit knowledge exist if databases, documents and procedures in manual form. Tacit knowledge- Has the following characteristics: Inexpressible Cannot be readily transferred to others within the company or organization Uncodified Informal Present in the heads of individuals in the organization. It also characterizes the experiences of the institution. Effective organization should be in a position to effectively transfer tacit knowledge explicitly. It takes time to transfer tacit knowledge since it is embedded in individuals. This has been the most difficult process of knowledge management. Sharing of knowledge Knowledge management has been troublesome to many institutions due to failure by individuals to share knowledge. Sharing of knowledge is very advantageous to both individuals and the organization as a whole (Karreman, 2000). Knowledge is power-Some individuals hold that knowledge is power hence they are not willing to share with others. It is natural to share knowledge in other organizations. The fact that some individuals regard knowledge as power hinders the process of sharing knowledge between them. Pride-The process of sharing knowledge is also affected by pride of some individuals. Some feel good when they do not seek advice from others in the organization. They like showing off when they personally invent new ways of doing things. Time is another factor that has affected process of sharing knowledge hence hindering management of knowledge. Many institutions face pressure on productivity and the fact that individuals are given a lot of pressure about deadlines. Individuals in the institutions have not realized the importance of sharing knowledge- One should understand that sharing of knowledge can trigger innovations and inventions in the institution. Acquired knowledge can be used to solve a problem that might an individual at different time or different place. Luck of trust between individuals- Individuals in the organization believed that shared information or knowledge can be misapplied or used out of context hence the key holder of the knowledge will be blamed. The belief that knowledge can be passed on without the knowledge of the original person has paralyzed process of sharing knowledge (Fleming, 2007). Communities of practice and intranets – is a method that has been adopted by many institutions in sharing of knowledge. Intranet is used to support the process of knowledge sharing within the community. It builds home page for the community practice where the individuals in an organization can identify themselves to belong to certain group. It reflects that individuals exist in certain group. Intranet provides the environment in which the members especially employees located in diverse offices or cities. It creates the output in which the outcome from the interaction and process of sharing knowledge can be spread to the other members of the institution. Individuals have the responsibility for spreading of the shared knowledge within their groups. Individuals in the organization can share knowledge from insights and past experiencing through influence (Fleming, 2007). This way sharing knowledge is considered to be the best since individuals cannot offense against one another. Individuals will not view the holder of the valuable knowledge to intimidating the rest, influencing them to do the job according to his direction and they will not feel incompetent. Using influence enhance sharing of knowledge without individuals taking it personal. Knowledge can be shared through influence in a very amicable way by: Avoiding arguments- The parties involve in share-knowledge should not argue in any way. An argument hinders the process as some may feel intimidated. This will not put good taste to the mouth of the other individual. In an argument one has to win and the other loses. This will not impress the person who has lost. Embarrassing correction- Individuals should avoid correcting one another especially in front of others in an embarrassing manner. Even if one is quite sure that an individual is wrong, avoid open correction. Admit mistakes- Knowledge can be effectively shared if the parties involved admit mistakes done. This demonstrates element of passion hence encouraging the other person to continue sharing (Santana, 2005). Holding of innovations and workshops is also the best way of sharing new ideas and information within an organisation. Under this method, the individuals are given freedom to interact with the different kind of staff on ways of improving the organisation. It is imperative that lower level staff is encouraged to participate in this process. The top management should not neglect the views of the lower level managers as it contribute enormously. Some organizations opt to create knowledge bank as a way of sharing it. The bank carries useful information and instructions that are very important for the progress of the organization. It enables individuals to post suggestions on the intranet. Leadership management and development Talent management refers to the process of employing new competent workers or developing already existing workers and attracting highly qualified ones who can enable the company realize its objectives. The process calls for good leadership in the organization (Santana, 2005). Good leadership qualities are based on good behavior. Skills alone do not enhance good leadership. Business ethics, corporate responsibility and personal integrity are elements that have led to increase in demand for idealist principles in leadership. Leadership management is becoming the prime thing for many institutions (Fleming, 2007). Some of the practices of good leadership in ensuring good management are: Alignment of employees according to the objectives of the organization where everyone is accountable for the success of the organization Provide the employees with detailed performance requirements so that they can develop their skills relevant to the activities they expected of them. It should identify the necessary skills required to achieve the targeted plans. Recognize the efforts of individuals in the organization. This will enable individuals to be more active hence exploiting their knowledge, talents and skills. References Chandler, K. (2008). Skills and Talent. Journal of Management Policy, pp.230-267. Willmott, H. & Knights, D. (2004). Organizational Behavior and Talent Management.Pp.234-279. Gurteen, K. (2006). Talent Management and Good Leadership. Hong Kong University, China, Pp. 21-78 Fleming, H. (2007). Knowledge and Skills. Human Sigma: Employee Management, Gallup Press, London. Pp.120-180. Santana, J. (2005). Talent Management and Organizational Skills. Journal of Organizational Studies. Pp. 100-380. Karreman, D (2000). Importance of Knowledge Management. Journal of Management Studies 35(5) 780-1030. Read More