Knowledge Managemenet - Essay Example

?Knowledge Management Introduction This essay aims to discuss the concepts of Knowledge Management and its utility in the present day organisation. Knowledge Management is nothing but practices and strategies that are used in the organisations for creating, representing and identifying experiences and insights. The managers are bombarded with streams of diverse data every day and in order to derive relevant information from them, the organisations need to be transformed into learning organisation. Learning organisations will offer an appropriate environment to the managers to process the data and obtain information (Quast, 2012; Infed., 2013a, 2013b). The essay will further analyse the function and role of learning organisation. Further, the cases of various real-life learning organisation would be discussed along with the probable challenges, so as to recommend how an organisation can transform into a learning organisation. Peter Senge and his fifth disciple for learning organisations The concept of learning organisation has been coined by Peter Senge and his associates. It assist organisation to shift towards an interconnected mode of thinking. According to this concept, the organisations should be like communities, towards which employees are committed. There should be a drive to work harder and achieve recognition within the employees. Organisation cannot be drastically restructured into learning organisations, but it is the changes in policies that bring about a gradual transformation (Senge, 1990). Peter Senge has stated in an interview that in learning organisations people work in group to attain group goals and enhance the capabilities of the organisation. He popularised this concept through his book called The Fifth Disciple (Infed., 2013a, 2013b). Figure 1: The Fifth Discipline Source: (Author’s Creation) There are certain characteristics that a learning organisation must possess. Firstly, system thinking must exist in an organisation. This framework assists employees to understand businesses as bounded objects. System thinking encourages every characteristics or information in an organisation to be apparent, so that goals can be achieved transparently. Secondly, personal mastery that is the commitment of individuals towards their work is important. Staff training Individual learning and development is a competitive advantage for the firm. Thirdly, the mental modes, which are the assumption of the individuals, decide what perception the employees have for the organisation (Senge, 1990). Fourthly, there must be shared vision in the organisation to motivate the employees for attaining group goals. Last but not the least, an environment of team learning is necessary that will increase the capacity to solve problems faster in an organisation (Infed., 2013a, 2013b). Challenges to Transform into a Learning Organisation It has been stated in the book called The Dance of Change that there are various reasons as to why an organisation might face trouble in transforming into a learning organisation. The first issue might be that the organisation lacks enough time. The management and the employees in the organisation have other significant issues to ponder over than trying to bring about a change in the organisational culture. It might happen that the employees or teams cannot spare time for training and change management process within the organisation (Senge et. al., 1999). The organisation might not be having appropriate expertise workforce to transform the work place into a learning organisation (Senge, 1990). In such case an appropriate solution, mentors and training programmes are required. Time is the most significant element that is required because a comprehensive discussion on the actual issues should be done, problems should be discussed and training programmes should be linked in order to make the transformation process easier. However, challenges like convincing older employees for training and learning processes and co-ordinating human resource, operations and resources give rise to several problems, such as resistance, fragmentation and competition. Competition among departments (accounting, IT, marketing or operation) can be fatal for the company (Senge, 1990). Case Study The characteristics of learning organisations have been already discussed. The challenges that generally arise in organisations when they decide upon becoming learning organisations have been also scrutinised. Now the focus of discussion would be towards evaluating cases of actual companies, which have moved towards becoming learning organisation for the betterment of its employees and achieving their objectives. The companies and their journey towards becoming learning organisations have been presented below: Apple computing corporation, Japan held only 1 percent market share of Japan’s computer market back in 1989. However, the appointment of a new president in Apple Inc., Japan started a new era in the country. In order to revive the condition of the company, they approached a consulting firm called Arthur D. Little. The solution they received was to implement techniques for transforming the company into a learning organisation (Papa, Daniels and Spiker, 2008). The five disciplines were skilfully tackled and regular group meetings were held in the company for discussing issues, group discussion and educating team members. Every team was kept well informed and emphasis was laid on team learning and shared vision. The result was that by 1995, the market share of the company grew to 15 percent from 1 percent in 1989. The annual sales of the company increased to $1.3 billion in the year 1994 (Karash, n. d.). HCL is another company, which owes its success to human resource. Being an employee-centric organisation, it was imperative for the company to develop such practices which can help infuse a culture of growth in the organisation. With the expectation of a synergistic growth of around 1300 employees in the organisation, HCL introduced their catalyst program for transforming into a learning organisation. Not only this, the company also introduced additional environmental programs for overcoming the challenges that they might face during their journey of becoming a learning organisation. The catalyst program included Key Account Management workshops, which involved the marketing and sales teams. They also offered computer based trainings for trainees and fresher. There were instant rewards schemes and a 360 degree performance appraisal system. Apart from this Gap analysis, chat and intranet were rigorously used for interacting with the employees on one to one basis. The objective of establishing a learning organisation which will create value, deliver value and retain value (HCL Comnet Ltd., 2004). Conclusion To attain a perfect learning organisation is a non-attainable goal for every company. There are no correct implementations framework by which organisation can accomplish this desired concept because every company functions in diverse environment. Companies can continuously adjust and adapt in order to become improved learning organisations. It is quite unknown till when the these strategies would be able to assist companies in becoming sustainable learning organisations, but it is certain that in the present global marketplace, adapting an environment of continuous change is the solitary way to survive. Recommendation The essay has already discussed the purpose of implementing learning organisation and how significantly it leads towards knowledge management and growth. Apart from this, the challenges have been also highlighted so that organisations looking forward towards becoming a learning organisation can identify them and prepare probable solutions for she issues. In the case study, examples of companies have been discussed which have become learning organisations. Keeping in mind the discussed information, the essay will progress towards suggesting recommendations to those organisations, which have the intension of becoming learning organisation. In this regards, the building blocks, golden rules, implementation strategies and people’s behaviour would be examined. The Building Blocks: In order to establish a learning organisation, a solid foundation has to be laid down using building blocks like awareness, leadership, learning, environment and empowerment. The organisation needs to be aware that learning is important before transforming into a learning organisation and learning process is must at every level. It is the leaders in the organisation who are responsible for training and educating employees for the change. Learning labs need to be prepared in the companies for achieving the desired aim. Simulation games are also helpful in training employees in such situations. The managers have to be flexible and a health learning environment should prevail in the organisation. A mechanistic and centralised structure is not helpful in creating a better environment. So organisations need to be flexible and a flatter, so as to encourage innovation. Empowerment will automatically come with the inception of learning process in organisation (Karash, n. d.). Implementation Strategies: There are three implementation strategies, such as accidental, declared and subversive. Accidental approach implies fitting the existing business goals into the learning framework, so as to transform into a learning organisation. Declared obviously signifies following the sets of principles and laying down sets of strategies for gradual transformation and subversive means it is not accidental and yet not declared. It is not openly endorsed, but ideas are explored and processes are followed. The Golden Rules and People’s Behaviour: The golden rules are to thrive on the change, encourage experiments in organisation, facilitate a healthy surrounding for learning, communicate failures and success clearly to everyone, learn and appreciate employees and subordinates and learn to motivate, encourage and reward employees. The most important thing is to have a sense of care for employees, and then they will care for the organisation. The people’s behaviour as discussed in Peter Segne’s Fifth Discipline would depend accordingly (Karash, n. d.). Reference List HCL Comnet Ltd., 2004. HR Edge. [online] Available at: < http://www.hclcomnet.co.in/HREdge.asp> [Accessed 7 November 2013]. Infed., 2013a. The Learning Organization: Principles, Theory And Practice. [online] Available at: [Accessed 7 November 2013]. Infed., 2013b. Peter Senge and the Learning Organization. [online] Available at: < http://infed.org/mobi/peter-senge-and-the-learning-organization/ > [Accessed 7 November 2013]. Karash, R., no date. Learning Organisation. [online] Available at: < http://www.see.ed.ac.uk/~gerard/MENG/MEAB/index.html> [ Accessed 7 November 2013]. Papa, M. J., Daniels, T. D. and Spiker, B. K., 2008. Organizational Communication: Perspectives and Trends. California: Sage Publications. Quast, L., 2012. Why Knowledge Management is Important to the Success of your Company. [online] Available at: < http://www.forbes.com/sites/lisaquast/2012/08/20/why-knowledge-management-is-important-to-the-success-of-your-company/> [ Accessed 7 November 2013]. Senge, P. M., 1990. The Fifth Discipline. [online] Currency Doubleday. Available at: < http://www.vedpuriswar.org/book_review/the_fifth_discipline.PDF > [Accessed 7 November 2013]. Senge, P., Kleiner, A., Ross, R., Roth, G. and Smith, B., 1999. The dance of change. New York: Currency Doubleday Read More