Knowledge Management at Tata - Essay Example

Introduction This paper will critically assess the approach to knowledge management at Tata. First, the writer will provide a brief explanation of knowledge management and what it entails. This will be followed by an analysis of the strategy adopted by Tata in introducing knowledge management at the company, including how knowledge management was introduced by managers and how it failed at the beginning, how employees perceived a shift to knowledge management, and how the company could improve its knowledge management system. Finally, the essay will be concluded with a recap of the issues discussed and their significance to the context of the discussion. Discussion Knowledge management – commonly abbreviated as KM – is a general term for the purposeful collection, organisation, development, sharing, and conscious usage of knowledge by enterprises in terms of people skills, resources, and documents. Due to the various processes it comprises, knowledge management is multidisciplinary in nature. Organisations exploit the capacity provided by different disciplines to develop and refine knowledge management to meet their objectives (Paul 2011: 34). KM is a vital aspect of organisational development, especially because of the large quantities of information generated in the modern organisational environment and the growing importance of information. Information is currently the most powerful asset in contemporary management. It must be managed and developed well for maximum benefits to be derived from it. Tata followed three recommended steps in any pioneering any knowledge management program. First, it sought out and brought together employees with specialisations in different practices but who had no experience in implementing knowledge management (Kumar 2004: 4). This was the most important step in the process because the company had no KM history. It had never had a KM culture before, and a major shift was required to make the initiative a success. Consequently, it would have been pointless for the company to go attempt to implement KM processes (collection, organisation, development, sharing, and usage) without a solid foundation on which to base those activities. By adopting a bottom-up strategy to KM, Tata ensured that both effectiveness and sustainability were built into the blueprint. In the case study, it is stated that the company felt that its initiatives gravitated towards a cultural transformation instead of a project (Dalkir 2013: 29). As such, engaging its employees with the backing of senior management was likely to be more successful in establishing the KM approach compared to sourcing people from outside the company. The next step entailed creating a knowledge repository to which all the workers would contribute actively. Tata placed this repository on its corporate intranet and all the staff shared their failures and successes in developing and implementing projects. Senior management encouraged employees to contribute actively to the KM program via a query or Knowledge Piece on the website through the intranet (Kumar 2004: 4). After review by a professional, their views were posted on the website. If any employee had any inquiry, the poster responded, and the session was terminated only after the inquirer was satisfied with the feedback. For more effective knowledge management, Tata aligned the knowledge repositories at the department level with the primary knowledge management repository. The repository provides a platform for all employees to assist one another by sharing their ordeals in regards to KM implementation. When employees share their experiences, they give valuable insight into the potential challenges they might face in KM implementation and possible remedies to these challenges. For example, poor communication is one of the biggest obstacles faced by employees participating in KM implementation. With respect to this challenge, employees can use the repository to inform their colleagues how they approached the challenge, the dynamics that constituted the challenge, and the solutions they used that can also be used by other employees in surmounting this obstacle (Liebowitz 2012: 43). The repository is like a social media website in terms of its sharing power; the only difference between the two is that social media is used by more people outside organisational settings and is based on the internet. The repository, on the other hand, is based on the intranet and is limited to individual, organisational environments only. According to Kumar (2004: 4), the final step after the creation of the repository involved constituting knowledge communities. These communities were created one year after the establishment of the knowledge repository. Knowledge communities provided like-minded people with an interface through which they can interact and share their experiences. Tata designed these communities to serve not as problem-solving cues, but people who unite to share their knowledge and take lessons from one another using their experiences. In some cases, the knowledge communities accepted a challenge and solved it through discussions (Kumar 2004: 4). The communities were created as an investment on Tata Steel’s future; they were not intended for short-term benefits. The knowledge communities created by Tata marked the company’s first sign of development in its KM project. This is illustrated by the fact that while the first step of the initiative involved bringing together employees who had little or no understanding of KM, the third step entailed interactions and sharing among employees with a good grasp of the concept of KM (Kumar 2004: 4). The link between the two stages is the repository, where employees were “incubated” to indoctrinate them in the practices involved in KM. As a result, Tata’s employees graduated from a level of inexperience and inability to one of awareness and capability. By the time the last step was complete, the company had created a stable foundation on which it could conduct other activities like overhauls and monitoring and evaluation without having to worry about their implications on progress. This is the best approach to KM implementation because it involves two fundamental aspects: consistency and security (Mertins, Heisig & Vorbeck 2013: 52). Consistency ensures that implementation activities are conducted according to set standards while security provides sustainability. Although Tata’s KM program eventually became successful, and although the case study does not discuss employees’ perception of and reaction to the company’s efforts, there is a hint that in the initial stages of the implementation, they responded negatively to the program. Despite the organisation’s efforts to revamp its approach by holding conferences on knowledge management and identifying and acknowledging some successful knowledge management efforts made by workers, and hiring external consultants (McKinsey) to advise it on how to manage communities of practice, the number of users who thought that the existing knowledge was meaningful and could be used in their specialisations was only 240 in 2000/2001 (Kumar 2004: 6). Between 1999 and 2000, the number of feedbacks received regarding Tata’s KM program was only 100. As stated in the case, senior management felt that these numbers were underwhelming for an organisation of its size (Kumar 2004: 6). This shows that there was some level of resistance from the company’s employees that made it difficult for KM implementation to take root as fast as expected. This resistance could have been borne out of fear of change, which is often cited as the biggest obstacle to progress in organisations. It is also likely that employees were pessimistic about Tata’s KM efforts because they did not understand its long-term benefits. This is shown by the fact that the organisation implemented the program from the ground up because it had no prior history of knowledge management. The unusually low number of users who provided feedback and considered the program to be meaningful proves that ignorance and misinformation could have played a key role in fanning negative perception of the program. Based on the case study, it appears that Tata has fulfilled all the requirements of a good KM program. This is especially true in the sense that it has implemented the three most important KM aspects: building KM into its employees’ career paths, monitoring knowledge use and value standards to identify areas for future knowledge, and appraising and rewarding employees in relation to the quality of their KM contributions. In light of this, the company needs to focus on refining its KM practices depending on its internal and external environment (Hislop 2013: 16). Such refinement involves regular monitoring and evaluation with the aim of not only optimising the benefits of the program but also to make it more sustainable (North & Kumta 2014: 19). Tata can develop long-term blueprints that detail how its KM programs will look in, say, four or five years time. After this, it can use these blueprints to formulate and attain long-term goals that will ensure that a KM culture is entrenched in its organisational essence. Since KM is a highly dynamic and progressive concept, Tata should align its human resource (HR) component with its KM dimension so that they coexist and develop concurrently. For example, depending on developments in the KM field, the organisation might hire new employees to propagate its newfound culture, or implement regular employee development programs to ensure that all its workers understand their expectations with regards to the current and long-term significance of KM in its growth and ability to compete (Maier 2013: 74). Finally, Tata cannot ignore the technological aspect of knowledge management since this could have adverse effects on the long-term success of its program. Technology is a central component of all KM efforts because it provides the tools required to plan, execute, and monitor KM programs (Perkins & Muondo 2013: 11). Because technology is very dynamic, Tata must adopt measures to ensure that its stays abreast of technological developments, especially those that have a direct relation to knowledge management, and then decide which innovations to use in refining its KM program. Technological developments could occur in collection, analysis, and other KM processes; the organisation risks losing its competitive edge if it ignores innovations. Tata’s KM implementation is based on theoretical foundations of organisational performance measurement, information economics, organisation structure, organisational culture, strategic management, quality management, and organisational behavior (Murray 2012: 27). Tata used the theoretical foundations of these concepts to provide a rationale and background for its KM program. An excellent grasp of the fundamental features of the theories associated with these concepts allowed the organisation to define its KM process and assess its results (Bastaki 2013: 41). For example, after it completed the first three steps of implementation, the company decided to revamp its approach because of problems pertaining to poor connectivity, cultural barriers, and lack of standardisation in its employees’ access to technology (Kumar 2004: 5). These challenges led the organisation to organise KM conferences, acknowledge and consider some successful knowledge management efforts made by its staff, and consult external expertise in order to gain more insight into KM implementation. The move to reshape the KM process is informed by theories concerning organisational culture, organisational structure, organisational behavior, strategic management, and information economics. On the other hand, the monitoring and evaluation processes and reward systems (e.g., balanced scorecards and the KM Index) the company used to appraise the program and review the performance employees are based on quality management, organisational performance measurement, and HR theories (Dell & Hubert 2011: 26). These theories provided a platform for Tata to build a sound KM program that carried minimal risks in the context of the organisation and its external environment. In recent times, new theories that can be used by organisations in different industries to implement and refine their KM processes have been emerging. These include conceptual frameworks on knowledge organisation, knowledge equity, knowledge economy, knowledge culture, knowledge infrastructure, and knowledge alliance (Arapostathis & Dutfield 2013: 37). A review of Tata’s theoretical approach to KM reveals a stable and progressive initiative and strategic focus on future developments. This makes Tata’s KM program an example for other organisations – especially conglomerates – that need to implement KM but lack the structural frameworks required to succeed in the process. Conclusion This paper has shown how KM implementation should be managed in any organisation. Tata Steel’s approach represents the standard and recommended approach to KM management in any industry, especially in cases where the program is completely new, and employees have no prior experience or knowledge of KM. Tata’s strategy has also shown that the success of any KM initiative depends on the structures put in place to ensure its sustainability. These structures can remain sound only if there is a KM culture that is etched into the organisational culture. Finally, Tata’s case has also emphasised the significance of monitoring and evaluation in any KM implementation program. The company made many efforts to ensure that its initiatives fulfilled all the standard requirements for successful KM implementation. References Arapostathis, S. & Dutfield, G. (Eds.). (2013) Knowledge management and intellectual property: concepts, actors and practices from the past to the present, New York, Edward Elgar Publishing. Bastaki, Y. (Ed.). (2013) Building a competitive public sector with knowledge management strategy, New York, IGI Global. Becerra-Fernandez, I. & Leidner, D. (2014) Knowledge management an evolutionary view, Armonk, N.Y., Routledge. Dalkir, K. (2013) Knowledge management in theory and practice, Hoboken, Routledge. Dell, C. & Hubert, C. (2011) The new edge in knowledge how knowledge management is changing the way we do business, Hoboken, N.J., John Wiley & Sons. Hislop, D. (2013) Knowledge management in organisations: a critical introduction, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Kumar, A. 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