Knowledge Management: The Franklin Institute Science Museum - Assignment Example

Knowledge Management: The Franklin Institute Science Museum Knowledge Management: The Franklin Institute Science Museum Nature of the Organization Franklin Institute Science Museum is a medium sized non-profit company that focuses on providing an experience for children that is educational through onsite teacher workshops on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The company has different goals within different departments, new initiatives and campaigns as well as a new CEO after two decades. This provides an opportunity to identify knowledge that may have been lost in leadership transition and that which is not being shared out efficiently to other areas. The size of this company is roughly 350 employees. Maurice, a 16 year employee, is an example of personnel who has been exposed to various business units and has witnessed some of the successes and failures of the organization. As one of the oldest centers for science education and development in the United States, The Franklin Institute aims to abide by its mission statement of “inspiring and understanding of, and passion for science and technology learning”. They use Hands-on exhibitions, live demonstrations, workshops for educational and professional development, a number of youth programs and partnerships as well as its own development and capital campaign initiatives. Initially a single building, structurally, the establishment [due to a number of successful capital and donor campaigns] has grown by two wings to offer permanent science exhibitions. There is a board of trustees that oversee high-level operations. Internally, there is senior staff comprised of a CEO and 5 VPs (VP for Science, Development, HR, Finance and ‘Earned Revenue, Marketing & Operations’). This is the primary structure that decides the overall direction. There is a constant drive to not only ensure that current programs and partnerships thrive, but to seek new opportunities and stay on the cutting edge of innovative programs and diverse deliverables, not only domestically, regionally, but overseas. One of the primary challenges with this company is management turnover and the departure of key figures. This can have a major impact on the success of a department or program. An impromptu decision by management for an immediate replacement can lead to an unqualified candidate filing the required position. It seems that the culture revolves around finding an immediate replacement rather than finding the best suited candidate for the position; while this approach can be common, it is considered a poor business practice which can lead to future audit failures by higher level executives as noted by Davenport and Prusak, (2000). From an IT perspective, departing employees immediately lose access to emails and files on the network. Replacing someone will be difficult if it does not contain documentation indicating where the previous employee left off. This is an inefficient way to transition any new employee and serves as a failure to the organization structure (Davenport and Prusak, 2000). Microsoft SharePoint is utilized within the company’s intranet, it provides central storage as well as a mechanism for files sharing. It can however be more efficiently utilized instead of being limited to just a shared document repository. Knowledge Management Practices Knowledge management is the process of getting, developing, sharing and using knowledge within an organization effectively. It basically focuses on the organizations objectives how it performs, how it competes with others that offer similar services, innovation, how lessons learnt are shared and inculcated into the organizations system to ensure continued growth (Davenport and Prusak, 2000). Knowledge may be accessed before knowledge management related activities, during and after. Incentives have been tried by different organizations as well as making content submission a must, although there has been a squabble concerning how well they work. The push strategy is one whereby individuals strive to code their knowledge into a shared knowledge repository like a database, or retrieve other knowledge that has been provided in the repository. It is generally known as the codification approach to knowledge management. The company is strong on this strategy as argued by Davenport and Prusak, (2000). They use Microsoft SharePoint within their intranet to provide a storage and information retrieval center. Knowledge requests maybe made of experts who are associated with different subjects on an ad hoc basis as another strategy of knowledge management (personalization approach). Expert individuals provide their insights to the organization in demand (Davenport and Prusak, 2000). The museum partners with scientists who provide documentation on their areas of expertise and researchers who provide information in areas that they have been assigned to study. In this approach, information technology plays a minor role. Other knowledge management strategies used within the museum are such as rewards to enhance and motivate the process through which knowledge is shared. An example was in the laureates Bower Award and prize for Achievement in Science with a total endowment of $11milliom. The museum has been providing awards such as certificates and later medals for achievement in Science and technology, with the winners being selected by an organized committee of volunteers (Davenport and Prusak, 2000). It also seeks to provide public recognition for excellence through these awards together with encouraging excellence. They have an educator’s night out to enhance morale among the educators within the museum, offer opportunities for STEM scholars to serve young people in Philadelphia who are interested in science, hands on workshops that make the quest for knowledge fun and organize birthday parties that have a root in science (Davenport and Prusak, 2000). In all those events they engage strategies such as story telling in order to transfer tacit knowledge, reviews after an event or occurrence, expert directories, and knowledge mapping. They organize knowledge fairs collaborative technologies by working with other information sources and technology (Davenport and Prusak, 2000). They engage programs in schools such as travelling Science whereby the interest of students is sparked by their visit to those schools. A school, Philadelphia public high school which they founded draws many students to study. Types of Knowledge The museum uses the following knowledge categories; Families & Community Systems – shown by how they relate with the community and involve the families in their events. The museum uses events such as ‘city skies’ an opportunity for everyone in the community without the necessary equipment to view the sky, climate science and clues to help in education of the society, engaging families in science as well as the Philadelphia science festival that takes place within ten days every year to celebrate scientists of all ages from the community (Davenport and Prusak, 2000). The knowledge is found mostly in the organizational structures, where the basis of interaction is how everyone in the organization interacts with the community. Learning Environments & Curriculum whereby knowledge of how physical space and activities relate is utilized. They engage programs in schools such as travelling Science whereby the interest of students is sparked by their visit to those schools as noted by Davenport and Prusak, (2000). A school, Philadelphia public high school which they founded draws many students to study. The information transferred here is found in the human mind, where teachers are involved in transferring the knowledge to students. Personal, Professional & Leadership Development is shown as the museum includes development of persons within the staff by gauging their work when choosing who gets an award. Motivated by this, staff members give the best they can to it so as to gain recognition. They obtain data from databases or even in observational studies. Observation & Assessment as stated above is used in transfer of knowledge or rather collection of knowledge and research (Davenport and Prusak, 2000). The museum also enhances studying by the organization of several events such as programs at the museum, such as camp-ins, where the groups sleep over, discovery camps where the groups explore the iconic exhibits in the museum and perform experiments with trained counselors, a monthly event to view stars hosted by Derrick Pitts the chief astronomer, showing different works of groups that are underrepresented such as women to showcase what they call the color of Science. Creation of New Knowledge The museum acquires new knowledge as earlier pointed out through research as well as engaging or collaborating with other professionals from without. It is also collected though experiments. Through sharing and networking, tacit knowledge is exchanged (sympathized knowledge), and made explicit by writing it down and distributing it (conceptualized knowledge). It is the compared with what others know (systemic knowledge) and finally integrated into a skill or a development strategy (operational knowledge). Recommendations From the research, the museum can include or widen access to the networks. This would help to enlarge the workforce as they enable workers to so do from different locations. This is because of limited staff members and limiting the company to Philadelphia. They may also use best practice transfer whereby the students who are considered best in certain areas may be given opportunities to work with experts in the areas and thus enhance active learning. Also knowledge transfers between programs so that they collaborate with other institutions offering such services and exchange information, fostering development can be adopted. This would ensure the universality of the knowledge accumulated and transferred. Reference Davenport, T. H., & Prusak, L. (2000). Working knowledge: How organizations manage what they know. 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