Knowledge Management Plan Suitable for Emirates Airline - Example

Knowledge Management Plan for Emirates Airline Name; Course: Instructor; Date: Executive Summary Emirates Airline is the largest airline carrier in the Middle East region. It is the national air carrier for United Arabs Emirates with its main office in Dubai city. Emirates Airline conducts international flights within 105 major cities in 62 countries across the globe. Emirates Airline was founded in mid-1980 and it has grown from not only an airport service provider, but also provision of tour operation, engineering, catering and hospitality services. Below is a recommended knowledge management plan suitable for Emirates Airline. Knowledge management plan is a document which shows chronological arrangement of steps, activities and stages involved in development of a knowledge management plan. Knowledge management plan involves collection of organization knowledge, organizing, refining and disseminating it to all organizational stakeholders. The recommended knowledge management plan for Emirates Airline is developed with a time frame of four months where by gathering, organizing, refining and dissemination of knowledge is done. Afterwards, updating, modification and enlargement of knowledge scope are undertaken under an open time frame. Updating, modification and enlargement of scope are undertaken after a successful completion of gathering stage which is the first stage. Development of a knowledge management plan for Emirates Airline is based on a balanced team of experts with representatives from the management and the employees’ side, as well as a balance between long-term organizational goals and short-term local needs for the employees (users). KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR EMIRATES AIRLINES Introduction Knowledge management refers to a process where by an organization purposely and methodically collects, arranges, distributes and examines its knowledge to all appropriate stakeholders in its area of operation. For an organization, knowledge can be in the form of resources (both tangible and intangible), documents and people skills. Knowledge management, commonly referred to as KM entails looking for data or rather data mining and coming up with methods of operations necessary for pushing information to users (Domino, 2010). Knowledge management deals with an entire organization in terms of enterprise knowledge management since it encompasses all the workers in an organization from the top to the bottom. The process of identifying, collecting, evaluating, securing and maintaining organization’s information is very important in all organizations. According to Walker & Bhatia (2009), successful knowledge management entails an understanding of organizational knowledge and general optimization of experience. Effective knowledge management becomes very crucial in an organizational set- up due to the fact that, apart from the use of proper technology and processes, effectiveness is the main key to all knowledge management activities. Different organizations have different ideas about knowledge management with some believing to be a type of document management whereas others viewing it as customer service and call centre management. All in all, knowledge management has to do with effective communication at all levels of the organization and the prompt access of information by all members. It is a relatively new activity for many firms and careful planning is therefore necessary so as to achieve successful knowledge management systems or processes (Stankosky, p. 200). About Emirates Airlines Emirates Airline is the largest air carrier in the Middle East region. It is the national airline carrier of Dubai city in UAE. Emirates Airline operates within 62 countries and 105 major cities across six continents of the world. It has an operation capacity of 2, 400 passenger flights per week. Emirates is a subsidiary company of The Emirates Group of Companies with an employment capacity of more than 50, 000 employees. Apart from passenger flights, Emirates Airline also undertakes cargo activities under its Emirates Sky Cargo division. Emirates Airlines operate a mixed fleet of both Airbuses and Boeing. Emirates centrepiece lies in Boeing 777. Emirate’s Airline strong brand name has been built on service excellence, recent rapid growth and consistency in profitability. Apart from airport services, Emirates Airline also operates in tour operation, catering, engineering and hospitality services. Its vision is to become the global airline of choice (The Emirates Airline: Foundation, 2010). The scope of a knowledge management plan varies from organization to organization though there are some basic areas that are covered in virtually all knowledge management plans, namely: data and database management; information products and services; web site management; recorded information management; assessing performance in knowledge management; coordination and accountability; as well as skills development and training for employees (Young, 2010). Focus on these areas gives an organization critical support for its knowledge management activities. It is crucial to take stock of the act that for a knowledge management plan to be successful, it has to be developed with clear links to the guidelines provided by the industry under which the particular organization functions (Domino, 2005). For instance, in the situation of the Emirates Airlines, a good knowledge management plan can be developed under the guidelines provided for by the Airlines industry in UAE. Further to that, before Emirates Airlines begins knowledge management planning, it is crucial that the reasons and aims of such a plan are first identified and made clear to every affected party in the organization. One of these in relation to the airlines is service delivery (Robertson, 2005). This is due to the fact that service delivery is very important as customers are the key assets and resources for this organization. Proper management of information often leads to an improvement in service delivery which bodes well not only for the Emirates Airlines customers but also for the airlines stakeholders and the public as a whole. In addition, better service delivery leads to the reaching of the objectives set by Emirates Airlines which can be summarized as, achieving customer satisfaction through quality service delivery. Another reason is that a knowledge management plan can help an organization to save resources in information management since knowledge management plan encompass a wide scope of activities (Bellinger, 2010). Emirates Airlines has a wide scope of information needs based on the fact that it in an international carrier and it has booking offices in major cities in the world. A knowledge management plan allows an organization to enhance its knowledge management process since every piece of information concerning its activities can be run concurrently and also helps it to set priorities. A knowledge management plan is also important in assessing the starting points of knowledge management related activities in an organization. With a knowledge management plan already set and in operation, an organization is able to identify the areas which have established levels of readiness (Domino, 2010, par 3). This way, when starting up projects, the established levels of readiness of implementation of knowledge management activities serves as the supporting pillars for other areas. This can be very important for Emirates Airlines launching new projects in new location or in new parts of the world where the nearest existing offices can offer knowledge management support to the new offices before they stabilizes. Coordination is one of the core management functions in every organization (Robertson, 2005). Organizations with wide scope of operation such as Emirates Airlines require maintaining high levels of coordination to make sure things are run smoothly. A knowledge management plan is very effective in ensuring that coordination is achieved. Nevertheless, a knowledge management plan can help Emirates Airlines with an easy way of linking all its operation activities together. Linkage of operating activities provides an easier way of accessing information from one operational department to another without following long bureaucratic procedures. Operational activities that can be linked together through a knowledge management plan are activities such as human resource planning, budget planning, operational planning, and information technology planning just to mention a few. Recommended Knowledge Management Plan for Emirates Airlines The recommended knowledge management plan for Emirates Airlines is divided into four stages. The first stage is the most important stage as it involves undertaking a lot of activities and it is the foundation stage of the whole process. Huge investment in resources in terms of time, people, information and money is involved in this stage and therefore, it important that the management puts more effort and keenness for it forms transition to the other three stages. The outcome of stages 2, 3, and 4 depends on the outcome of stage 1. Stage I: Gathering Knowledge This is the first stage of creating a knowledge management plan. Collecting data entails identifying the most escalated question as well as the most frequently asked questions. It involves gathering all the relevant information which is used or which is important in pushing all operating activities (earlier mentioned) ahead. It is important that the management of Emirates Airlines put into consideration all aspects of the organizational needs such as the users of the plan who are the front line employees apart from return on investment (profits) aspects that can be realized out of the plan (Helcomb & Keegan, 2002, p. 5). Below is a diagram summarizing the processes undertaken in stage 1 and the activities involved under each process? Fig. I: Knowledge management processes and activities involved in stage 1 The following activities are undertaken in this stage; Activity 1: Identification of the team. This basically entails identifying the knowledge management team that shall be involved in the process of planning. There should be a balance in the number of management and employees in the team. This helps the employees an opportunity to make their contribution and suggestion and also develop an attitude of ownership of the plan since they are the ones involved in practical application of knowledge management plan. The team should be made up lead experts (Emirates Airlines top officials), users (representative employees from all operational departments), and knowledge authors (Content Information Officers and content managers). According to Helcomb & Keegan (2002, p. 5), the duty of these experts make a decision as to how the knowledge base will be organized, the extent of coverage and the areas to be covered. The duty of the users, on the other hand, is to give suggestions concerning the plan while the role of the project managers includes among other to keep the plan on track. Activity 2: Measuring the value of knowledge. This involves assessing the value of the knowledge to be gathered in terms of what advantages it brings to the organization. Evaluating the value of the knowledge collected is crucial in ascertaining that operating costs are lessened. It also helps to identify opportunities which will enhance customer satisfaction through knowledge management. According to Helcomb & Keegan (2002, p. 6), a negative or positive value is tagged to the results of the assessment with the frequency of these values being noted. Thereafter, attention is shifted to high volume and high value situations. Activity 3: Identification of the scope of gathering knowledge: It is important for the team identified to identify the scope or rather to mark its knowledge gathering boundaries. Usually, it is advisable that the scope of a knowledge management to be maintained at a low level at the beginning. It is not recommended to have excessively ambitious knowledge management plans due to the fact that users have a tendency of discontinuing use of the system once when they get wrong answers from the system or and/ or when they are unable to get answers to the questions they are looking for. There are various areas of knowledge management which Emirates Airlines can focus on such as content management, data management, document management or portal. (Bhatia & Walker, 2009). Activity 4: Setting of objectives: It is important that objectives for the plan are set before embarking on gathering knowledge. Objectives provide means of evaluation where the actual is compared with the targeted in order to evaluate whether the process was of any value or not. When collecting knowledge, it is necessary for the knowledge team to identify the aims they must achieve at the end of the planning process. These aims have to be set so as to prioritize the most important objectives. A lot of trade-offs is characteristic of this step (Helcomb & Keegan, 2002, p. 7). Activity 5: Setting time limits: The most appropriate method for setting time limits is the time-boxed approach. Under this approach, the scope is reduced when it seems that the deployment is getting behind schedule. Nevertheless, if the knowledge management scope has correctly been done and identified, most of the important matters are dealt with and problems in time management are hardly ever encountered. Time management is the crucial component here because the uncovered scopes can be expanded later. Since an ideal knowledge management plan takes around 3-4 months, it is necessary to work within this time parameter (Helcomb & Keegan, 2002, p. 7). Below is a diagram showing how the team involved in knowledge management planning can allocate its time on various activities under stage 1 Team identification and value measuring Scope identification and setting of objectives Setting time limit and identification of experts Refining and dissemination Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Step 6: Choosing and Managing Experts: The key to success in a knowledge management plan lies in having the correct answers for the questions which can only be accomplished by having learned and skilled personnel as part of the planning team thus the staff to be part and parcel of knowledge management plan should be chosen very wisely. It is common for expatriates in given fields to refuse to share their knowledge with other in the organization for the fear of being replaced either by those under them or by machines. It is important the experts are motivated to share information by assuring them their positions will not be taken over or be replaced by machines (Helcomb & Keegan, 2002, p. 8). Activity7: Refining the content. After the gathering of all the knowledge, the next step is to refine this knowledge. This involves reviewing the gathered knowledge in relation to the set objectives of the organization. Here, it is crucial that a review process is embarked upon to assist in putting a stamp of approval to the final content of knowledge management base. Similarly, the people to be involved in this reviewing must be experts though it is important to point out that the content gathered should not only be left in the hands of the experts but also to people who have a familiarity with it. Activity 8: Dissemination of knowledge. The last step involves disseminating of the information gathered to the rest of organization members which entails the communication and dissemination of the knowledge gathered to all the members of the organization, the public and the stakeholders. Since knowledge management concerns effective communication, it is important that effective channels of disseminating information are used so that information can be received by all members at the same time in right way. Emirates Airline can hold a meeting with heads of all departments and brief them on the results of knowledge gathered after which they will pass the same message to all the staffs under their departments. The following stages can be run concurrently after successful completion of the first stage of knowledge management plan. Stage II: Routine Updates Having successfully completed the first stage, gathering knowledge, the next stage is to undertake routine updates on knowledge management system. Knowledge management plan is usually accompanied by introduction of new services, new products, changes in the existing products and services and new ways of doing things. It is therefore important for Emirates Airlines to conduct routine updates on its system so that it can be able to accommodate the changes and the new stuff effectively. The process is referred as being routine since it is an ongoing process. As changes continue to happen in the organization, new products and services are introduced, old products, services and ways of doing things are phases out as well as technological advancement continue to affect business operations; knowledge management plan should also be updated. An organization like Emirates Airlines can make use of software assisted methods of updating its knowledge management plan routinely (Helcomb & Keegan, 2002, p. 11). Stage III: Modification of Knowledge base Modification of knowledge management base involves improving the value of knowledge in the organization. Modification is only done after the plan has proved to be successful and has been fully integrated into the operation activities of the organization. Otherwise, it is not possible to modify the system till it has been integrated into the operational activities since areas of modification are easily identified after the system has been tried and a loophole or a weakness has been identified. Stage IV: Scope Enlargement Since most knowledge management plans starts off with limited scope, the scope can be enlarged after the system has been set up and has proven to be viable. Where only one or two areas of knowledge management had been included at the beginning, other areas can be included too. Scope enlargement is done to make sure that the organization is able to reap as much returns from the undertaking as possible and as cost effective as possible (Helcomb & Keegan, 2002, p. 11). Success Factors for an Effective Knowledge Management Plan for Emirates Airline For a successful implementation of an effective knowledge management plan, it is important that the management of Emirates Airline take note of the following success factors; Supporting and encouraging communities of practice, Rewarding and recognizing people for sharing knowledge, and Achieving a balance between long-term organizational needs (capturing knowledge) and short-term local needs (completing a task quickly) (Bellinger, 2004). Below is a diagram illustrating how Emirates Airline can be able to achieve successful knowledge management plan in a centralized way; Fig. III: Critical success factors for knowledge management plan Sourced from: Sourced from: Strategic Plan for Knowledge Management, (2007), p.9. How Emirates Airlines can avoid Pitfalls during Knowledge Management Plan Implementation Implementation a knowledge management plan is not an easy task. It requires careful planning, competency and professionalism. For Emirates Airline to avoid falling into the common pitfalls experienced by other organization while developing their knowledge management plan, it should embark on educating and communicating all relevant stakeholders about the knowledge management plan and its development through out the process. Another way of avoiding pitfalls is to ensure that the plan fixes people problem and then deliver on that plan by exceeding expectations. This helps to build people’s creditability and trust (Smith, 2010, par 6). Again, pitfalls can be avoided by avoiding discouragements. Instead, discouragement can be handled by making use of the 20-30-50 rule. This involves taking cognisance of the fact that “20% of the culture will have a willingness to change; 30% will most certainly resist change; while the remaining 50% will be undecided (Smith, 2010, par 8). Focus should be on the 50% undecided. Basically, rave recognition is to given to the 20% that are wiling to change and the 50% undecided will soon follow suit. With 70% of the organization having been convinced, the 30% will be in awkward position and will be forced to join failure to which they will lose creditability” Conclusion Knowledge management plan involves developing a set of activities in a chronological order that are essential in bringing a turn around to how organization disseminates its information to its members. It involves careful gathering of knowledge by selecting the most important areas of knowledge management such as context, data or document management. After successful gathering, organizing, refining and dissemination of information or knowledge gathered, the organization is in a position to manage its knowledge effectively where it can update the knowledge base, modify the system as well as enlarge the scope of the initial plan. Time management is of essence in knowledge management planning and it is important that the planning process is undertaken with in the stipulated time frame for cost effectiveness to be achieved. It is also important that the management pays attention to the key success factors when implementing a knowledge management plan for successful results to be attained. REFERENCES Albertia, G. O. 2005. Information Manageemnt Planning. Information Management , 1-74. Bellinger, G. 2004. Knowlegde Management: Emerging Perspectives. Retrieved November 24, 2010, from http://www.systems-thinking.org/kmgmt/kmgmt.htm Domino, R. 2010. Knowledge Management. Retrieved November 24, 2010, from e- SearchDomino.com: http://searchdomino.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid4_gci212449,00.html Helcomb, L., and Keegan, B. 2002. Strategic Knowledge Management Plan. NASA , 1-31. Robertson, J. (2005, November 1). 10 Principles of effective Knowledge Management. Retrieved November 24, 2010, from Step Two Designs: http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_effectiveim/index.html Smith, B. 2010. Knowledge Management Program Implemetation Tips and Guidelines. Retrieved November 24, 2010, from http://www.eknowledgecenter.com/articles/1006/1006.htm The Emirates Airline: Foundation. 2010. Retrieved November 24, 2010, from The Emirates Airline: http://www.emiratesairlinefoundation.org/english/ Walker, A., & Bahtia, A. 2009, February 16. Knowledge Management. Retrieved November 24, 2010, from Knowledge Sharing Communities: http://it.toolbox.com/wiki/index.php/Knowledge_Management Young, R. 2010, March 4. KM Principles. Retrieved November 17, 2010, from KM Consulting: Applying knowledge and effective knowledge management is 'situational: http://km-consulting.blogspot.com/2010/03/km-principles-applying-knowledge-and.html Read More