Enhanced Knowledge Management - Case Study Example

Knowledge Management Practicing KM in an institution is a vibrant interactive process which involves cycles of maturity, and knowledge artefacts of the organization, and the preparedness of the auditor. The importance of KM in the modern organisation has raised extensive debates and research which have been aimed at developing knowledge Management Development Life Cycles. This paper describes the KDLC that explains and evaluates the stages of this process on two organisations that are fictitious, but whose problems are real Case Study 1: Bert’s Bonsai 1. Preliminary investigation a. Organisational preparedness It is clear from the case that Bert’s Bonsai has not defined its knowledge goals. However, there is evidence of a formal recording of the plants, tools and materials that are used to cultivate them. All these are available in an old electronic database that makes it hard for the new owners to incorporate the information into the greater franchise stock-lines. The structure is however not legal since there is a legal dispute between the new and the old owner over the reliability of the records. The organisation is however able to take up a KM solution since the new owner has put in more than $2 million and with the clientele base evidenced in the mailing lists, the organisation is able to stay around for many years. The organisation old owner is aware that the existing information can be easily transformed into the new form without much problem. There a problem however with the new owner who is not holistic. Instead of making decisions of his own depending on what is at hand, he depends on the opinion of his IT staff before making a decision. b. Investigator Preparedness As a student of KM and having taken the Knowledge Management course, I understand the ontology of KM Audit within the KM field. I am tough and I don’t compromise on core processes and core principles. My approach is to let the old owner and the new director of Bert’s Bonsai understand the seriousness and the complexity of the Audit and the importance of carrying it out in a proper manner. The assessment of Bert’s Bonsai began with carefully reading and understanding the case. Based on the initial understanding of the case I now realized that the audit could be carried out. One thing that was very clear is that, though the old owner and the new director were ready for the audit, the IT staff of the large franchise was resentful and uncooperative. They need to be made ready to undergo the KDLC. Before I proceeded to the next section I had to prepare more by carrying out more research on old Amiga technology and its possibility of being updated to the newer technology (Hylton, 2008, p26). C. Findings It is possible for the data in Amiga floppy disks to be converted to PC readable form by installing special floppy disk controllers. The organisation is ready for the Audit but the IT staff should be made more ready for the Audit. 2. Knowledge Audit a. Checklist Requirement How Expressed Metadata Policy Plants, tools and materials kept in an Amiga-based picture-and-text database in electronic form. All sampled in a catalogue. There is also literature in book and magazine form. Systematic approach to document creation New catalogue are developed from the Amiga-based picture-and-text database whenever needed. There is no clear indication of a specific person doing it but the catalogue if generated from the Amiga electronic system when the catalogue is needed to be produced to the clients. The mailing list is also kept in the electronic system that is produced when needed. Common term set There is no company policy discussed in the case and no evidence of a set of terms used in the documents. There are no officials terms used according to the standards of practice in the industry. Understanding Organisational needs There is no clearly stated statement of purpose for Bert’s Bonsai Clear Statement of needs at the organisational level The new organization taking over understands 30 year old information in the Amigo electronic system needs to be transformed in the modern technology. The old owner is convinced that this is easy. This operational work has to be done at the It department but there is a problem since the staff does not support it. Systematic naming process for documents The procedure in the organisation is that the plants, tools and materials are named and kept in the electronic system. That is why it is easy to produce a catalogue when is needed. There is no evidence of mix up of information from the case. Chain of custody for information There is no information on the accessibility of the information. There is also no evidence of who is accountable and responsible for the documents and information stored on the Amiga electronic system. Clear Process for decision making The chart of responsibility is not evidenced in the case study but the decisions are made by the top management who seal the deal and command the investigation into the possibility of transforming information to the new technology. Awareness for structure of organisation The Bert’s Bonsai seems to be just a single branch but the new organisation is a set of franchises. Documentation of processes There is no evidence of the documentation of processes. b. Knowledge gaps The findings of the audit showed that there are several gaps in knowledge management as presented in the Bert’s Bonsai case. The identified gaps from the checklist were lack of clear naming of materials and plants by the organisation. There was also no common terms used to identify the plants, tools and the materials use to cultivate them. The organisation does not also use standards and terms universally recognized in the field of practice. There is clear statement of purpose and aims of the organisation. No wonder the IT staff is reluctant to carry out the transformation of the data. The process of documentation of the information is not clear and I was also not able to get the procedures involved in documenting the information. The franchise has no clear process of decision making and only relies on what the IT staff says. In addition to these gaps, the transformation of the information from the old system to the new system is not easy because Bert’s Bonsai has not clearly stated the chain of information storage (Jannati and Abbassi 2009). It is not clear to know who access the information and who is responsible and accountable. More of the information can be resourced from the Leadership concerning the accessibility and responsibility to the information and also the terms used and procedures of naming the plants. More research was done on the standards and regulations required in the industry. 3. Summary of the KM goals Bert’s Bonsai KM goals can be summarised in the following few points; Enable faster and better decision making Easy access to important information and documents Continued use of information, documents and ideas Avoid repeating mistakes like in the case of using an old technology for a long time. Taking advantage of the current technology Communicating important information to the staff Promoting standards, procedures and processes as required ion the industry Using methods, tools and templates 4. Fixing the Knowledge Gap: Planning There are several problems in the organisation as seen from the checklist. Some of the solutions to the problems are suggested below (Hansen, Nohira, & Tierney 2009, p 123-236); Important documents should be clearly designed to help in coordinating a well-defined goal for the organisation Code documentation is also important as it will the organisation to focus on functionality and appearance to the public. The codes also help the organisation in covering the internal steps when carrying out their operations. Organisational structure should be put in place to determine at what level decisions are made and who takes care of what There should be a clearly laid out statement of purpose for the organization 5. Fixing the Knowledge Gap: Solutions a) Amiga-based picture-and-text database that is used in the day to day running of the operations at the organisation is made up of special hardware just like Ps of its age. The hardware used together with it are the graphic utilities such as the Professional Draw and ProVector, SWFTools modern graphic software like the Pixel image editor and text editors (Polyani, 1962, p3). b) The organisation needs to come up with a form of designing document templates that will design the literature, catalogues and magazines as well as the pictures of the plants and their descriptions. There should also be documents codes developed to know which code represents which plant. The corresponding materials should also have the codes to show the information of the plant they describe. There should someone or department responsible for the documentation, storage and access to data. The conversion of the Amiga-based data to a modern technology is very easy and the hardware and software needed for this solution are listed below (Scott, 2005, p63): PCs Amiga Floppy Disks DVDs and CD ROMS Catweasel PCI board Amiga Explore c) Problems Likely to Arise The problems to be faced in coming up with this solutions are very few. The major problem is the unwilling IT staff and may be lack of the necessary expertise for coming up with the solution. In addition, the upgrade process is likely to be expensive in terms of money resources, skilled labour and time. Case Study 2: Tatra Owners’ Spares Pool 1. Preliminary investigation a. Organisation Preparedness From the case, the Tatra Spares Pool has defined its knowledge goals. It aims at documenting and storing the information so that the new owners and the new mechanics who will take over from the current ones will know the parts needed for which car model. There is some evidence of formal recording information in form of photographs and schemes from the manufacturers. These are kept in a spreadsheet. The records are however not up to date and cannot be relied on in determining which part is used for what car model for the new owners and mechanics and the old owners cant rely on them to know the oldest car models. The owners are ware of the problem but for this problem to be solved, there should a decision making body that is not clearly stated in the case. Since the owners are able to pull their resources together to keep the spare parts, they are therefore able to take up a KM solution. b. Investigator Preparedness As a student of KM and having taken the Knowledge Management course, I understand the ontology of KM Audit within the KM field. I am tough and I don’t compromise on core processes and core principles. My approach is to explain to the old and the new owners of Tatra Spares Pool so that they understand the seriousness and the complexity of the Audit and the importance of carrying it out in a proper manner. The assessment of Tatra Spares Pool began with carefully reading and understanding the case. Based on the initial understanding of the case I now realized that the audit could be carried out. One thing that was Cleary laid out was that the old owners were ready for audit because they realized the knowledge that exists in the information held by the organisation (Hylton, 2008). All they need is to get ready to undergo the KDLC. Before I proceeded to the next section I had to prepare more by carrying out more research on the possibility of integrating information recoded on photographs, videos, the manufacturer’s models stored in the spreadsheets and the knowledge held by the workers to ensure that related information is kept together for easy flow in future. c. Findings There are evident gaps in the knowledge as held by the Tatra Spares Pool. However, this can be easily fixed with proper preparation and a handsome investment. With the use of modern IT innovations, it is possible to record the capture the processes used by the mechanics when fixing the parts together on a digital video camera. Then information on the photographs can be captured using digital scanners and using codes, all this information can be kept in a database together with the schematics from the manufactures. It was also evident that with the enthusiasm of the owners, Tatra Spares Pool is ready to undergo a Km audit because they are ready to put in their resources. 2. Knowledge Audit a. Checklist Requirement How Expressed Metadata Policy There is a system in place for sampling documents that record the type spare parts dealt with in the organisation. The information is recorded in form of photographs and spreadsheets but there is no evidence of any of the documents has been published. There is also no websites. Systematic approach to document creation The documents are created when needed by the members who are supplied with photocopies of the photographs and information stored in old electronic forms. The standards set of templates is the schematic forms supplied by the manufacturers Common term set (vocabulary or ontology) There is no evidence of published set of vocabulary and ontology adhered to by the organisation in conformance with the industry standards. Even though they are not documented, the overhaul of the spare pars carried out by the mechanics follows a standard procedure as listed in the case. There is also evidence of industry vocabulary Understanding of organisational needs The organisation aims to take up a KM system that will ensure that data is and information is well managed and kept for use by future owners and workers. It aims to have the information on the spare parts and the matching of the model of car they are used on be done and kept in a way that will be easy to access and understand. All these are intended to be kept together using a modern electronic system that will combine the photographs, information in the electronic system, the videos to be made and the website. Clear statement of needs at the operational level The needs of the organisation will be fulfilled at two levels. These functional units are the mechanics level who has to share their knowledge and document it in such a way that it is easily available to the other people who will come after them. The IT department is mandated with coming up with a technological system that will ensure that all these information is kept and have to come up with a way of posting the information on the internet (website) for easy retrieval of the information by the interested parts. Systematic naming process for documents There are no procedures of naming and locating documents. There are no set rules as to how the information on the spare parts should be generated, named and located. That is why it’s not easy to match up the information on the photographs with the one in the electronic form. The information in the electronic form is kept without order on different computers of the founders. Chain of custody for documents From the case, it is clear that the responsibility of documentation is done by the founder members. Only the founders are able to access the information. Clear process for decision-making The chain of command and ultimate responsibility seems to rest on the owners. They are also the decision makers, mainly the founders Awareness of structure of organisation There are no official declarations of the structure of Tatra Spares Poo. It seems that it is only one branch. Documentation of processes (minutes, memos etc) The information on the products or the organisation is kept electronically in a spreadsheet and physically in terms of photographs, but the matching between the two has not been done. a. Knowledge gaps The findings of the audit showed that there are several gaps in knowledge management as presented in the Tatra Spares Pool case. The identified gaps from the checklist were lack of clear naming of spare parts kept in computers by the founders and this makes it hard to match this information with the ones physically available on photographs. There is also no metadata policy where information is expected to have been well documented and published in terms of literature and even posted on the website. There is no use of codes to refer to the spare parts and the information in photographs. If this was done, there would not be any problem between the bridging of information between the new and old lot of owners and workers. The creation and documentation of data is not centralized. The electronic data is made and kept by each of the founders randomly in their computers located in different places. If this was done by one person or done by a group of people from a centralized point like the IT department, it’s easy to make sure that the information is available and well kept for future use. The use of ontology and standards as well as regulations in the daily working of the organisation should be made clear the leadership and the functional unit. The procedures of creating the electronic data and photographs should be clearly spelt out. Therefore, more research is to be done to determine such procedures (ADB, 2008). 3. Summary of the KM goals Tatra Spares Pool KM goals can be summarised in the following few points (Polyani, 1962): 1. Capturing Knowledge that will be obtained by developing KM reservoirs that will be made up of well structured documents with the Knowledge about the Spare parts, their corresponding car models and the way they are fixed kept in them. This will be kept in reports, presentations, spreadsheets, videos and electronic articles that are kept in a manner that is easy to capture and access when needed. 2. To ensure easy access of knowledge that will make it possible for knowledge to be transferred between the owners and workers within the organisation. 3. Enhancement of the Knowledge environment by actively rewarding and facilitating the creation, use and transfer of knowledge from one generation to the next. 4. Management of knowledge as an asset. 4. Fixing the Knowledge Gap: Planning There are several problems in the organisation as seen from the checklist. Some of the solution to the Knowledge gap is the Macro KM solutions that will ensure the following (Justin, 2007): Information will be mapped, found, gathered and filtered before use and storage Development of new knowledge by categorizing the items that are related and information sharing Conversion of the knowledge held by individuals into shared resources of knowledge Learning and understanding the processes and procedures involved in the industry Value addition to the available information turning it into knowledge Enabling implementation through effective KM and Knowledge presentation Developing adequate Technical and IT infrastructure that will ensure that knowledge is shared and transferred explicitly. 5. Fixing the Knowledge Gap: Solutions a) The current IT equipment used by Tatra Spares Pool is an old electronic technology that uses an old version of the windows operating system on very old hardware of p3 machines. They also make use of old cameras to record information photographs. These hardware and software are old enough because it is not possible to convert the information on the photographs to electronic forms. Mainly because of the old type of camera and the old machines that don’t have such provisions. The old type of spread might be old lotus fox pro that cannot be able to hold information from other applications or allow the information in the spreadsheet to be linked to any other application. b) The best solution to this problem will involve the use of several materials, software and hardware. The organisation can adopt an internal network that has been around for a very long time. They can adopt the use of the Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol which id abbreviated as TCP/IP that is widely used in KM. This network will be centralized from the It department and any employee given a code to access the intranet (Watson, 1998, p 610). Therefore, any employee and the owner with a browser and an access code can access the information from a centralized pint. The use of digital scanners, the latest operating systems like Windows 7 or Linux, and spreadsheet applications, and the company can be able to store the information in the server. The scanner will feed the information on the photographs to the computer and the videos to be made should be developed using digital cameras and fed to the computer. The use of codes will then ensure that related information is well linked. The intranet can then be posted on the web so that anyone searching the information on the internet is able to reach it (Duffy, 2000, p 65). c) This solution might be limited by fact that it is an expensive undertaking and lack of IT skilled people in the organisation might not make it possible for providing a viable KM functionality.     References ADB. (2008). Auditing the Lessons Architecture. Manila. Retrieved on May 3, 2011 from http://www.adb.org/Documents/Information/Knowledge-Solutions/Auditing-Knowledge.pdf Duffy, J., (2000). The KM Infrastructure, Information Management Journal, 34, 2, 62 - 66. Hansen, M.T., N. Nohira, and T. Tierney (2009). What's your strategy for managing knowledge? Harvard Business Review. 106 - 116. Hylton, A. Dr., (2008), KM READINESS ASSESSMENT is Essential in a KM and Knowledge AUDIT Initiative. HRM Publishers Justin, H., (2007) ‘Enhanced knowledge Management’, Prismlegal.com. Retrieved on May 3 2011 from http://www.prismlegal.com/wordpress/index.php?m=201101#post-1115 Polyani, M. (1962). Personal knowledge: toward a post-critical philosophy. New York: Harper Torchbooks. Retrieved on May 3, 2011 from http://www.scribd.com/doc/4684975/Personal-Knowledge-Polanyi Scott, J., (2005), BBS: The Documentary, Bovine Ignition Systems. Watson, S., (1998), ‘Computer World Intranets: Knowledge Management’, Computer World. Retrieved on May 3, 2011 from http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=pLIXL0fA_j8C&pg=PA619&lpg=PA619&dq=Watson,+S.,+%281998%29,+%E2%80%98Computer+World+Intranets:+Knowledge+Management%E2%80%99,+Computer+World.&source=bl&ots=6s1kxmQqdN&sig=dn3Ph_Uj0msvVvzt4AGrqWHgkT4&hl=en&ei=bKK_TZe3JsWEhQfZnMi1BQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false Jannati, L and M. A. Abbassi (2009), Km Knowledge Aplication. Retrieved on May 3, 2011 from http://www.slideshare.net/leilajannati/km-knowledge-application11 Read More