RESULTS, ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS IN KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
User Rating: 0 / 5
- Details
- Hits: 6213
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS, ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
Situation Assessment
There is eminent loss of tacit and explicit knowledge in industries due to workforce turnover brought about by demographic shifts together with other organizational factors. In the current competitive business environment organizations are undergoing rapid changes and undertaking several structural implementations. Data was collected in a rapid organization that is in order to gain insight if models of knowledge management in organizations are effective in mitigating imminent loss of explicit or tacit knowledge when the most experienced and skilled employees retire or quit jobs. The organization was highly responsive and the workers were able to provide required information necessary in answering the study questions.
Key Factors
During the beginning of the study, the workers were not aware of the presence of the researcher or even the purpose of the study. The subjects were however made aware of the researcher presence and given explanations of the purpose of the study so that they could choose whether to participate on the study or not. This gave room for independence of data collected and minimization of any bias as a result of pre-perception or forced interviews.
Events
During the data collection process, it was necessary to participate in group activities, observe processes and attend meetings in order to gain comprehensive insight into the whole process. The meetings gave an overview of how the knowledge management systems were operated and what the people were required to contribute to or to utilize the knowledge systems for. The group activities gave the general understanding of the dynamics surrounding the people and learn group behavior.
Findings
All the data collected from the study field was edited, cleaned and cleared of errors. The data was then sorted according to relevance of the study and the results desired out of it in answering the study question in supporting or disputing the hypotheses. All the data that were not accurately answering the study question or which provided ambiguity was excluded so as to avoid vagueness of the presented results.
The research found out that the organizations were losing a lot of explicit and tacit knowledge due to demographic shifts, the employee choices such as opting-out and the organizational shake ups that result to transfers and retrenchments. The findings also found that employees in the organization don’t intend to work for long through their lives and commonly prefer to quit jobs and opt for other options due to the flexibility.
Descriptions of What Was Found
During the meetings, on the first occurrence, the staffs were briefed on the interest of the organization to the research. The staffs were told of the expectations of the researcher and their expectation during the whole practice. The other meetings attended were o when presentations of information from the employees to the management were done and when the management delivered directives based on that information.
The meetings helped the research to establish the extent to which knowledge management system was utilized at the top of the organization by the executive, it also helped in identifying inefficiencies resulting from the knowledge management process in reserving knowledge from the employees.
The Delanie organization is that which has several departments headed by different unit heads and supervisors. The operations department is leading with sub-department headed by unit supervisors. During the executive management, unit and subunit heads present briefs of the events from their units and departments and the information and insights are recorded by the secretaries, such information and suggestions are then processed and entered into organization database and used by the executive.
The knowledge management system utilization and interconnection within the organization was evident and the employees and the unit supervisors tend to know its importance in organizational quality processes and the competence and relevance of the organization in the competitive business environment.
From the team observation and the employee behavior study, it was evident the manner in which the employees provided support for each other in the course of their duties and team activities. There was no reservation observed during the study as all of them were expressing willingness to provide for continued workflow.
The research attempted to resolve that the organization was able to determine the effectiveness of the existing knowledge management models in their activities in mitigating imminent loss of explicit or tacit knowledge when the most experienced and skilled employees retire or quit job due to demographic shift through documenting their knowledge and skills while encouraging team engagement processes.
Comparisons
The management team through their meetings relied on the reports and analysis from the departments and units to dictate their discussions of regular meetings. In the meetings attended by the researcher, it was seen that there was no much new issues introduced by the head of the meeting. In the meetings, the departmental communications and suggestions and working on them, giving directives and providing decisions.
The employees on their side attempted to work one on one providing support to each other in order to ensure effective workflow and efficiency within their teams. The unit heads on their part collectively engaged with the employees in ensuring that they deliver quality effectively as per the organizational set standards of quality and processes.
The human resource department also played a crucial role in providing for competencies and profiles of the employees so as to define what information is attainable from them and the kind of knowledge that could be extracted from them. The human resource management is dependent upon the knowledge systems in updating their departmental competencies and formulates strategies which will be favorable for the retention of workforce, and the workforce knowledge within their organizations.
Enlightenment Offered by Key Players
The research unearthed different aspects the organization that need to be looked into in order to improve the organizational key performances and success. The issue of the human resource management practices and the important role it plays in contributing to organizational competencies. The human resource management needs to be taken seriously as the core of the company in knowledge and skills acquisition and retention through their practices.
It was observed that the unit heads other than managing people, managed the processes and led in ensuring quality achievements. This is another important aspect of company’s today; people tend to manage themselves while delivering their roles in the company. As much as the organization ensured efficiency, it requires reorganizing its environment in order to ensure quality delivery other than physical presence of employees.
Summary
The results indicated that the models available in the organization for knowledge management are effective and are engaged throughout the organization in acquisition of knowledge and the retention of both explicit and tacit knowledge. The system helps in informing the execution of informed decisions and in preventing the loss of knowledge when the most skilled workers opt out of the job or retire.
The organization as well is able to appreciate the effectiveness of the knowledge management system. For instance, when one of the managers left, all the information and contributions from him could be accessed from the company knowledge databases and be used by the other managers in undertaking duties of relevance. Due to the demographic shift, the company will be forced to redesign itself in order to ensure flexibility for the employees in order to reduce turnover of the workforce.