The article is related to the development of a Knowledge Management System (KMS) for MJR Advertising. The CEO has been concerned about the time and effort employees put in while handling new projects and the resources that can be saved by implementing a KMS which offers information about projects with similar requirements. Another concern for the CEO is the lack of coordination between the teams working in offices located in Europe and USA, including the head office in UK. The report provides an overview of the key components that should be a part of the knowledge management framework for the organization. It includes discussion on the components of organizational culture, structure, IT infrastructure, common knowledge and physical infrastructure. The knowledge management system considering these variables has been developed for MJR advertising and recommendations for handling each dimension have been provided. The key recommendations include development of a flexible organizational culture, encouraging openness to change and adoption of matrix organizational structure. In addition to this, the usefulness of incentives and non-monetary rewards has been elaborated. The report has further addressed the way training and development can be used to bridge the gap existing between current and expected competence of the employees in the domain of communication and use of KMS. Lastly, a Gantt chart has been presented to indicate the key activities that will be a part of the KMS implementation, providing a tentative timeline for the completion of the implementation.
Introduction
MJR advertising has been successful in handling the projects of different clients over the years. The company is operating with a decentralized decision making structure which supports a high degree of autonomy at the workplace. Therefore, the head office in UK and other offices in Europe and US have low degree of collaboration. The company has been performing well, however, the CEO is concerned that overlooking the similarity between previous and new projects results in unnecessary consumption of resources. The work teams seek little support from the previous projects which may be costing the company more than it should be, in terms of time, energy and capital input. Furthermore, this situation is having a negative impact on the efficiency of the employees. Even though the company is profitable enough to grow outside the domestic market of UK, a system is needed that can enable the CEO to gain benefit from the human resources and provide them with a work structure that supports in better efficiency and effectiveness. Knowledge management (KM) is one such tool which has the potential to address the aforementioned issues in an effective manner. It provides a system to manage the tacit and explicit knowledge of the employees, making it useful for the personnel and management (Dalkir, 2013). This report intends to discuss how a KM system can be adopted by MJR advertising to encourage the employees to use create new knowledge and share existing information by improving communication. It also addresses the key problems that can emerge during the implementation of KMS and the solutions that can be used to handle these problems.
Knowledge Management System
The framework of knowledge management offers a set of practices that can be used to store and use the intellectual property. The intellectual property in this context comprises the information related to best practices, as well as issues and solutions managed by the company in the past. The experiential aspect of the employee’s work routine is transferred into a unified knowledge platform, which can be accessed by different employees for reference as per their need (Becerra-Fernandez and Sabherwal, 2014). The current structure and processes in the MJR Advertising are more in alignment with the framework of traditional organization. In order to embrace the philosophy of KM, the company will need to make changes in its structure, processes, culture and patterns of interaction. Bringing these changes would facilitate the shift towards becoming a knowledge based enterprise. According to Geisler and Wickramasinghe (2015), a KBE differs from traditional organization on the basis of flexibility, low degree of formalisation and focus on effective communication. The management along with the employees has a clear understanding about the role knowledge can play in implementation of the organizational strategy and achievement of long term profitability. King (2009) has further asserted that managing organization’s intellectual assets facilitates in making more effective decisions, keeping in view the previous strategies used and lessons learned.
The key issues as communicated by the CEO are development and implementation of a suitable knowledge management system and addressing the human aspect of KMS implementation. The CEO also intends to develop a set of regulations to be followed by the employees in different company offices, thus bringing some formalisation. The following section outlines the strategy that management can adopt to incorporate KMS at MJR Advertising.
KMS for MJR Advertising
A knowledge management system includes “content, availability, collaboration management, generators and delivery style” (Harrington and Voehl, 2007, p. 40). These components reflect the various activities and processes that need to be incorporated in order to develop a knowledge management system. Content includes the information possessed by the employees and the knowledge that training sessions offers to the personnel. It includes information that holds relevance for the organization as well as serves as a means of gaining an edge in the industry. The second component under consideration is that how will this information presented to the employees or management, thus addressing the availability of the knowledge. Collaboration reflects the process of communication between different knowledge stakeholders including the employees, managers and top management. It also entails the training and development of the personnel to improve their ability to gain benefit from the KMS. Harrington and Voehl (2007) have further mentioned that the factor of generators would illustrate the use of suitable platform and multiple resources to present and share knowledge. Moreover, the content should be compatible to different operating systems so that employees can easily access it. Lastly, delivery style is related to the ability of the knowledge system to allow the people in different locations to access the information and share the information. This point holds relevance for MJR Advertising, as the company would require to integrate these components as a part of its KMS development strategy. All these factors should be considered while developing a knowledge management framework and identifying a suitable course of action for knowledge management.
KMS Infrastructure
Knowledge management system is not a single activity that is performed by an organization. It comprises a comprehensive framework that addresses the various processes and structure of an organization. Meso and Smith (2000) have pointed out that integration of KMS should not focus on the technical and IT related aspects. The integration of human resources as a part of the KMS implementation holds a great deal of importance. Therefore it can be stated that KMS implementation should be based on the socio-technical adaptation. Becerra-Fernandez and Sabherwal (2014) have discussed about the KMS infrastructure, pointing out that there are different dimensions included in it. The CEO is recommended to address these dimensions to ensure that a suitable KMS is developed and implemented with desired level of effectiveness.
Organizational Culture
The first dimension represents organizational culture, which includes the values and beliefs that can facilitate in the adoption of KMS by the employees. Alavi, Kayworth and Leidner (2005) have reported that a favorable organizational culture can be a source of benefit for the implementation of a knowledge management system in an organization. On the other hand, an organizational culture that is marked by low degree of openness to change may create obstacles in the process of integration of KMS in a business. Organizational culture when inhibits the adoption of change needs to be altered, in terms of creating flexibility among the employees to embrace the required change.
Allameh, Zamani and Davoodi (2011, p. 1226) have observed that different types of cultures exist in a business entity, which were identified as: group (tribal), developmental (adhocracy), hierarchical and market (logical) culture. Some of these cultures have a higher degree of flexibility, while other typologies are marked by focus on standardized processes and structures. Allameh et al (2011) have further indicated that the type of organizational culture and interplay between the KM dimensions results in the degree of effectiveness of the implementation of knowledge creation, handling and sharing.
MJR advertising needs to be specifically careful in terms of shaping a culture that supports the processes related to creation of knowledge and its storage in the intranet, while using a standard format. The use of a standard format would enable the teams and team leaders to access the information and to be able to gain required insights out of it in a timely manner. The practice of using an ad hoc format in different offices would make it difficult to comprehend and interpret the information related to projects completed in the past. A standard format would give the needed information in a shorter span of time as the teams will not have to spend considerable amount of time for making sense of the format. However this change can be only be brought in the organization if the employees have an open attitude towards adopting a standard format.
Change management tools would be helpful in this regard to make the employees more responsive towards change plan and gain support from them during the planning and implementation phases. There are different change management models that have been presented over the years. The model of Lewin includes the states of unfreeze, change and refreeze, indicating that the change process can be divided into three broad phases (Akgün et al., 2007). While following this model the CEO would be required to prepare the employees in the UK office, as well as work teams in offices located in other European regions and the US for the upcoming changes and integration of KM system as a part of work routine. The unfreeze phase is where the employees will be communicated about expected changes, provided support to adapt and their concerns addressed by the management. In the change phase, the application of the plan of action would take place, which reflects the integration of KMS with the existing IT infrastructure. Furthermore, the employees should be equipped to use the system to gain maximum level of benefit out of it. The refreeze stage will include making the KMS a necessary part of work operations across all offices.
Organizational Structure
Secondly, the way organization is structured in terms of layers of hierarchy and decision making processes has significant influence on the degree of successful implementation of KMS. Moreover, the way different roles and responsibilities are assigned in the domain of KMS are included in this component. Leadership has a central focus in this domain, as the leader can lead the required changes in the organizational structure, enabling the people to perform to their maximum in the roles and responsibilities allocated to them. A formalized structure will not be suitable for the application of knowledge management system. As argued by Chen and Huang (2007), flexibility and decentralized decisions making support a positive organizational climate, which enables the personnel to interact with each other. However, KMS needs some degree of standardization to be effective, therefore a blend of formalized and informal organizational structure is needed to implement KMS in MJR advertising. The roles and responsibilities of the team members and leaders across the offices need to be clearly communicated and followed. However, making the organization a centralized structure will not be beneficial in the long run, even if it gives a significant degree of authority and control to the CEO. Another recommendation suitable for the organization is incorporation of matrix style organizational structure in a formal manner. Currently, the work processes are being managed in different offices separately, with limited input from the top management. The connectedness and coordination of the teams in different offices can be enhanced through matrix structure. Moorehead and Griffin (2014) have stated that matrix structure is beneficial in cases when an organization is required to use shared resources or needs to respond to the internal and external environment in an efficient manner and fails to do so with a functional structure.
Information Technology Infrastructure
The IT infrastructure that is already in place in an organization provides the foundation on which the IT related aspects of knowledge management can be constructed. The gaps existing between the current IT system and the structure of system needed to manage the flow of information among the employees and management needs to be addressed. Wong (2005) has highlighted the critical success factors (CSFs) that facilitate the application of knowledge management framework in the context of an SME. The key finding is that infrastructure related to information technology plays an important role in the implementation of KMS. In case of MJR Advertising, the employees are already using intranet, indicating the presence of a basic IT structure. The KMS can be integrated into the existing IT system, which would incur lower cost than creating a new IT infrastructure.
Common Knowledge
There are some areas which have a shared understanding among the employees. It could be manifested in the form of common vocabulary, common patterns of performing the work, or skills and competence areas that have a high degree of similarity across the organization’s different divisions (Gottschalk, 2005). The knowledge management system in MJR Advertising needs to incorporate the common knowledge. This common knowledge can be used as a foundation for developing and continuing new ideas. The management will have to gain information form the teams working in different offices in different regions and identify the common themes evident from the responses of the employees. This data would enable in constructing KMS which includes this common knowledge, which would provide the employees with a sense of similarity and they would be able to connect with the teams in Europe and US.
Physical infrastructure
This involves the layout of the office which can facilitate in the sharing of knowledge among the employees. Furthermore, there are some office spaces which are frequently used for sharing information with each other. One of the notable examples in this regard is the area where employees interact during lunch break (Becerra-Fernandez and Sabherwal, 2014). MJR Advertising can offer the employees a space in the office where they can discuss about the issues they are facing in a project or share the learning they have gained from a project. The meeting room and lunch room can be provided to the employees for this purpose. The meeting room is likely to facilitate formal meetings and discussion while the lunch room can promote informal knowledge sharing among the work teams.
Motivating the Employees
One of the critical areas that significantly helps in the implementation of KMS is the level of motivation of the employees. Rewards and incentives can be used for motivating the employees to use KMS and leave the previous methods of handling the projects. Moreover, the intrinsic mechanisms are particularly useful in promoting the use of KMS through knowledge sharing and using (Ardichvili, Page and Wentling, 2003). In another study, Davenport, De Long and Beers (1998) have pointed out that the incentives offered to the personnel for using knowledge management system needs to be closely connected with the performance evaluation to motivate them in an effective manner. Along with that, a supportive attitude from the management motivates the employees to participate in the ongoing change and contribute to organizational effectiveness and efficiency. Likewise Goh (2002) has asserted the importance of employee motivation as the main source behind the sharing of knowledge on the KM platform. MJR advertising should adopt incentives that are appealing for the employees, linking the use of KMS with the monetary as well as non-monetary rewards.
Gantt Chart
The following Gantt chart has been developed for the implementation of KMS and the related activities in MJR Advertising. The development and implementation of KMS is expected to be completed during weeks, while the monitoring of effectiveness will be an ongoing process and changes will be made as per need.
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