Snapshot Industries: Linking Knowledge Management To Organizational Issues In An Essay. (70 Characters)

Link between case study and knowledge management

Discuss About The Industries The Company Popularly?

Sam Snapshot is the owner of Snapshot industries. The industry was popular for making kitchen ware and gardening tools. Sam Snapshot had 200 employees in its company and they were working from 25 years in the same company. All the employees were expert in their own work. Each employee was assigned an individual work that added the value to their work. After the death of Sam, Jim overtook the company. He expanded the company by acquiring other companies and hired 400 more employees. He created a competitive environment in the company which was not compatible for the older employees and older employees started resigning and taking retirement due to which some problem arose in the production unit of the company. Consultants said that this is the problem of knowledge management. Knowledge Management is the process that helps in the sharing, gathering, creating and retrieval of the knowledge whenever it is necessary.

According to the case study the Sam Snapshot was the founder of Snapshot. The Snapshot was making commercial products in kitchenwares and gardening tools. There were only 200 employee earlier. The employees were working in Snapshot for 25 years. Each employee was having an individual role in the company which proved that the company valued each employee that was working with it. After the death of Sam Snapshot the Jim who was the grandson of Sam took over the company. The Company saw a major change after his death. New manufacturing and services were started by Jim. The employees increased to 600. The output of single product increased and multiple teams are formed for a single product. This resulted in increase of competition and also competition was increased as the rewards were given to the those who resulted in maximum output. Older employees started resigning and new employees were hired. Resigning was due to the increased competition in the company. But after some time there was a big problem in the company, as the teams were not able to do the work. All the papers and documents that were related to the problems scanned but the papers were indecipherable. This resulted to hire a consultant. The consultant linked the problem with knowledge management. Knowledge management is the collection, creation and spreading the knowledge within the company boundaries. Therefore, knowledge management is the doing whatever is needed to extract the knowledge from the resources. When the problem in the company arose, they looked on to the papers for solving the problem. But, the papers were impossible to read. Also, the old employee knew the solution of the problem which also resigned due to the company’s environment. This helps the consultants realizing the problem that there were no information sources left in the company that’s why they linked the problem with knowledge management.

Snapshot industries and types of knowledge

Knowledge is linked with data and information. Knowledge is acquired by an individual with the experience and time, which comes to individual from seeing the external and the internal environment behavior. Therefore, knowledge can be explained as the mixture of values, experience, information and expert views. In an organization the knowledge becomes the daily practice and is embedded in the organization (Robertson, 2017).

Specific type of knowledge is the knowledge that is possessed by the limited numbers of persons in the organization. It is the knowledge related to a specific technical task or a deep knowledge regarding the specific area. This kind of knowledge requires a specific technical training or an experience to possess this knowledge. Therefore a specific knowledge pertains to a company that have different units with a specific number of tasks. The Snapshot has the specific kind of knowledge in it. It has the employees that do their individual work and do not interfere in others work. The employees were working there from last 25 years that why they were well experienced in their work and were experts in their tasks (Baqir, 2004).

Strategic knowledge is the knowledge that is used to gain competitive advantage. The strategies are prepared in this highly competitive world so that advantage can be gained out for the success of the company. This type of knowledge gives an organization a long term advantage. This advantage is useful in the success of the company (Sarawanawong, 2009). A comprehensive knowledge regarding the process, production and management are the basic elements of strategic knowledge. The process indicates how the work is done in the company. It is related with the how the one to one process is one and initiated. Production is the main part where the products are formed. There are various processes in between the production of the desired product and the third element is management how to manage the working, how to deliver the product and how to make profit is the main work of the management team. Therefore, these are the main elements of strategic knowledge (Hariharan, 2015).

In Snapshot the resignations and retirements occurred due to the competitive environment that was created by Jim in the company. The older employees that were about 25 years old were not compatible with the competitive environment. These employees were working in the Snapshot and each was assigned an individual work. After 25 years they were experts in their work. They know well how to solve any problem during the process. But after the competitive environment they started leaving the job. This was noted as a problem for the organization as there were no records available regarding the working process of each employee. The records were not maintained electronically. There were some records on paper which were not in a position to read. Therefore, no written records of the process and no experts that were left in the company created the problems in the working process of Snapshot. Even no new employee knew how to tackle the problem that arose during the work. Therefore, this made the problem more complex. And the experts who were working and found no time to explain the process as some of them were busy at their own work and some were not able to explain (Ranjan & Khalil, 2007). Therefore, after their resignations the company work was affected due to which the cost of the product was increased and the production was low. These problems were created due to the resignations and retirements.

Specific type of knowledge

The problem was created due to the retirements and resignations. Firstly the solution to this problem was to respect each and every employee of the company. As they are the assets to the company. Only the employee knows the information and knowledge about the company. Therefore, talented employees’ performance should be regarded and appraisal and some additional benefits must be given to them so they do not resign. As due to the resignations and retirements, the company should also value the information the person has.

Secondly the company should implement knowledge management (Bhattacharya & Chaudhury, 2004). This will help the company to preserve the important information and knowledge regarding the company’s process of working. It will also help the company realize the real assets of the company.   This will help in a way that if some expert leaves the company or resigns, the work does not get affected. Also, knowledge management helps in the learning process of each employee. It will help in the training programs for each employee by which each employee sees his or her growth. This will lead to the employee satisfaction. Also, knowledge management will help in the growth of the company as an employee growth directly relates to the company’s growth.  Also, effectiveness, efficiency can be increased by incorporating knowledge management (Idayu, 2011).

Consultants were concerned over the leadership because the leader is the main person who gives his vision for the successful running of the company. The leaders make decisions regarding any problem and help in finding the solution to that problem. Effective decision by the leader can help in solving the problem efficiently. Leaders also influence the employee behavior in several ways. A good leader knows how to make his or her employee satisfied and know the real value of his employee (Ward, 2017). Also, the leader does the work of motivation and guiding of the employee.

Consultants were concerned over leader behavior as due to the new leader of the organization that is Jim, he was not able to handle the situation of retirements and resignations. Also, the work in production was affected due to these resignations. He was not able to motivate or guide any of the employees. Old as well as new employees was resigning due to the environment of the company. Leaders should listen to the employees and help them to share their vision with another employee. But Jim has created such an environment so that there was no communication between the employees. Therefore, no communication between the employees lead to the communication gap and there was no transfer of knowledge between the employees of the company. After evaluating this, consultants were concerned about the leadership.

Strategic knowledge and its elements

Earlier, the work was not done in the competitive manner. Each individual earlier was assigned a different work to do. Each employee was an expert in his or her work. But after Jim undertook the business, different teams were performing the similar work which increased the output of a single product. This also resulted in the increase in the competition level in the organization.

Due to the increase in the competition level the stress on the employees was increased which resulted in the mis-happenings. Some employees that were working from a lot of time, resigned due to increase in the stress level (Hovland, 2003).

Also, a new way of centralized system was installed in the company by which the employee has to submit their working times, their leaves and their supervisory records online. This also stressed the older employees as they were not compatible with the computer systems and were doing all the things manually on paper. This made them to learn even they did not know how to use the mouse. Therefore, these things stressed out the employees.

Jim hired new employees, but they also resigned as they say that the product working information was not revealed to them. This made them to think about their growth in the company (Agrawal, 2013). Therefore, the new employees also resigned and did not see the compatibility between the old employees and them. Therefore the effects of Jim leadership were as follows.

• Competitive working environment in the organization
• Working on electronic systems.
• Problems occurred during the production process
• Stress on employees
• Resignations and retirements of employees
• New hirings of the employees
• Increase in the cost of the product.

Jim could improve his practices by giving value to his employee. He should know the employees are the assets of the organization. By making them feel special in the organization can add value to the employee. This helps in the effective and efficient working of the employee. By giving regard to the employee they consider the organization's importance. Each leader should know that the talented and expert employees are the real assets of the company. Neither the machinery or the tools are the assets of the company. Therefore, by giving importance to each employee the problem can be solved up to some extent (Wang & Wang, 2008).

Also a problem in the company arose due to the no information regarding the production process of the company. Therefore, the problem related to the transfer of the information should be solved and knowledge management should be implemented in a way that proper communication of the knowledge among the employees should be done (Dowling, et al., 2011).

Resignation and retirement as a problem

Knowledge management can be applied to the production, employees and processes. From the production point of view, knowledge management adds value to the products. This impact of added value comes from the knowledge. It helps in providing added value to the earlier products, and also help in the innovation of new products. Therefore, snapshot can create new products and can add value to the older products with the help of knowledge management. Secondly, knowledge management can be applied to the employees means employees have a greater impact of knowledge management (Jasimuddin, 2006). Knowledge management helps in the employees learning by providing training and through the transfer of information within the company from one employee to another. From this employee see the growth of knowledge in the company. Growth helps in the increase in the efficiency and effectiveness of the work of the employee through the employee satisfaction. Thirdly, the  process of working has a greater impact of knowledge management. Effectiveness, efficiency and innovation can be developed with the help of knowledge management. The best decision helps in the effectiveness of the work. And better decision is taken with the help of proper knowledge. Also, process efficiency can be increased with the help of knowledge management. Efficiency can be increased by doing the work quickly and in low cost. Innovative work can be done with the help of knowledge management by applying good knowledge (Jalalimanesh, 2014).

Therefore, in production the knowledge management adds value to the product. In employees, it helps in learning and growth and in the process, it helps in the increase of effectiveness, efficiency and innovation.

Knowledge management is the strategy for snapshot industries as the problem in the Snapshot arose due to the resign and retirements. Also, the problem arose due to the key persons are not there in the teams and the working in the production was having the problem. There were not any information regarding the problem solution. There were some information but that information was indecipherable. Also, the experts of the work which were older employees left the job. And due to excess of competition within the company the transfer of information from these older employees did not take place. Therefore, Jim found the problem panicking. Knowledge management was the strategy to solve the problem. Knowledge management helps in maintaining the information regarding the workflow and the processes (Omotayo, 2015). The information will be stored in a way that it can be transferred to each employee in the company and also it can be retrieved whenever needed. Therefore, this strategy can help in solving the problem of Snapshot. Also, the strategy will help in making the effective and efficient work. Also, it helps in recognizing the real assets of the company that are the employees which are not valued later by the Snapshot when Jim took over the company.

Solution to the problem

Yes, knowledge management can solve the problem to some extent. But not all the problems in the company can be solved with knowledge management. The company or the leader should realize the importance of the older staff and should realize that the employee are very important for the proper running of the company. Information and knowledge can be collected and gathered, but can only be implemented by the employees. So the employees should be valued by the company (Alavi & Leidner, 2001).

Problem in the snapshot industries arose due to the leaving of the older employees who were expert in their work. Theses employee was satisfied during the leadership of Sam Sanpshot. But, after Jim overtook the company he created pressure on the employees and they started leaving the company. Therefore, the problems arose at the production unit in the company. Information regarding the problems was searched but there was no information on the company. Therefore, knowledge management was not implemented in the company and therefore no transfer of information took place during earlier times. But, during earlier times each employee was assigned a different task which adds value to them. Therefore, the working was going in a proper manner. But, when Jim overtook the company the working scenario changed, but due to lack of knowledge transfer between the employees the problem arose. This can be solved with the help of knowledge management, which helps in the collection and retrieval of knowledge whenever needed. Also, it helps the new employees to know regarding the working process of the company (Cummings, et al., 2013).

Conclusion

Therefore, it can be concluded that Snapshot industries should implement knowledge management in the company. It will help in the collection, storing and retrieval of the knowledge whenever it is necessary. Also, the Snapshot industries should realize the importance of the employees. This will help in the talent to stay in the company. Knowledge management will help snapshot to realize the real assets of the organization. Also, to make innovative products Knowledge management is useful. Effective and efficient work is also done with the help of knowledge management. Effective and efficient work will help in adding an advantage to the workflow. Also, it will help the company to gain competitive advantage which will help in company’s overall growth.

References

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