305 W3 Responses
Here are the 4 discussion posts of classmates to week 3 305 discussion. There are also to responses to your post one from a student and one from the professor. Your post is italicized followed by the responses. I need one response per post. There will be a total of 6 responses for you to complete. Discussion Board responses must be answered thoroughly. Must be APA format, answer thoroughly, must have at least 1-2 verifiable legitimate sources per response. 150+ words needed answering thoroughly.
This is due by November 8, 2019 Friday at 10:00 pm EST. 23 hours Plagiarism free.
LA1
#1
Troy Still
Some obstacles of sharing knowledge in my workplace is that not everyone has service all the time so it is hard for them to have access to certain information. When you are on a job site and you need access to a technical manual and you have no service it is hard to get the job complete.so you have to stop what you are doing and find a place that has service so you can obtain the information you need to get the job done. We also have an app called field servio that we all use to track ours jobs and write and read notes that other techs have left for those same jobs that you can go back and look at that will help you better understand what was previously done to that generator and what steps might better help you troubleshoot it. This app constantly has problems and crashes. Also we only have two parts people to help look up parts you need for a job and if they are busy you are stuck sitting there on the site waiting for a call back from them to be able to find the part you need to fix the unit you are working on. I believe if my company provided some kind of toughbook or ipad that had all the technical manuals downloaded onto them as well as an app better than field servio that was more reliable and would always save the content that you have entered onto it. As well as a parts page where you didn’t have to call into the shop to look up parts for certain models of the generator instead had them all neatly organized where you could select a certain generator and look up parts specifically pertaining to that generator the company and its employees would operate and run more profficantly. I would also like to organize another part of the app where all the techs could leave tech notes about certain problems that they have ran across with certain models of generators and tricks and tips that older techs that have been with the company for years have used in there carriers. I would integrate an app that would bring everyone together where knowledge and information would be at the touch of a button no matter time or location and you would have notes from technicians about problems you have never come across before so you wouldn’t have to waste your time calling around and get your work done faster and earn the company more money.
References
Dalkir, K., & Liebowitz, J. (2011) Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice. Cambridge: MIT Press.Chapter 5: Knowledge Sharing and Communities of Practice
#2
Troy Still
Fredrick Helmut,
I know you are new to our company and are nervous about sharing your information with us from your studies in Berlin. We are honored to have you here with us, but need you to understand that if you want to be a valuable asset to this company we need your participation. If you can help us further are understanding in finding a cure for this disease you wouldnt just be helping the company out you’d also be helping the millions of people affected by it. You are an amazing doctor and we would be more than happy to give you full credit if your chemical pathway that helped us retard the symptoms of Alzheimers. It would also be financially responsible for you to share your research with us as we would welcome you with a salary increase for your outstanding breakthrough if that was the outcome. You would be globally idolized for your breakthrough as doctors all over the world would know your name. Please take this email into serious consideration when you are making your decision. Once again welcome to our team and I look forward to talking to you in person about this situation soon.
References
Dalkir, K., & Liebowitz, J. (2011) Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice. Cambridge: MIT Press.Chapter 5: Knowledge Sharing and Communities of Practice
LA2
James Finneyfrock
The lack of good leadership greatly hinders the production of knowledge management. Leaders play a very important role in knowledge management and have an enormous influence on their subordinates, which shapes their attitudes, behavior, and focus. Bad leadership will sway personnel away from the mission of the organization. According to Micic (2015), a good leader is one who develops an organizational culture directed towards team learning and encourages learning through his/her behavior. There are many different styles of leadership, but they all must have a high level of self-respect, effective communication skills to establish what is expected of his/her team, take responsibility, and effectively manage conflicts. A culture of knowledge-sharing is made possible by combining knowledge sharing and practical business goals, providing resources that aid the development of a knowledge-sharing network, and giving praise to individuals for valuable contributions of knowledge (Micic, 2015). As a knowledge management practitioner, I would help by ensuring new hires have experience of successful leadership. Additionally, I would implement a training program or mandatory briefings about effective ways to appropriately lead an organization; this training/briefing can be applied annually and during new-hire orientation.
Another obstacle is resistance to change, a barrier that rejects the implementation of knowledge management. It is common for members of the organization to become complacent but then feels threatened when a change occurs within the organization’s culture or processes. As a knowledge management practitioner, I would ensure there is a mandatory process for change management. This is a deliberate process to ensure people and technical aspects of the organization are not adversely impacted by the change while achieving business goals (Bencsik & Speiser, 2010). Knowledge management fully prepares personnel and plans the execution of implementing the change.
Another obstacle could be a lack of available resources to provide adequate knowledge sharing capability and practice. As a knowledge practitioner, I would advise leadership to allocate more of the budget towards additional software solutions that can contribute data that is pertinent to knowledge management efforts. Also, I would make use of such technologies to help share knowledge easily across boundaries and geographical locations.
Crowdsourcing is distributed problem-solving. It is a process of leveraging insight, ideas, and creativity from a large group of people outside of the organization, such as an audience or stakeholder of a particular product, to increase company growth for free. An example of this is beta products, which are pre-release versions. For instance, a video game could pre-release a version for testing. Then, gamers could find bugs or give feedback on how the gameplay could be improved. Therefore, gamers become a free resource of knowledge to produce a final product that can help the business succeed and proves to be cost-effective. Moreover, a large group of people will typically be diverse in many aspects which can lower the chances of bias opinions. Additionally, the more people there is the better the chance of more reported flaws. However, a diverse group of people can restrain communication due to language or cultural barriers. Another disadvantage of crowdsourcing is confidentiality since members are not part of the organization.
A community of practice is a group of people who belong to the same craft or profession with a common interest in pursuing knowledge for a common goal. It is like a forum that provides solutions to problems. This kind of group creates a continuous flow of ideas and information, which can better coordinate the organization. Time can become a disadvantage if individuals do not have enough time to step away from their daily tasks to contribute to a community of practice. Another disadvantage is at times the flow of information can become stale, stagnant, and no new information is being produced.
References:
Bencsik, A., & Speiser, K. B. (2010). Success Factors of Change in Knowledge Management. Management Research and Practice, 2(1), 67-82.
Micic, R. (2015). Leadership role in certain phases of knowledge management processes. Ekonomika, 61(4), 47-56. doi:10.5937/ekonomika1504047m
#2
James Finneyfrock
Mr. Fredrick Helmut,
Your experience at the Berlin branch and extensive studies at Berlin University make you an excellent addition to our division in Gaithersburg, Maryland. I hope you feel welcomed and your transition is seamless. We are assured your remarkable and strenuous contributions in chemical engineering will support ongoing efforts in developing a drug to combat Alzheimer’s.
We hope to unify efforts to organize thoughts and processes under the knowledge management cycle. Being able to collaborate would greatly enhance and benefit your studies along with ours.
Strong knowledge management capability develops efficient work practices and routines to sustain an organization’s competitive advantage. (Sandhawalia & Dalcher, 2010). For us to succeed, we need to be better informed to create tacit and explicit knowledge that will introduce a drug to the market. Knowledge sharing saves time and money. Supplying the market sooner allows us to become more competitive from a business standpoint. This furthers the goals of both you and Herring Pharmaceuticals.
We need your leadership and expertise to make this happen. Providing such contributions to Herring leads to open doors, new opportunities, and event promotion. Moreover, monthly recognition and monetary rewards are given to superior performers of our knowledge management team.
Very Respectfully,
James Finneyfrock
References:
Singh Sandhawalia, B., & Dalcher, D. (2011). Developing knowledge management capabilities: a structured approach. Journal of Knowledge Management, 15(2), 313-328. doi:10.1108/13673271111119718
Response to your discussion post:
Knowledge sharing is the act of interchanging information, skills, knowledge, experience, expertise, understanding, and intelligence. The wealth of knowledge and experience that workers possess is among the most significant resources an organization can have. However, in spite of the growing importance of knowledge sharing, there are several obstacles that make it hard for individuals to share knowledge.
One of the key obstacle to sharing knowledge within my organization is a lack of time to share knowledge. Even though some people are always inspired to share knowledge with others, the lack of time make individuals prioritize more in their daily tasks. The other obstacle is low understanding and awareness on the benefits of knowledge. The reasons many employees in my organization are always unwilling to share their skills and knowledge, is the notion that knowledge is power. Some hoard their information because they think they will benefit more by doing that than sharing the information with others. Others are also unwilling to share knowledge as they fear that their knowledge may not be considered important, accurate, or relevant by others (Lilleoere & Holme Hansen, 2011). There is always the fear of receiving criticism or ridicule because of sharing. As a KM practitioner, I will encourage my organization to introduce incentives and other motivations in the workplace. Incentives will encourage people to share what they have with others.
Both crowdsourcing and communities of practice involve knowledge sharing. As crowdsourcing involves the use of educated masses to get information, communities of practice involve a group of compatible individuals working together with a common goal. While crowdsourcing encourages diversity by encouraging any person with an interest or idea to take part, CoP involves a group of compatible individuals working together with common goals and they are mostly connected through social media (Wenger, 2004). My organization normally uses crowdsourcing when finding solutions to complex or difficult problems.
References
Lilleoere, A. M., & Holme Hansen, E. (2011). Knowledge-sharing enablers and barriers in pharmaceutical research and development. Journal of knowledge management, 15(1), 53-70.
Wenger, E. (2004). Knowledge management as a doughnut: Shaping your knowledge strategy through communities of practice. Ivey Business Journal
Student response:
Troy
I couldn’t agree more with your post, people in a lot of work places are selfish because they believe the more knowledge they hold to themselves the more likely they are to get promotions and raises. But I don’t think that is the truth, I think a lot of tops recognize when employees are spreading their knowledge to other employees in benefit of the company. By spreading knowledge you are building a stronger team that can prosper in the long run. There is a difference between a boss and a leader a boss orders people around without instruction and a leader will lead you step by step in the direction that will not just benefit you but also him in the long run.
References
Dalkir, K., & Liebowitz, J. (2011) Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Professor response:
Bob,
How can we, as manager, help to encourage workers to share the knowedge they have when they are afraid that sharing the information may take away their competitive edge over their co-workers? What tools might managers have at their disposal to help with this?
