Knowledge Management Case Study

1. The initial interview and orientation presented a very strong message about the knowledge environment operating at Manic Marketers. What features were portrayed? How did these differ from reality?
2. A mentor has certain functions in an organisation. Identify the types of support offered by this mentor. What else could the mentor have done to help Damon gain organisational knowledge?
3. In this context, the recording of client data is a major benefit to the organisation. Identify the types of information that should be included and discuss how they might have been recorded as codified knowledge. Review KM Viewpoint 2.1 and identify the other forms of knowledge which would have been of value to Damon in this initial stage.
4. Using KM Viewpoint 2.2, evaluate the social capital factors which were evident in the knowledge environment. What, in your opinion were the key weaknesses?
5. Manic Marketers needed to develop some very different approaches to how they share their knowledge. Identify some strategies which might be considered. How would you implement these strategies? What impediments to sharing can you identify?

Introduction

Knowledge Management has a very important role in achieving the organizational goals and strategy. It aims to bring right knowledge to the right people at the right time. It helps in creating value in the organization and thus helps in taking critical decisions in the organization. It is a very important source of knowledge building and facilitates inference and discovery.

Manic Marketers are a marketing firm which has a huge client base and is growing rapidly. It presented itself as an organization which beliefs in the development of employees' competency and ability. They facilitate this through the collection and storage of information. The key processes and outcomes of the organization are regularly documented and shared with the employees. In the job advertisement, the company boasted of having world-class knowledge. 

Damon is the new intern in the company for the post of Marketing. During the orientation session, he was told that corporate knowledge of the company can be accessed easily. The company boasted of having the house record management system to store and manage digital records and metadata. The record management system of the company was expected to organize and track the vast information that flows out of the company. After the orientation and interview, Damon believed that Manic Marketers give a lot of value in sharing of business intelligence. Different stakeholders of the company are involved in the sharing and storage of knowledge.

The actual scenario was completely different from what Damon had expected. The files and records had no information about the client details and relevant information related to the project. The knowledge database of the company was of not much use to Damon. It had partial information about the project and client. The company's website and other databases gave no information about the company's key products and the history of the projects associated with the company. The fellow employees and colleagues were reluctant to help to contradict to what he was told during the orientation program.

The Knowledge Environment

The knowledge environment is the method implemented by a firm to increase knowledge building and decision making abilities of its employees.  It develops the inference or discovering capability of the knowledge workers of the organization. The ability to transfer knowledge across the organization increases the value of the organization. It reduces the time taken to learn new information and competencies and thus saves time and money. The knowledge development in an organization has 5 stages:

1. Knowledge Sourcing: These are the source of information. In the case of Manic Marketers, Damon had an orientation session in which he has explained the working of the organization. He was told about the various knowledge management techniques adopted by the company which will be the prime source of all information in the organization (Mariani & Giarratana, 2013).
2. Knowledge Abstraction: Knowledge abstraction is the guideline or the process through which the knowledge sources are put into the application to derive new knowledge (Cavaliere & Lombardi, 2015). In the given case at hand, the company used to conduct knowledge sharing sessions and peer feedback sessions to allow sharing of knowledge. Apart from that, the company also encouraged the employees to form communities of practices so that they can share their best practices and experiences amongst themselves. This would help them learn about the potential risks and mitigation methods for application in future projects. By adopting this approach, the company used to ensure that effective knowledge abstraction process occurs within the firm.

• Knowledge Conversion: In the knowledge conversion process, knowledge abstracted is converted into useful information. Every project document is created and the database of the knowledge management system is regularly updated (Wang & Wang, 2012).