Enhancing Organizational Performance at Westfield Group - Case Study Example

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PLAN: WESTFIELD GROUP Management Report: Enhancing organizational performance at Westfield Group through effective knowledge management Content page Page Executive Summary 4 Abstract 5 Introduction 7 Objectives 8 Knowledge management 9 Knowledge categories 10 Merits of Knowledge Management 11 Knowledge management strategies 12 Implementation 16 Time-Table 17 Budget Estimate 19 Performance indicators 19 Conclusion 19 References 20 Executive Summary Westfield Group is the world’s largest retail property by equity market capitalization, the company is listed at the Australian Securities Exchange offering different services diverse services touching on varied sectors of the economy, such as Property Management, Marketing and Leasing Activities, Property Development, Design and Construction Activities and Funds/Asset Management Activities. Knowledge utilization in the organization has faced sundry challenges due to the diversification of the company’s services and internationalization, these challenges are:- 1. The group has several services and departments; knowledge generated in one department may not be accessed by other persons working in different departments or distantly located offices. 2. The company relies on value creation through operational level intensive management and a strategic development program which is aimed at persistently improving the quality of the portfolio, capital growth and income generation for investors. The operations and survival of the company is exceedingly reliant on knowledge, where its employees have to continually make decisions; however employees lack reference points on decision making, due to unavailability of data on previous decisions in similar situations. Knowledge management in the Westfield group is performed by the human resource department, where knowledge management is not given any special consideration but is treated as part of the learning organization. The concept of the merger of Knowledge management objectives and organizational objectives has not been appreciated in the Westfield group; therefore knowledge management has received minimal consideration and support. The relationship between Knowledge management and organizational performance has been a subject of several studies and publications. Organizational performance in terms of profitability can be influenced by knowledge management strategies that the organization pursues. Effective utilization and appreciation of knowledge as an important organizational resource contributes positively to organizational performance since knowledge is imperative in the realization of strategic competitive advantage, constant organizational improvement, creativity and innovation, knowledge and information sharing as well as integration of the organizations’ operations. On the contrary, ineffective knowledge management suggests failure to maximize revenue potential and effectively control expenses on the part of the organization. There can also be information leakage as well as failure to appreciate the value of information; the organization may be got in a circle of problem solving activities, where the effort in the organizational shall be dedicated to finding solutions to similar problems whose solutions were previously found. To have an effective knowledge management system in place, the organization should have a knowledge management plan, which acts as a baseline and point of reference in the attainment of optimum utilization of the organization’s knowledge base. In order to positively influence organizational performance through knowledge management, Westfield group shall implement several strategies and recommendations. The strategies that Westfield Group has to implement include collaborative systems, wikis, blogs, ***, the strategies are suited and favorable to the unique characteristics of the company’s operating environment; this shall be represented by an action plan. Expert yellow pages has been the common mode of strategy used by the company in the past, this has been backed Competency frameworks, competence management, peer assistance, computer based training and push technologies. Technological advancements and dynamics as well as competition have made the above strategies to be redundant. There are several approaches to effectively enhance organizational performance at Westfield Group, Australia through knowledge management, while overcoming the challenges associated with the current systems in the organization. The recommended knowledge management strategies are aimed at improving organizational performance through decreasing instances of redundant work, foster decision making, promote knowledge transfer and sharing, decrease times required to orientate new employees, empower employees to make knowledgeable and informed decisions, customize past solutions to effectively solve new challenges, positively and dynamically adapt to varying  business environments and markets and to retain intellectual capital when employees leave the organization. The aforementioned aims can be realized through implementation of several strategies and technologies. The technologies to be implemented at Westfield Group include blogs, wikis, collaborative systems, expert systems, and groupware and knowledge base systems. These strategies shall foster self-governing, unstructured, or multi dimensional advancement to augment knowledge capturing, knowledge transfer and knowledge creation and establishment of innovative networks, communities or matrixed organizations. The technologically centered strategies shall cost Westfield approximately hundred million US dollars, after which annual maintenance of the plan shall be on average shall be ten million dollars. All the Westfield offices globally shall participate in the plan, which shall be coordinated from the Westfield Group headquarters. All the national head offices shall be involved, where every Westfield country offices shall nominate knowledge key persons to represent the country in the knowledge management team. Every section shall also be represented depending on the company’s core functions. Property Management, Marketing and Leasing Activities, Property Development, Design and Construction Activities, Funds/Asset Management Activities shall each have representative in the knowledge management team. The plan is envisioned to take eight months to become operational, after which it shall be reviewed annually to meet the changing demands of the company. Abstract The concept of knowledge management has been controversial, just as the definition of knowledge itself, which has been a contentious issue that has raged on from the time of Plato to the present. Different authors have presented divergent opinions in the importance of knowledge management; this has been attested by the dissimilarity in which organizations have adopted the knowledge management concept. While some organizations have fully embraced knowledge management as an important technique in human resource administration, other organizations have ignored knowledge management as a possibility, arguing that knowledge is made up of several constructs such as a person’s skills, education, experience and beliefs, therefore knowledge cannot be managed whatsoever. The knowledge management plan is intentioned to critique the current knowledge system at Westfield Group to identify strengths and weaknesses of the system; the plan then investigates the current environment necessitating change, and offers recommendations of the most suitable strategies. Introduction Westfield Group is an Australia-based international company which offers several services. The group which is listed in the Australian Securities exchange is the leading retail property group in the world by equity market capitalization. The international company is an internally managed, vertically incorporated shopping centre group, which several functions such as design, development, construction, undertaking ownership, property management, funds management, leasing, marketing and asset management. The company operates in several countries, namely Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States where it has interests in an investment portfolio of 119 shopping centres which are valued in excess of A$61 billion. The company is assured of consistent income stream due to the strong positions of the shopping centre in their local markets considering the economic, geographic and retail diversity. The core business of the company includes Property Management, Marketing and Leasing Activities, Property Development, Design and Construction Activities, Funds/Asset Management Activities. The knowledge management plan has to be aligned with the company’s core business. Property Management, Marketing and Leasing Activities Westfield Group leases out daily management and marketing of the shopping centre and maximizes returns through the creation of dynamic and efficient environment for retailers and a superior shopping experience for the customers. Property Development, Design and Construction Activities The company aims to achieve maximum returns on property developments through increased rental income and capital value of the asset appreciation. The company’s property development operations are vertically integrated to engage all of the elements of development, design, construction and leasing. Funds/Asset Management Activities The group is also concerned with the management of assets for and on behalf of individual and institutional investors. The company partners with other institutions such as Forest City Enterprises, Morgan Stanley Real Estate Management,, JP AMP Capital Investors, Prudential Plc, Australian Prime Property Fund (APPF), Morgan Asset Management Real Estate Investment Management, DEXUS Property Group, Possfund and BT Pension Scheme, the Perron Group and Hermes Group. Knowledge Management (KM) has gained global acceptance as attested by the exceptional growth in activity and interest on knowledge management. Knowledge management cynics have had a pessimistic approach to knowledge management arguing that Knowledge Management is a management whim and vogue trend having no tangible organizational benefits. It is from such quarters that knowledge management is perceived as an effort by management consultants and Information Communication Technology vendors to exploit the ignorance of desperate organizations and sell knowledge savvy ‘solutions’. However, support for the appreciation of knowledge management is supported by the resource-based view (RBV), where knowledge is viewed as an essential organizational resource and amassing of resources is crucial in influencing organizational success in achieving and sustaining strategic competitive advantage by deploying valuable resources. Westfield Group deals with several types of assets such as land, labor, and entrepreneurship. However, the present dynamics and innovation in the organizational environment has favored knowledge economy, in this case, organizational knowledge is an asset, therefore it has to be managed to derive maximum benefits from it. Westfield Group has in several ways promoted organizational learning, knowledge management as a specialty has not received much consideration. An imperative consideration in knowledge management is the change of individual knowledge into organizational knowledge which can be shared throughout the organization, used for organizational benefit and owned by the organization. Considering that Westfield Group operates in several countries, offering diverse services, there is huge potential for information gathering from the employees, where solutions applied in one country or department can be effectively used to solve problems occurring in other sections of the group. The knowledge can therefore be used to attain competitive advantage. Objectives The aim of the knowledge management plan is to recommend informed strategies and technologies which can be appropriately applied to enhance organizational performance at Westfield group. This shall be realized through an array of several specific, measurable, achievable, and realistic and time bound objectives namely:- To distinguish and understand the vast amount of knowledge and skills accessible to the company, the sectors and diversity of countries where the company operates provides a rich mine of knowledge can be exploited to enhance the performance of individual employees. Enhanced organizational performance is realized through cumulative improvement of individual performances. To develop and progress open and seamless knowledge allotment between different sectors and countries of the company, regardless of the source of knowledge. The implementation of the knowledge management plan is envisioned to enable employees, regardless of their location or department to effectively collaborate and communicate, so as to foster informed decision making, which ultimately results to enhanced organizational performance. To harmonize knowledge acquisition, utilization and dissemination in the company with the organization’s strategic plan, to foster the realization and achievement of the company’s vision and mission. To support and advance knowledge as among the most important organizational assets, which can be managed like other assets and optimally exploited to gain competitive advantage. Westfield Group appreciates the value of capital Intellectual, which is founded on the insight that the authentic market value of the business consists not only of its physical and financial assets, but also includes intangible assets created via intellectual activities, such as valuable relationships, acquiring new knowledge and inventions. Westfield Group has different knowledge constructs which can be managed; knowledge management is based on the maximum utilization of the tacit and explicit knowledge in the company. This can be graphically represented as below Knowledge Management includes diverse strategies, activities and practices used by an organization in order to recognize, represent, dispense, generate, and facilitate adoption of insights and experiences. Current knowledge management position The company currently used several strategies such as expert yellow pages , competency frameworks, competence management, peer assistance, computer based training and push technologies. The above technologies have however faced several organizational challenges, hence failing to effectively deliver on knowledge management objectives. Competency frameworks have been implemented in the organization; this has provided several benefits such as linking organizational and individual objectives to ensure movement towards a common direction. The competency framework has also made appraisal and recruitment systems reasonable and agreeable to both the employees and the company. In addition, the competency frame work has also enabled Westfield to achieve organizational cohesiveness through breaking down traditional professional boundaries. In addition, the competency framework has been instrumental in attracting and retaining employees, when pegged on career progression and pay. The competency frame work has also encountered several challenges, which makes it inappropriate for use as a single knowledge management strategy. Competency frame work is lengthy and complicated, lacking clarity which has made the competency frame work implementers reluctant to use them. Moreover, challenges in internal communication suggests that the objectives and benefits of the competency frameworks are not fully realized unless the framework is developed with the full involvement of all the concerned staff, which results to extra workload, in deviation from the core organizational business. Peer assistance has also been used in the organization. Whereas this has several advantages in the transfer of knowledge from the experienced members of the organization to novices, this has faced a myriad of challenges, such as the fact that there is no structured approach to transferring knowledge, shy learners may take time to acquire requisite knowledge, the method is time consuming, demands both the learner and the teacher to be available at the same time, and it requires immense investment in human resource since knowledge depository cannot be created. Push strategy has also been used in the organization, where the company acquires a wide knowledge database and demands their employees to learn from the database. This strategy has also been ineffective since employees are compelled to learn, what may not be their interest. Merits of Knowledge Management The benefits of knowledge management strategies to Westfield groups shall be derived from Gary Cairn’s ‘Line of Sight’ Model Knowledge management strategies Several management strategies, stratagems and policies shall be adopted by the company to improve organizations performance. The strategies shall be centered on using Information Communication Technology driven strategies to gather information, organize information, refine store and disseminate information, these strategies can be graphically represented as: The technology driven strategies to be implemented at Westfield group shall focus on all the above dynamics, but shall essentially be foundend on knowledge capture. Westfield Group shall implement a wiki which is collection of web pages designed to enable all the company’s employees with the necessary access rights to contribute or modify knowledge from whatever geographical location or organizational section. The web based wiki shall be structured to enable organized knowledge dissemination depending on organizational demands. The wiki shall be utilizing user friendly graphical user interface. The implementation of wiki as a strategy shall support acquisition, storage and dissemination. This shall offer several advantages to the organization such as permitting simplified capturing and sharing of information, in addition the graphical nature of the user favors all categories of knowledge providers and consumers, with basic computer application skills. The wikis also results to better and faster real-time collaboration among employees, and as well reduce on the need to send several with the same content. Wikis can also be accessed by employees at their own convenient time, and can acquire knowledge necessary and satisfying their specific needs. The company can also implement portals which are comprehensive access structure to resources, which offers a unitary personalized interface point for accessing and consolidating information from incongruent departments and sectors of the company. The portal as a knowledge management strategy shall provide several advantages such as an integration tool, which offers simplified, incorporated and integrated access to the company’s knowledge resources. The portal also acts as an access tool to internal and external knowledge. The portal also acts as a communication tool which empowers individuals and teams to effectively share and discuss ideas and knowledge. The implementation of the strategy is justified by the several advantages, such as enhanced staff productivity, which is realized through decrease in duration to access information, offers management knowledge management tools, enhances effective decision making and fosters appreciation of knowledge as human capital with significant commercial value. The company can also adopt a knowledge based system strategy, in the case; the company shall deploy a computer system with programmed capacity to imitate human problem-solving ability through artificial intelligence and reference to a database of knowledge on all the sectors and services offered by the company. The knowledge base system shall require that experts in a given subject matter in the company contribute to knowledge database, which can then be accessed by all concerned employees, as and when needed. The strategy shall be implemented to offer several purposes such as fostering knowledge fostering and structuring, offering interface with Information Technology systems in the company and carrying out problem solving and decision making. This strategy is supported by several advantages associated with Knowledge base systems such as the fact that knowledge based systems can store expert knowledge for future utilization, can replace human expertise in some instances, has the potential of quickly assimilating and structuring information from other IT systems and can work faster than human expertise in some instances, Implementation Westfield Group shall implement the Knowledge management plan in phases. The entire organization shall be engaged in the implementation so as to appreciate the plan, and militate against any challenges that may arise, in the course of the plan implementation. The phased implementation shall entail several activities, represented below. Read More