Knowledge Management System - Telstra - Case Study Example

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT CASE STUDY Client Insert Name Client Insert Course Code Client Insert Professor’s Name Client Insert Due Date Table of Contents Abstract 3 1.Introduction 4 2.Background of the Case Study 4 2.1 Knowledge in Telstra 4 3.Methodology 6 4.Analysis 7 4.1 Knowledge Needs 10 4.2 Knowledge Actors 10 4.3 Knowledge Map 10 5.Conclusion 13 Bibliography 14 Abstract The concept of Knowledge management as defined by Cortada & Woods (1999) is very important to the growth of an organization and it is on this basis that this paper considers its importance to Telstra very critical as it would have prevented the safety concern about asbestos. This paper has presented the NBN case and the issues of knowledge management within Telstra. The central concept of the paper seeks to establish the critical role that knowledge management plays on organizational performance especially as regards retaining knowledge to ensure efficiency and effectiveness. In so doing, the paper uses Knowledge mapping is the key methodology to analyse the case as the methodology assists in giving an overview of the available and missing knowledge in the core business areas of Telstra and this will help the management to make appropriate knowledge management decisions. 1. Introduction The concept of knowledge management according to Cortada & Woods (1999) is normally used to indicate the management of the different values and needs of a company where it is understood in the confines of its sources, needs, and usage. By definition, Knowledge Management refers to the act of exploiting and harnessing intellectual capital with an aim of gaining customer commitment and competitive advantage through effective decision making, innovation, and efficiency (Cortada & Woods 1999). This concept is very critical to any organization as it provides a strategy that enables successful completion of a given task. The purpose of this report tries to analyse and examine the knowledge held by Telstra and NBN Companies in the attempt to try and determine best practices in its usage to ensure successful completion of the task identified by the NBN contractor. 2. Background of the Case Study In December 2012, NBN Operations were stopped because of server complaints with the way the asbestos fibers were being used. In this regard, Comcare conducted an investigation and identified that the problem occurred because of a case of Knowledge Management failure. Telstra dismissed their permanent technical staff, and they started outsourcing technical work by contracting small outside companies. As a result of the asbestos issue, Telstra stopped engaging in work dealing with the preparation of underground pits and pipes that were used in copper phone lines. In addition to this, Telstra hired 200 specialists to find out the breaches in asbestos management by Telstra contractors. After a number of cases about non-compliance with asbestos management and removal were identified, Telstra launched an audit of its contractors. The company has already admitted that handling of the asbestos was insufficient and did not abide by the requirements and procedures. 2.1 Knowledge in Telstra Knowledge and information are very important resources for organizations in the current business era in its business operations (Kalpič & Bernus, 2006, p. 40). Knowledge concerning a business situation helps in understanding the consequences of incoming data and information. As a result of this understanding, it is possible to take an action or ignore the situation. In this case study, there is an apparent case of failure in Knowledge Management which as is discussed hereafter, leads to different forms of failures on the part of the company. The discovery of asbestos in pits and pipes owned by the company is a result of lack of Knowledge about the issue within Telstra. This failure occurred when Telstra decided to get rid of its permanent technical staff in preference to outsourcing technical work by contracting small companies. The challenge of this abrupt change was the fact that in the prior arrangement, Telstra was assured that all its workers were well trained and properly equipped to deal with safety issues involved in handling of asbestos but such surety did not come with all the contracted workers in the new arrangement. In other words, the company had the necessary skills and knowledge, staffs, and resources to handle the asbestos work without any trouble but all this knowledge was gone with the dismissal of the permanent technical staff. The contractors are only interested in the profits, and their workers are not trained and no training is going on during their work, leading to the current problem. If Telstra had maintained its trained workers, nothing like the current problem would have been reported as the company had properly trained its workers to handle the asbestos. The process of accumulation of knowledge according to Ebeneret al. (2006) is a very critical issue for business developments both for the resources and time investment involved. One of the primary objectives of an organization in dealing with personnel capacity building is to ensure that they are well trained for the business they are to engage in so as to ensure quality and safety of the business that they engage in for their clients. It is therefore an incredible asset for an organization to ensure proper management of this knowledge and capacity within its staff so as to ensure effectiveness of its business operations (Ebener et al. 2006). At Telstra, a critical review of the case shows that there was a breakdown in the way knowledge was management as the process of outsourcing contractors did not incorporate within itself a management function to ensure qualification of the contractors used for the company’s projects. This is what eventually led to the substandard work seen in the handling of asbestos finishes. The situation in this case requires that there be an inbuilt system within the organization that ensures quality of the contractors used for the company’s operations. In this regard, Kalpič & Bernus (2006) argue that if Telstra decides to continue working with the contractors, then they have to ensure that the knowledge about handling asbestos is well distributing in all the workers (Kalpič & Bernus 2006). The source of the knowledge can be experts from Telstra Company or outsourced experts depending on the agreement between Telstra and the contractors. This is necessary to ensure that the company maintains its image within the society and establishes itself as a credible company based on the quality of the services it provides to its clients. The knowledge and expertise lost through the company’s lay-off strategy does not necessarily have to affect the quality of its products and services as other remedial strategies can be used to compensate the knowledge lost in that process (Kalpič & Bernus 2006). 3. Methodology Conducting knowledge management effectively in any organization requires support from a wide range of tools, techniques and methods, especially knowledge engineering technology which improves knowledge management (Wickramasinghe & Gupta, 2005, p. 7). The methodology used to analyze the case scenario is knowledge mapping. The reason why knowledge mapping will be used in this case is because it will help in creating a high-level knowledge model in a graphic form. According to Mitja (2011) knowledge mapping assists in giving an overview of the available and missing knowledge in the core business areas of Telstra, and this will help the management to make appropriate knowledge management decisions (Mitja 2011). Knowledge mapping uses two approaches to represent the knowledge of an organization. In the first approach, the knowledge resources and assets are mapped and indicate what knowledge is available in the organization and where it can be obtained. The second approach is mainly concerned with knowledge flow and indicates how the knowledge flows within the organization from where it is to where it is required (Kalpič & Bernus 2006). The second approach will provide the critical analysis required for this case. (Mitja 2011) further indicates that knowledge mapping is relevant for the analysis of such cases is that the method helps in identifying gaps in the knowledge of an organization and areas of improvement (Wexler 2001). It indicates where individuals need to direct their attention in the knowledge management initiatives so as to get knowledge flowing from where it is to where it is required. 4. Analysis The problem with Tesltra’s management of information has affected its operation regarding the quality of services and products that the company deals in. Its greatest failure is in the complete lack of strategy to ensure retention of knowledge within the workforce that ensures continuity of the quality services that the company provides for its clients. Through its lay-off strategy that the company used to relieve part of its personnel, it did not have a concrete strategy of ensuring that the knowledge base previously contained within the organization through the expertise of its personnel was maintained in regards to the contractors that it outsourced to deal with asbestos products (Dalkir 2011). As mentioned earlier, the second approach of knowledge mapping is applied in analysing the knowledge needs of the case scenario. This can be illustrated using the figure shown below in Figure 1. Different models or processes may be adapted to conduct planning and strategy in knowledge management effectively. In this model, knowledge flow is determined by three key attributes which require good understanding: the source of knowledge, the way the knowledge is management and the intended target of the knowledge. In the Telstra case, the management failed to clearly understand how these three attributes affect knowledge flow which resulted in the failures in its whole Knowledge management system (Wickramasinghe & Gupta 2005). The laying off of staff without a proper strategy of retaining the knowledge lost through the process was the key factor that led to the dip in the quality of the services the company provided for its clients. In addition to this, there was a failure in the criteria of authenticating and verifying the expertise of the contractors hired which did little to help with the situation. In the end, the whole flow of knowledge in the company failed through improper institution and appropriation. Figure 1: Second Approach of Knowledge Mapping Source: (Wickramasinghe & Gupta 2005, p. 34) The Knowledge Wheel Model can also be used to help understand the situation at Telstra as regards its management of Knowledge and its subsequent influence on its business operations as shown in Figure 2. The outer part of the wheel presents the process of controlling, actuating and planning knowledge manipulation. The inner wheel presents the knowledge manipulation process. Planning refers to the process of developing objectives and identifying how to achieve them (Schermerhorn, 2010). The first thing to do in the planning process is to analyse the current knowledge. Getting and representing knowledge from individuals and organization are the basic building blocks of knowledge management (Mitja, 2011). A knowledge map needs to be generated in order to identify the current knowledge in a structured way. Strategies refer to ways that help in achieving the present and future knowledge requirements goals. An organization has to identify the requirements of knowledge, which are supposed to be obtained from its tactical and strategic business plan. To begin actuating, employees should be hired, led, communicated with, and motivated. Managing knowledge has become the art of management. In this regard, Telstra did not demonstrate appropriate capacity of managing the knowledge carried by their employees instead of the people per se as this was evidentially not maintained with the new contractors hired. In this regard, Schermerhorn (2010) argues that control assures that the actuation is in accordance with the plan (Schermerhorn 2010). Figure 2: Knowledge Wheel Source: (Mitja, 2011, p. 65) 4.1 Knowledge Needs The Knowledge needs in this case study as far as Telstra organization is concerned include the following: How the presence of exposed asbestos on organization’s underground pits and pipes would affect its operating integrity Technical experience of dismissed workers How to handle harmful effects of exposed asbestos General hazards related to handling asbestos Impacts from organisational change Lack of appropriate knowledge and skills on the contractors’ side Institutional rivalry between Telstra and NBN Co Lack of appropriate supervision 4.2 Knowledge Actors The knowledge actors in this case study are the following: Telstra management Contractors Contractors’ workers Work instructions and manuals Technical reviews and documentation Government Telstra and contractors supervisors 4.3 Knowledge Map As mentioned earlier, knowledge mapping helps in creating a high-level knowledge model in a graphic form. In other words, knowledge mapping refers to the process of developing a knowledge map. A knowledge map can be described as an association of visual information items, in which the association creates new, actionable information (Ebener, et al., 2006). The process of developing a knowledge map involves the following steps: acquiring data, manipulating data, storing data, processing data, and visualizing data (Ebener, et al., 2006). An idealized general knowledge mapping process is as shown in the figure 3below: Figure 3: Idealized Knowledge Mapping Process Source: (Cortada & Woods, 1999, p. 249) A knowledge map for the Telstra case will contain two main contents: intellectual capital guide and accountability tree. The intellectual capital guide is concerned with displaying where the organization's knowledge is embedded and likely to grow, whereas the accountability tree is concerned with locating who is responsible for what and when (Wexler, 2001). The knowledge map of the Telstra asbestos case is as shown in the figure 4below: Figure 4: NBN Case Study Knowledge Map Source: (Wexler 2001, p. 250) The company seems not to follow it workplace training policies or there appear that the company does not have them. There were no workplace safety programs. Compliance with training policies was also non-existent. Training at Telstra, after they dismissed their well-trained workers, was inadequate. The contractors' workers should have been trained on procedures for handling asbestos. The knowledge was there because previous workers of Telstra handled asbestos problems very well, and no complaints were reported, and thus, knowledge was available. Nonetheless, this knowledge did not reach the workers as the contractors and Telstra seem not to care about it. Even though the Telstra management knew they had trained their previous workers on how to handle asbestos, it is strange that they did not bother to supervise whether their contractors had relevant knowledge. Training should not only be for workers, supervisors and management from both sides (Telstra and Contractors) should also be trained. Once the top management and supervisors acquire the knowledge, it is the responsibility of the supervisors and managers to organize training for their juniors. The training should include manuals and work instructions that should be carried out during on-site training. All the trained individuals should be provided with Achievement certificate. This was not happening in Telstra. Training for all the actors and stakeholders should be continuous. It should involve onsite training and formal training that will ensure knowledge flows within the organization. Formal training should be rewarded by awarding certificates. The dismissed workers had a lot of tacit knowledge as they had dealt with asbestos for quite some time without any complaint from the public or anyone else for that matter. This type of knowledge was not documented, and it disappeared with them when they were dismissed. The management at Telstra should have ensured that this knowledge is documented, and it is shared with their contractors. The government, on the other hand, has the responsibility for ensuring that the organization follows strict training guidelines. It should have standards and requirements for training employees as a condition of obtaining a licence to work in the asbestos site. The government body dealing with the regulation of asbestos usage has a responsibility of setting training standards. Knowing the danger of asbestos, the government should also hold workplace Health and Safety conferences or seminars. Organizations dealing with the issue should be invited to attend. 5. Conclusion It is important to share knowledge inside and outside the organization in order to attain success and measurable outcomes. Knowledge can be obtained from many sources provided they all provide reliable knowledge. It is the responsibility of the top management to make sure that they have the proper knowledge. This is because management will be ineffective with the proper knowledge and leadership will be faced with many challenges, just like what is happening with Telstra. One thing that is clear, in this case, is that there was no effective leadership at Telstra and still on the side of contractors. Training never occurred after they dismissed their previous workers, and they did not supervise site operations. Safety policies were non-existent and industry knowledge was not available. Bibliography Cortada, J. W. & Woods, J. A., 1999. The knowledge management yearbook 1999-2000. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Dalkir, K. 2011. Knowledge management in theory and practice. 2nd Ed, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. Ebener, S. et al., 2006. Knowledge mapping as a technique to support knowledge translation. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 84(8), pp. 636-642. Kalpič, B. & Bernus, P., 2006. Business process modeling through the knowledge management perspective. Journal of Knowledge Management, 10(3), pp. 40-56. Mitja, T., 2011. The knowledge management wheel. Koper, Slovenia, University of Primorska. Schermerhorn, J. R., 2010. Management. 11th ed. Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons. Wexler, M., 2001. The who, what and why of knowledge mapping. Journal of Knowledge Management, 5(3), pp. 249-263. Wickramasinghe, N. W. & Gupta, J. N. D., 2005. Creating knowledge-based healthcare organizations. Calgary: Idea Group Inc (IGI). Read More