The knowledge environment in Manic Marketers

Discuss about the Knowledge Management Principles.

The purpose of the report is to throw light on the knowledge characteristics as well as principles, which may help in enhancing the businesses. The knowledge management system innovations help in influencing the success of any business. There is a growing recognition of the knowledge management and how it relies on the social capital for establishing an effective cultural context. Organizations need to pay attention to people, processes, planning, products as well as performances in order to ensure a strategic knowledge management within the workplace (Donate and de Pablo 2015). The report will highlight the knowledge characteristics of a company named Manic Marketers and how its features are being portrayed. In addition to this, it will discuss about certain functionalities of the mentor within the organization. Lastly, the report will recommend some strategies and identify the way it can be implemented within the organizational setting for its betterment.

The initial interview as well as orientation presented a very strong message regarding the knowledge environment operating at the Manic Marketers. It is evident from the fact when a comprehensive portfolio was being provided to a new candidate, named Damon. The detailed interview procedure outlined the technological systems, positive as well as inclusive culture and moreover, the focus on knowledge management systems of the organization. The whole interview process was quite positive and Damon gained an understanding regarding the company’s policies as well as procedures. In addition to this, Damon was quite enthusiastic regarding the feedback sharing procedures, long term relations and others.

Damon instantly accepted the job and was ready for the orientation program. The orientation program also went well as it clearly stated the organizational mission, vision, goals and objectives. Moreover, the supervisor mentioned that everything is shared and documented within the organization and thus, the employees can access corporate knowledge very easily. There was a one to one knowledge sharing session as well, which continued for a week. Damon was introduced to several systems like house records management systems, financial systems, library as well as knowledge objects’ collection, human resource processes and records management systems. His guide assured him that all these systems can be easily navigated. In addition to this, Damon was allowed to take some time on working through the systems as well as the company’s official website, for understanding their working procedures.

However, this differed from the reality to some extent. The knowledge workers possess various forms of organizational knowledge, which are being discussed in this part of the report. The knowledge workers in the real world need to understand the characteristics, usefulness and features of various sources, systems or processes that may be found within the organization (Heisig et al. 2016). Taking the case study of Damon, it took him some time to get into the organization’s operations. Moreover, the knowledge workers need to have knowledge regarding the identification of various people, organizational units, groups that can act as the knowledge sources (Barnes and Milton 2015). However, Damon was successful in that as he was able to identify a person named Baby Garabaldon, whose information was missing from the company’s file. In addition to this, in real life knowledge workers are required to carry out complex tasks including analytical as well as reflective strategies, like testing, researching, innovating and developing. Moreover, they should have the abilities of reviewing and evaluating options in order to identify a proper solution to the issues, faced within the workplace setting (Becerra-Fernandez and Sabherwal 2014).

Knowledge workers in the real world

A mentor is responsible for performing different activities within the organization. A novice in the organization needs to work under a mentor for gaining valuable experience. The interaction between the mentor and mentee will be helpful for both in achieving their career objectives. According to Seibert et al. (2017) the role of a mentor is outlined below:

• The mentor acts as an advisor and coach to provide guidance and feedback to the mentees. He shares his own experience so that the mentees do not repeat similar kinds of mistakes. In the case of Manic marketers, the new employee Damon had approached his mentor and co- workers, when he was clueless about his work and previous records. However, none of them came to his help and each of them felt threatened by his entry into the company. He tried to take help from a telephone call but the respondent was unable to help him with his queries. Damon started feeling restless and had no idea about whom to approach for enquiry.
• In general, the role of a mentor is to help the mentees understand the working of the organization and guide them when things go unplanned. It was on the contrary to the instance at the Manic marketers. When Damon was feeling clueless regarding BG and left none to ask about him, everyone denied help. This is not how a mentor should act in a situation (Shillingstad 2015).
• A mentor should help the mentee from the first day to be acquainted with the resources, which will help them in personal growth and development. The mentors recommend books, article, workshops and other learning tools and give them a brief idea about whom to approach in different kinds of situation. None of these criteria was followed in the case of Damon at the Manic marketers. Wherever he went for help, he faced rejection and denial (Mitchell, Eby and Ragins 2015).

Therefore, it can be recommended that, this company should focus on proper knowledge management. They have previous record of making the client angry due to the gap in knowledge sharing. At present, they should fix strategies to help the mentees move out their comfort zones by interacting with them freely. It should be the role of the mentor to provide them with the necessary resources of the company so that the new employee can get everything handy and need not search in the dark.

From the case study of Manic marketers, it was understood that client data is a major source of information for proper functioning of the organization. According to ( ), there are different types of information such as instructions, prediction, historical, command, answers and advisory. Among these categories, the prominent ones that need to be included in the organization are instructions, answers and advisory. These three types of information will be helpful in proper knowledge sharing within the organization. The knowledge workers of the company will be able to achieve different types of organizational knowledge by implementing the same (Wilensky 2015).

Other types of organizational knowledge, which would be effective for Damon in the initial stages are- knowing about the ‘who, what, why, where, how, if, when’. The forms of organizational knowledge are detailed below:

• What: knowing about the knowledge features, characteristics and effectiveness of different sources in the organization
• Who: knowing and being acquainted with the identity and image of people as individual or in groups who can be an important source of knowledge
• How: it refers to the implication of knowledge for conducting critical activities in the organization by analytical and reflective means such as test, research, development and innovation (Rowley and Hartley 2017)
• Why: it is the potential to review and analyse the available options and choose an appropriate one
• Where: the potential to recognize and analyse the knowledge sources for proper accessibility
• When: it is the implementation of process and strategies to create balance among the activities carried out in the organization, demands of the consumers and the necessities of different projects
• If: it refers to the power to assume further possibilities and plan accordingly as per the scenario so that it can be tested and checked before final implementation (Dixon 2017)

Therefore, it can be recommended that the team of Manic marketers need to analyse different forms of organizational knowledge and practice them accordingly. It will help them in bridging the gap in the process of knowledge management. In future, the new employees will not have to face similar kind of issues as experienced by Damon.

According to, García et al., (2015) social Capital can be defined as the types of relations that exist between the different individuals and the relationship that exerts a strong bond over the levels of different professional achievements. The view of linking the relationships within the different families and communities as a determinant of the social capital by the identification of the different achievements as strong if on the other hand the relationships are equally strong enough. A lot of negative effects may have a solid influence on the social capital. The most prominent among them is the exclusion of the person or a group from the community. It is often seen that if a particular person or a group fails to reciprocate the ideas and beliefs of a larger and stronger group he or the group may face a social exclusion which leads to a tremendous negative factor. There are groups that are treated with hatred and exclusion from the community which make them prone to the negativities of Social Capital. The social capital can also be used for other wrong purposes which include the likes of taking undue advantage of someone or some group on their expense. This is done mainly for the purpose of profit on the expense of someone’s professional or personal life. The social capital is also criticised over some other reasons (García et al. 2015). It is often compared to a concept that is based on misleading metaphor.  The different economists who have researched on the following term explains that social capital lacks the three basic elements of capital namely an intended sacrifice for deferred benefit, alienability and an extension in time (Chang and Lin 2015). Thus the economists conclude that social capital can be in no way compared to a form of capital.

The role of a mentor

In the following case study the person named Damon who took a job at Manic Marketers was a victim of the negative effects of social capital. The mentioned person was unable to get quality help from the others in the organization so that he could progress with a new project. The lack of help from the other colleagues and the absence of any data made Damon feel helpless and made it hard for him to continue with the project.  The analysis of the particular study has revealed the social capital factors and the different kinds of other analysis results that is being followed in the company. Some of them are;

1. New staffs are recruited on the basis of their knowledge management skills. However the management of manic marketers have failed to develop their own skills in knowledge management as they are unable to disseminate the earlier information or the files to the new workers.
2. The key experts in the organization are not easily identified within the organization which makes it tough for the new workers to find the ideal channel for communication thus making it tough for them to settle ion the company.
3. The social climate is not trusted enough as because it was seen that the old employees of the organization failed to help Damon to identify the person called BG. He identified him by searching different types of the organization records and using his own knowledge management expertise.

Thus it can be said that the organization can be provided a rating anything in between 0 to 5 to show the low social capital, and individualistic culture followed there.

Knowledge sharing system supports the process through which explicit or tactic knowledge is communicated to the different individuals. The knowledge can be sharing system can be segregated according to the attributes of the knowledge. They are as follows;

1. Incident Report databases- This is used to determine the information related to the incidents or malfunctions. Incident reports typically describe the incident. Together with different explanations of the following incident. However this might not suggest any type of recommendations.
2. Best Practices Databases-The best practice databases describes the successful efforts typically from the reengineering or business processes that can be applicable to the organizational processes (Albers et al. 2015).
3. Lessons learned Systems- The lessons learned systems are used to capture and provide different lessons that can be benefits for the employees who encounter different situations and are able to make the most of the business situation.

Manic Marketers must use any of the three mentioned strategies to make sure that the knowledge is passed on in a continuous flow from one person to the other and from one department to the other to ensure a proper organizational structure.

Conclusion

The following report highlights the importance of knowledge management and the implementation of the right set of knowledge management strategies that enables the business to make the most of the knowledge management strategies. The analysis of the provided case study is an additional profit for the readers as because the analysis has provided the different concepts and elements that form a part of the knowledge management. The report has been able to meet the pre fixed aims and objectives set by the formulator.

References

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