Knowledge Management Plan For Kamuga Sportswear Inc. Essay Help Free

Introduction

In today's competitive environment, firms are changing their reliance from tangible to intangible assets. For businesses to remain competitive, innovation must now be ongoing. This is the only way for organizations to distinguish themselves from competitors. Innovation is impossible until an organization manages its information base. Organizations must change their business strategies and organizational structure in order to manage their organizational knowledge base (Collison & Parcell, 2001). In addition, a company must devise methods for maximizing the potential of its diverse people resources. In addition, it has been discovered that ensuring that all organizational departments collaborate towards the achievement of organizational goals increases an organization's competitive edge. This can only be accomplished if a business has the necessary systems in place to guarantee that knowledge is shared across all divisions.

Employees who share their expertise and experiences across the organization can help a business outperform its competitors in the marketplace. The organizational management team can support this by developing a plan for managing knowledge. In this context, "knowledge management" refers to the process of employing organizational joint expertise, exchanging organizational information, staff skills, and facts to guarantee that an organization provides high-quality products or services and satisfies the needs of all its stakeholders (Davenport, De Long & Beers 1998).

Knowledge management is proving to be the only means for firms to withstand the current global commercial competition. There is a need for every company organization, both domestic and foreign, to develop a knowledge management plan that will enable them to maximize the potential of their people resources and accessible technology (Daveau 2000). In this regard, the purpose of this study is to develop a knowledge management plan for Kamuga Sportswear Inc., a multinational sportswear manufacturer and retailer.

Problems confronting the company

Kamuga Sporting Inc. is a worldwide company that produces and sells a variety of sportswear items. The company has 80 international locations. The company's objective is to be the market leader in the sportswear business. This is accomplished not by controlling the business, but by developing high-quality products that suit all the needs of athletes and boosting the industry's profitability. As an international corporation, Kamuga Sportswear Inc. has attracted a diversified workforce and leverages technology to aid in corporate administration. Through the use of technology, the company ensures that all of its branches have uniform operations.

Despite this, the corporation faces various obstacles in its efforts to manage its knowledge base. The organization has not been able to effectively utilize its diversified human resources. This has hindered its ability to develop new products. The company's practice of separating its personnel depending on employees' backgrounds is its greatest weakness. There is no cultural autonomy in the organization because all employees must adhere to predetermined operating procedures. This makes it difficult for the company's different people resources to maximize their potential, inhibiting the development of new innovations.

In addition to failing to capitalize on the potential of its diverse workforce, Kamuga Sportswear Inc. has a subpar reward structure that inhibits employees from sharing their knowledge and skills. Typically, an incentive system is designed to encourage employee commitment to organizational objectives. Those who demonstrate dedication are rewarded, inspiring others to work harder. The company Kamuga Sportswear Inc. has a system that rewards its employees for their hard work. Despite the fact that the system encourages people to work more, it has hindered a culture of knowledge and experience sharing. No one in the firm is willing to share their knowledge because it would be utilized for others' benefit at their expense. This has made it difficult for the corporation to come up with new breakthroughs, as individuals with fresh ideas hold back because they believe they must share the benefits of their innovations with other employees.

When it comes to enhancing organizational performance, technology plays a crucial role. Through the use of technology, a business is able to detect existing innovations as well as develop its own, allowing it to remain competitive. In addition, organizations utilize technology to communicate information about how to improve performance. However, Kamuga Sportswear Inc.'s operations have not benefited significantly from the implementation of technology. Instead of allowing its multiple branches to use the technology to make sporty apparel that meets the needs of its respective target markets, the corporation has developed a standardized method of operations and apparel production that is shared by all of its branches. This has inhibited cultural autonomy inside the corporation, making it difficult for the various branches to successfully harness the potentials of their human resources and completely exploit the target market in their respective nations.

The company hires its employees with the assistance of a staffing agency. The agency is responsible for hiring and training employees for Kamuga Sportswear Inc., who are then assigned to various company departments. Sometimes, when deployed employees arrive at the organization, they find a completely different environment. The organization has undergone significant transformation without upgrading its recruiting agency. Therefore, the agency utilizes training manuals that were supplied to it a decade ago. The corporation has automated the majority of its operations and developed new methods for producing its products. Therefore, the organization organizes on-the-job training to equip new hires with the necessary skills to work in their respective fields of expertise.

Recommendations on knowledge management for the company

In order to solve the highlighted difficulties facing the organization, the management team must develop effective processes for managing its knowledge base. The team must form a knowledge management committee that will be responsible for developing a feasible implementation plan (Nonak & Takeuchi 1995). Working together with the management team of the organization, the committee should develop a structure that will assist it in developing knowledge management efforts. The committee is tasked with developing a knowledge management framework that encompasses all factors that assist an organization's value addition (Zack 1999). These are individuals, processes, and technologies. The framework should allow for both the generation of original knowledge and the dissemination of introduced and existing knowledge.

Vision of Kamuga Sportswear Inc. is to be the leader in the sportswear sector. This cannot be accomplished unless all personnel within the organization possess the knowledge necessary for the manufacturing and delivery of excellent products. In developing its framework, the committee should consider some of the means through which the organization might realize its objective. It must investigate some of the potential opportunities for generating new knowledge. This does not suggest that the company lacks knowledge. In addition to searching for new knowledge, the committee must also search for ways to leverage its existing expertise in order to increase the company's competitiveness.

Currently, sports are more of a business than a pastime. People profit immensely by participating in various sports. This means that the demand for athletic apparel will increase over time. Additionally, additional sports will be discovered. For sportswear firms to be competitive, they must devise production techniques that enable them to create apparel that is not only of great quality but also pleasant for its customers. Due to the fact that nearly every geographical region has a preferred sport, it will be necessary for corporations to create sportswear items that cater to the many geographical locales. Therefore, Kamuga Sportswear Inc. should utilize its diversified workforce, technology, employment agency, and reward system to equip its staff with the necessary knowledge.

Managing heterogeneity

Any organization's future growth depends on its capacity to capitalize on the knowledge and skills of its diverse personnel. A varied workforce provides a reservoir of abilities and innovations. One of the primary reasons why firms fail to successfully leverage the potential of a diverse workforce is their propensity to stereotype employees (Tounkara 2009). The workforce is categorized by background. The identical situation pertains to Kamuga Sportswear Inc. The corporation has assigned its employees to different divisions depending on their diversity profiles. This company's managers employ ethnocentric ideals in their management. They feel that the company's established operational methods are the finest and are unwilling to accept outside operational innovations. Consequently, the organization lacks cultural autonomy. The management is adamant on adopting these procedures despite the existence of a variety of operational techniques that would enable the individual branches improve their competitive advantage based on their location.

For the organization to effectively manage the expertise and experience of its varied staff, it must first train its managers on techniques for strengthening and encouraging workplace diversity. "Think global, act local" must be implemented by managers in order to increase corporate competitive advantage (The Knowledge Company 2005). In spite of the company's expertise in the sportswear sector, managers in the various branches must consider the local demands of their clients when designing and marketing items.

It is difficult to make a clear difference between workplace diversity categories. Instead than separating individuals depending on their backgrounds, Kamuga Sportswear Inc. should ensure diversity at all operational levels. Through this, the management team and employees will share expertise on organizational operations-related matters. For instance, by ensuring that the sales crew is diverse, the company will successfully collect market data and be able to develop items that satisfy customer demands. In addition, the corporation should move from adopting ethnocentric to geocentric philosophies. This will allow employees to contribute their different skill sets to the enhancement of organizational operations.

With enterprises changing from exploitation of tangible assets to a knowledge-based economy, Kamuga Sportswear Inc. must arrange its employees strategically based on their knowledge and experience (Davenport & Prusak 1998). Different employees may have expertise in distinct domains, depending on their respective backgrounds. Therefore, the corporation should identify the skills of its numerous employees and place them in the most pertinent domains (Donoghue, Harris & Weitzman 2010). In addition, the organization should implement a work rotation culture. This will aid in equipping its staff with abilities in various operational areas, hence reducing the costs involved with hiring new personnel for each specialized field.

Rewarding system

Rewarding systems are utilized to motivate personnel and cultivate organizational commitment. Different organizations have distinct incentive structures. Occasionally, an incentive system may hinder or promote the improvement of organizational performance. For instance, Kamuga Sportswear Inc.'s reward system has not assisted company in achieving its goals. The company's reward system encourages employees to be compensated depending on their performance. This has utterly discouraged teamwork in the organization, as every person strives to have his or her own contribution recognized and rewarded. Therefore, employees are reluctant to share their knowledge for fear that others would use the opportunity to outperform them and be rewarded at their expense. The organization must ensure that all employees trust one another in order for them to collaborate towards a common goal. Given the current level of individualism inside the organization, it is difficult to efficiently manage and distribute the employees' expertise.

It is essential that the management team of the organization grasp the causes of the challenges that impede information sharing. The current reward structure is the greatest impediment to information sharing. To ensure that employees freely share their expertise without worry that some would benefit at the expense of others, the business must devise a reward structure that is advantageous to all employees (Ramalingam 2005). Instead of compensating individuals based on their individual successes, the company should implement a gain-sharing model that ensures all employees are paid if the company performs well. This will make it difficult for employees to determine their contribution level, so diminishing individualism and fostering teamwork.

Technology

Virtually every firm is currently integrating technology into its management and operations. This aids in reducing operating expenses and improving organizational effectiveness. However, the technology must be adaptable to accommodate forthcoming changes in the organization (Hahn & Suramani 2000). Despite employing cutting-edge technology to operate its business, Kamuga Sportswear Inc. has not reaped the full benefits of the technology since it has stifled creativity within the company. This technology has prompted administrators of many divisions to employ ethnocentric principles in their day-to-day operations. The company has standardized its operational procedures, which are adhered to by all of its branches. Therefore, personnel with alternative manufacturing skills for sports products that match the needs of local markets have been discouraged from sharing their expertise. Following the stated procedures has occasionally resulted in the manufacture of sportswear that is not in high demand.

In addition to adopting a technology that is universal across all of its global branches, the corporation must also make the technology adaptable. It should allow for modifications in areas that particular branches see necessary to improve performance. Every geographic region has a preferred sport. Consequently, the company's various sporting items are not equally in demand in all regions. Knowledge management will be facilitated by allowing techniques for making and marketing sportswear on different markets to be modified. For example, the sales staff in a particular region will undertake a detailed market analysis to determine the tastes and preferences of potential customers. This information can then be relayed to producers, ensuring that they produce goods that fit the specified taste and desire (Hall 2001). The current situation discourages innovation since even after identifying customers’ preferences; it is difficult to change the established operational procedures.

The company needs to ensure that its system of operations is designed in a way that different departments within a branch will share information on matters affecting their operations without

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