Snapshot Industries Case Study
Case Study Questions:
1. Why did the expert see the problem as one linked to ‘Knowledge Management (KM)’?
Knowledge management within the organization encompasses the creation of the new knowledge, and then shares this knowledge among the employees and finally storing it (Han, Kim, & Lee, 2013, p. 45). For the case of Snapshot Industries under the new leadership of Jim, the old employees who had worked under the Sam leadership were not willing to share the important knowledge that could be used in the production processes. The knowledge itself had been stored in the memories of these employees making it difficult to be retrieved whenever it was required. This led to a situation whereby new employees were not given the right knowledge at the right time and hence the emergence of this knowledge gap within the organization under the leadership of Jim (Han, Kim, & Lee, 2013. p. 36).
Another significant factor that contributed to the emergence of this knowledge gap is the nature of the organization culture which was not collaborative at all. For instance, newly hired employees felt that it was difficult for them to integrate with the new employees a situation that made them consider themselves as alien to the organization who could not be given the important information to enable them to perform effectively in a manner that could contribute to the highest level of organization performance. This organization culture was attributed to the highest number of employee’s resignation.
With all the above cases, consultant expert could not comment anything else other than knowledge management in the organization, and therefore these are the reasons that prompted him to link the problem to the Knowledge Management.
2. Identify the types of knowledge which can be found in Snapshot Industries. Consider which elements are strategic knowledge.
3. Why were the resignations and retirements a problem? What could be done about this?
4. Identify the reasons for the consultant’s concern over leadership. How has Jim’s leadership affected the business? Can you see some ways in which Jim could improve his practices?
5. In your opinion, which areas most need to reflect knowledge management principles? Why?
6. Do you think that KM is a strategy in this case? Why or why not?
7. Could KM solve all the problems of Snapshot? Why or why not?