SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 10 & 11
CHAPTER 10: SUSTAINING EFFECTIVE COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE
Why the topic matters?
In a knowledge based organization the likeminded professionals communicate and interact with each other. This generates value and expands the knowledge for others. In certain organizations the structure, hierarchy and functions may act as barriers where the information can flow very effectively within a limited circle but it may fail to penetrate outside the boundaries of that circle. Within the organizations the people with same interests find ways of communicating with each other through the use of technological devices or by forming informal gathering and communicating face to face around the water coolers. Communities are a good form of improving collaboration and knowledge sharing within organizations. Effective communities enhance the organizations overall intellectual performance and aim directly towards improving human capital, social capital, structural capital and relationship capital. Within organizations the managers play a very important role in amplifying, enabling and supporting communal interaction but this act mainly relies on voluntary interactive capabilities of the individuals (Winkelen & McKenzie, 2011).
What the topic means for the organization?
Knowledge flow enhances when the individuals work without confusion, internal conflicts and unproductive stress. The individuals participate in organizational communities for enhancing intellect and developing expertise in a particular field. This develops the workforce emotionally which is attained by helping others and emphasizes as a means of creating ends. Effective communities are utilized by the organizations for delivering values and motivating participation from others. The practices which organizations may adapt vary on the basis of culture. Organizations which operate in process oriented setup, organizations seeking organizational growth and organizations which seek being innovative prefer interactive attitude and promote interaction amongst the employees for attaining organizational growth. The organizations promote knowledge sharing for enhancing the productivity and innovation of the workforce.
What goes into creating an action plan for the topic?
The organizations emphasize on two aspects which include enabling and sustaining effective communities for the long term. The factors which are targeted are environment, behavior, skills and abilities, beliefs and values and identity of the employees. Providing support to the organizations by appropriate processes and technologies enhances the capabilities of the group environmentally. The behavior of the employees becomes positive and it encourages trust and openness. Skills and abilities of the employees are polished when specific roles are offered to the trained people. The beliefs and values are that a clear purpose and organizational support is offered to the community. Identity of the community is essential for delivering goals of the communities.
Setting up communities which are resilient to change which are essential for the organizations include the following,
- Concentrating on areas which are significantly important for delivering values and will make a prominent difference on organizational performance.
- Find stability in organizational functions like brand reputation, operational effectiveness and customer satisfaction and invest time and other resources accordingly.
- It is suggested that the organizations stay close to the external customers and measures for creating value are taken for introducing quick and efficient response from the teams participating.
- Design strategies which are pre dominant to the business. Take initiatives of introducing reinforcing cycles which enhance commitment and performance of the organization.
- Highlight the role of communities which have the potential of contributing and enhancing the organizational performance. Providing feedback and collaborating the use of technology can motivate the communities. The communities must be encouraged to communicate in open groups rather than in a closed working environment is important for promoting activities in the public arena.
- Coach key players of the communities for making them useful in adverse situations and allow communities to become self sustaining.
- Timing is important and roles must be allotted in a significant manner.
- Resilience for the unexpected is very important. It is not necessarily applicable that all the goals of the organization are significantly applicable in the long run.
How can the topic be applied to your team's assigned organization?
Application of this situation is essential for Monsanto. This is because the organization requires dealing with diversified situations. Promoting intellectual capital and enforcing proper usage of human capital, social capital, structural capital and relationship capital will enhance overall productivity of the organization. Catering the varying requirements requires that the organization must utilize the workforce efficiently and it must reduce the barriers of communication which brings up differing ideas which contribute towards the performance of the organization.
CHAPTER 11: LEARNING FROM EXTERNAL COLLABORATION
Why the topic matters?
Learning outcomes which cannot be acquired internally and require external collaboration for learning are called external collaboration. Organizations require a wider range of learning abilities which internal activities can generate. Innovation requires acquiring new knowledge for creating a new perspective for shaping solutions. The learning collaboration approach is essential for overcoming difficult challenges. Working for a purpose, building trust and joining likeminded people together enhance the overall learning outcome that is derived. A learning collaboration is formed when people from different and complex environments work together on shared projects and share learning which has been acquired (Winkelen & McKenzie, 2011).
What the topic means for the organization?
The overall organizational learning is a process which takes place at different interactive levels. This process takes place between individuals, access groups and organizations. Managing and influencing feedback is an essential component of learning. Three organizational aspects for promoting external learning include analyzing and making sense, knowledge transfer capability and motivation towards learning. Only few organizations succeed in accomplishing these objectives of knowledge sharing and this makes formation of a strategic approach essential for the organizations. It is essential that the organizations impose personal thinking and make effective use for accomplishing all the organizational goals and objectives. The organization where collaboration is ineffective requires facilitating and implementing processes which initiate this process.
What goes into creating an action plan for the topic?
There three effective steps which play a vital role in enhancing organizational participation. This increases the participation in a learning collaboration of the organization.
- Identifying the purpose of collaboration: Time, effort and commitment of the employs are essential for forming values and clearly discuss the outcomes which are essential for determining the outcomes of the customers. This determines allocation of resources which the organization needs for communicating the objectives of the organization. Collaboration improves the chances of accomplishment of these goals and targets. The outcomes of these measures include accomplishing the desired outputs, enhancing business reputation, forming a meaningful relationship, solving operational discrepancies, improving capabilities of organizations and individuals are part of enhancing the valued outcomes of the employees.
- Individuals representing the organization: Knowledge sharing behavior enhances the competency of the employees which can be observed in networking, empowerment, consideration, sharing information, developing knowledge and applying expertise in accomplishing the appropriate tasks which contributes eventually on the performance of the organization. Developing an additional consideration attitude of the employees can contribute in enhancing commitment, skills and open mindedness of the employees.
- Managing the dynamics of collaboration: Managing collaboration is essential for encouraging a trusting relationship. This supports learning and addressing complex issues which require being addressed. The system and processes which are initiated through collaboration enhance the opportunities and improve the social ties. For managing the inter-organizational dynamics it is essential that the systems and the processes must be properly defined. Social ties need to be acknowledged and this further contributes in building a relationship based on trust. The aspect of power must be eliminated from the collaborative relationship.
For ensuring a relationship based on success involves collaboration and avoids complacency. This emphasizes on the partnership role of the organization shows the measures which are essential to be managed during external collaboration.
How can the topic be applied to your team's assigned organization?
Monsanto requires forming collaboration with external organizations which are operating either in the same or related businesses. This improves contribution of the groups and enhances the overall results which are acquired from the business. Monsanto has been named as one of the top 25 multinational companies which provides best working environment to the employees. Internal and external collaboration of work has contributed effectively for acquiring organizational success. Monsanto has collaborated with Evogene for extending and expanding the measures which contribute with collaboration with crop improvement. This has made the organization acquire the position of top employer. People at Monsanto drive innovation and this contributes in enhancing the overall productivity of the organizations.
ARTICLE SUMMARY
AGE RELATED DIFFERENCES IN THE MOTIVATION OF KNOWLEDGE WORKERS
The change in the working ages of the professionals and the motivation of the knowledge workers has become a major problem these days. An observation showed that the people started retiring at early ages. The percentage of people aged above 65 and working fell excessively from 1900 to 1990. After the 1990’s this trend started reversing. In the current time the employers are required to form practices which may succeed in retaining, attracting and motivating the workers which fall in the higher age bracket. For retaining the employees it is essential that differences between experienced and inexperienced workers is eliminated. Factors which motivate the workers of differing ages need to be assessed. This study also relates to the generational differences of the employees (Lord & Farrington, 2006).
This study specifies that older knowledge workers are an asset for the organizations in which they work. They are underutilized valuable resources of the organization. This segment of people is classified as a very important segment in the developing countries. A stereotype impression of the workers has been created as this is a factor which shows that how the individuals are judged and treated. The reaction of these workers forms a priority as they possess good judgment and experience. Work ethics and a never ending commitment towards work is another trait which the individuals possess. The stereotyping people assume that people falling in an elder age bracket may be subject to absenteeism as they are assumed to be physically weak. The capability of adapting towards technological change is also assumed to be low due to stereotyping behavior. Studies have shown alternate results for this analysis. The sincerity of the experienced workers towards the organization is extremely high. Studies also showed that the productivity of the employees dramatically increased with age. The knowledge workers are assumed to be more productive comparatively.
A research based on analyzing these aspects has been conducted and a sample size of 248 respondents has been taken for this purpose. The range of the respondents selected for this research includes 169 workers which fall below the age of 55. 79 workers are those which fall above the age criteria of 55. The total organizations which have been covered include a total of 37 organizations. The organizations belong to the sector of Aerospace, IT, DoD, Automotive, Medical and Government sector. The respondents belong to eight states of America. The employees include 22 non degreed individuals, 136 bachelors, 79 masters and 11 PhD professionals. During this research satisfaction level of the employees was assessed comparing to the individual motivation factors. Organizational commitment of the employees was also calculated in this research. The differences in the organizational commitment of older and younger workers were analyzed. Seven hypotheses were formed for the completion of this research.
The conclusions drawn from this research which were focusing on the knowledge workers showed that there is a strong correlation between job satisfaction and overall organizational commitment. Link between attention to motivators and strength of the intrinsic components was discovered as a key contributor to the findings. The other result shows that organizational commitment is a better measure which relate to the attitude of the workers and their job satisfaction.
Differences between older and younger knowledge workers show that these differences do not necessarily conform that stereotypes are most commonly attributed in the work environment. The differences found in the assessment relate that the values which the older workers possess are much higher. The statistical significance of the differences and the overall satisfaction level which older and younger workers possess shows that older workers are more satisfied with their jobs as compared to younger workers. The level of importance of job is analyzed to be more in young individuals where they acquire the ability to grow. The older workers are categorized to be more prone towards independence. Commitment level of the employees is observed to be more in older employees as compared to those who are younger in age. The reason why the older and the younger employees work is also different. Younger workers do so for supporting their families and providing basic necessities to their families. Recognition is another factor which is a stronger factor for younger knowledge workers rather than those who are older in age.
The similarities observed in older and younger knowledge workers are that both the group members that there is no difference in the level of job satisfaction which is derived. There is no difference in the level of commitment of both. The intrinsic motivator factors for both age groups show that they take pride in the jobs which they perform.
The implications of this study on the engineering managers show that there is growing evidence shows that as the time will pass the managers will find it difficult o find and attract the knowledge workers. The study shows that the knowledge workers must not be reluctant and they must determine an excellent solution for this dilemma. The older workers are more satisfied as compared to the younger workers. The commitment level of both age groups of the employees is similar. Older workers are more satisfied when they get a chance of doing variety of things. They try new and innovative methods for utilizing their abilities and this concludes that the older employees are more efficient and therefore it is essential that effective utilization of resources is extremely important.
Motivation of employees has always been an important aspect for the employers and managers. There has been numerous research studies conducted in order to analyze and identify the factors that result in motivation of employees. There are different factors that motivate the young employees and these factors may or may not motivate the older workers. Therefore it is important to identify the right factor that could help in motivating each kind of employees. For this purpose, one of the strategies that can be implemented is to group employees as they tend to stay and live in a community. For instance, older workers would like to work and stay with older workers rather than young employees. Winkelen & McKenzie, (2011) have also identified similar findings as they said that communities allow employees to share their knowledge within the organization and work in collaboration and this results in improving the organizational capabilities and success.
References
Winkelen, C. & McKenzie, J. (2011). Knowledge Works: The Handbook of Practical Ways to Identify and Solve Common Organizational Problems for Better Performance. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Lord, R. L., & Farrington, P. A. (2006). Age-related differences in the motivation of knowledge workers. ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT JOURNAL-ROLLA-,18(3), 20.
