Chap 11 casestudy Sargent & Lundy\'s business PDF

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How is knowledge management related to Sargent & Lundy’s business model? Knowledge management is related to Sargent & Lundy's business model as they are providing comprehensive engineering, project management and consulting services for complex power generation and power transmission project...

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How is knowledge management related to Sargent & Lundy’s business model? Knowledge management is related to Sargent & Lundy's business model as they are providing comprehensive engineering, project management and consulting services for complex power generation and power transmission projects that need in-depth expertise. Approximately 87 percent of its 2,500 employees are engineers and designers. Although they have employee experts who have been with the company for long, many of the most experienced employees are due to retire. The skills of a employee can't be learned all through class, but involves years of experience and apprenticeship. The knowledge database of the firm's documented processes and procedures is inadequate to capture the tacit knowledge of these experts and there is a need for a comprehensive Knowledge management approach. Identify the knowledge management problem faced by Sargent & Lundy. What management, or- ganization, and technology factors contributed to this problem? The Knowledge management problem faced by Sargent & Lundy is the risk of losing the tacit knowledge of employee experts when many of them retire around the same time. The company hired a large group of new recruits speedily to replace the retirees. However, with a worldwide footprint and ambitious expansion plans, the company needed to find better ways of transfer ring seasoned employees’ expertise; including their tacit knowledge to the new recruits wherever they were located. The below management, organization and technology factors have contributed to this problem: - Complexity and depth of the domain - Long tenure of the existing employees that enabled creation of tacit knowledge without a formal approach - An untracked schedule of instructor-led courses that overlapped with the recruitment schedule - Lack of in-house computer-based training - Geographical spread of employees - Lack of sharing across the existing Communities of Practice Describe the solution selected for this problem. Was it effective? Why or why not? How much did it change the firm’s operations and decision making? The solution selected for this problem was to implement a new talent management platform based on SAP SuccessFactors Learning Management System. SAP SuccessFactors is a cloud based human capital management (HCM) software suite. It was effective as it integrated software for orienting and training a new employee, social business and collaboration tools, a Learning Management System, performance management, recruiting software, applicant tracking software, succession planning, talent management and HR analytics. It also provided reporting and tracking capabilities for employee development. It is a well integrated system and highly flexible to provide complete customisation to change according to HR needs. It made the firm's operations flexible and decision making faster, as the technical training team used SuccessFactors to work with the company experts and develop a wide range of training programs and learning plans for specific technologies. Videos and online courses were added to the company's training repository, along with personalized learning plans for people working with specific disciplines and technologies.

Further, implementation of SAP Jam made it easy for employees to share knowledge, even in real time and better utilize the Communities of Practice What management, organization, and technology issues had to be addressed in selecting and imple- menting the solution? The below management, organization and technology factors had to be addressed in selecting and implementing the solution  Organizations - Should cultivate the communities according to each domain and attract practitioners in development of their practice. - Preference of new recruits for more discussion and feedback on a day-to-day basis - Evolve a sponsorship and a recognition structure, develop a peer recognition process and spread some way to provide recognition at organizational level. - Need for providing more knowledge sharing and employee conversations online due to the geographical spread.  Management: - Effective utilization of the Communities of Practice - There should be a provision of adequate organizational support structure and make critical for every employee or software geeks to engage in knowledge sharing by splitting project specific knowledge.  Technology: - ICT enabled systems could be developed and a technical bulletin forum be set up by employees themselves to provoke technical discussions on the online communities, forums. - The existing database of documented processes and procedures - Ease of use by the employee experts....