Dealing with Change Management Issues

Table of Contents

ABSTRACT 3

INTRODUCTION 4

THE CHALLENGE OF BUILDING A KNOWLEDGE SHARING CULTURE 5

IDENTIFYING TRAPS AND WAYS TO AVOID THEM 7

RECOMMENDATIONS 9

Communicating Change and Knowledge Sharing 9

Knowledge Sharing Culture Development 11

Knowledge Communities 12

Implementation and Training 13

Sustainability 14

METRICS 15

CONCLUSION 16

REFERENCES 18

ABSTRACT

Developing a knowledge sharing culture within an organization is a very challenging task facing top management today. It is easier for the senior managers to allocate employees to knowledge sharing activities within the firm, but top management cannot force its employees to participate in such activities. It depends on the willingness of the employees to voluntarily share their knowledge and experience with their colleagues. An organization’s overall performance depends on its ability to achieve maximum leverage of the knowledge resources held by individuals and teams and then turning these resources into value creating activities for the organization. Thus motivating employees to engage in knowledge sharing activities and harness existing knowledge can constitute a source of sustainable competitive advantage for an organization.

This case analysis is organized as follows: we begin with discussing the organizational and personal barriers that have been disrupting the knowledge management initiative at the Timken Company. We then provide our recommendations as to how the Timken Company can enhance collaboration and knowledge sharing among its communities of practice. Finally we conclude by identifying strategies and creating an implementation plan that can help the Timken Company to increase effectiveness of its communities of practice and facilitate knowledge capture, retention and reuse among employees.

INTRODUCTION

Headquartered in Canton, Ohio, the Timken Company was founded by Henry Timken in 1899 as a tapered roller bearing company. Today, the Timken Company is a global leader in friction management and power transmission products and services, providing high quality solutions for various market segments such as aerospace, automotive, construction, industrial equipment, heavy industry, machine tool, rail, and power generation, among others. Having 73 manufacturing plants and warehouses, 86 sales offices and 10 research centers worldwide,