In a global economy facing constant competition and ever-increasing challenges, companies must ensure the transmission of knowledge and know-how internally in order to move forward and progress. Knowledge management and internal knowledge sharing are crucial for companies to maintain critical skills.
Obstacles linked to human collaboration
Nowadays, the difficulty lies in the ability of organizations to stimulate a dynamic exchange of knowledge, while leveraging employee engagement. Due to a lack of self-confidence, demotivation or simply a lack of recognition from existing employee skills, employees are not always willing to cooperate and share their expertise. Management and managers will need to put in place incentives and develop a culture of recognition to improve knowledge transfer. It is necessary to set up a management system based on trust, a strategic lever in service of performance, for which the organizations HR or L&D leaders would be accountable for managing (1).
Multiple benefits for your company and your employees
The benefits for companies are plural. Knowledge management and transmission have a direct impact on financial gains and cost reduction through: expertise control, speed of task execution, productivity increase, error alleviation, risk management control, and time management for innovation. In fact, employees have increased motivation when they feel that they are acquiring skills quickly and can improve their work. Making them more inclined to change and ready to take up many challenges. In a world seen through the prism of the VUCA model, an acronym for “Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity”, organizations need a rapid transfer of knowledge in order to evolve and reinvent themselves, which requires a lot of agility and efficiency.
A new organizational model
New business models must be found while building on the knowledge and know-how, of the company’s core business. A new organizational model has emerged: the learning enterprise (2). In his research Jean-Louis Boutte explains and I quote: “ The company is now considered a living organism, beyond the biological and cybernetic brain, susceptible to organizational learning (Argyris and Schön, 1996). In this model, knowledge is considered as the first wealth and sources of added value. Cross-functionality, systematic networking and a permanent circulation of knowledge foster the emergence of new knowledge and collective intelligence.”
In the digital age, everyone becomes a contributor, designer, producer of ideas, content and opinions. This naturally leads to more collective and cooperative modes of organization that gradually replace pyramidal, hierarchical organizations. Ensuring the management of employees’ knowledge and skills assets becomes a source of sustainable corporate performance and employee employability, loyalty and engagement.
Sources:
- Management par la confiance et performances: Contributions actuelles et perspectives pour la fonction RH, Anne-Sophie Attia, Carole Legros Bradol, Flore de Soultrait et Marco dalla Palma ,Jean-Nicolas Moreau, Université Paris-Dauphine., 2017
- Transmission de savoir-faire, Réciprocité de la relation éducative Expert-Novice, Jean-Louis Boutte, Université de Provence, 2007.