knowledge Management is Everyone’s Job Chaparral Steel Case Study: knowledge Management is Everyone’s Job Selected and Presented by: Dr. Abeer Al-Faouri For KM Course

knowledge Management is everyone’s job While specialists are clearly critical to the success of KM, even more the activities and attitudes of those who are paid to do something other than manage knowledge. Planning managers, business analysts, design engineers, marketing professionals, and even secretaries and clerks are the most important managers of knowledge. They all need to create, share, search out, and use knowledge in their daily routines.

Chaparral Steel Harvard researcher Dorothy Leonard-Barton described in some detail Chaparral Steel company as an impressive example of how knowledge roles work in a knowledge-driven industry. The company is a successful mini-mill steel manufacturer.

Chaparral Steel-continued Every worker is considered a knowledge worker. Line steelworkers visit customers to better understand their requirements, attend industry seminars, and perform production experiments.

Chaparral Steel-continued Ideas come from everybody in the organization. A visitor to Chaparral once noticed that the security guard was reading a textbook about steelmaking. There is no division of knowledge labor designating some people as thinkers and relegating others to doers.

Chaparral Steel-continued Organizational structure is remarkably flat, both officially and symbolically. The company has a unique apprenticeship program for all production workers that includes both classroom and on-the-job training. Risk taking is encouraged.

Chaparral Steel-continued Employees are selected for their ability and their attitudes about learning. There are no time clocks, and there is a generous profit-sharing system. These cultural and organizational approaches clearly encourage workers to gain and share knowledge.

Reference: Thomas H. Davenport, Laurence Prusak, Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know. Harvard Business School Press, 1998. P 109.