A Comprehensive Knowledge Management Plan for the British Airways - Case Study Example

1 A Comprehensive Knowledge Management Plan for the British Airways By James Patterson (your name here) 2 Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction………………………………………………………………… 2.0 The Current Knowledge Management Programmes at British Airways …… 2.1 Cross-Company Knowledge Management Project…………………… 2.2 Knowledge Community Model……………………………………. 3.0 The Problems and Shortcomings………………………………………….. 4.0 A Comprehensive Knowledge Management Plan for the British Airways…. 4.1 Establishment of a Knowledge Management Committee…………… 4.2 Concentrating on the Organizational Goals of the British Airways….. 4.3 Alignment of Value-added Knowledge Processes with Strategic Goals… 4.4 Development of the Mechanisms for Efficient Knowledge Sharing…… 4.5 Implementation Phase……………………………………………….. 5.0 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………. 6.0 Reference List………………………………………………………………. 3 1.0 Introduction Knowledge management has been part of British Airways’ survival strategies. The Company fully understands that having well-trained human capital is not enough in itself, but harnessing the potentials or qualities of these gems worth the investment. Hence, knowledge management has been an integral procedure utilized by the human resources managers at British Airways to leverage and harmonise the quality of contribution of each BA employee into making the Company’s operations successful (Frappaolo, 2006). As a Company offering ranges of services in the travel and hospitality industry, British Airways understand the significance of constant improvement in the attitudes of its many employees by encouraging them to refine, adapt and transmit their knowledge in a way that it would benefit the Company and its customers (British Airways, 2010a). This report investigates the current techniques employed by British Airways in managing the knowledge being transferred within the organisation. As a result of this, some recommendations are made about how British Airways can revamp its knowledge management processes for better outcomes. Some of the suggestions put forward in this knowledge management plan aim at transforming the day-today operations at British Airways by emphasizing the needs to input new ideas into the organisational management in a way that it would reflect quality in the array of services offered by British airways. 4 2.0 The Current Knowledge Management Programmes at the British Airways British Airways is one of the global airline companies that pay much attention to its knowledge management challenges, having realised that the success of the Company in the future strongly depends on how well its employees value the prospects of efficient knowledge transfer and processing. Hence, British Airways has adopted the following techniques to achieve this purpose: 2.1 Cross-Company Knowledge Management Project Starting from 1998, British Airways has implemented a programme meant to facilitate, process and disseminate appropriate knowledge of its services among its many employees across the continents (Ahmed et al., 2001). This project was designed to encourage smooth transfer of applicable knowledge from one branch of the British Airways to another using the latest information technology. It was during this period that BA customized and implemented its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) that simplifies the process of information gathering, processing, categorising and dissemination (Shanks et al., 2003). Cross-company knowledge management project provides BA employees to know how the offices in the United Kingdom are handling similar problems that may be confronting the employees at BA offices in Africa or Asia. This knowledge-sharing experiment has produced positive outcomes as British Airways harmonised its organizational culture and behavior through this method. Invariably, this has helped to remove inconsistencies in the operations of some airlines that could not connect all their employees together and foster unity in manner of service delivery. 5 2.2 Knowledge Community Model The essence of a knowledge community model was to create a wealth of knowledge based on the needs and responses from individual department of the British Airways operations (Ahmed et al., 2001). This means that each section of the airline is encouraged to gather useful pieces of information, digest and process them into a package of knowledge that could be accessed, transferred and modified when needed (Stair et al., 2009). This can be viewed as each department seeing itself as a community rich in data and knowledge pertaining to its operations. For example, the BA packaging department must organise into a functional unit that contains all vital ideas, information and concepts about how to do packaging well. Undoubtedly, this model helps the British Airways to be in possession of vital business information its employees worldwide can utilize to improve upon their day-to-day activities. This model does not cost a lot since BA workers are just traditionally compiling the information about their routine operations and processing them in a way that it could facilitate future usage (Stair et al., 2001). Intra-Company share of ideas is also encouraged through this model—for instance: sales department can advise the ticketing department about how best to deal with customers flocking to their counters. Another interesting thing about this model is that it makes the process of knowledge transfer faster and more efficient, compared to the ways things were done before the advent of the enterprise resource planning system (Thanasankit, 2003). 6 3.0 The Problems and Shortcomings These two distinct procedures or models that British Airways has been applying for decades are not entirely without problems and some shortcomings. Experts have discovered that localising information to a certain department or section of a company may cause the problem of over-stuffing if there is no committee or management group to monitor what kind of information or data are processed in that department (Simpson, 1996). Over-stuffing can lead to employees storing data about personal prejudices and opinions into the database and subsequently transfer the same to other departments as facts (Simpson, 1996). But when there is constant monitoring and supervising, it is possible to sieve which knowledge is what sharing and which is not. Similarly, important bits of information may be lost en route to other branches during cross-company sharing. To avoid this problem, an efficient knowledge-sharing mechanism should be implemented so that all the enablers are energised and programmed to prevent any possible loss of knowledge or information. What this signifies is that there should be a quality assurance department that will oversee the nature and manner data are being transferred within or outside the Company. Although, the British Airways has made significant improvement in its knowledge management processes, but the current modern challenges call for more proactive efforts to guarantee that the Company places the right information where they are exactly needed. This action will definitely speed up the Company’s services and earn more respect from BA millions of loyal customers worldwide. 7 4.0 A Comprehensive Knowledge Management Plan for the British Airways The British Airways needs to seriously consider this comprehensive knowledge management plan if it aspires to become a leading airline in the entire industry. The reason this is important is because the modern-day flyers are sophisticated and time-conscious; it takes strict adherence to organisational goals before any airline can satisfy these hard-nosed customers (Collins, 2002). The processes highlighted below are necessary if the British Airways wants to control its knowledge management task and position the Company in a way that it will be quite competitive in the industry. 4.1 Establishment of a Knowledge Management Committee The duty of a knowledge management committee can never be overestimated considering the urgency of the needs to help British Airways control its knowledge management procedure. The committee, which could be made up of senior management professionals and in-house IT experts, will have to meet regularly to discuss how to fashion out high-level direction for the way knowledge can be processed, stored and transfer within the Company (Jennex, 2005). The Committee would also ensure that the procedures utilize by the Company follow the Standards tenable in other organisations; this means that quality assurance section of the British Airways will be resuscitated to handle the demand for conformity with the International Standards in information gathering, processing, storing and transfer (Wimmer, 2004). The Committee will decide what kind of information to save and which parts are unnecessary and should be discarded right away. The Committee will oversee the process of knowledge-sharing. 8 4.2 Concentrating on the Organisational Goals of the British Airways For British Airways to successfully carry out its knowledge management process, the Committee has to make sure that every step taken in the knowledge management should be in accordance with the Company’s organisational goals. This involves reminding every BA employee to stick to the Company’s mission and vision, which include but not restricted to serving the customers to the satisfaction level and ensuring that the brand image of the British Airways is not destroyed (British Airways, 2010b). To save money, the Committee would encourage the employees to spend more time on acquiring and sharing knowledge that would help the British Airways remain quite competitive (Shanks et al., 2003). There are plenty of things to achieve if BA employees could concentrate on the missions of the Company: this means that they would be instrumental in getting and passing around data, information and concepts that are functional and contributory to the progress of the Company. This will definitely prevent wastage of resources and time that may have been used to process data that are not helpful at all in achieving the Company’s goals. When the objectives of a system are definite and understandable, it will be easy for those working on the project to remain focused. Therefore, the British Airways’ mission statements must be put up in every office to remind BA employees to stay glued to these goals in order to smoothen the processes of knowledge management. At times, the Committee should work against organisational goals that appear difficult to achieve, and spend more time on those that can be achieved within budget and time limits. 9 4.3 Alignment of Value-added Knowledge Processes with Strategic Goals Having understood the strategic goals of the British Airways, the knowledge management Committee should design programmes that will process data, knowledge and information that would add values to the missions of the British Airways (Joyce and Woods, 2001). Some of the ways of adding values to a Company’s goals include acquiring and sharing information that could (i) transform the quality of the services provided by the Company; (ii) increase the market share and overall profitability of the Company; (iii) preserve the prestige and rand image of the Company; (iv) provide avenues for maintaining the Company’s competitive advantage; (v) and finally, help restore customers’ loyalty in case it has been lost due to poor services at one point or the other (Bell and Patterson, 2007). The truth is that any knowledge management policy which could not add to the quality of a company’s values is a total failure. 4.4 Development of the Mechanisms for Efficient Knowledge Sharing The best approach to initiate and maintain efficient knowledge-sharing at the British Airways is to develop the appropriate mechanism used in the process. Three main mechanisms are often identified when discussing the issue of knowledge sharing: (i) IT-based Knowledge Sharing (KS); (ii) People-focused Knowledge Sharing (KS) and Management Process-anchored Knowledge Sharing (Chu, 2010). The three mechanisms outlined above are typically helpful to the knowledge management Committee to 10 discover which area of the Company requires further development in order to achieve the organisational goals. IT-based KS targets mainly the Information systems of the British Airways to make sure that nothing is hindering the section from facilitating the passage or transfer of data, information and knowledge. The people-based KS concerns about the human elements of this process—these are workers, who should be trained, motivated and monitored to be sure that they deliver the quality services that the customers of the Company demand for. The management process-anchored KS requires that the management of the British Airways make corporate decisions and policies that encourage smooth and unhindered transfer of the acquired knowledge from one section of the Company to another (Waters and Waters, 1999). These three mechanisms should work hand-in-hand for British Airways to successful manage its knowledge. The management needs to support policies and programmes that would encourage the procurement and implementation of the latest information technology in the Company: the IT experts should discuss, design and implement IT solutions and software they deem appropriate in helping the Company become a technologically advanced one. In these two categories, employees would be instrumental in making sure that goals are reached and maintained so as to encourage constant quality in the Company’s services (Waters and Waters, 1999). It is through this process that qualitative knowledge management can be guaranteed. The British Airways has all these three mechanisms in place, what is needed is the coordination and implementation of these mechanisms. 12 4.5 Implementation Phase This stage is very important in the process of knowledge management. This requires that all the facts and issues discussed above would be properly implemented so that the British Airways can function properly without facing any loss of vital data and information. The implementation phase is so critical to the success of the entire programme in the sense if it fails, every other parts of the procedures would not be successful. The human, management and IT aspects of the programme should be aligned in a way that they would lead to success. Failure to recognise the importance of each section of the Knowledge management mechanisms may frustrate the entire process. 5.0 Conclusion This report has shown in clear terms the necessary processes British Airways should implement in order to attain success in its knowledge management. All the ramifications of this process must be aligned together in a way that they could work harmoniously to produce a satisfactory result. The management of British Airways should be ready to invest in the information technology by purchasing the state-of-the art IT solutions and software. The human face of this process must also be developed, which means that workers should be trained and encouraged to deliver qualitative outcomes as expected the Company’s customers. By doing, the British Airways can remain competitive and offer services that its many customers would like to be associated with. 12 6.0 References Ahmed, P.K., Lim, K.K, and Loh, A.Y., 2001. Learning through knowledge management. London: Butterworth-Heinemann. Bell, C.R., and Patterson, J.R., 2007. Customer loyalty, guaranteed: create, lead, and sustain remarkable customer service. Avon, MA: Adams Media. British Airways, 2010a. Interior and safety services. [Online]. [Updated 2 December 2010]. Available at http://www.britishairways.com/travel/baengineeringsafety/public/en_gb?gsLink=searchResults. [Accessed 2 December 2010]. British Airways, 2010b. On business loyalty programme. [Online]. [Updated 2 December 2010]. Available at http://www.britishairways.com/travel/on-business-travel/public/en_gb?link=main_nav Chu, S., 2010. Managing knowledge for global and collaborative innovations. Singapore: World Scientific. Collins, V.R., 2002. Careers in airline and airports. London: Kogan Page Publishers. Frappaolo, C., 2006. Knowledge management. London: John Wiley and Sons. Jennex, M.E., 2005. Case studies in knowledge management. Calgary, Canada: Idea Group Inc. 13 Joyce, P., and Woods, A., 2001. Strategic management: a fresh approach to developing skills, knowledge and creativity, London: Kogan Page Publishers. Shanks, G., Seddon, P.B., and Willocks, L., 2003. Second-wave enterprise resource planning systems: implementing for effectiveness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Simpson, C., 1996. High performance through organizing information. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group. Stair, R.M., Reynolds, G., and Reynolds, G.W., 2009. Principle of information systems. Florence, KY: Cengage Learning. Thanasankit, T., 2003. E-commerce and cultural values. Calgary, Canada: Idea Group Inc. Waters, C.D.J., and Waters, D., 1999. Operations management. London: Kogan Page Publishers. Wimmer, M.A., 2004. Knowledge management in electronic government. New York: Springer. Read More