Which organization model best describes your organization or an organization which you are familiar?
A functional organizational model is used at my place of work. Since the company is quite small, a functional model best suits the operations of the company. In most cases, organizations that deal with one or a few lines of products prefer functional structures. It is also imperative to mention that a functional organizational is never designed to encounter regular changes (Marshall, 2002). In other words, it cannot work well in organizations that execute changes on a regular basis. This implies that a stable business environment can provide the best opportunity for exercising a functional model. A business portfolio that does not demand change of strategies frequently can do well with a functional model. In the case of my workplace, we only handle a single line of product. Therefore, strategy change is hardly witnessed. Although functional models used to be related with specialization some decades ago, this type of model has significantly transformed towards efficient delivery of goods and services to consumers. This model also values the aspect of high control framework bearing in mind that the dormant strategies may lead to poor performance if not controlled properly.
Another common feature of a functional model is the presence of specialized units that are accountable to a common centre of authority (Marshall,2002). In other words, the top management is charged with the role of coordinating all activities of the organization. The specialized departments are referred to as the functional units. The personnel working in these units are skilled individuals who have been grouped according to the similarities in their level of competence.
How does your organization currently share knowledge or involve employees in formulating solutions to problems?
My organization shares knowledge through collaboration and close working practice among different specialized units or departments. The flow of information among different units has been made quite easy because of a collaborative working principle adopted by the organization. For example, common meetings are held on a monthly basis by all the specialized units. Moreover, each unit has to present its progress to the general meetings so that other departmental members of the organization can understand the progress within the entire organization.
Retreats, seminars and workshops for capacity building and training are also held jointly among the personnel with similar knowledge, skills and competences. This strategy has made it possible for employees to share information and knowledge quite easily since all the business functions cooperate on a daily basis.
Second, my organization makes use of incentives so that employees can be encouraged to share knowledge and expertise. Employees who receive incentives on a regular basis find it easy to share knowledge even at a personal level. Incentives advanced to employees act as a significant source of motivation.
Our organization has also adopted an agile business strategy so that it can compete favorably in the targeted market. The current business strategy has enabled employees to understand the corporate culture and business needs of the organization. The knowledge management capability of our organization has improved the competitive advantage of the firm. However, lack of flexibility in our business model has hindered the implementation of organizational changes. The agile business strategy can only be effective to a certain degree. In order to share information and ideas effectively, flexibility in operations should be a key factor to consider.
The process of making and enacting major decisions are done in the presence of all employees. Alternatively, the decision making process involves all the employees. When decisions are made jointly, it significantly facilitates the process of knowledge sharing. All the relevant information pertaining the operations of our organization is clearly known by all the top and lower level employees. This has been an effective knowledge sharing platform in the organization. In the case whereby sensitive decisions are made by the top level management, detailed communication is passed onto employees in a timely manner (Komashie, Mousavi & Gore, 2007).
Centralization has been sparingly applied in the management of sensitive information within the company. This technique of knowledge sharing is restricted towards the top level of the management. As a result, it is quite defective in sharing knowledge to the rest of the employees. However, some of the collaborative tools such as knowledge repositories, extranets and intranets have been extremely effective in assisting employees to share knowledge within the organization.
The above techniques can indeed be modified or directly applied in a healthcare environment. For example, a collaborative workforce is a general technique that any healthcare environment can apply (Lombardi, Schermerhorn & Kramer, 2007). Although joint decision making process is suitable knowledge sharing idea, it cannot work well under other organizational models that are not functional in nature. Hence, a healthcare environment can restrict itself to departmental decision making. In addition, an agile business strategy can be modified in order to fit the specific needs of departments operating within a healthcare environment (Lombardi, Schermerhorn & Kramer, 2007). Finally, the use technology such as collaborative workgroup technologies, extranets and intranets can boost the pace at which knowledge is shared among employees (Komashie, Mousavi & Gore, 2007).
References
Komashie, A., Mousavi, A., & Gore, J. (2007). Quality management in healthcare and industry. Journal of Management History, 13(4), 359-370.
Lombardi, D.L., Schermerhorn, J.R. & Kramer, B. (2007). Health Care Management. New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
Marshall, D. (2002). An organization for the world environment: Three models and analysis. Georgetown International Environmental Law Review, 15(1), 79-103.
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