Knowledge Management and Leadership Report: The Bank Case Study

This report presents a comprehensive analysis of a case study involving The Bank's knowledge management system and its impact on the IT department. The report is divided into two parts: diagnosis and recommendations. The diagnosis section examines various aspects, including personalities, gr...Read More

Managing People - The Bank

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
PART 1 DIAGNOSIS......................................................................................................................4
Personalities.................................................................................................................................4
Group dynamics...........................................................................................................................4
Stakeholders.................................................................................................................................5
Organizational culture & change.................................................................................................5
Communication............................................................................................................................5
Leadership....................................................................................................................................6
PART 2 RECOMMENDATIONS...................................................................................................6
Personalities.................................................................................................................................6
Group dynamics...........................................................................................................................6
Stakeholders.................................................................................................................................7
Organizational culture & change.................................................................................................7
Communication............................................................................................................................7
Leadership....................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Knowledge management or bran intranet is considered as the most important aspect
which aids to connect different parties or department for better functioning of the business. It
supports business to complete business activities and connecting the their clients. However, the
procedure of granting loans and other related aspects seems very typical without application of
appropriate IT tools. This present report is based on case study of knowledge management
system and The brain which proved to be highly supportive for all departments and employees
working in the bank. Furthermore, report covers two parts; diagnosis and recommendations
where the former one shed light on issues which are being faced by the business and other one
reflects that suggestions provided on transformation of internal communication and
organizational structure.
PART 1 DIAGNOSIS
Personalities
The case of of bank reflects that unique personality was maintained by Joe. However,
DNS intranet system users Maggie and Elsa were not happy with the attitude and personality
traits of the Joe as he responses in such a manner that “If you Can't specify it, I can't built it”. It
depicts that Joe was flexible to understand the requirement of people effectively and users such
as Myers and Briggs found personality of Joe as logisticians. Here, the logisticians tend to
responsible and directed towards their goals. It can be critically evaluated that weaknesses of the
same are also visible to another personal which have already been noticed at the very beginning
of the case study (Teo and et. al., 2011). Therefore, personality of Joe reflects traits such as
judgemental, insensitive and stubborn.
Group dynamics
According to the case study, Joe Cutler was handling the task related making the intranet
for transferring the important information and making them aware of the handling the work in a
smart manner. He was working within a team of expert consultants and introduced the 24-hour
desk in order to support users of the DNS intranet system. His personality traits reflects that Joe
is attention seekers who like to take credit by working on his own. In this manner, he resembles
as dysfunctional role played member in a group dynamic. Owing to this, he did not pay attention

on the thinking of people and without consulting with the helps desk was introduced (Yakhlef,
2010). Though, when workforce switched to The Brain, then he started feeling like he is not
required as the workplace.
Stakeholders
The organizational changes cannot be implemented without consent of various
stakeholders. However, Joe has asked to stakeholders such as Maggie and Elsa regarding the
specific requirement but they were unable to make him understand. It is because stakeholders too
were not aware that what exactly needed for the smoothing functioning. Owing to this, DNS was
problematic because users were unable to save the files for longer time and at the it was not easy
to remember to version of each file which is of current time even (Zack, 2003). Also, DNS was
not user friendly and because this issue hierarchical structure for organizing the information was
not effective. Furthermore, relational structure was more effective for stakeholders through
which they can easily work on the basis of “The Brain”. In this manner, use of The Brain made it
possible to easily access the information and using the same.
Organizational culture & change
The culture of organization plays important role as it assists workforce or members to
follow the same pattern and beliefs. The success of the corporation depends on the strong
culture and association of right kind of people. According to the given scenario, Bank has weak
organizational culture due to major employees like Joe who was promoting the dysfunctional
culture. It is because he was unable to understand the requirement of people and adjust with
them. This was evident at the time of introduction of “The Brain” when people were using it and
were happy with same. At the same time, Joe was being bureaucratic and prepared himself to
talk to CEO n order to provide the information that current system is consuming time and also
not helpful for security purpose (Nonaka, von Krogh and Voelpel, 2006). This was the proof of
his arrogance and reflection of his dysfunctional culture. On the other hand, Shelia who assisted
Maggie for personal and professional life. She was following the culture of bank and values it set
procedure and value in term of innovation.
Communication
Communication is another most important aspect through which all workforce in the
organization can work smartly in the direction of growth and success. It assists firm to integrate

all businesses activities. The case under consideration shows that Elsa and Maggie was involved
with the system development as Joe asked them regarding the specific requirement. However,
their inability to communicate the requirement is the big question market behind failure of DNS.
On the other hand, communication barriers were faced by due to emotions. At this juncture,
negative emotions of Joe and Elsa as well as Maggie has adverse effect on the procedure of
communication (Hislop, 2013).
Leadership
Leadership is also important along with communication, culture and other related aspects
of the bank. It is the considered as the most important aspect under which corporation need to
shed light on association of highly skilled and talented workforce at the post of IT department.
This would be more effective to understand the issues which are being faced by the workforce. It
enables them to resolve the same and accordingly apply suitable strategy. Furthermore, bank
need to ensure the use of appropriate tools and technology by considering the security related
aspects (Wang, Noe and Wang, 2014). However, as per the case study, Joe does not seem as
leader instead as manager. Also, he was unable to understand the requirement of all people as his
rigid approach to work had negative impact on all team members. Apart from this, he just shed
light on own personal skills but ignoring others which make him infective leader.
PART 2 RECOMMENDATIONS
Personalities
As per the assessment of Joe's personality, he might focus on weaknesses with the help
group members. At this juncture, Gallup StrengthFiner assessment can be completed by him to
sharpen his skills and overcome the weaknesses in a most effective manner.
Group dynamics
The group dynamics can be promoted with the help of creation of cross functional work
group so that for effective working of system. Furthermore, Group thinking should be promoted
with the help of divergence and convergence. Here, the former reflects that people can propose
several solution of the problem only when fruitful communication is taking place. Furthermore,
previous one shows that solution are evaluated for the purpose of resoling the current issue.

Stakeholders
Joe could have done appropriate analysis of stakeholders' perception through which it
becomes easy to understand the specific requirement of people and incorporate their idea into the
system development. Furthermore, employee engagement should be done in order to improve the
working situation and develop positive attitude among them (Jiménez-Jiménez, Martínez-Costa
and Sanz-Valle, 2014)
Organizational culture & change
Adapted culture should be followed by the organization and employees working under
the same. It would be effective for employees like Joe who followed the dysfunctional culture. It
can be understood with the help of new system has The Brain which tend to support business in
managing the change effectively and accomplish all related task in an effectual manner.
Communication
Elsa and Maggie could have spent time to discuss regarding the requirement of the
system and accordingly they might have communicated about aspects of DNS system. On the
other hand, in case they fail to communicate it to Joe then project manager can be known for the
same (Villar, Alegre and Pla-Barber, 2014). In addition to this, stakeholder perception analysis
can be conducted for better understanding related to requirement.
Leadership
Even having appropriate knowledge of IT related department, Joe cannot be considered
as the leader due to his personality trait and other related aspects. He should learn from the leader
or employees supported in developing “The Brain” so as to overcome his weaknesses. It is also
helpful for him to be a good leader who incorporate views and suggestions of workforce and
implement the same in order to get the work done on time. Apart from this, being a leader Joe
should focus on the effectiveness or success of the company in accordance with perception of
people or integrate them in the direction of long term growth and development. Moreover, he
should be focused towards the achievement mentality as the leader but not as manager. It would
be effective to accomplish objectives of the business and support all other team members to do
their best.

CONCLUSION
The aforementioned report concludes that IT department in bank plays important role for
the purpose of transferring the important data and ensuring better relationship with clients or
other stakeholders. Without implementation of suitable mode of communication for workforce,
company cannot ensure success. It can also be concluded that stakeholders analysis and
employee participation are two important aspect for having adaptive culture in the presence of
appropriate leader of the team.

REFERENCES
Journals and books
Hislop, D., 2013. Knowledge management in organizations: A critical introduction. Oxford
University Press.
Jiménez-Jiménez, D., Martínez-Costa, M. and Sanz-Valle, R., 2014. Knowledge management
practices for innovation: a multinational corporation’s perspective. Journal of Knowledge
Management. 18(5). pp.905-918.
Nonaka, I., von Krogh, G. and Voelpel, S., 2006. Organisational knowledge creation theory:
Evolutionary paths and future advances. Organisation Studies. 27(8). 1179-1208.
Teo, T., Nishant, R., Goh, M. and Agarwal, S., 2011. Leveraging collaborative technologies to
build a knowledge sharing culture at HP analytics. MIS Quarterly Executive. 10(1). 1-18.
Villar, C., Alegre, J. and Pla-Barber, J., 2014. Exploring the role of knowledge management
practices on exports: A dynamic capabilities view. International Business Review. 23(1).
pp.38-44.
Wang, S., Noe, R.A. and Wang, Z.M., 2014. Motivating knowledge sharing in knowledge
management systems: A quasi–field experiment. Journal of Management. 40(4). pp.978-
1009.
Yakhlef, A., 2010. The corporeality of practice-based learning. Organisation Studies. 31(4).
409-430.
Zack, M. H., 2003. Rethinking the knowledge-based organization. Sloan Management Review.
44(4). 67-71.