Discussion: Organizational Contingencies, Knowledge, and Strategy

This discussion post explores organizational contingencies, emphasizing their impact on organizational performance through effective knowledge management. The analysis covers four key issues: ethical considerations in intellectual capital statements, the influence of organizational structure and technology on strategy, the role of environmental uncertainty in decision-making, and strategies for revenue generation and market expansion through acquisitions. The post uses examples from companies like Carl Bro, Grontmij, IBM, and Lotus to illustrate these concepts. It highlights the importance of aligning organizational strategy with contingency theory to achieve sustainable success. The discussion concludes by emphasizing the necessity of a unique strategic approach to maintain a competitive edge in the market.

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Organizational Contingencies Discussion
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Issue 1.....................................................................................................................................2
Issue 2.....................................................................................................................................3
Issue 3.....................................................................................................................................3
Issue 4.....................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
Organizational contingencies are considered as the factors which moderate the effect in the
case of organizational characteristics on behalf of the organizational performance. This
performance, on the other hand, is depending on the knowledge management system inside
the organization (Nonaka & Toyama, 2003). As per Levy (2015), by the help of proper
knowledge management organization can retain, share, structure or develop the knowledge
by utilising well-known methodologies together with serving to achieve the objectives and
goals of the organization (Levy, 2015).
This study thus focusses on the organizational knowledge management and the related issues
especially in case of contingencies factors on behalf of the organizational knowledge and
performances. Here four issues are discussed as per the requirements along with those several
examples of Australian and Well-known global companies are taken into consideration to
emphasises on those facts as discussed.
Issue 1
In this respect, the first issue is found in case of handling ethical knowledge on behalf of an
intellectual capital statement in an organization. This intellectual capital is the data set
includes various documentary evidence as well as the interviews. As per Mouritsen et al.
(2001), the intellectual capital statements have been collected by Carl Bro in the period of
1999-2002, and the company is found to continue to produce those intellectual capital
reports. But after the year 2002, the intellectual capital was subsumed as per the concerned
with the annual accounts which are against the ethics of the business (Mouritsen, Bukh,
Larsen, & Johansen, 2002). In 2006 Grontmij has taken over the company and it is found to
continue to produce the intellectual reports on an annual basis again. As the company did not

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publish their annual intellectual report from the year 2006, for ethical consideration all those
annual reports are collected and analysed on the basis of the company's vision, mission,
values, and objectives by comparing those in ethical concerned (McPhail, 2009).
Issue 2
The second issue can be focussed on the organizational strategy which is linked with the
typology of the structure of the organization itself as it depends on the principle of groupings
in various departments. The typology is found to distinguish within the functional structure is
the unitary form as those activities can be grouped by the task like marketing, finance and
also the divisional. On the other hand, technology is found to link with this typology so that it
distinguishes the issues within the mechanistic structure as well as the organic structure of the
organization (Akhavan, Ramezan, & Moghaddam, 2013). As per mechanistic structure, all
the tasks are needed to break down within the specialised and separate parts, and it is strictly
defined the hierarchy of the authority and control. In the case of organic structure, it is found
that employees perform the common tasks which are adjusted and also redefined in employee
teamwork. Thereby any issues pertaining to work division; the organization structure itself
will define in that respect so that it can be performed in a better way. As pet the degree of
technological complexity, the production process is subdivided into mass production, process
production as well as unit production. Generally, the mechanistic structure is suited for mass
production and for unit and process production, the organic structure is followed.
Issue 3
As per the third issue in the contingency approach within the organization, it deals with the
environmental uncertainty which supports the decision making framework of Mintzberg
(1990). As per this framework, it is suggested the rational model of the organization strategy
is needed to follow within a certain environment. It is also found that in most of the cases, the

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decision makers can adopt a more emergent approach of taking a decision within more
complex environmental conditions (Mintzberg, 1990). Thereby, the practical implication of
this fact is that those decision makers must engage to discuss the strategy with other members
of the company as per the existing structure and the process under the context of the
continuous interaction. Like in the case of Department of Molecular Biology situated in
Massachusetts General Hospital, many times the sudden strategy is needed to develop based
in the crucial situation and many a time it works to overcome such scenarios.
Issue 4
The fourth and final most issue can be referring to generate the additional revenue and also to
achieve the strategic size or the product mix in order to access the new markets or to
acknowledge the skills of the senior management team. They very often want to purchase the
value of other company where they expect in achieving the new knowledge for their
knowledge stock. In 1995, IBM purchased Lotus by $3.5 billion which is fourteen times of
the book value of Lotus, $250 million. In this case, IBM is not found to pay that amount of
money for the present revenue which is generated by Notes as well as other products of
Lotus. IBM also used the capabilities of manufacturing and sales of Lotus in this respect.
Therefore, the unique knowledge of Notes produced by Lotus was further utilised by IBM to
pay $3.25 billion premia to the same company and in this way, IBM can achieve its target
revenue (Wang & Noe, 2010).
Therefore, in case of investments for knowledge generation, the intentions are needed to be
more clear and serious so that the company can achieve their goals by considerable expense.

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Conclusion
So, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that overall knowledge management is
more important to continue the profitable scenarios of the organization. In this respect, the
contingency theory is required to follow so that there would not be any further critical issues
on behalf of the organization. As a final most point, the organization is needed to follow its
unique strategic choice to overcome the competency in the market in achieving the target.

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References
Akhavan, P., Ramezan, M., & Moghaddam, J. (2013). Examining the role of ethics in
knowledge management process: Case study: an industrial organization. Journal of
Knowledge-based Innovation in China, 129-145.
Levy, M. (2015). Knowledge Management. New York: McGraw Hill.
McPhail, K. (2009). Where is the ethical knowledge in the knowledge economy? Power and
potential in the emergence of ethical knowledge as a component of intellectual
capital. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 804-822.
Mintzberg, H. (1990). The Design School: Reconsiduring the Basic Premises of Strategic
Management. Strategic Management Journal, 171-195.
Mouritsen, J., Bukh, P., Larsen, H., & Johansen, M. (2002). Developing and managing
knowledge through intellectual capital statements. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 10-
29.
Nonaka, I., & Toyama, R. (2003). The knowledge-creating theory revisited: knowledge
creation as a synthesizing process. Knowledge Management Research & Practice, 2-
10.
Wang, S., & Noe, R. (2010). Knowledge sharing: A review and directions for future research.
Human Resource Management Review, 115-131.