Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
-1-
DECLARATION
Place: Surat
-2-
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First of all, I like to thank to divine power i.e. GOD and my parents, as it was their
blessing, which gave me this golden opportunity of carrying out this project.
I record my deep sense of gratitude to Mr. N K SAHOO (Chief Mgr.-HR) who had
given me a chance to do a project under this roof of KRIBHCO and given opportunity to
work under his guidance.
I would like to express my deepest and sincere thanks to our project guide-MISS
AMI PANDYA as it is due to their instructions, guidance, support and their valuable
suggestions during an project work, and dedication making us to do the best work, was
the basic reason in our efficiency in doing an project work.
I would also like to thank sincerely from the deep of my heart to all those persons
who constantly guided me and gave me the practical knowledge and materials of the
subject.
I would finally like to thank all employees of KRIBHCO for their kind cooperation,
guidance and support which lead us to right direction of our research.
-3-
PREFACE
I am grateful to all the employees of KRIBHCO for their cooperation and interest in
my project without which it could not have been possible to go ahead with my project.
With due honor, I present this project which consists of a brief study of KRIBHCO
Ltd.
JIGNESH R LUHARIYA
MBA (First year)
SHREE SAMANVAY INSTITUTE OF MBA
BHAVNAGAR UNIVERSITY
BOTAD
-4-
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Success of any organization depends largely on its competent employees and the
extent to which the knowledge is shared in that organization. Competency Mapping is a
process through which one assesses and determines one’s strengths as an individual
worker ad in some cases as a part of an organization where as Knowledge acquisition
involves complex cognitive processes: perception, learning, communication, association
and reasoning. Hence, competency mapping and management of knowledge and its
resources play a significant role in growth and development of the organization.
Knowledge Management ('KM') comprises a range of practices used by organizations to
identify, create, represent, and distribute knowledge. It is divided into stages like acquiring
knowledge, sharing, storing and leveraging the knowledge both at personal level as well
as professional level.
This report is an attempt to check the competency level and study the status of the
Knowledge management in this organization. The report starts with Introduction of the
Company, its achievements and then elaborates the concept of competency mapping and
Knowledge Management; in KRIBHCO, and data analysis and interpretation on the basis
of perception of employees.
-5-
CONTENTS
Declaration 2
Acknowledgement 3
Preface 4
Executive Summary 5
_______________________________________________________________________
Company Profile 7
1. Competency Mapping 21
2. An Introduction to Knowledge Management 30
3. Knowledge Management 32
9. Research Methodology 50
11. Questionnaire 82
13. Suggestions 90
14. Conclusion 91
15. Bibolography 92
-6-
Introduction to Fertilizer Industry
-7-
response studies have proved that one kg. of fertilizer nutrient application can the food
grain production by 8-10 kg.
As this is a vital commodity it is in the interest of nation that farmers get fertilizers
at reasonable rate and in adequate quantity. Looking to the poor economic condition of
Indian farmers Government of India framed fertilizer policy in 1977 based on Maratha
committee report. The purpose behind introducing this policy was to supply fertilizer to
resource poor at a price they could afford, so as to increase the consumption of fertilizer,
to increase food production, and ensure fair return to fertilizer producers.
With this twin objective, Retention Price Scheme (RPS) for fertilizers came into
picture. In this scheme government has brought the fertilizer under the preview of
Essential Commodities Act (ECA) in which the retail price of fertilizer to the farmer is
notified by the Government of India from time to time. This retail price to the farmer is
uniform throughout the country and is subject to local taxes applicable under the
respective States.
Further under ECA, the government also operates a system of distribution control
in which the manufacturers including the handling agents for the imported fertilizers are
directed to sell specified quantities of fertilizers in given states/union territories. While
doing so, the logistics of fertilizer distribution including storage, transportation, handling
etc. are also suitably regulated conforming to overall supply plans of the government to
meet the requirement in all the parts of the Country.
Now manufacturers also should get reasonable rate of return as all incentive for
producing fertilizers. Manufacturers should get at least that much, which call enable them
to remain in the industry.
-8-
Government of India fixes the price of fertilizers in such a way that manufacturer's
cost of production including cost of marketing is covered and the manufacturer gets a
12% post tax return on net worth of the unit at a pre-defined capacity utilization. Norms
are fixed for consumption of raw material, utilities, services, capacity utilization,
depreciation etc. The price so fixed is called Retention Price (RP). This price is reviewed
every three years.
In a nutshell fertilizers can not be sold in open markets and producing unit has
almost nil say in fixing fertilizer price. Then how to increase profits? By operating plant
efficiently only.
The growth and importance of Fertilizer industry in India can be divided in to three
distinct phases, these are given below.
-9-
2. Green Revolution Period:
During this phase Government stated the programme aimed at making our
country self sufficient in Food Products. This was the period between the years 1959-
1960. This plan laid the emphasis on production of High Yielding Varieties. To make this
plan a success there was a high need to make soil fertile by providing it with nutrients like
Phosphorus, Nitrogen and Potassium.
During this phase Fertilizer industry tried to play a vital role, became one of
the most important, and inherits part of our economy.
The world's population along with Indian population has kept on growing at a alarming
rate, the fertilizer companies all over India are trying to expand their scale of operations in order to
increase the production rate. The demand for fertilizers per year is increasing. The current demand
of fertilizers in India is 18 million tones.
1. Public Sector
- 10 -
2. Co-Operative Sector
3. Private Sector
- 11 -
Krishak Bharti Co-operative Limited
KRIBHCO Network: -
A. Head office: - fertilizer plant, Noida, Delhi
B. (i) Plant: - Surat Gujarat
(ii) Bio fertilizer plant: - Surat (Gujarat)
- 12 -
(iii) Seed processing plant: -Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, haryana, M.P. Punjab,
Rajasthan, U.P. (For Punjab&Haryana)
MISSION: -
A) To contribute to agriculture &rural development in the regins.
B) Services to members of cooperatives society by selecting financing
C) Managing society desirable and commercial profitable investment
opportunity preferable at multiple locations.
- 13 -
VISION:-
They want to be a world class organization that represents the farmer community
and maximizes returns to them through specialization in agricultural inputs and
products and other diversified businesses that maximize stakeholder value.
OBJECTIVES: -
a) To undertake the activities for the rural upliftment and agriculture development.
- 14 -
(I) To undertake production processing, manufacture, sale distribution, marketing,
import export and to otherwise deal in agriculture production requisites.
(II) To set up storage units for storing fertilizer and other goods by itself or in
collaboration with other agency.
(III) To act as warehousing agency under the warehousing act and own godowns or
hire godowns for the storage of fertilizers and other goods.
AWARDS: -
The excellence performance of the society has brought a number of laurels from
various organizations .The awards received during year were as follows: -
(I) National productivity council has awarded productivity award the society for bio
fertilizer product for the year 1999-2000, 2001-2002 in the year 2003-2004.
(II) Certificate of merit by public relations society of India, Hyderabad chapter for
house journal of “KRIBHCO”
(III) Best technical innovative award for the year 2003 by fertilizer association of
India.
(IV) Certificate of merit Gujarat safety council for relining 30 lakh accident free man-
hours.
(V) Hazira ammonia extension project (HAEP) rotating shield winner and certificate
for lowest disabling injury index in group-c industries.
(VI) Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Agriculture and Technical University, Meerut – All
India Farmers Fair And agro Industrial Exhibition – First Prize To Kribhco on
10-03-2005.
(VII) Kribhco has won first prize for Bio-Fertilizer Production, Marketing And
Promotion Award For the year 2003 And 2004 by National Productivity Council
- 15 -
(NPC). Award Has been given formal function held on 10th May,.2005 by
Honble Minister For Agriculture Shri Shard Pawar Ji.
(VIII) Special Participation Award in Corporate Sector Event “ Vyapar 2005” Event
Organized By Southern Gujarat Chamber OF Commerce And Industries From
February 11 – 16, 2005, the theme of pavilion was “ Development OF Bio-
Technology In Kribhco “
HISTORY OF KRIBHCO: -
MILE STONES: -
(I) Project zero Date : 31/03/1981
(II) Foundation stone laid by Smt. Indira Gandhi : 5/02/1982
(III) Project completion : 31/03/1985
(IV) Plan completion : 26/11/1985
(V) Commercial production : 1/3/1986
(VI)Percent capacity utilization : Urea 99%
Ammonia95%
(VII) Plant ready of production : January/September 1985
(VIII) Gas available by ONGC : PHASE 1 & PHASE 2
18-9-85 6-11-85
(IX) Trial production Ammonia : PHASE 1 & PHASE 2
14-11-85 30-11-85
Urea (stream 11/31) 26-11-85 13-12-85
Ammonia (stream 21/41) 31-12-85 01-12-85
(X) ISO certificate (I) KRIBHCO plant
ISO 9001-2000
- 16 -
(II) KRIBHCO plant
ISO 14001
(III) KRIBHCO Mktg office
ISO 9001-2000
- 17 -
PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHT
Proposed Dividend 20 %
- 18 -
QUALITY POLICY
Management of KRIBHCO, Hazira plant is committed to operate and maintain its fertilizer
manufacturing complex through quality assurance, environmental protection and to the
satisfaction of customers.
KRIBHCO, Hazira plant shall achieve this quality policy through following objectives:
1. Continually upgrading technology to improve plant efficiency & reliability.
2. Maintaining & improving the safety & environmental performance.
3. Improving the skills & knowledge of personnel.
4. Continuously improving the quality Management system.
FUTURE PLANS
A joint venture fertilizer project in Oman:
Society has invested US$ 80 million as equity in Oman India Fertilizer plant
which has achieved commercial production on 14th July 2005. The Project has annual
capacity of 16.52 lakhs MT Urea and 2.50 lakhs MT surplus ammonia and has been built
at a cost of US$ 969 million. Marketing of Urea produced by this plant has since been
commenced by the society.
Hazira Phase-II
Society is in the process of setting up a state of the art mega size ammonia plant
of capacity of 1850 MTDP and urea plant of capacity of 3250 MTDP at existing fertilizer
complex at Hazira. Existing infrastructure facilities will be utilized resulting in saving of
cost. Plant will be based on natural gas and we have energy consumption.
Gujarat state energy generation limited (GSEG)
Society has diversified to power sector and has invested Rs. 48.75 crores being
30% equity in Gujarat State Energy Generation Limited, a joint venture company
- 19 -
promoted by government of Gujarat, GSEG is operating 156 MW Power Plant at Mora,
District Surat.
KRIBHCO’s Hazira plant is also going to be expanded. The society is also
exploring the possibilities to set up a 200 MW liquid fuel based power project at
Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan. Society has deposited a development security of Rs.25 lakhs with
Rajasthan State Electricity Board (RSEB). Minister of power has given No Objection
Certificate (NOC).
ORGANIZATIONAL CHART OF KRIBHCO
Government of India
Ministry of Agriculture
Department of fertilizer
& Chemical
Chairman
Board of Directors
Managing Director
Operational Director
CM
GM GM GM GM GM GM (MIS)
(P) (Material) (F&A) (P&A) (Tech) (Mai.)
CM CM CM CM CM CM
(P) (Material) (F&A) (P&A) (Tech) (Maintain)
Instrument
Ammonia Process
Electrical
Urea Purchase Project
Power F&S Mechanic
Store
PHP Civil
Laboratory
- 20 -
Transportation
COMPETENCY MAPPING
In today’s competitive market, companies are aware that their workforce must be
properly trained and fully competent over a range of tasks within any given work
discipline.
Competency mapping is a process through which one assesses and determines one’s
strengths as an individual worker and in some cases, as part of an organization. It
generally examines two areas: emotional intelligence or emotional quotient (EQ), and
strengths of the individual in areas like team structure, leadership, and decision-making.
Large organizations frequently employ some form of competency mapping to understand
how to most effectively employ the competencies of strengths of workers. They may also
use competency mapping to analyze the combination of strengths in different workers to
produce the most effective teams and the highest quality work.
Competency mapping can also be done for contract or freelance workers, or for those
seeking employment to emphasize the specific skills which would make them valuable to
a potential employer.
Competency mapping also requires some thought, time, and analysis, and some people
simply may not want to do the work involved to sufficiently map competencies.
Competency mapping alone may not produce accurate results unless one is able to
detach from the results in analyzing past successes and failures. Many studies find that
people often overestimate their abilities, making self-competency mapping results
dubious.
The value of competency mapping and identifying emotional strengths is that many
employers now purposefully screen employees to hire people with specific competencies.
They may need to hire someone who can be an effective time leader or who has
- 21 -
demonstrated great active listening skills. Alternately, they may need someone who
enjoys taking initiative or someone who is very good at taking direction. When individuals
must seek new jobs, knowing one’s competencies can give one a competitive edge in the
job market.
Usually, a person will find themselves with strengths in about five to six areas. Sometimes
an area where strengths are not present is worth developing. In other cases, competency
mapping can indicate finding work that is suited to one’s strengths, or finding a
department at one’s current work where one's strengths or needs as a worker can be
exercised.
However, competency mapping can ultimately serve the individual who decides to seek
employment in an environment where he or she perhaps can learn new things and be
more intellectually challenged. Being able to list competencies on resumes and address
this area with potential employers may help secure more satisfying work. This may not
resolve issues for the company that initially employed competency mapping, without
making suggested changes. It may find competency mapping has produced dissatisfied
workers or led to a high worker turnover rate.
Competency also means the collection of success factors necessary for achieving
important results in a specific job or work role in a particular organization. Success factors
are combinations of knowledge, skills, and attributes that are described in terms of
- 22 -
specific behaviors, and are demonstrated by superior performers in those jobs or work
roles. Attributes include: personal characteristics, traits, motives, values or ways of
thinking that impact an individual’s behavior.
Top Competencies. Top competencies are the vital few competencies (four to seven, on
average) that are the most important to an individual in their ongoing career management
process. “Importance to the individual” is an intuitive decision based on a combination of
three factors: past demonstrated excellence in using the competency, inner passion for
using the competency, and the current or likely future demand for the competency in the
individual’s current position or targeted career field.
- 23 -
Although the definition above for “competency mapping” refers to individual employees,
organizations also “map” competencies, but from a different perspective.
Organizations describe, or map, competencies using one or more of the following four
strategies:
• Defining the factors for success in jobs (i.e., work) and work roles within the
organization.
• Assessing the current performance and future development needs of persons holding
jobs and roles.
techniques ETC.
- 24 -
Why Should Individual Employees Map Their Competencies?
• Gains a clearer sense of true marketability in today’s job market; once the individual
knows how his/her competencies compare to those that are asked for by the job market in
• Gains advanced preparation for interviews, many of which may be delivered using a
competency- based approach called “structured behavioral interviewing” or “behavioral
event interviewing.”
- 25 -
How Do Competencies Relate to MANPOWER PLANNING?
Since competency mapping provides database information for manpower planning they
are closely linked
- 26 -
A structured set of questions is used to interview all candidates. Each question is
designed to elicit behavioral examples from the candidate which demonstrate the use of
one or more key behaviors underlying each competency that is accounted for in the
interview.
A team of interviewers is usually used and they typically divide the list of competencies
among themselves so that each interviewer can focus on asking the related detailed
behavioral questions and documenting candidate responses. Interviewers typically ask
open-ended and situation-based questions such as, “Think of a specific time when you
faced ____________? How did you handle the situation? How did it turn out?”
Interviewers record evidence of behaviors that the candidate relates, and they ask
probing questions to gather complete behavioral evidence that includes details of the
circumstance, the actions taken by the candidate, and the results achieved. This process
is called the CAR (circumstance, action, results) Model. At the conclusion of the
interview, all interviewers of a particular candidate meet and compare the behaviors they
heard from the candidate that support the assertion that the candidate possesses a
specific competency. If the candidate did not offer specific examples with relevant
behaviors, after additional attempts at rephrasing the question or asking different but
related questions, then the determination is made that the candidate does not possess
the competency.
The underlying philosophy here is that the best predictor of future performance is past
performance that was demonstrated by concrete, observable behavior. A final hiring
decision is made based on the total strength of competencies demonstrated by each
candidate, compared with those competencies that are considered essential for success
in the position and in the organization, and as compared with the competency strengths
of the remaining candidates for the same position.
- 27 -
COMPETENCY MAPPING IS HR TOOL USED IN
-Recruitment /Selection
-Training/Development
-Performance Management
-Career Planning/Development
-Succession Planning
-Manpower Planning
-Human Resource Development
-Human Resource Planning
-Human Resource Strategic Planning.
etc
First and foremost, competencies must be demonstrated by individuals. Perhaps the most
common place where they are demonstrated is within the scope of a particular job or
project involvement. However, competencies are also developed and demonstrated by
individuals in the following settings: volunteer roles in the community, professional
associations, school projects, sports participation settings, and even within one’s own
home life.
One of the first encounters with competencies for most individuals is in securing
employment with a new organization. Organizations that are purposefully using cutting-
edge methods to choose talent for positions or project roles are engaging in what is called
“competency-based interviewing and selection”. These interviewing and selection
methods are being used not only for hiring external applicants, but also for staffing
internal roles.
- 28 -
Many organizations that use competency-based interviewing and selection are also later
using the same competencies to assess performance, to encourage future development
plans from individuals, and to plan for succession in the organization. Therefore, the
individual employees in such an organization will have an ongoing need to use and map
their competencies.
Up to this point, it is implied that the main need for identifying and mapping competencies
is for individuals who may be pursuing full-time employment with an organization.
However, the need for mapping of competencies also extends to independent contractors
seeking project work with those organizations that broker their services.
- 29 -
AN INTRODUCTION TO KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Knowledge is defined (Oxford English Dictionary) variously as (i) expertise, and skills
acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical
understanding of a subject, (ii) what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and
information or (iii) awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation.
Philosophical debates in general start with Plato's formulation of knowledge as "justified
true belief". There is however no single agreed definition of knowledge presently, or any
prospect of one, and there remain numerous competing theories.
Reliable knowledge
The knowledge based on the logical considerations and scientific calculations is known
as reliable knowledge. The degree of reliability is high regarding the information here,
hence known as reliable knowledge.
Communicating knowledge
Situated knowledge
- 30 -
highly situational knowledge. One of the main benefits of the scientific method is that the
theories it generates are much less situational than knowledge gained by other methods.
Situational knowledge is often embedded in language, culture, or traditions.
Partial knowledge
- 31 -
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
(i) The DIKW model, which places data, information, knowledge and wisdom into an
increasingly useful pyramid.
(ii) Nonaka's reformulation of Polanyi's distinction between tacit and explicit
knowledge.
Both of these models are increasingly under challenge with different schools of thought
emerging which are more fully described and referenced in the main article.
- 32 -
HR has a key role in the KM movement. Key HR processes- corporate education,
performance management and nurturing culture, have a key role in the development of
the knowledge based enterprise.
Sustainable competitive advantage a firm has come from what it “collectively knows,” how
effectively it uses what it knows and how readily it “acquires and uses new knowledge,” in
short by becoming a Knowledge Driven Organization. Knowledge Management (KM)
provides an enabling framework to derive this advantage. It helps institutionalize
processes to fully leverage the “collective knowledge” in an organization.
Knowledge management refers to all systematic activities for creation and sharing of
knowledge so that knowledge can be used for the success of the organization. KM
processes provide a framework for connecting people to people and people to
information, to develop and share distilled learning and best practices.
- 33 -
Key concepts in Knowledge Management
Dimensions of knowledge
Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) argued that a successful KM program needs, on the one
hand, to convert internalized tacit knowledge into explicit codified knowledge in order to
share it, but, on the other hand, it also must permit individuals and groups to internalize
and make personally meaningful codified knowledge they have retrieved from the KM
system.
The focus upon codification and management of explicit knowledge has allowed
knowledge management practitioners to appropriate prior work in information
management, leading to the frequent accusation that knowledge management is simply a
repackaged form of information management.
- 34 -
Knowledge access stages
For example, individuals undertaking a new project for an organization might access
information resources to identify lessons learned for similar projects, access relevant
information again during the project implementation to seek advice on issues
encountered, and access relevant information afterwards for advice on after-project
actions and review activities. Knowledge management practitioners offer systems,
repositories, and corporate processes to encourage and formalize these activities with
varying degrees of success.
Similarly, knowledge may be accessed before the project implementation, for example as
the project team learns lessons during the initial project analysis. Similarly, lessons
learned during the project operation may be recorded, and after-action reviews may lead
to further insights and lessons being recorded for future access. Note: In this context
recording knowledge relates only to those aspects of knowledge which can be codified as
text, or drawings.
Different organizations have tried various knowledge capture incentives, including making
content submission mandatory and incorporating rewards into performance measurement
plans. There is considerable controversy over whether incentives work or not in this field
and no firm consensus has emerged.
Perhaps first among these is to gain the competitive advantage (in industry) and/or
increased effectiveness that comes with improved or faster learning and new knowledge
creation. Knowledge management programs may lead to greater innovation, better
- 35 -
customer experiences, consistency in good practices and knowledge access across a
global organization, as well as many other benefits, and knowledge management
programs may be driven with these goals in mind.
- 36 -
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT ROLES AND ORGANIZATIONAL
STRUCTURE
Personal knowledge management (PKM) is a label for the effort to integrate personal
information management (PIM), focused on individual skills, with knowledge management
(KM), which takes an organizational perspective, in light of expanding knowledge about
human cognitive capabilities and the permeability of organizational boundaries.
A core focus of PKM is 'personal inquiry', a quest to find, connect, learn, and explore.
- 37 -
gaps when needed. This frequently implies technology, but one can be good at PKM
without much in the way of special tools.
PKM has recently been linked to social book marking, blogging or knowledge logs (K-
logs). The idea is individuals use their blogs to capture ideas, opinions or thoughts and
this 'voicing' will encourage cognitive diversity, promote free exchanges away from a
centralized policed knowledge repository that is additional to ordinary work.
Some organizations are now introducing PKM 'systems' with some or all of four
components:
• Just-in-time Canvassing - templates and e-mail canvassing lists that enable people
looking for experts or expertise to identify and connect with the appropriate people
quickly and effectively
• Knowledge Harvesting - software tools that automatically collect appropriate
knowledge residing on subject matter experts' hard drives rather than waiting for it
to be contributed to central repositories
• Personal Content Management - taxonomy processes and desktop search tools
that enable employees to organize, subscribe to, publish and find information that
resides on their own desktops
• Personal Productivity Improvement - knowledge fairs and one-on-one training
sessions to help each employee make more effective personal use of the
knowledge, learning and technology resources available to them, in the context of
their own work
PKM Skills
- 38 -
• Manage learning. Manage how and when the individual learns.
• Information literacy. Understanding what information is important and how to find
unknown information.
• Organizational skills. Personal librarianship? Personal categorization and
taxonomies.
• Networking with others. Knowing what your network of people knows. Knowing
who might have additional knowledge and resources to help you
• Researching, paying attention, interviewing and observational 'cultural
anthropology' skills
• Communication skills. Perception, intuition, expression, visualization, and
interpretation.
• Creative skills. Imagination, pattern recognition, appreciation, innovation,
inference. Understanding of complex adaptive systems.
• Collaboration skills. Coordination, synchronization, experimentation, cooperation,
and design.
KM concepts
The Knowledge management discourse has adopted, invented and refined concepts from
a wide range of disciplines and practices. There follows a list of concepts and language in
use in the field. At the moment there is no clear consensus on what is or is not a core
concept. The ordering of the list has no significance. Some knowledge of these terms and
their background could be summarized as what one should know to be considered a
proficient KM adviser and knowledge worker
- 39 -
adaptation and corporate survival. KM plays a role in mapping, recording,
evaluating, stewarding, marketing and growing intellectual capital and knowledge
assets.
• tacit knowledge
• knowledge harvesting
• business intelligence
• knowledge transfer
• social capital
• social networking,
• Knowledge Ecosystems
• Knowledge representation
- 40 -
• Practice vs. process - the balance between informal learning and strictly defined
repeatable activities. .
• Peer reviews - inviting colleagues who have experience with similar projects to
share their tips, tricks and lessons learned before starting out.
- 41 -
WHY KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT?
In this competitive knowledge economy, our most valuable asset is the knowledge asset.
It is often said that, in this economy it is not what “we own,” but what “we know”. That
would give us the competitive advantage. We must therefore, quickly learn the strategies
and management techniques of knowledge Age. In short, we must adopt practice of
knowledge management to strengthen our competitive advantage.
- 42 -
AN OVERVIEW OF KNOWLEDGE PROCESSES
A community of Practice (CoP) is one such useful structure. In large organizations with
geographical spread, multiple business units, businesses, organizational silos are likely to
constrain effective knowledge of the enterprise. Communities of practice (knowledge
communities or teams) formed around core competencies of the company help overcome
this constraint.
Intranets with efficient search engines provide an effective way to connect people to
knowledge repositories.
- 43 -
BARRIERS FOR IMPLEMENTING KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT
Conceptual/mindset related issues:
Operational issues:
Time – The typical executive is already hard pressed for time. He has no time for an
additional initiative, if it is seen as a diversion from focus on immediate results. So, it is
important to integrate KM into existing business processes in the company and embed
into workflow. KM should not be seen as a separate initiative, but should be integrated
into current workflow as a more effective way to achieve business results.
Knowledge Management programs are typically tied to organizational objectives and are
intended to achieve specific outcomes, these can include, improved performance,
competitive advantage innovation, lessons learnt transfer (for example between projects)
and the general development of collaborative practices.
One aspect of Knowledge Management, knowledge transfer, has always existed in one
form or another. Examples include on-the-job peer discussions, formal apprenticeship,
discussion forums, corporate libraries, professional training and mentoring programs.
- 44 -
However, with computers becoming more widespread in the second half of the 20th
century, specific adaptations of technology such as knowledge bases, expert systems,
and knowledge repositories have been introduced to further simplify the process.
- 45 -
CHALLENGES FOR HR PROFESSIONALS IN THE
KNOWLEDGE INDUSTRY
The new millennium is here & this is definitely not a bad time for professionals to gear
themselves up and think about the future, their future! It is time to plan, envision, prioritize
and set goals for the new millennium.
The challenge is not just in terms of updating technologies but also in terms of keeping
young workforce motivated and challenged at all the time. This breed of young and
energetic individuals is challenging a lot of the time-tested theories of employee
recruitment, staffing, motivation and general HR practices. There are lots of challenges
while recruiting these young bloods. They are as under:
We need to increase the credibility of HR within the organization that can be done
by:
- 46 -
c) Meeting commitment to do what we say on time and within specified budget
• How then do HR processes and practices impact the knowledge sharing in a firm?
Some of the HR processes and practices that should be aligned to strengthen knowledge
management are as follows:
• Job rotations: Well-planned job (role) rotations across geographical locations and
businesses in a firm help not only people development, but also provide an
important vehicle for transfer of knowledge and best practices, even though an
organization cannot obviously depend on this as the main source of knowledge
transfer.
- 47 -
• E – Learning is on line learning. It is made available through company web sites
and even through CD – ROMs. It allows the learner to enroll in to courses or
programs of their choice and acquire knowledge at their own pace at the place of
their choice. Corporate online universities, exclusive learning space to induct
managers or develop future leaders, ongoing programs for sales personnel and
induction into new products and services are some of the e-learning offerings,
some of the companies are making available to their employees to develop
themselves. E- Learning provides the benefit of convenience—allows the learner to
do the learning at his or her pace, flexibility –Learner does not have to sacrifice a
training program because of its clash with customer or personal visit, and ease of
learning. Experience in US / Europe seems to confirm that e-learning also saves
cost. As of now Band width might pose some constraints, but with fast changing IT
infrastructure, even in India, this could offer interesting opportunities.
• Another very useful role HR could play is to capture stories of success and failures
in the company, archive them in the company training centre for reference for
future. This would not only support learning but could prevent repeat same
mistakes.
- 48 -
• How can we create a knowledge sharing culture?
“People do not do what you tell them, but what you measure them for.” HR needs to
institute a system of rewards and recognition, training and performance development
practices- activities that reinforce the discipline of sharing, documenting knowledge and
reuse of others ideas with pride to achieve business goals.
People in business most often behave in a way that increases their career opportunities,
reward individual effort or task achievement. They reward something done in a crisis, but
most incentive programs do not reward avoiding a crisis. The best KM practitioners
reward employees for learning, sharing and collaborating.
1. Identify -- Determine what knowledge is critical for the success of the enterprise.
2. Capture -- Collect critical knowledge using techniques such as interviews and best
practices submissions.
3. Retain -- Store the captured knowledge in a format where it can be easily retrieved
for use at a later time.
- 49 -
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Objective of the study: There are three main objectives of the study as follows:
1. To study the status of KM in the organization and to check the competency of the
employees.
2. To study the perception of employees on the basis of job profile towards
KM
3. To practice research methodology as a student
Sample size: 50
- 50 -
Limitations of research study: While conducting research, at most care was taken to
collect data in unprejudiced manner to make this study precise and truthful. But, due to
certain unavoidable reasons, there are certain limitations which are as mentioned below.
• This study engrosses only a part of total number of employees working at Surat
manufacturing plant.
• Research was to be conducted maintaining the decorum of the company.
• Employees were busy in their work and thus did not spare much time to respond
openly to the questions asked.
• Information and responses given by the respondents may be a biased due to
several reasons.
• Limited time span for carrying out study also restricted the research work.
• As company is too large, as per their tactics and guiding principle employees were
not ready to disclose confidential facets.
- 51 -
DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
As reported earlier, the objective of the research is to get an idea regarding the
competency level of the employees and to check status of KM in the organization.
Through exploratory study data collection was done. It is based on the main parameter
namely job profile. Frequency distribution method is used for data analysis.
Job profile includes following three main categories: Chief Managers, Sr. Managers,
Managers, and Dy. Managers.
30
25
20
15
AGE
10
0
31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50 50 & >
- 52 -
No. of 0 1 17 20 12
Employees
20
15
10
EXPERIENCE
0
6--15 16--25 26--30 30 & >
QUESTIONS
1. Do you feel you are doing the job according to your job profile?
50
40
30
20 No. of Employees
10
0
Yes No Can't Say
Inferences: From the above table and chart we can say that 90% of the respondents
agrees that they are doing the job according to their job profile while the 10% disagree.
- 53 -
2. Do you finish every work assigned to you within the time limit?
50
40
30
20 No. of Employees
10
0
Yes No Can't Say
Inferences: From the above table and chart we can say that 84% of respondents always
finishes every work assigned to them within the time limit, while 16% sometime complete
their work in time.
40
30
No. of Employees
20
10
0
Always Sometimes Never
- 54 -
Inferences: From the above table and chart it is clear that 90% of respondents
sometimes need guidance from their superiors while 8% never need any guidance from
their superior.
35
30
25
20
15 No. of Employees
10
5
0
Yes No Can't Say
Inferences: From the above table and chart its clear that 28% of respondents feel they
need training to perform their work, 64% do not need training to perform their work, while
8% were unable to say anything about this.
5. Do you feel the type of work you were performing at the time of your joining and
today is the same?
- 55 -
40
35
30
25
20
No. of Employees
15
10
5
0
Yes No Can't Say
Inferences: From the above table and chart we can say that 28% of respondents agrees
that the type of work they were performing at the time of their joining and today is the
same while 72% respondents disagree to the statement.
50
40
30
No. of Employees
20
10
0
Yes No Can't Say
- 56 -
Inferences: From above we can say that 86% of respondents admits that competency
mapping helps them to do manpower planning and only 2% disagreed while 12% didn’t
answered.
30
25
20
15
No. of Employees
10
0
Yes No Can't Say
Inferences: From above we can say that 60% of respondents admits that competency
mapping is done regularly in KRIBHCO where as 20% disagreed and 20% didn’t
answered.
- 57 -
35
30
25
20
15 No. of Employees
10
5
0
Yes No Can't Say
Inferences: From above its clear that 70% of respondents agrees that Recruitment and
Selection processes carried out considering competency of the individuals while 10%
respondents disagreed.
45
40
35
30
25
20 No. of Employees
15
10
5
0
Yes No Can't Say
Inferences: From above its clear that 84% believes that competency mapping is helpful
in individual’s career development while only 2% disagreed to the statement.
- 58 -
ANSWER YES NO CAN’T SAY
No. of Employee 39 8 3
40
35
30
25
20
No. of Employees
15
10
5
0
Yes No Can't Say
Inferences: From above table and chart its clear that 78% respondents believes that
Knowledge is critical for their organization while 16% disagreed.
35
30
25
20
15 No. of Employees
10
5
0
A B C D
- 59 -
Inferences: From above table and chart its clear that 18 employees feel Reports and
journals, 35 feel Meetings and group discussions, 24 Experience of the incidence sharing,
and 6 feels others are the sources of knowledge in KRIBHCO.
50
40
30
No. of Employees
20
10
0
A B
Inferences: Looking to above graph it can be said that 42 respondents feel that
knowledge is shared among different departments through formal meetings whereas 17
says that informal meetings is the way to share knowledge.
13. What is the current status of knowledge management in your company?
- 60 -
30
25
20
15
No. of Employees
10
5
0
A B C D
50
40
30
No. of Employees
20
10
0
Yes No Can't Say
Inferences: From the above table and chart we can say that 92% of the respondents
agrees that IT plays a part in sharing knowledge while 2% disagreed and 4% didn’t
answered.
- 61 -
15. Is available knowledge exploited to an adequate extent in this organization?
25
20
15
No. of Employees
10
0
Yes No Can't Say
Inferences: From above its clear that 46% respondents agrees that knowledge is
exploited, 22% believes it is not exploited while 30% didn’t answered
.
16. Do you undertake additional personal efforts to enhance your knowledge level
and improve your competency?
- 62 -
40
35
30
25
20
No. of Employees
15
10
5
0
A B C D
Inferences: From above its clear that 13 employees invariably undertake additional
personal efforts to enhance their knowledge level and improve their competency, 36 take
frequently, 1 take rarely and 1 never take any personal efforts to enhance their
knowledge level and improve their competency.
17. What additional personal efforts do you undertake to enhance your knowledge
level and improve your competency?
- 63 -
30
25
20
15
No. of Employees
10
0
A B C D E
40
35
30
25
20
No. of Employees
15
10
5
0
A B C D
Inferences: From above its clear that 12 employees invariably share their learning with
their colleagues, 38 do it frequently, 2 do it rarely their learning with their colleagues.
- 64 -
19. Which one is the biggest cultural barrier in knowledge management in
company?
20
15
10
No. of Employees
0
A B C D
20. How significant is the role that effective KM can play in achieving the best
result with respect to the following in company?
NOTE: The answers to this question (i.e. from a to l) is given point-wise from 1to 5 in
ascending order.
ANSWER 1 2 3 4 5
No. of 1 3 13 8 18
- 65 -
Employee
18
16
14
12
10
8 No. of Employees
6
4
2
0
A B C D E
ANSWER 1 2 3 4 5
No. of 0 4 12 8 15
Employee
16
14
12
10
8
No. of Employees
6
4
2
0
A B C D E
- 66 -
c) Innovations
ANSWER 1 2 3 4 5
No. of 0 5 8 18 8
Employee
18
16
14
12
10
8 No. of Employees
6
4
2
0
A B C D E
d) Inventory reduction
ANSWER 1 2 3 4 5
No. of 1 3 10 10 17
Employee
- 67 -
18
16
14
12
10
8 No. of Employees
6
4
2
0
A B C D E
e) Employee development
ANSWER 1 2 3 4 5
No. of 0 6 5 12 18
Employee
18
16
14
12
10
8 No. of Employees
6
4
2
0
A B C D E
f) Cost reduction.
- 68 -
ANSWER 1 2 3 4 5
No. of 1 6 8 8 20
Employee
20
15
10
No. of Employees
0
A B C D E
g) Revenue growth
ANSWER 1 2 3 4 5
No. of 1 3 10 11 16
Employee
- 69 -
16
14
12
10
8
No. of Employees
6
4
2
0
A B C D E
h) Better decision-making.
ANSWER 1 2 3 4 5
No. of 1 8 1 13 19
Employee
20
15
10
No. of Employees
0
A B C D E
- 70 -
ANSWER 1 2 3 4 5
No. of 0 5 20 5 9
Employee
20
15
10
No. of Employees
0
A B C D E
ANSWER 1 2 3 4 5
No. of 0 8 6 10 16
Employee
16
14
12
10
8
No. of Employees
6
4
2
0
A B C D E
- 71 -
k) Improving quality
ANSWER 1 2 3 4 5
No. of 2 5 2 8 25
Employee
25
20
15
10 No. of Employees
0
A B C D E
l) Improving delivery
ANSWER 1 2 3 4 5
No. of 0 8 6 6 21
Employee
- 72 -
25
20
15
No. of Employees
10
0
A B C D E
ANSWER a) b) c) d) e) f) g)
No. of 11 34 7 5 18 2 10
Employees
- 73 -
35
30
25
20
15 No. of Employees
10
5
0
A B C D E F G
25
24
23
22
No. of Employees
21
20
19
SA A D SD
Inferences: From the above table and graph 25 employees strongly agreed that
Knowledge is crucial for KRIBHCO and 21 agreed to the same.
- 74 -
23. Your organizational culture is supportive to KM.
35
30
25
20
15 No. of Employees
10
5
0
SA A D SD
Inferences: From the above table and graph 8 employees strongly agreed that
KRIBHCO’s organizational culture is supportive to KM, 34 agreed to the same and 3
disagreed to the statement.
- 75 -
40
35
30
25
20
No. of Employees
15
10
5
0
SA A D SD
Inferences: From the above table and graph 12 employees strongly agreed that Critical
technical knowledge is given more preference, 36 agreed to the statement while 6
disagreed and 1 strongly disagreed to it.
35
30
25
20
15 No. of Employees
10
5
0
SA A D SD
- 76 -
Inferences: From the above table and graph 8 employees strongly agreed that
Competent and knowledgeable employees are given due recognition, 31 employees
agreed, 7 disagreed while 2 strongly disagreed to the statement.
35
30
25
20
15 No. of Employees
10
5
0
SA A D SD
Inferences: From the above table and graph 12 employees strongly agreed that
Experiences or knowledge shared in different organizational forum/meetings in practice
needs to be documented in scientific and structural manner, 32 agreed, while 3 disagreed
top the statement.
- 77 -
ANSWER STRONGLY AGREE(A) DISAGREE(D) STRONGLY
AGREE(SA) DISAGREE(SD)
No. of 10 33 5 0
Employees
35
30
25
20
15 No. of Employees
10
5
0
SA A D SD
Inferences: From the above table and graph 10 employees strongly agreed that there is
a need of a management system for managing knowledge, 33 agreed, while 5 employees
disagreed to the statement.
- 78 -
30
25
20
15
No. of Employees
10
0
SA A D SD
Inferences: From the above table and graph 26 employees strongly agreed that KM
plays a significant role in organizational development and 20 respondents agreed to the
above statement.
- 79 -
A QUESIONNAIRE ON STUDY OF COMPETENCY MAPPING AND KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT IN KRIBHCO
PERSONAL INFORMATION
• Department/Plant: __________________________
• Discipline:
• Designation: __________________________
• Age:
• Number of years of experience:
20-25 ( )
0-5 ( )
26-30 ( )
6-15 ( )
31-35 ( )
16-25 ( )
36-40 ( )
26-30 ( )
41-45 ( )
30 & above ( )
46-50 ( )
50 & above ( )
• Gender: ______________
Education qualification:
Stream Graduate Post Graduate Doctorate
Science
Commerce
Arts
Engineering
Management
Research
- 80 -
QUESTIONS
1. Do you feel you are doing the job according to your job profile?
• Yes [ ]
• No [ ]
• Can’t Say [ ]
2. Do you finish every work assigned to you within the time limit?
• Always [ ]
• Sometimes [ ]
• Never [ ]
3. Do you require the guidance from your superior?
• Always [ ]
• Sometimes [ ]
• Never [ ]
4. Do you feel you need training to perform your work?
• Yes [ ]
• No [ ]
• Can’t Say [ ]
5. Do you feel the type of work you were performing at the time of your joining and today
is the same?
• Yes [ ]
• No [ ]
• Can’t Say [ ]
6. Does competency mapping helps you to do manpower planning?
• Yes [ ]
• No [ ]
• Can’t Say [ ]
7. Do you perform competency mapping regularly in your company?
• Yes [ ]
• No [ ]
- 81 -
• Can’t Say [ ]
8. Does Recruitment and Selection processes carried out considering competency of the
individuals?
• Yes [ ]
• No [ ]
• Can’t Say [ ]
9. Does competency mapping helpful in individual’s career development?
• Yes [ ]
• No [ ]
• Can’t Say [ ]
10. Knowledge is critical for your kind of organization?
• Yes [ ]
• No [ ]
• Can’t Say [ ]
11. What are the sources of knowledge in this organization?
• Reports and journals [ ]
• Meetings and group discussions [ ]
• Experience of the incidence sharing [ ]
• Others [ ]
12. How knowledge is shared among different departments of this organization?
• Formal meetings [ ]
• Informal meetings/chat [ ]
13. What is the current status of knowledge management in your company?
• Not in existence at all [ ]
• Nascent stage [ ]
• Introduction stage [ ]
• Growth stage [ ]
14. Does IT play a part in sharing knowledge in this organization?
• Yes [ ]
- 82 -
• No [ ]
• Can’t Say [ ]
19. Which one is the biggest cultural barrier in knowledge management in company?
a) ‘I am in position’ attitude [ ]
- 83 -
c) Lack of significance and recognition to ‘knowledge sharing’ [ ]
20. How significant is the role that effective KM can play in achieving the best result w.r.t
the following in company?
a) Improving competitive advantage 1 2 3 4 5
c) Innovations 1 2 3 4 5
d) Inventory reduction. 1 2 3 4 5
e) Employee development. 1 2 3 4 5
f) Cost reduction. 1 2 3 4 5
g) Revenue growth 1 2 3 4 5
h) Better decision-making. 1 2 3 4 5
k) Improving quality 1 2 3 4 5
l) Improving delivery 1 2 3 4 5
- 84 -
l) Lack of top management commitment to KM. [ ]
NO S S
STATEMENTS: A D
. A D
22. Knowledge is crucial for your type of organization.
23. Your organizational culture is supportive to KM.
24. Critical technical knowledge is given more preference in
your organization.
25. Competent and knowledgeable employees are given due
recognition.
26. Experiences or knowledge shared in different
organizational forum/meetings in practice needs to be
documented in scientific and structural manner.
27. There is a need of a management system for managing
knowledge is this organization.
28. KM plays a significant role in organizational development.
- 85 -
RESEARCH FINDINGS
• Employee in KRIBHCO believe that they are doing the job according to their
job profile. They finish every work assigned to them within the time limit, which
shows that they are competent, though many of them need guidance from their
superiors sometimes.
• Few believe that they need training to perform their job which is contradicting
to their competency level, since the type of type of work they were performing at
the time of their joining and today have changed.
• Many admitted that competency mapping helps them to do manpower
planning.
• Many believe that competency mapping is carried out regularly in KRIBHCO
and recruitment and selection process is carried out considering the competency of
individuals but few disagreed to this statement.
• Almost all employees believes that competency mapping is helpful in
individual’s career development.
• Knowledge is critical for this organization
• Formal meetings are the major sources of knowledge in this organization
informal meeting and chats are also alternative for knowledge sharing.
• An excellent IT infrastructure exists in this organization. E-mail and intranet is
the major source of sharing knowledge in the company as far as IT is concerned.
Electronic media plays a significant role in networking of knowledge in this
organization.
- 86 -
• Knowledge is exploited to the adequate extent in this organization. Majority of
employees frequently undertakes additional personal efforts to enhance their
knowledge level as quest for knowledge is there in the employees.
• Though employees frequently share their learning with their colleagues after
attending seminars or training but it is in a non regular manner through informal
chats. It is not institutionalized but can be structured in a proper manner as scope
is there.
• Some of the major cultural barriers are “Indifference of people towards
developmental processes”, and “Lack of open mindedness”.
• Major outcomes out of the implementation of Knowledge Management can be
Improving quality, Improving delivery, Better decision making, Intellectual property
rights management and cost reduction etc.
• “Lack of understanding of KM and its benefits.” and “Lack of top management
commitment to KM” are the biggest hurdle in effective implementation of KM in
company. Majority of employees believe that the organizational culture is
supportive to KM and Critical technical knowledge is given more preference in your
organization.
• Majority of employees agree with Knowledge created is being captured in their
organization up to some extent.
- 87 -
SUGGESTIONS
- 88 -
• As there is an excellent IT network in this organization so it should be utilized
efficiently for KM implementation through usage of some standard KM applications
(soft wares).
• Some motivation should be given to the employees so that they take interest in
knowledge enhancement and management.
• E – Learning is on line learning. It is made available through company web sites
and even through CD – ROMs. It allows the learner to enroll in to courses or
programs of their choice and acquire knowledge at their own pace at the place of
their choice.
CONCLUSION
Hence, with the given research study conducted in this organization, it can be concluded
that the concept of competency mapping and Knowledge Management is in between the
introduction and growth stage that is it is ahead of introduction stage and has not reached
yet to growth stage. It has been also concluded that there is certainly a quest for
knowledge in the employees and combining this factor with highly established HR
Department and advanced Information Technology in the organization, competency
mapping is need to be regularly carried out here and Knowledge Management will
definitely reach to the growth stage in due course of time in this organization.
- 89 -
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kothari C.R, Research Methodology, New Delhi. New age International (P) ltd
publishers 1985.
K. Ashwathappa, Human Resource Management, New Delhi, Tata Mac graw hill
Publishing company 1997.
Websites :-
www.google.com
www.kribhco.org.in
www.kribhcosurat.com
www.wikipedia.com
- 90 -