B&Q Case Study

Contents Executive Summary3 1. TASK ONE4 1. 1 Introduction4 1. 2 Possession and exert4 3. 3 B& gathering AQ case5 3. TASK TWO8 3. 1 Introduction8 3. 2 Time distance9 3. 3 Technological distance10 3. 4 Social distance10 3. 5 Cultural distance11 4. Bibliography13 Executive Summary In a modernized and globalized introduction, companionship unveiling and synergization of acquaintance in an arrangement is truly crucial.As selective in phaseation and culture argon quick accessible, and randomness communication technology (ICT) has highly advanced, brasss much(prenominal) as B& angstrom unitQ consume to determine how consume earthly concern can assist to improve internal and external butt a crystalisestes and also incite insertion. In task one, the aim is to polariate between possession of friendship and practice of companionship and go through which epistemology B& adenineQ uses by intend ofout their tack on reach. B& angstrom unitQ uses possession noesis whereby it provides in whole(a) their sellers with a rule of conduct guidelines which they film to follow through.However, in the face of risk and unbelief in an scotch crisis, B& angstromQ should adopt practice of cognition and enabling people to do differently and demote. In task devil, the command by Stoneman (2010) means that trust and personnel argon the principal(prenominal) operators that guide product, attend to and tieupal substructure. For B& group AQ, due to their power as the distributor, they be able to develop and lay pop up the run and procedures that altogether their vendors motive to adhere to. However, in an stinting crisis, its regimental practice may ot work as un plasteredty disrupts the flow of the procedures. 1. TASK ONE 1. 1 Introduction The studies on noesis and its characteristics behave long been explored and discussed in the business organization and slide by chain world. With the emergent of technology and macrocosm, the pos session and practice of acquaintance has become more native in this cognition society (Nonaka, 1994 Bell, 1973 Drucker, 1968 Toffler, 1990). nonwithstanding what is acquaintance and how does an organization activate and generate knowledge?Knowledge is delimit as aw beness, consciousness, or familiarity gained by experience or eruditeness (knowledge, n. d) which are the ways people in a affable situations would understand and get to sense of where they are and what they are doing. When knowledge is conducted and embraced in an organization, it bequeath issuing to a group of people who develop shared beliefs, behaviours and routines that shape organization capabilities. Experts such as Polanyi (1966), Nonaka (1994) and take and Brown (1999) divide knowledge into two categories called mute knowledge and express knowledge.Tacit knowledge is associated with the skills or know-how that people highly-developed through their own experience in specific contexts. Whereas explic it knowledge is something that has been codified, written down or spelled out and is communicable across context. 1. 2 Possession and practice From the word possession itself, one can understand that it is about the knowledge that people have in their mind (Cook and Brown, 1999). Blackler (1995), and Cook and Brown (1999) refer possesion of knowledge as knowledge and practice of knowledge as knowing.Knowledge is a mental or cognitive susceptibility which is hierarchical in nature and comprises of data, information etc. moreover, possession of knowledge is a personal property where people render meaning from prejudiced experiences, perceptions and previous understanding. As human minds are individually unique, hence different people may perceive and intepret the resembling information or data differently. Meanwhile, practice of knowledge sees knowledge as something that it developed through companionable interaction such as project work, group assignment or group tidings.When pe ople practice knowledge, they convert tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge, thus transferring knowledge from one person to another. This is done through share stories, experiences or creating norms to a group of people hence enabling the experience of an individual to be related to a wider community. 3. 3 B& antiophthalmic factorQ case B& angstrom unitQ plc works with some vendors such as Kingfisher Asia (KAL) who supply products to B& antiophthalmic factorQ. Hence to manage their vendors and date processes and procedures are followed, B& adenylic acidQ come up with cypher of conduct (B& adenylic acidQ Operational Standards for Supply Chains) for all their vendors.The statute of conduct is based on the international labour and envirnmental standards set by the International Labour presidential term (ILO) Conventions which factories and worksites of all vendors throughout the world need to comply to. In summary, vendors need to let B& adenineQ have full visibility of the eni tre supply chain and fulfill and obey the code of conduct criteria at all facilities. Any failure to meet the nine diminutive Failure Points (CFPs) leave alone result in B& angstrom unitQ not buying or purchasing their products.Through this code of conduct, we can deduce that B& group AQ adopts a possession of knowledge rather than practice of knowledge. B& adenosine monophosphateQ receives knowledge about labour and purlieual guidelines from ILO conventions and uses the basic context to issue down or capture in an information technology (IT) frame which is and so made available as an organizational resource B& angstromQ Operational Standards for Supply Chains. This is in contrast of having a group discussion with the vendors and seeking their opinions and views on how to create a wear out working environment for the workers (practice of knowledge).For ex angstrom unitle, Baer (1987) and Abbott (1988) explained that in order to defend their position, occupational groups such as doctors would write down or black box their skills and knowledge which is because utilize by others as guidelines or instructions to follow. B& ampereQ is sideline the same concept as they wish to guard their position as a responsible organization or applyer where the rights of all workers throughout the world are respected and protected. Thus, this results to an encoded knowledge (Blackler, 1995) for the vendors as information is transmited through the code of conduct.Unlike an individual or medical specialist black box, the construction of the code of conduct requires the involvement of a group of people. This method of knowledge cornerstone follows Nonakas SECI framework where it is a spiralling process of interaction between tacit and explicit knowledge (Nonaka,1994 Nonaka & Toyama, 2003). The SECI framework consists of four knowledge transmutation processes Socialization, Externalization, Combination and Internalization which can be seen in Figure 1. The partitio ning for B&Q case is as follow 1.Socialization The ILO standards which was made cognize to the B&Q way assist them to create their own knowledge or set of standards which vendors are to adhere. 2. Externalization B&Q management then decides to have their on set of guidelines in accordance to ILO standards and form a group to write down the code of conduct. 3. Combination We believed that during the process of writing down the code of conduct, B&Q managerial take will each provide inputs and opinions based on the organizations mission and values on what and how to write down.Once drafted, the Head of Human mental imagery Department will read it through and request for any requisite adjustments. Once finalized, the Chairman or Head of B&Q will give the approval to codified and disseminate the code of conduct to all the vendors. 4. Internalization Vendors will then read the instructions and ensure all CFPs are met. For any areas which fail to comply, site manage ment of the vendors will then follow the guidelines to make changes and advances. Figure 1 SECI model of knowledge creation Source Nonaka & Toyama (2003)However, Nonaka SECI framework downplays the difference of interest, power and political kinetics which people and organizations face everyday. Thus, during an economic crisis, B&Q may salute innovation differently due to the uncertainty and adversity faced in a crisis. According to Tsoukas (1996) and Schauer (1991), even though organizations can make assumptions and meet knowledge from previous economic crisis where similar conditions are seen, the formulate dodging may not work perfectly according to what the organizations believed as on that point are still uncertainty.Meaning to say, a strategy used in a crisis five years ago may not generate the same result due to the difference in technology, peoples prospect and other relating conditions. B&Q need to adopt practice of knowledge during a crisis as information m ay not be readily available since people and other organizations are wary and may not disclose essential information in order to survive the crisis. With competitor between rival organizations getting problematicer, B&Q needs to learn, practice and embodied skills and knowledge which increases their chance of survival (Barnett & Burgelman, 1996).As mentioned by Hitt et al (2007), a multilevel research approach to encourage employees to have better understanding of the strategy implemented by B&Q management. Hence, B&Q through providing an enabling context, B&Q allow its employees to do things differently and better. For example, when selecting their vendors, B&Q can not just depone on which vendor is able to adhere to its code of conduct. B&Q also need to look into the pricing, capability and other characteristic of the fact vendor.B&Q vendor management team need to have but dicussion with sales, procurement and operations team to gain their opinions an d views on which vendors to select. With the current vendors, B&Q need to adopt turn out communication and discuss with them on how the crisis is affecting their perfomance and compliance towards the code of conduct. Another example is due to the crisis, a vendor had to lay off several staff and workers due cut their headcount. Hence in order to meet B&Q rders, the vendors workers may need to work extra hours which is over the local law. Through discussion, B&Q may allow the vendor to guard out the new process until the economy stablize and the vendor is able to employ more workers. 3. TASK TWO 3. 1 Introduction Stoneman (2010) mentioned that product, process and organizational innovation are socially and politically mediated processes. This means that through social race and even political standing in an organization product, process and organizational innovation are being conceptualized.capital of Mississippi (2001) noteworthy that the real-world issues and situatio ns do not match up to traditional disciplinary boundaries due to the distinction in the capitalist world. Therefore, trust and power play an essential situation in the development of knowledge and innovation. Internally at B&Q, their managers may see themselves as the permit towards process and organizational innovation. For example, a manager has the power to decide on how his department should be run in order to meet the department and organization goals.And through his affinityship and interaction with the staffs, he may perceive a staff as capable if able to follow the process and excel in it. Hence, to gain trust and acknowledgement, employees compete and motivate each other to do better at what they do and also provide suggestions to the manager on improve certain situations or issues. As highlighted by Hardy and Dougherty (1997), depending on the organizations culture and its dining table of management, resource power and process power can both work against or align ed with innovation.However, without meaning and a direction to support the need for innovation, people will notbe motivated to innovate. For example, the storage staffs at B&Q may face difficulties in pickax the correct product. Thus, with its power, the warehouse manager can arrange a group discussion with the warehousing team leaders and their IT department to create a new process whereby the product are bar-coded and connected to a system which will provide the product information when it is scanned.Externally, when working with their supply chain members such as customers and suppliers, B&Q managers can use either its power or trust to ensure compliance are met by the suppliers and customers continue to purchase from B&Q. For example, the board of management has the authority to continue or discontinue the services of a vendor depending on its compliance and performance. However, during an economic crisis where risk and uncertainty are faced, B&Q managers may react to similar situation or innovation differently.B&Q decisions on innovation, processes and products are affected by four types of distance time, technological, social and cultural. 3. 2 Time distance Due to the changes in time, environment and conditions, certain processes or procedures that B&Q managers created may not be relevant in an economic crisis. Moreover, the decisions B&Q managers made in a previous crisis are also not applicable even though the conditions are similar because there is still uncertainty whether the outcome would be the same.The finance department will be more guarded on the expenses and budget thus setting a more thorough process of other departments to ensure waste are minimized and costs are low. In a study done by Hardy and Dougherty (1997), innovators or managers in an anti-innovation environment would solve their problems through methods and ways which hamper innovation whereas in a pro-innovation environment, innovators are able to incorpor ate the organizations resources, processes and meaning to develop an more suitable and effective product.Thus, in relation to the crisis, B&Q managers may tackle a deparment issue by pushing away the problematic function and work its way well-nigh it. 3. 3 Technological distance As ICT becomes highly advanced, B&Q need to be selective of the information and tacit knowledge that is available widely. This is because not all tacit knowledge is applicable to B&Qs strategy and that an overflow of information will result to overloading and short decision making. Through market and technology knowledge, innovators are able to examine problems, communicate and collaboratively develop new products for the organization (Dougherty et al, 2000).However, in an economic crisis, technology knowledge that is necessary for innovation may not be readily available or cost effective to the organization. Faced with uncertainty, B&Q board of management may decide to take on a survival mode c oncept and develop process such as budget control to restrict unnecessary cost and waste. Thus, if an innovator in B&Q requires a certain technology to assist in its development of new product, he need to go through many levels of strict procedures in order to attain approval. 3. 4 Social distanceDuring an economic crisis, organizations face many problems and situations as they try their hardest to survive and go through the crisis without a major disruption or impact. Due to the uncertainty and risk, managers need to respond quickly and effectively. Even in a crisis, Jackson (2006) noted that managers need to ensure their processes are efficient and effective, staffs are motivated and knowledge is created and enhanced. This is to ensure that the organization is constantly better than their rivals thus surviving the crisis.While ICT and innovation should still move on in a crisis being a regimental organization B&Q managers follow routine and have the power to make innovation unlawful through rewarding short-run results, punishing mistakes and even not rendering the support needed for innovation (Hardy & Dougherty, 1997). Not only does this kills innovation in B&Q, the staff would also be less motivate to innovate as they unable to relate a specific project with B&Qs strategy (Van de Ven and Polley, 1992 Hardy and Dougherty, 1997 Dougherty & Heller, 1994).Hence, B&Q board of management need to re-evaluate its organization strategy and procedures if it wishes to maintain in the industry. Jackson (2006) suggest organizations to adopt creative holism which is a set of guidelines that are multi-paradigm, multi-methodology and multi-method in nature. Through holism, organizatons look at the situation at a macro and organizational level, thus assuring that the departments are connected and playing together as a whole.Dougherty et al (2000) explained that since organizational knowledge and learning involves many different processes, a focal poi nt or objevtive is essential to ensure one is taking the right path. Pelz and Andrews (1966) recognized that the efforts to combine and plug in market and technology knowledge across and throughout the organization is often met and filled with tensions. Thus, B&Q need to incorporate these two factor and be less rigid if it wishes to produce and gain new ideas, products and processes (Weick and Westley, 1996). 3. 5 Cultural distanceKingfisher plc, the parent company of B&Q, is a coupled Kingdom (UK) based retailer that offers do-it-yourself (DIY), home decorations and home improvement products to their 6 million customers (Kingfisher, 2012). To meet their international market and demand, Kingfisher plc has overseas sourcing offices in India and Poland that act as a supplier to B&Q. To ensure these strategies and structure is maintain in other country, Kingfisher plc has to train its overseas employees, make them understand and cultivate the Kingfisher plc working culture. However, this will be a tough challenge for example, in India due to the poor education and different socio-culture. Thus, Kingfisher plc needs to accommodate its Western working culture with India working culture, but without losing its main mission and strategy. To ensure this is executed properly, Kingfisher plc needs to obtain a specialist in the Indian market and culture. An economic crisis affects countries differently, depending on where the crisis originates.However, due to globalization, a crisis in the European Union (EU) nations will have a mess up effect, thus affecting neighbouring countries and countries that depend on the EU economy and market. Likewise, if an economic crisis hits India where one of B&Q suppliers is located at, B&Q need to gather information and data from news reports and the India suppliers representative, and break up the data before making a decision on how to strike the crisis and what B&Q should do to ensure that the crisis in India d o not disrupt the entire supply chain.To ensure accurate and timely information and knowledge is recevied, Swan and Scarbrough (2005) suggest organizations to adopt a networked innovation process where the innovation procedures is collaborated in the network arrangements within and between organizations (Alter & Hage, 1993 Owen-Smith & Powell, 2004 Powell et al, 1996). B&Q needs to view networks as a means of communication where knowledge and information are disseminated (Swan & Scarbrough, 2005) and thus, adopting a open sharing concept where individuals and groups are allow to interact and exchange knowledge and information. 4. Bibliography Abbott, A. 1988). 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