Assessment Task 1 - Case Study: Kimberly-Clark Australia

Description:

This is an individual assessment task that will be completed in the class. Read the following case and answer the questions.

Kimberly-Clark Australia (KCA) is one of Australia's leading manufacturers, marketers and sellers of personal care, family care, health care and related products. KCA is entirely owned by the global Kimberly-Clark Corporation (KCC). KCA employs approximately 1850 employees across Australia and New Zealand.

KCA creates, imports, and acquires knowledge in a variety of ways. R&D is particularly important for both product and process innovation and improvement and KCA can draw on the resources of KCC as well as their own local R&D activities.

The complete case study is provided separately. Ensure that you receive a copy from your trainer/assessor. This task must be completed during a designated session in presence of a trainer/assessor.

Read the complete case study (Kimberly-Clark Australia: Source: Australian Business Foundation) as attached and answer the following questions.

1. What are the key forms of knowledge that KCA create and share across their business operations?

2. Explain KCA's benchmarking process. How didThaenchmarking process lead to cultural change at KCA?

3. Explain why KCA needs to constantly create and share knowledge

4. Explain KCA's syndicate team approach for knowledge management development. What are the major benefits of the team approach?

5. In your view, what are key strengths and weaknesses of the system?

Assessment Criteria- The following assessment criteria will be used for marking this assessment task. Ensure that you have addressed all of the criteria in your work.

• Identified key forms of knowledge created and shared across various functions of the organisation
• Analysed and explained the benchmarking process at KCA
• Summarised key elements of benchmarking and associated knowledge management process
• Highlighted the example of cultural change at KCA as a result of benchmarking
• Summarised "why" of knowledge management covering corporate reputation, customer relationship and manufacturing process improvement areas
• Analysed and explained KCA's team approach in knowledge management development
• Listed benefits of team approach in the organisation
• Perceived learning and development needs of the employees are identified in the current KM environment
• Resources are identified to support the KM system
• Key strengths and weaknesses of the system are analysed
• The answers are consistent with the case/case situation and provide specific responses.

Assessment Task 2 - Project: Knowledge Management Plan

Description:

Note to Trainers/Assessors: This is a major project and parts of this project (as well as Assessment Task1) may be completed in each learning session to coincide with relevant lessons. Trainers are advised to make provision for "project time" in each of the sessions and take the student through various stages of the project towards completion at the end of the term. Accordingly, presentations should be scheduled for week 9 and 10 of the term.

This project can be given either as an individual or a team (up to three members) task depending on class size and group profile.

You will need to source and provide sample business plan to the students for this assessment task.

This project can be given either as an individual or a team (up to three members) task depending on class size and group profile.

Denham Grey describes knowledge as the full utilisation of information and data, coupled with the potential of people's skills, competencies, ideas, intuitions, commitments and motivations. Knowledge management is the ability to manage knowledge.

Knowledge Management consists of activities focused on the organisation gaining knowledge from its own experience and from the experience of others, and on the judicious application of that knowledge to fulfil the objectives of the organisation (R. Gregory Wenig). In this assessment task, you (or your group) will be analysing a given data set and then developing a Knowledge Management Plan based on a sample organisation. You will be provided with a business plan of an organisation (randomly selected and downloaded from the internet). Review the business plan and develop a "Knowledge Management Plan" assuming the need for creating, managing and sharing knowledge within the organisation. The plan should be consistent with the business area and functions.

Part A: Assume that KCA has been losing market share in the household products segment. Also, the falling prices means a range of products are not sustainable in the near future. The company needs to make a range of decisions on prices, margins, marketing expenditures, and product re-design/reengineering.

The company has also undertaken an extensive market research and also generated reports from its databases on consumer preferences, purchasing habits, feedback, repeat orders, and customer survey data. You have been given a task to analyse the data to assist the company with key decisions on marketing strategies.

You have been provided with a set of marketing data and statistics for the purpose of undertaking;

• Sensitivity analysis (on the option of decreasing margins by 6% section-wide)
• Long-term trend analyses
• Short to medium-term trend analyses
• Break-even analysis

Present your findings/analyses in a data table and/or graphical presentation. Also, include your analyses in the following plan.

Part B: Knowledge Management Plan will be developed around the following headings/topic areas;

Executive Summary

Aims and objectives

The need for knowledge management (Purpose and Outcomes)

Summary of data analyses (Part A) and trends

Knowledge Creation (What knowledge needs to be created)

Knowledge Harnessing and Sharing (How the knowledge will be used)

Knowledge Management Processes (How the knowledge will be created)

Staff learning and development needs and plans

Knowledge Management resources

Perceived constraints and contingency measures

Evaluation of Knowledge Management System

Ensure that all of the above areas are covered in your plan. The plan must be word processed and structured with appropriate headings and sub-headings as needed. It must be prepared as a formal business document that can be seen as an official document for submission to the management.

Originality of the work must be maintained throughout and all efforts must be made to avoid a simple cut and paste from external resources, which may result in plagiarism without appropriate referencing. All external sources must be appropriately cited and acknowledged using the Harvard referencing system. Your trainer/assessor will provide you with referencing guidelines.

Assessment Criteria - The following assessment criteria will be used for marking this assessment task. Ensure that you have addressed all of the criteria in your work.

• Identified and used appropriate data set
• Undertaken data analysis within the context of the business problem/situation
• Used appropriate analysis tool (quantitative technique)
• Used and applied a range of statistical techniques to interpret data
• Identified and described the findings
• Interpreted long term trends
• Interpreted short to medium term trends
• Conducted a break-even analysis from the given data
• Demonstrated knowledge of statistical and quantitative analyses
• Presented the findings in an appropriate format for use by general audiences
• The plan is appropriately structured and presented as an official document reflecting a real-life example
• Appropriate headings and sub-headings are used to structure the contents
• The content flow covers all the required elements of the plan and contains a logical sequence of the topics
• The executive summary is included and provides an overview of the plan
• Aims and objectives are aligned with the purpose and justification of the plan
• Outcomes of the plan are consistent with the business needs and functional areas (samples business plan)
• Key knowledge areas of the organisation are identified and types of knowledge established based on the business plan
• Knowledge creation processes are identified and described covering all the functional business areas of the organisation
• Strategies and/or processes for harnessing and sharing the knowledge have been developed with a view to implement them across the organisation
• Practices and processes of knowledge management development are identified and explained
• Staff learning and development needs are identified
• Staff learning and development plan/strategies are outlined
• Resources required to develop and implement the knowledge management system are identified
• The plan addresses implementation issues and proposes solutions to address contingencies
• Evaluation of the system includes performance evaluation and quality parameters for continuous improvement

Assessment Task 3 - Knowledge Test

Q1. Describe the concept of knowledge management in your own words.

Q2. List legislation, codes of practice, and national standards relevant to knowledge management.

Q3. List and briefly describe three key benefits of knowledge management.

Q4. What are the key organisational barriers to knowledge sharing? Briefly describe at least five such barriers in your own words.

Q5. What is the Australian Standard for Knowledge? Briefly describe key features of the standard.

Q6. Briefly describe the following terms, and where they might be applicable;

Correlation calculations

Probability assessment

Regulation analyses

Dynamic programming

Linear programming

Queuing theory

Simulation

Transportation methodology

Q7. Give examples of existing and emerging technologies and how they can be used in knowledge and information management.

Assessment criteria - The following assessment criteria will be used for marking this assessment task. Ensure that you have addressed all of the criteria in your work.

• Test completed in presence of an assessor
• All the questions are attempted and answered
• Answers are consistent with model answers.