62 Corbitt
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CURRENT CHALLENGES/PROBLEMS
FACING THE ORGANIZATION
Like most case studies, this research has limited applicability to other situations.
The fact that three other groups within HP did a similar study with similar conclusions
is interesting but is still bound by the corporate environment of one organizational
culture. Furthermore, the expertise database built from survey and focus group data is
incomplete at the present time due to time constraints and the omission of those who did
not respond to the survey. There are some topics that have no identified experts.
On the other hand, there have been several situations in which the data in the
database can be useful if complete. For example, managers who want to build teams with
a balanced mix of skills and expertise want to consult the database for team selection.
Another request came in to identify experts in each company for topics that have scarce
resources in one company or the other. At some point the data in the database need to
be complete by calling the people who did not respond to the survey. Having the experts
identify the most important Web sites for information about each topic is of undisputed
value to the company.
Since knowledge and expertise are person bound, and people change jobs and
situations within the company, the process used to identify the experts is also of value.
This study showed that small groups of employees can identify both the critical core
competency areas within an organization and can identify experts for topics. In this case,
90% of all topics and 100% of the topics considered critical were identified by the small
focus groups even though a full survey was conducted. The data from the focus groups
included identification of whom to contact for expertise on each topic, and these data
were more complete (i.e., more topics had identified experts) than self-identification of
expertise in topics. A similar focus group approach can be repeated as business needs
change, and over time the expertise database can be updated. In other words, there is
some evidence in this study that identifying topics and knowing who to call are possibly
necessary and sufficient for knowledge transfer within an organization.
As corporations rely on virtual global teams to accomplish work, the need to easily
identify experts in critical skill areas may become more important. As company intranets
grow with little attention to deleting invalid or outdated pages, the need to have someone
identify the most relevant URLs may become more important as well. Too much
information at a person’s fingertips may be as great a problem as a lack of information.
EPILOGUE
Shortly after this study was well underway, HP decided to upgrade the SAP system
to 4.5. This was a technical upgrade, so new functionality was not added to the system.
There were expectations by employees that the new version had desired new features.
It was clear that greater understanding of SAP was needed by many employees in the
organizations. After June 2000, HP entered into an agreement with SAP to use enterprise
solutions for all new development efforts in the GFO — if new functions were needed and
SAP had a solution, the SAP solution was the HP solution. Agilent, on the other hand,
decided to switch its ERP system to Oracle.