Knowledge Creation & Commitment Despite Closure (Paperback)

Master's Thesis from the year 2004 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1,0, Vaxjo University (Management and Economics), language: English, abstract: Inhaltsangabe: Abstract: The Master Thesis Knowledge Creation & Commitment despite Closure presents the final scientific work of three upper-level students participating in the programme Managing Dynamic Organizations' at the School of Management and Economics, Vaxjo University, Sweden. It was accomplished in the academic year 2003/04. The thesis comprises the results of studies at the production site of an international company operating in the transportation sector, situated on the Swedish east coast. During a period from February to May 2004, the authors explored existing work structures. Initially, their objective and assignment was to improve existing work processes in order to facilitate the creation and advancement of knowledge at the production site. After an unexpected change of conditions, i.e. the announcement of the site's closure by its parent company, the authors were assigned to seek ways of re-establishing and assuring the commitment of the site's operators, which was achieved through the development of a tailored outplacement process. Hereby, the thesis depicts the transition of the notion of knowledge as a competitive advantage of an organisation to that of an individual's advantage in search of re-employment. This process is depicted in the overall structure of the work, which can thus be divided into two loops of scientific research. In the first loop, the authors develop, based on the theories of Peter M. Senge (The Fifth Discipline ) and Ikujiro Nonaka & Hirotaka Takeuchi (The Knowledge-Creating Company ), and empirical information gathered at the site, a new work process which proposes a combination of both, specialisation, and job enlargement and job enrichment. This process was designed to ensure advancement of relevant knowledge, therefore,