Case study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Case study - Essay Example The network initiative implemented in Danone forced some of the local managers to behave like dictators. It was difficult for the employees to share the knowledge over the network without seeking the consent of the managers. Mougin deliberately allowed the local managers to take more power in order to have products that differed from market to market, to stay close to consumers. He calculated that decentralization would help Canone to compete more effectively in the market. In short, Mougin found no harm in giving more autonomy to the local managers. However the frontline managers were confused by the above strategy. â€Å"They lacked clear directions from headquarters and often didn’t know whom to turn to for advice. And, there was little horizontal communication among the large divisions† (Edmondson et al, 2008, p.6). Front line managers became less powerful or jobless because of the decentralization strategies of Mougin. On the other hand the local managers acquired more power in the absence of any centralized control. Danone has no centralized database for recoding or saving the knowledge of its employees. The network initiative helped the company only in exchanging the ideas of the workers; however the company has not taken any serious effort to save that knowledge for the future references. Moreover, the Company failed miserably in segregating between the knowledge and information. Some of the information exchanged through the network was mere information whereas some others were knowledge. Knowledge needed to be protected for future references even though some of the information can be neglected. In short, Danone has to enforce more centralized control both in their organizational functioning and in the knowledge management. Local managers should work under the frontline managers and they should perform everything after taking the permission from the front line mangers. If the company likes to continue with the strategy of giving autonomy t o their local mangers, then it is better for the company to use the frontline mangers in other areas of its functioning. Knowledge exchanged through the network should be saved for future reference. My assessment of the Networking Attitude initiative The Networking Attitude initiative was a way to share knowledge across groups in the geographically dispersed Danone Company (Edmondson et al, 2008, p.1). The networking attitude initiative was a well thought out strategy in my opinion. Danone has business units in more than 120 countries and it is necessary for the company to exchange the newly developed knowledge across its business networks. Business concepts, philosophies and climates are changing rapidly because of the knowledge explosion and it is essential for Danone to update the knowledge of its diverse workforce periodically. Danone has allowed its employees to share their knowledge between them rather than waiting for the instructions of the superiors. In other words, sharing of the knowledge between the employees helped Danone workforce to function more efficiently and that also at the right time. The consequences of the time delay in obtaining the instructions from the superiors in a rapidly paced business environment were thus avoided in Danone Company. â€Å"From 2004 to 2007, Danone employees shared almost 640 good practices with colleagues† (Edmondson et al,