Dr. Ronnie Y Cheong Certified Knowledge Management Trainer
Certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt
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| Visionary leadership calls for continuous alignment of knowledge culture with behaviors, treating knowledge as critical assets, building trust among the various stakeholders, providing system for learning and sharing of knowledge, encouraging collaborative teamwork, use of modern information technologies for efficient communication, and building competitive advantages based upon knowledge assets.
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| Like total quality management (TQM) and business process re-engineering (BPR), knowledge management requires leadership and total commitment of top management in order to be successful. Within the context of knowledge management, leadership provides the driving force for continuous improvement and continuous innovation, while integrating the four strategic levers—namely strategic knowledge planning, knowledge navigation system, knowledge process management, and development and management of knowledge assets—to encourage, stimulate and manage the creation, transfer, sharing, and storage of knowledge assets.
Although leadership can be found at every level of a company, for it to become a driving force behind changes that lead to continuous improvement or continuous innovation, leadership must be recognized and encouraged.
What exactly is leadership? According to Burns (1978) and Jennings (1960), leadership is defined as the process of moving a group (or groups) in some directions through mostly non-coercive means; and effective leadership is defined as leadership that produces movement in the long-term best interests of the group(s).
In the study of leadership, western theories have been dominant. They are basically divided into four categories as follows (Westwood & Chan, 1992):
Trait theories- this perspective assumes that leaders have some special personal qualities that enable them to assume the leadership role. These qualities distinguish leaders from non-leaders (e.g. Stogdill, 1948).
Contingency approaches- these approaches suggest that leadership may have different possible styles or behavior patterns that any of which may be effective depending on the situation. Hence, a leader with certain behavioral styles or qualities may be effective in certain situations, but not in another. The most frequently discussed situations include the nature and quality of the subordinates, the nature of workgroup, factors in the working environment, factors in the decision-making environment, and follower ability and willingness (Westwood & Chan, 1992). Some of the influential approaches in this category include Fieldler’s contingency theory (Fiedler, 1967), path-goal theory (House, 1971), Vroom-Yetton’s leadership decision-making process model (Vroom and Yetton, 1973), and Hersey and Blanchard’s (1982) situational leadership model.
Behavioral perspective- this perspective attempts to understand the way leaders behave. Advocates of this approach seek to get more objective information on what leaders do and to better distinguish good leaders from bad leaders. (Fleishman et al, 1955; Stogdill & Coons, 1957).
Transformational leadership- this approach uses charisma to energize and motivate people to perform beyond their original expectations (Bass, 1985; Conger, 1989). According to Bass (1985), transformational leadership (a) raises employees’ awareness about certain key outcomes or processes, (b) gets employees to place team or organizational goals and interests above their own, and (c) encourages employees to adjust their need levels so that they have a stronger drive for responsibility, challenge, and personal growth. The goal of transformational leadership is to “transform” people and organizations in a literal sense, i.e., to change them in mind and heart; enlarge vision, insight, and understanding; clarify purposes; make behavior congruent with beliefs, principles, or values; and bring about changes that are permanent, self-perpetuating, and momentum building (Covey, 1992).
Traditionally, leadership is one that provides direction or guidance towards achieving a set of pre-determined organizational objectives. In summarizing what leadership is, Tompkins (1993) defines leadership as having the following characteristics:
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a) Vision
b) Communication
c) Urgency
d) Hard work
e) Enthusiasm
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f) Trust
g) Teamwork
h) Attention to details
i) Learning
j) Persistence
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From a knowledge management perspective, leadership is somewhat more than what Tompkins has suggested. According to Liao and Yau (2001), to demonstrate leadership for sustaining and developing knowledge activities, senior managers must seek to establish knowledge partnerships with suppliers, customers, and outside research institutions to cultivate knowledge assets that will be of long-term benefits to an organization. Management must communicate the renewed culture, value, belief, expectations, ideologies, and philosophies that will bond the organization and its employees together; and provide resources that will help employees increase their knowledge equity—for example, training, knowledge database, libraries, and knowledge networks. Management must endeavor to link knowledge management activities with strategic drivers so as to enhance organizational capabilities. In addition, management must break down organizational barriers both vertically and horizontally, and build a flatter organization with lesser layers to allow added authority at lower levels. Overall, management must emphasize how the creation and use of knowledge will affect business results; and seek to implement as much changes as possible through communicating the organization’s knowledge strategies to all parties concerned.
Today, businesses are faced with continuous changes in both environmental and organizational levels. Environmental changes such as global competition, deregulation, maturation of markets, and speed of information technological advancement all lead to the needs for a faster and higher level of performance. This includes more productivity, more innovation, more customer-focused, more customization, higher quality, lean manufacturing, zero defects, 6 sigma, continuous cost reduction, meeting international quality standards, new approaches to marketing and distribution through internet, etc. All these mean that the key to sustainable competitiveness and success has now shifted from traditional economy factors such as land, labor, capital, and raw materials to intangible inputs that incorporate the application of information and knowledge. These intangible inputs are very much dependent on employees’ knowledge and skills such as creativity, product or service innovation, goodwill, relationships with customers and suppliers, and effective and efficient use of electronic commerce.
Since knowledge management involves organizational renewal processes that require improvements or even fundamental changes to an organization’s management system, business processes, structure, and culture; leadership and support from various levels of management are essential. While top management is charged with the responsibility of reflecting and integrating knowledge management into the overall corporate vision and strategies, senior or middle management is to ensure that knowledge assets are effectively utilized and managed at operational levels. From the organizational point of view, continuous changes of such magnitude and the use of sophisticated information technologies all lead to increasing difficulty of making changes in an efficient and effective way. As a result, providing effective leadership is increasingly difficult. Hence, the leadership factor is becoming significantly more important in today’s knowledge economy.
So, are there some steps a leader can take to become an effective leader in knowledge management? Kouzes and Posner (1987) state that:
“Leaders are pioneers. They are people who venture into unexplored territory. They guide us to new and often unfamiliar destinations. People who take the lead are the foot soldiers in the campaigns for change.... The unique reason for having leaders-their differentiating function-is to move us forward. Leaders get us going someplace.”
According to Nanus (1992), “if there is one thing that can profoundly increase a leader’s chance of success, it is developing and sustaining a compelling organizational vision”. Nanus says:
“There is no more powerful engine driving an organization toward excellence and long-range success than an attractive, worthwhile, and achievable vision of the future, widely shared.”
To become an effective leader, one must have agendas, and be totally results oriented. One must adapt challenging new visions of what is both possible and desirable, communicate one’s visions, and persuade others to become so committed to the new directions that they are eager to lend their resources and energies to make that happen (Nanus, 1992).
Knowledge management requires effective leadership with vision. Vision is a realistic, credible, attractive future for an organization. Vision always deals with future. It is an idea or an image of a more desirable future for the organization. Vision is central to leadership. It is the indispensable tool without which leadership is doomed to failure (Nanus, 1992).
Vision moves people forward, and because of this, organization evolves and makes progress. Selecting and articulating the right vision is one of the most challenging tasks that leaders have to face. John M. Richardson, Jr. (1982) once said:
“When it comes to the future,
there are three kinds of people:
those who let it happen,
those who make it happen,
and those who wonder what happened.”
Tompkins (1993) stressed that good leadership involves vision, simplifying, empowering, and supporting. However, having a vision of the future is not adequate unless one is able to communicate that vision. The ability to communicate vision is a characteristic of leadership.
Successful knowledge management requires visionary leadership, and the vision must be knowledge-based. Translating knowledge-based vision into reality is the job of leader. A leader has several roles to play in an organization to make this happen. First of all, a leader is the spokesperson and “champion” for the knowledge-based vision. In this regard, the leader must communicate the vision effectively and completely; he must establish his knowledge networking with people inside and outside of his organization to buy into his vision; and his actions and behaviors must be consistent with the vision. Secondly, the leader must act as a change agent for the vision. He must think strategically, and alter the organizational climate and culture to allow people to be empowered to achieve the corporate objectives through the creation, sharing, and utilization of knowledge. Lastly, the leader is also a coach and mentor for the vision. This will involve the selection of members for the knowledge management team, decision on the amount and types of resources to be allocated, design of incentive system, job design, and choice of people to head the team. All of the above form a complete structure. No one thing can be done individually to successfully implement knowledge-based vision.
So, what is knowledge-based vision? When deciding on the vision, management must have the ultimate objective of also transforming the organization into a knowledge organization. Regardless of what the vision may be, it must be based upon an organizational structure that capitalize on knowledge assets, and build competitive advantages on intangibles. Management must realize that in the emerging knowledge economy, knowledge is the key driver of productivity and growth; and the investment in intangibles is becoming even more crucial than investment in tangibles to ensure corporate success.
In the new knowledge economy, there is an increasing customers’ influence on products and services. Life cycles of products and services are getting shorter and shorter; and relationships, quality, innovation, speed, and flexibility are more important. While e-business is becoming more popular, organization has to maximize the creation and use of information and knowledge to gain competitive advantages. Organization must continuously survey market for opportunities and threats, cope with rapid saturation, respond to frequent changes, take opportunities in new growth industries, anticipate invasion by new technologies, respond to global competition, adapt to political upheavals, and cope with government regulation and changes. Business will be conducted over cyberspace, and timeless and locationless operations can be found all over the world. Hence, location of multinational corporation’s home office is no longer relevant. All these suggested that constant changes and organizational renewal are inevitable.
As a result of constant efforts in continuous improvement and innovation, business practices are becoming more seamless. To remain competitive, organization must not only be a knowledge organization, but also one that never stop learning. In fact, companies must become learning organizations with highly skilled employees and culture of learning. This means that organization must have systematic creation and use of knowledge to improve performance and to create value through innovation and improvement.
A knowledge organization is one that has (Liao and Yau, 2001): (i) knowledge systems to collect, access, distribute, and use of knowledge; (ii) knowledge networking to gain knowledge from customers, suppliers, institutions, and other outside sources; (iii) knowledge workers with skills, ability and willingness to learn, and ability to use knowledge effectively; and (iv) knowledge culture to encourage learning, transferring, sharing, and use of knowledge.
In exercising leadership, leader must ensure that his direction, approach, and initiative are always in line with the organization’s knowledge-based vision of also becoming a truly knowledge organization. Visionary leadership calls for continuous alignment of knowledge culture with behaviors, treating knowledge as critical assets, building trust among the various stakeholders, providing system for learning and sharing of knowledge, encouraging collaborative teamwork, use of modern information technologies for efficient communication, and building competitive advantages based upon knowledge assets. In knowledge management, people may not be truly empowered, responsive, and productive if visionary leadership is missing. It is ineffective to empower people when the future of the organization is not clear to them. People feel more motivated when they know that they are contributing towards the achievement of the corporate objective, and are progressing towards the vision.
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KNOWLEDGE-BASED TOTAL CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
Dr. Ronnie Y Cheong Fellow, Institute of Consulting, UK
Empowerment + Teamwork + Visionary Leadership
= Knowledge Sharing & Creation
-> Total Customer Satisfaction
Employee satisfaction is a prerequisite for customer satisfaction. Enhanced employee satisfaction leads to higher level of employee retention. A stable and committed workforce ensures successful knowledge transfer, sharing, and creation---a key to continuous improvement, innovation, and knowledge-based total customer satisfaction.
In his recent empirical study, Dr. Ronnie Y. Cheong established statistically significant correlations between empowerment, teamwork, visionary leadership, and employee satisfaction. Together, the first three constructs explained over 70% of the variance in employee satisfaction:
ES(R²=.7056, F=78.52, p=.0000); EMP(b=.2771, T=3.416),
LDR(b=.3589, T=4.779), VIS(b=.1979, T=4.056), TMW(b=.2600,T=3.783);
@Sig. 0.05: R²=.5756(EMP); R²=.6389(EMP+LDR);
R²=.6735(EMP+LDR+VIS); R²=.7056(EMP+LDR+VIS+TMW)
When companies are committed with providing high quality products and services; when companies set high work standards for their employees; and when employees are empowered through training and development, provided with knowledge and information, permitted to make mistakes without punishment, and trusted; they will experience an increase in their level of satisfaction at work. This level of satisfaction can be enhanced further if teamwork and visionary leadership are introduced.
The three principles of TQM are: customer focus, continuous improvement, and teamwork. The first and most important principle is customer focus. The goal of focusing on customers and satisfying them is expressed by the organization's commitment to design and offer quality products or services that meet customer's expectation and needs. The second principle, continuous improvement, means a commitment to constantly review and improve business processes. The third principle, teamwork, is collaboration between all members within an organization, between functions, and between customers and suppliers. Teamwork among all members is based upon the assumption that non-managerial or first-level managerial employees can also make important contributions to the organization if they were empowered.
These three principles closely relate to one another. Continuous improvement is required to achieve customer satisfaction, and this can be most effective when driven by focusing on customer needs. Since the processes targeted for continuous improvement are usually cross-functional, and transcend hierarchical and organizational boundaries, teamwork becomes essential. The basic concept of TQM is that continuous improvement leads to customer satisfaction, and that employee satisfaction is the key to customer focus and continuous improvement. Therefore, to achieve total customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction is first needed to support continuous improvement.
The concepts of TQM also assume that turnover is one of the consequences of employee satisfaction. Hence, employees must be satisfied in order to remain with the organization long enough to carry out continuous improvement. If turnover rate is high, continuous improvement is questionable; and so is the implementation of TQM.
The findings in this research study supported the basic principles underlying the concept of TQM. The fact that the construct, standard of excellence (high quality), recorded the highest correlation with employee satisfaction explained that organization's commitment to quality is a key to employee satisfaction and continuous improvement.
Continuous improvement comes from the efforts of the empowered employees motivated by visionary leadership. This is supported by the findings that empowerment and visionary leadership both have significant correlation with employee satisfaction. Teamwork is also supported by the findings. In addition, the study found significant correlation between employee satisfaction and employee's intention to leave.
The success of a corporation depends very much on customer satisfaction. A high level of customer service leads to customer retention, thus offering growth and profit opportunities to the organization. There is a strong relationship between customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction. Satisfied employees are more likely to stay with a company and become committed and have more experience in ensuring customer satisfaction. Satisfied employees are more likely to be motivated to provide high level of customer service, by doing so will also further enhance the employee's satisfaction through feeling of achievement. Enhanced employee satisfaction leads to improved employee retention; and employee stability ensures the successful implementation of continuous improvement and customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction will no doubt lead to corporate success and greater job security.These will further enhance employee satisfaction. Therefore, employee satisfaction is a prerequisite for customer satisfaction.
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Dr. Ronnie Y Cheong has extensive experience in total quality management, business process reengineering, and knowledge management; and over 20 years of regional responsibilities in financial, marketing, lean manufacturing, quality, and strategic management. He has served as regional President or Managing Director for several leading US multinationals including the Emhart Group, American Standard, BF Goodrich, and Berwind Group in Asia. He holds a Ph.D in Business Administration, a MBA in International Management, and two Bachelor’s degrees in Industrial and Business Management. He is a Certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt, a Chartered Financial Controller, a Fellow Member of the Canadian Chartered Institute of Finance and Accountancy, and Institute of Consulting, UK; a Member of the US Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Society of Plastics Engineers, and The American Society of Mechanical Engineers; and a Certified Knowledge Management Trainer. He is profiled in the1997 Who’s Who in Finance and Industries, and 2000 Who’s Who in the World.
© Copyright, Ronnie Y Cheong, Ph.D., All Rights Reserved, 1997
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