MBA632 Knowledge Management Report 3 Sample

MBA632 Knowledge Management. Ass 3

Your Task

Create an individual report that explores Knowledge Management and Information Technology in today’s organisations, focusing on the influence and impact of the contemporary landscape.

Assessment Description

This assessment will allow students to demonstrate their ability to analyse the effectiveness and implementation of the technology-based knowledge management system. Students will also analyse any ethical breachers in the absence of knowledge management systems and evaluate the knowledge management life cycle in various contexts.

Assessment Instructions

In your Report, you will identify, discuss, and analyse one current event (something that has occurred in the last two years) linked to or has impacted an organisation. You will need to explore its implications for the organisation’s use of Knowledge Management and Information Technology.
You will need to demonstrate the critical link between the internal and external organisational environments and discuss problems and challenges that the current event may cause for the organisation in their use of Knowledge Management and Information Technology.

The source of the current events can be a Media Article, a TED Talk, a Radio or Television Interview etc. In addition, there will be an opportunity to include information that is available in the public domain (e.g. annual reports, ASX listing, business databases etc.).

Your Report must include recommendations for dealing with the impact of the chosen current event on the organisation. The recommendations should show creativity while in the Report. The findings presented in your assessment must be based on predominantly secondary sources of data. You must incorporate theories and concepts of Knowledge Management discussed in this subject.

You MUST get your Facilitators approval for your choice of event.

Areas covered should include:

• An Executive Summary that summarises the purpose of the Report.

• A brief overview of the event you researched.

• Analysis of internal and external environments, discussion of the problems and challenges that current events may cause for the organisation in their use of Knowledge Management and Information Technology.

• Recommendations for dealing with the impact of the chosen event on the organisation.

• A conclusion.

• Reference list.

To help you start this assessment on the right track, over weeks 8-11 of the trimester, your workshop facilitator will engage you and the rest of the class in preliminary discussions about the organisation you wish to research. Please pay specific attention to your workshop facilitator’s instructions regarding this assessment.

You must use at least ten (10) sources of information and reference these in accordance with the Kaplan Harvard Referencing Style. These may include primary and secondary sources of data collected from websites, social media sites, industry reports, census data, journal articles, newspaper articles, etc. These references should be presented as in-text citations and a reference list at the end of your written analysis (not included in the word limit). Wikipedia and other ‘popular’ sites are not to be used. Please refer to the Assessment Marking Guide to assist you in completing all the assessment criteria.

Solution

1. Introduction

Business has a changing environment. The change in the business environment occurs due to external forces such as the global pandemic. In the recent past, the global pandemic has influenced the retail sector by disrupting supply chain management (Zim, 2019). Every retail organisation needs to strengthen its knowledge management and IT services to manage business affairs and provide good customer satisfaction. As per the MBA Assignment Expert, The covid19 also has impacted one of the leading retail giants, Walmart (Berman, 2020). This assignment will help in analysing the impact of the global pandemic on Walmart. This assignment will evaluate the performance of Walmart in times of the global pandemic and how it has influenced IT and knowledge management operations within the organisation. 

2. A brief overview of the Covid19 Pandemic
 

Figure 1: Impact of Covid-19 on retail sector
(Source: Statista.com, 2022)

The event that was researched was the pandemic Covid-19, also known as the coronavirus disease which is infectious and caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2. The people infected by the virus will be experiencing moderate to mild respiratory illness, which can be recovered without the need for special treatment. However, some can become critically ill and require medical treatment. Older people and people having medical conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer or chronic respiratory disease are more likely in developing a serious illness (Berman, 2020). One of the best ways for preventing and slowing down transmission is to be properly informed about the illness and the way the virus is spreading. The following figure shows the impact of the pandemic on the retail sector. The global sales of retail reduced by 2.9 per cent in 2020 resulting in the covid-19 pandemic but bounced back in 2021 with 9.7 per cent growth.

3. Analysis of internal and external environments 

3.1 The internal environment of Walmart 

To examine the internal environment of Walmart, a SWOT analysis will be a useful framework. The SWOT analysis of the organisation is given below: 

Table 1: SWOT analysis of Walmart
(Source: created by author)

Analysis

Walmart is a leading retail chain headquartered in Arkansas, USA. It was founded 60 years ago in 1962. Hence, for 60 years, the organisation has served customers with quality products. The organisation has an excellent expansion strategy as in 60 years; it has been able to open over 10,500 stores across 24 nations (Walmart.com, 2023). The organisation has catered for the needs of its customers providing them with household items grocery items to clothing and other accessories. Hence, the organisation has the opportunity to expand further in Asian nations (He et al., 2021). It also has the opportunity to execute good corporate social responsibility practices and attract more customers worldwide. Further, by developing a stronger workforce, it can surpass its rival companies in terms of net revenue earned.

The major weakness of the organisation is its limitations in e-commerce activities. In the digital age, most retail companies are also engaging with customers using e-commerce operations providing them with goods at their doorsteps (Chang and Hu, 2020). This makes Walmart, lose its competitive advantage in the fierce market environment. The other weakness of the organisation was its low employee satisfaction rate. The company was reported to pay inadequate salaries to its employees making the company suffer from high employee turnover. In addition, the attractive marketing and promotional strategies of Walmart make it lose its strategic competitive position in the global market (Alsharari, 2021). This poses a high threat to the organisation owing to the excellent marketing and employee retention strategies of rival retail companies like Spencer and IKEA.

3.2 External environments of Walmart 

PEST analysis is one of the most favoured frameworks that assist business professionals to examine the external environment of an organisation. The PEST analysis of Walmart is mentioned below: 

Table 2: PEST analysis of Walmart
(Source: Created by author)

3.3 Problems in Knowledge Management and Information Technology of Walmart owing to the Covid-19 Pandemic

Lack of skilled employees to operate IT functions in Walmart: The lockdown during Covid-19 resulted in fewer recruitments, which affected the operations of IT functions in Walmart. The employees were not trained for tackling updated tools and technology. Hence, incorporating new technology hampers the working procedure of employees following the traditional approach in organisational activities (Van, 2020).

Low e-commerce activities in Walmart: E-commerce activities came to a halt due to the pandemic as the government imposed a strict lockdown one of the most important issues at Walmart has been the e-commerce service and they were unable to handle the pandemic (Berman, 2020).

Inability in applying big data analytics at Walmart: During Covid-19, there was a lack of knowledge regarding big data analytics and for this reason, they could not expand their business due to Covid-19 they could not recruit skilled technicians who could operate with big data analytics.

4. Recommendations for dealing with the impact of the chosen event on the organization

Although there is the popularity of Walmart among the workers who are surveyed, it is not immune to the challenges of talent, which plagued their counterparts. They should keep the safety of the workers into consideration and it is one of the biggest challenges. There were complaints about the working conditions being unsafe for the workers during the pandemic. Walmart has taken steps for ensuring the safety of the employees with protective barriers of plexiglass at registers and limiting the number of shoppers who are allowed inside the stores at a given time. A mask mandate was also issued for the management level employees and the corporate staff.  Shifting working conditions were also recommended, as the pandemic was a period, which was transformative with conditions of shift working for many years (Berman, 2020). For this reason, wages have also grown compared to the last few years. The business leaders of Walmart should not be assuming that the organisation is immune to the crisis and it is not a matter of when the crisis will be hitting. The complaints should be paid attention to and the concerns and comments about the way the crisis will be addressed and responding appropriately and accordingly (Zhang, 2023). 

The worst-case scenarios should be considered, as they can be realities for the organisation along with taking steps for mitigating and preventing them at the earliest. Appreciation should be shown for those who are helping for addressing the crisis. It will not require new capabilities or skills to think bigger than the single value chain. Nevertheless, it is recommended to the expansion of the scope from the products individually for the whole capabilities that can be combined with solutions combining insights across the organisation stepping in the value chain (Berman, 2020). 

This can require an increase in visibility into value chains and supply networks along with the conduction of validation and risk sensing to help define requirements with trusted collaborators and allies. The supply assurance discussion and integrated planning should be conducted among partners and allies. Developing or elevating trade vehicles for helping the process of the value chain is easy and includes governance, which is necessary for enabling trust among the partners in trading (Goldhar, 2021).

5. Conclusion 

From the above discussion, it can be deduced that the global pandemic has affected most retail businesses around the world. The supply chain management of various retail companies was hindered due to the outbreak of the pandemic. This has made Walmart suffer huge sums of financial losses. The company has faced several issues in its knowledge management and IT activities due to the lack of trained employees. Owing to lockdown restrictions, the company faced issues to hire adequately trained technicians that would help the organisation to strengthen its knowledge management operations. To mitigate the issues, the company has decided to provide adequate technical training to its employees, which can be used to manage knowledge management operations. 

6. References

Alsharari, N.M., (2021). Management accounting practices and e-business model in the US Walmart corporation. Accounting and Finance Innovations, 3.
Appelman, I.F., Thompson, S.M., van den Berg, L.M., van der Wal, J.T.G., de Jonge, A. and Hollander, M.H., (2022). It was tough but necessary. Organizational changes in a community-based maternity care system during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative analysis in the Netherlands. PloS one, 17(3), p.e0264311.

Berman, J. (2020). Pointing to the impact of covid-19, Walmart Rolls Out New Express Delivery Service offering, Recently Filed RSS. Available at: https://www.scmr.com/article/pointing_to_impact_of_covid_19_walmart_rolls_out_new_express_delivery_servi (Accessed: February 9, 2023). 

Bodendorf, F., Wonn, F., Simon, K. and Franke, J., (2022). Indicators and countermeasures of modern slavery in global supply chains: Pathway to a social supply chain management framework. Business Strategy and the Environment.

Borda, A., Cordova, C. and Leon, J.C., (2019). Dicoma Corporation: challenges for future growth. Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies, 9(3), pp.1-22.
Cariou, P. and Notteboom, T., (2022). Implications of COVID-19 on the US container port distribution system: import cargo routing by Walmart and Nike. International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications, pp.1-20.

Chang, Y. and Hu, J., (2020). Analysis of the mode of multinational retail enterprises entering the Chinese market—Take Walmart, Carrefour and Metro as examples. Modern Economy, 11(01), p.17.

Chen, Y. and Wu, Z., (2022). Taking Risks to Make Profit during COVID-19. Sustainability, 14(23), p.15750.

Data.worldbank.org (2023). GDP (current US$). Data. Available at: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD (Accessed: February 9, 2023). 
He, Z., Ding, Y. and Liu, W., 2021. The States Quo of Walmart and Challenges and Opportunities of Their Online Transformation in China Based on SWOT Analysis. In 2021 
International Conference on Financial Management and Economic Transition (FMET 2021) (pp. 353-359). Atlantis Press.
Mrozek, M., (2022). Walmart Inc. in light of COVID-19 pandemic: the financial assessment. Catallaxy, 7(1), pp.23-32.

Nilufer, N., (2020). A critical assessment of business strategy from aviation to the retail industry during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Walmart Case. International Journal of Business Ecosystem & Strategy (2687-2293), 2(2), pp.8-14.

Schurink, B., Roos, E., Radonic, T., Barbe, E., Bouman, C.S., de Boer, H.H., de Bree, G.J., Bulle, E.B., Aronica, E.M., Florquin, S. and Fronczek, J., (2020). Viral presence and immunopathology in patients with lethal COVID-19: a prospective autopsy cohort study. The Lancet Microbe, 1(7), pp.e290-e299.

Seow, H., McMillan, K., Civak, M., Bainbridge, D., van der Wal, A., Haanstra, C., Goldhar, J. and Winemaker, S., (2021). # Caremongering: A community-led social movement to address health and social needs during COVID-19. PloS one, 16(1), p.e0245483.

statista.com. (2022) Retail sales growth forecast 2025, Statista. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/232347/forecast-of-global-retail-sales-growth/ (Accessed: February 9, 2023). 

Van Dam, L.F., Kroft, L.J.M., Van Der Wal, L.I., Cannegieter, S.C., Eikenboom, J., De Jonge, E., Huisman, M.V. and Klok, F.A., (2020). Clinical and computed tomography characteristics of COVID-19 associated acute pulmonary embolism: a different phenotype of thrombotic disease? Thrombosis research, 193, pp.86-89.
Walmart.com (2023). Save money. live better. Walmart.com. Available at: https://www.walmart.com/ (Accessed: February 9, 2023). 

Weforum.org (2023). The world's most innovative countries. World Economic Forum. Available at: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/09/worlds-most-innovative-countries-innovation/ (Accessed: February 9, 2023). 

Zhang, D., (2023). Understanding Enterprise Risk Management of the Retail Industry During the Pandemic-Case Study of Walmart. In SHS Web of Conferences (Vol. 154, p. 01018). EDP Sciences.

Zim, Z.S. and Zahan, M., (2019). Local versus global brands: The internationalization process in Food and Beverage Industry. The Business and Management Review, 10(5), pp.58-66.