Knowledge Management: PETRONAS

IntroductionToday, crude oil color and fellate companies around the world atomic number 18 not just professional brass sections who designate in mechanical drilling and extraction fulfiles. Increased oil demands and the rent for improved productivity halt forced these organizations into new methods and experience intensifier approaches. For instance information technology has now become very oft an integral part of the oil exploration and oil extraction agate line. The collaboration amidst multi disciplinary teams has become a norm. Real-time information communication from remote reservoirs, and reassigning of such information in a collaborative environment that involves multiple teams and vendor locations has become an essential part of the business decision reservation process. In other words, a friendship base approach underlies the critical business decisions in oil majors. (Jemielniak & Kociatkievicz, 2009, pg 284). As an oil and gas extraction company of the world, with presence in more than 30 countries across the world, PETRONAS is one of the crude Majors. Being an change magnitudely competitive sector, practised staff are always on demand in the oil color and Gas persistence. This implies that organizations have to defend against attrition and be armed with efficacious knowledge direction practices that manage vital information about processes, beat practices and information about field experts and tacit knowledge about the full(a) operational processes. Effective knowledge management process is at the content of business competitiveness and success. experience Management Knowledge is a three-d and heterogeneous entity. Proper storage, classification and retrieval of knowledge is critical for innovation, be control and hence the competitiveness of any industry. Particularly, for knowledge intensive firms such as PETRONAS, where high skilled engineering processes are involved, there is a need for integrated operat ions between mingled knowledge areas. Ultimately, change the turnout optimization process is at the heart of all knowledge management practices in PETRONAS. One of the important areas that pretermit coordination in the Oil and gas sector in general is the working of the reservoir engineers, the production engineers and the process engineers at the facilities. This implies that operation decisions are not always make in consultation with the onshore engineers. In other words this leads to what is know as the fragmented approach. (Jemielniak & Kociatkievicz) 2009, pg 285Integrated Operations (Process facility and reservoir sensors and collaborationism among vendors and operators) (Jemielniak & Kociatkievicz, 2009, pg 285)Information technology has now penetrated every area of the production and process control aspects of the Oil and Gas companies. However, most of these IT tools are specialized and lack the integration that makes it difficult to access relevant data for purpos es of production psychoanalysis and optimization. It is necessary that all the three major divisions (reservoir management, production management and process management) exchange real-time data. A appointd information space skill be the answer to the problems as it promotes better access to real-time data and integration of the various processes, which is the key to achieving production optimization. (Jemielniak & Kociatkievicz, 2009, pg 284)Knowledge Management in PETRONASKnowledge management practices are very novel at PETRONAS. As the Knowledge Management manager, Miss Murni Shariff, disclosed in a recent interview, only in 2006 the company seriously focused on KM practices. Prior to that KM was mostly restricted to content and information management. (KMTalk, 2009) in that location are two oddballs of knowledge namely tacit knowledge and hard-core knowledge. Explicit knowledge, as the name suggests, refers to knowledge that could be easily registered. This type of knowl edge is gained by reading, observation and discussion. For instance, documented guides about a curriculum or the operational features of a product are examples of explicit knowledge. soundless knowledge, on the other hand, is more implicit and it is not easy to document it and consequently much harder to share. Tacit knowledge is developed over a period of time when an individual gains insights and details about the various functions in the organization. (MMU, 2006)Currently, PETRONAS is focusing on all efforts towards transferring this tacit knowledge of its staff and making it accessible for future reference and for new workers. Achieving this tacit knowledge manduction pertaining to the various complex processes within the organizations is crucial for the company to reduce cost and become competitive. As Stephen Birell, marketing director of Vardus, a KM company focusing on the Oil and gas sector states, The way the industry can drive down cost is by attacking the areas of c ommodious cost which are facilities and drilling. And if everyone follows best practice and shares their learning, you wont have people making the same mistakes twice. And that ultimately saves money. (Chowdury, 2006)Three make loves are the main motivating factors for the implementation of KM practices across the organization. These are 1) aging workforce- With more than three and half decades since its institution many of the technical staff members at PETRONAS are nearing their retirement age and this mass retirement would drastically invasion upon the performance unless swift knowledge management policies are in spotlight to capture the tacit knowledge of these go through sr. workforce. 2) The global oil industry is very competitive placing a high premium for the experienced and knowledgeable workforce. High attrition rate at PETRONAS is one turgid problem as competitors are luring skilled staff. In this context the issue of Trust becomes foremost. The following 5 Cs are know as trust factors among knowledge intensive workers. These are a) Competence, b) Commitment, c) Conflict, d) Communication and e) Caring. Of these fealty is foremost and it is the responsibility of the team leader or the manager to image that commitment to the organization and its values are developed naturally as a response to the motivation and example shown by the leader. (Ralston, 2007) Finally, increasing planetary operations also implies international competition and in this scenario an impelling KM plan is indispensible for the organization to smoothly manage and coordinate the international operations. KM makes it possible to simply follow the PETRONAS way of transferring knowledge across the various organizations. (KMtalk, 2009) Initially, the main focus was on technology and in removing the hindrances in share knowledge stored in varied database formats. However, more than the technical problems it is the problem associated with merciful acceptance that is c urrently a pressing issue. In other words, promoting effective change management is the key to implementing KM practices. At PETRONAS new initiatorys were utilize to promote better change management.Communities of Practice A new, Communities of practice ( peg) initiative was implemented with the idea of starting an effective KM program across the entire organization to better facilitate transfer of information between the various divisions in a swift and effective manner. Currently, there are over 50 CoPs with each Cop having 30 members. A leader or a champion is chosen among each CoP team based on their performance criteria. The CoPs were provided with a basic structural framework with which they can implement KM solutions and promote group-wide collaborative values. Regular monitoring of the CoP operations and regard of the same are undertaken. These leaders are also encouraged to share success stories on online CoP newsletter. To encourage enthusiastic participation from the staff, the Knowledge management team is also currently promoting a rewards system wherein the reports from the various Cops would be reviewed and the best performing team recognize and awarded (Murni Shariff, 2008) This CoP approach at PETRONAS has shown significant positive results so off the beaten track(predicate) with effective information exchange between various operating units already visible across the organization. This would also significantly improve the training for jr. generation staff as they fast replace the retiring older generation. A simple online tool that was designed to evaluate the penetration of the CoP based KM practices has confirmed these positive improvements. ( Murni Shariff, 2008)ConclusionKnowledge management practices are critical to the continued competitive growth of any organization. In simple terms it facilitates effective reuse of organizational resources which is tantamount to enormous cost savings. Particularly, in a knowledge intensive a nd high-tech organization such as PETRONAS, KM practices help to promote better collaboration between multidisciplinary teams. This could help avoid millions of dollars in costs by lot workers avoid unnecessary delays and repetitive mistakes. The current KM practices involving Communities of practice concepts are showing unassailable acceptance among the staff which is important for effective change management. As more and more staff members are encouraged to enroll in KM activities, more intensive KM practices and collaborative platforms could be established. This would help in realizing organization wide process integration and overall business alignment. However, regular knowledge auditing is the key to understand the flow of knowledge within the organization and to ascertain areas where improvements could be effected by increasing knowledge sharing. Continued management support is the key as still a small amount of time and resources spent on good KM practices would defin itely translate to considerable productivity gains in the continuing run.ReferencesDariusz Jemielniak & Jerzy Kociatkievicz, (2009), Handbook of research on Knowledge intensive organizations, Pub by Information Science Reference.Faith Ralston, (2007), How to manage four types of Knowledge Workers- get Your Best Hand, Adams Media. U.S.AKMtalk, (2009) Knowledge Management in PETRONAS Interview with Murni Shariff, viewed Jan twenty-third 2012, Murni Shariff, (2008), PETRONAS amiable Knowledge Worker Communities to Stimulate Innovation and Build Corporate Capability, Viewed Jan twenty-third 2012, Naguib Chowdhury, (2006), Knowledge Management Implementation in PETRONAS A Case Study, Viewed Jan 23rd 2012, Manchester Metropolitan University, (2006) Introduction to Knowledge Management, viewed Jan 24th 2012,