Question:
Discuss about the Knowledge Management of QBE Insurance Company .
Knowledge management is an Information Technology based system that provides a business environment for the management of knowledge, like; storage of data, collection of data and assistance for the development in future. In a workplace, knowledge management system enables the employees to use the resources, business facts and implement the appropriate solutions. It is the most important process for developing core competencies of the firm. It is the process of gathering, sharing, utilizing and managing the knowledge and other material information, so that goals and objectives of the company can be attained with the proper utilization of knowledge. This process allows the organization to identify the issues and create appropriate solutions.
In order to prepare this report, the organization, which is taken into consideration, is QBE Insurance Company in Australia. It is operating its business operations from over 125 years in the country and offers the peace of mind to the Australian people. The organization is well-established in the Australian insurance industry and covering one place in the top 20 insurance companies in the world (QBE, 2017). This report includes the knowledge management system that is used at QBE Insurance Company and it includes its knowledge infrastructure. The company is using some technological solutions to deal with the knowledge management systems. Furthermore, it includes the impact of this system on people, processes and products of company. The company has implemented this technique successfully in order to generate positive results.
QBE Insurance Company is one of the top insurance companies in Australia, which was founded in the year 1886 by James Burns and Robert Phillips. As of 1890, it has established more than 36 insurance agencies in different locations, like; Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, Pacific Iceland. Furthermore, in 1904, it has opened its new stores in London near Fenchurch Street. Firstly, it has started its business with the name of North Queensland Insurance Company. In Australia, this organization is working to help in safeguarding the people in their occupations. It provides assistance to Australian people from their home to office and any other area of their life. With the passage of time, the company has grown up its business into refined insurance service providers (QBE, 2017). Generally, this firm offers the insurance services, like; general insurance. QBE offers nine types of general insurance to the people worldwide. It provides protection to them in many parts, like; workplace, homes, tourist places etc. In addition to this, the company is emphasized on enhancing the customer service via using advanced technology and new and innovative ideas and services. In the end of 2014, the gross premium of the company was increased to $17 billion.
Under insurance industry, the major vision of QBE Insurance Company is to be the most successful insurance service providers in both domestic and global market as well. For increasing their insurance policies, the company is always focused on enhancing the services to shareholders, customers and community as well.
Knowledge Management Infrastructure refers to all the things, which combine to simplify the flow of knowledge and information to assist the actions and decisions, which include the organizational processes and activities. Therefore, this infrastructure does not just include the IT infrastructure. It also includes human, organizational and social components of an organization (Becerra-Fernandez, & Sabherwal, 2014). QBE Insurance has created an effective knowledge management infrastructure to deal with the issues. Knowledge Management Infrastructure of QBE Insurance Company is stated below;
Organizational culture of an organization shows its beliefs and norms, which guide the behaviors of its employees. It is a significant component of knowledge management in companies. It includes the knowing about the knowledge management processes and managing assistance for knowledge management at all the level. For improving the business growth and attain more customers, QBE Insurance used different knowledge sharing techniques in its workplace. It enables the management of QBE in sharing the new and creative ideas from one service to other. Implicit knowledge sharing techniques assists the management in knowing about the appropriate resources and ideas and transfers them to the staff and employees to develop an effective culture (Carroll & Buchholtz, 2014).
Furthermore, knowledge management relies to a significant extent on the organizational structure. There are many aspects, which are related to this concept. At QBE, hierarchical organization structure is practiced, under which all the levels are maintained effectively. In the Information Technology system at QBE Insurance Company, embedded knowledge has an importance role. This system enables the Chief Executive Officer to access the information of their workplace and about its organizational culture. Moreover, it also assists in understanding the working processes of employees. For example, at QBE, embedded knowledge offers the rules and regulations, which have to be followed by all the employees. Furthermore, this provides the working schedule to other levels of management, i.e. middle and lower level people (Eckles, Hoyt & Miller, 2014). By this, they can know about the schedule to communicate with their shareholders and customers. The structural knowledge makes the management and CEO able to access the past data and information from the place, where it is stored.
Knowledge management is enabled by the Information Technology infrastructure of the company. The companies develop some systems and technologies to process the knowledge management. These systems may include the data processing, communication systems and technologies. At QBE Insurance company, it is using E-learning IT tool that assists the organization in web conferencing with the customers and shareholders all over the world. Under its IT infrastructure, the company has used this tool that enables the management and staff to provide new and appropriate solutions of the problems, training policies and processes. Furthermore, this system assists the management in the formal entertainment. Using this tool, the company is able to cover huge target customers not only from Australian states but also all over the world (Ghandvar, & Sehhat, 2015). The senior management at QBE tracks the consistency and progress report of staff by this e-learning tool. This technique of blended learning assists in generating higher retention knowledge. In addition to this, the company has installed different techniques under its IT infrastructure for communication in the organization. This system fulfills all the aspects of this system at QBE, i.e. reach, depth, richness and aggregation.
Physical Environment is also an important foundation, on which the knowledge management system depends, but organizations take this element for granted. It includes different physical aspects of a company, like; buildings, type of offices, number of meeting rooms etc. QBE has designed a meeting room, where the management conducts the meeting with its employees to share the required information. In these meetings, it takes the ideas and opinions on any business problem (Hau, et al, 2013). The environment at workplace is very attractive and it has a venue where the staff can learn from and share their ideas and opinions with each other. For effective learning, it is very important to provide a better physical environment. At QBE, this component of knowledge infrastructure encourages the knowledge management by giving different opportunities to the employees to meet and give their ideas.
For managing the knowledge effectively, the organizations generally use different IT tools, which provide them effective solutions for business problems. At QBE, there are different tools of Information Technology, which are used for knowledge management. These techniques are used for facilitating their knowledge management solutions. For maintaining daily report and provide updated the information and supervising the working performance of QBE Insurance Company, the management is using Oracle Learning Management System for their employees. Learning management system is the process of recording, tracking, transferring and reporting the training programs via different software applications (Hislop, 2013).
The senior management of QBE Insurance Company recognizes that Oracle Learning Management system is one of the best and appropriate ways for enhancing the performance of employees. However, this ensures the sales and service of the organization and enhances the readiness. In order to enhance the knowledge and skills for satisfying the customers, Oracle Learning Management assists in training and development. Oracle Learning Management is an effective system for learning and management, which assists in giving, tracking and organizing the overall process of management (Ben-Tal, et al, 2015). In the staff of QBE Insurance Company, the employees are able to recognize the needed learning methods via joining online classes.
In addition to this, QBE Insurance Company is using E-learning social based tool, which assists the organization in sharing the knowledge among employees of the organization. It assists in interacting with the shareholders, customers and community via messages. This IT tool provides the updated information to the customers about the insurance policies and terms. This technology offers the online communication that facilitates the communication with the internal and external stakeholders of the company. In this way, this system reduces the costs and time for travelling to their place. By the use of e-learning, QBE gives the training session to the employees and enhances their abilities and skills. Furthermore, management itself is getting various advantages from e-learning social based tool. From a location, the managers at QBE access the information remotely about the performance of their employees and get the whole process of business operations of QBE (Galliers & Leidner, 2014).
Knowledge Management systems are the systems, which are developed by integrating different tools and technologies that support the processes of knowledge management. These systems are the solutions to the knowledge management requirements and use various techniques of knowledge management (Holsapple, 2013). In an organization, the knowledge management system is divided in four categories;
For QBE Insurance Company, two of the processes are stated below;
Knowledge sharing is the process, by which tacit knowledge is delivered to other individuals. This is an effective type of information transfer that can be taken place across the departments, employees, groups and individuals. QBE Insurance Company is using an effective mode for sharing the knowledge among its employees (Wang & Wang, 2016). For sharing the knowledge across the organization, QBE is using embedded knowledge system that assists the organization in situation planning and assuming its workforce. After doing the situation planning, it enables the management in creating a structure that offers them a process for operating the system effectively. By using this system, the organization is able to share all the guidelines and procedures of organization among its entire people. Furthermore, the company uses tacit knowledge sharing tools, which allows the management team to share existing and new ideas from one person to another (Holtshouse, 2013). These systems help in transferring the ideas to employees to develop a better system.
Knowledge Application system is another system that can be used in managing the knowledge and material information in the organization. This is the system that assists the process via which some people use the knowledge possessed by other people without actually getting, teaching or learning that knowledge. This system does not include any exchange or transfer of knowledge. There are two ways of this system, such as; direction and routines. At QBE Insurance Company, the management team has used the routine as its knowledge application system. They are using embedded knowledge system and they have includes the knowledge in their routine processes norms and rules, which guide the behavior of employees in the future (Huang & Lai, 2014). QBE believes that knowledge application system should be very effective at the organization as it is most important component of overall knowledge management process. Under this, the company uses different software and applications, like; enterprise resource planning, Customer relationship management system, expert system, knowledge system etc.
As discussed above, knowledge management is an important process for an organization and its people. Generally, knowledge is created by integrating four factors, people, practice, processes and technology. At QBE, the knowledge management system has a huge impact on different components of an organization, such as; people, processes, products and organizational performance. The impact of this system on different components at QBE is stated below;
In the process of knowledge management, people are the major sources of knowledge and information. These people create and get the knowledge, use it and learn from it. After that, they teach the other people in order for the company to become very innovative and develop new ideas and opinions (Jones & George, 2015). At QBE, people have the largest impact of the knowledge management system. The company has implemented the Oracle Learning Management system that assisted in defining the learning objective in a specific framework. In addition to this, employees were able to understand required skills and competencies. This system always provides the updates about competency profile and assists in planning. Through this system, the company has provided training to its people for enhancing their skills and abilities towards their work and responsibilities (Liebowitz & Frank, 2016).
Processes are the logical and structured systems, which lead and guide the organization and its people. The system, implemented by QBE, i.e. Oracle Learning Management simplified the training and development process for the organization. Through this system, it is very easy to provide offline and online training to the staff of organization all over the world. It can help in attaining their organizational goals and objectives (King, & Marks, 2008). Moreover, above knowledge management solutions provides the knowledge in learning and assembling the related content by the use of multiple and mixed media sources. Thus, it increases the efficiency of organizational processes and practices.
Products are the core offering, which are provided by the organization to its potential customers. By managing the knowledge effectively, the products and services of an organization will definitely have large impact. QBE is offering insurance services to the Australian people for securing different parts of their life, like; workplace, home etc. By knowledge management, the people at QBE are more able convince the customers to buy their policies and acquire their services (Lin, & Huang, 2008). Through the process of training, they are able to understand and satisfy the needs and expectations of customers and deliver the service effectively. Thus, this knowledge management system will be able to improve service excellence at QBE Insurance Company.
As all of the above components of organizations are affected positively that indicates that performance of the organization is also enhanced by knowledge management solution. It enhanced the administration system in the company (Matayong & Kamil Mahmood, 2013). It assisted in reducing the different organizational costs, like; Oracle system assists in contacting with the people via online system. It allows the employees of QBE to communicate via e-mails, web conferencing and chats. It reduced the costs of travelling to different places. By implementing this effective knowledge management system, the company will be able to attain its goals and objectives.
Thus, implementation of knowledge management solution impacted all its components, such as; people, processes, products and performance of organization, i.e. QBE Insurance Company (Stefik, 2014).
From the above report, it can be said that QBE Insurance Company has implemented two knowledge management initiatives, which have impacted different areas of organization. From them, one solution, i.e. Oracle Learning Management system went very well at the organization. This system assisted the company in resolving its business issues effectively. They were able to share and implement the knowledge in an effective manner (Porwol, et al, 2015). It encouraged the employees for understanding the requirements of their customer and providing quick solutions to their issues. As they are offering insurance services, so it is very important to convince the customers for taking their insurance policies. Through Oracle Learning Management System, the employees are able to learn this and it has enhanced the performance of organization in Australian Insurance industry (Ternai, Torok & Varga, 2014).
Apart from this, E-learning tool is failed in the organization, as it is not more effective for the operations of company. This system is very costly for the organization and it does not fulfill all the objectives of the company. In the place of this system, the company should implement another system, i.e. Decision Support System (DSS). This system will be able to give best and appropriate decision for the future development of organization. Decision Support System is one of the primary tools, which are used for managing the knowledge in business. At QBE, this system will enable the management in maintaining the report and giving the required information to the employees (Accorsi, Manzini, & Maranesi, 2014).
Using this system in knowledge management, managers of QBE will be able to share the information easily and organize online training program from a single location for all the employees worldwide. It will allow the organization in making better decisions by taking the creative ideas and opinions from their employees. Data-driven from the Decision Support System will enhance the accessibility to the information, which develops the skills and abilities of the employees (Schwalbe, 2015). Thus, QBE Insurance Company can improve its knowledge management system by incorporating Decision Support System in its Information Technology infrastructure. It will assist the organization to overcome the deficiencies of e-learning socialization tool. DSS will develop the perception for effective decision making relevant to the business operations of QBE Insurance Company.
Conclusion
It is hereby concluded that knowledge management is an integral part of a growth oriented firm. The major objective of this process is to enhance the knowledge base of organization for improving the practices and processes in the workplace. This system may assist the organization in enhancing the organizational behavior and creating better decisions for improving organizational performance. From the above analysis, it can be stated that QBE Insurance Company is making several efforts for managing the knowledge within the organization. It is using different IT tools, like; Oracle Learning Management and E-learning socialization tool. At QBE, Oracle system is more successful than e-learning system, so it is recommended that the organization should implement Decision Support system for improving the process of knowledge management. By doing this, the company will be able to manage the knowledge and organizational behaviors effectively.
References
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