Knowledge management within a Lean organization : a case study at Volvo Cars

In an ever changeable and globalized world with new economic and global competitors competing for the same customers and resources, is increasing the pressure on organizations' competitiveness. In addition, organizations faces additional challenges due to an ever-growing amount of data and the ever-bigger challenge of analyzing that data and keeping the data secure. Successful companies are characterized by exploiting their intellectual capital in an efficient manner.[1], [2] Thus, the most valuable asset an organization has today has become its employees' knowledge. To enable this, there is a tool that supports easier handling and optimize the use of knowledge, which is knowledge management.[3] Based on the theoretical framework and careful review as well as analysis of interviews and observations resulted in six essential areas: structure, management, compensation, communication, trust and motivation. The analysis showed that the scientific articles and literature have different perspectives, different definitions and are based on different theories but the essence is that they all finally seems to arrive at the same result and conclusion, although with different viewpoints and perspectives. This is regardless of whether the focus is on management style, rewards or communication they all focus on the individual. The conclusion is that organizational culture affects knowledge management and dissemination of information, because of its direct impact on the individual. The largest and most important underlying factor why we choose to participate in improvement work or share knowledge is our motivation. Motivation is the reason for and the reason behind our actions. The recommendation is therefore a continued effort to provide employees with tools to better communicate and share knowledge. In addition, to further strengthen the motivation of employees an increased presence of management at the shop floor is recommended. [1] Ichijo & Nonaka, 2007 [2] Tohidinia & Mosakhani, 2010 [3] Wallach, 1983, p.3