Organizational Knowledge Theory And Practice

This paper is about two companies that went through same type of change (merger and acquisition) with different outcomes. Merger is combination of two or more companies in which the assets and liabilities of the selling firms are absorbed by the buying firm. Although the buying firm may be a considerably different organization after the merger, it retains its original identity while Acquisition is the purchase of an asset or an entire company (Sherman, A. J., & Hart, M. A. (2005). Chapter 1: The Basics of Mergers and Acquisitions. In, Mergers & Acquisitions from A to Z. American Management Association International.).

Paulson E. (2001). “Inside Cisco: The real story of sustained M&A growth”, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

DaVita Dialysis Center was founded in 1999, with the goal to develop programs to enrich lives. It was originally called Total Renal Care (TRC), but during its restructure it was renamed with the term, DaVita, Italian for “giving life.” CEO, Kent Thiry saved the company from the brink of bankruptcy through his leadership style. The corporate headquarters were originally in El Segundo, California, but were moved to Denver, Colorado. Today, it has grown to be an organization with over 53,000 teammates around the nation. The company has expanded to 2,251 outpatient dialysis centers in the United States and 118 outpatient dialysis centers in 10 foreign countries. It treats patients with acute kidney failure, chronic kidney failure, and end stage renal disease. The company’s core values are accountability, continuous improvement, fulfillment, fun, integrity, service excellence, and team. The core values are integrated in the organization’s vision for leadership to stress collaboration and a team-based environment. Teammates feel an emotional level of trust and mutual commitment.

Mergers and acquisitions have become a growing trend for companies to inorganically grow a business within its particular industry. There are many goals that companies may be looking to achieve by doing this, but the main reason is to guarantee long-term and profitable growth for their business. Companies have to keep up with a rapidly increasing global market and increased competition. With the struggle for competitive advantage becoming stronger and stronger, it is almost essential to achieve these mergers. Through research I will attempt to dissect the best practices for achieving merger success.

DaVita is a kidney care company that services people by supplying dialysis treatments to patients that have serious “chronic kidney failure and people that are going through end stage renal disease”. “DaVita’s website states that “as of December 31, 2013, DaVita operated and also provided administrative services at 2,074 of its outpatient dialysis centers located in the United States, they served nearly 168,000 patients in that aspect as well as provided services at 73 outpatient dialysis centers that are located in 10 separate countries.” (DaVita Health Care Partners). Retrieved April 18, 2014 from http://davitahealthcarepartners.com/.

DaVita, Italian for "giving life," was originally known as Total Renal Care (TRC). Employees who also voted on the company’s core values chose the name. In 1999, on the brink of bankruptcy, Kent Thirty became the Chairman and CEO of DaVita. He lead the company on an ambitious restructuring plans that ten years later has transformed the company into a Fortune 500 company with over $ 6.1 billion in annual revenues. DaVita has grown to a population of over 34,000 teammates and serves approximately 118,000 dialysis patients weekly. DaVita provided services at over 1,500 outpatient dialysis centers and at 720 hospitals in 2009. Kent Thiry has led the company since 1999. DaVita has achieved over 11 straight years of improved clinical outcomes and financial results. In 2004, Gambro 's U.S.- based clinics was acquired by Da Vita doubling DaVita 's outpatient clinics. As of 2011, DaVita employs over 41,000 and provides services at more than 1,800 dialysis centers. In 2009, DaVita moved it 's corporate headquarters to Denver from El Segundo, California. Denver was chosen due to its central location, mass transit, talent pool, cost of living, and quality of life. CEO Kent Thiry states that "DaVita was looking for two equally important things in a new home. Number one, that we find an environment that was good for the company to pursue its business. Number two, that we find an environment where our people could live great lives". DaVita is the second largest provider of dialysis in

It’s often said that if a company grows too fast, both employees and customers will experience growing pains. But preparation, along with the help and support from ARA leadership, ensured that the Regional Dialysis Center of Mesquite, located just outside of Dallas, Texas, experienced only success.

Post-merger integration work is difficult, political, and often driven by teams that still have day jobs. Budgets are undefined, executive leadership is not clear beyond the C-level, no plans exist, and no one has done it before. Companies are willing to spend money on due diligence ahead of signing the papers, but do not always follow through to ensure that targets are met. In many cases, integration team members are plucked from the “operate and maintain” staff, and either cannot see or do not share the strategic vision of the “design and build” dealmakers. Companies that thrive from mergers do eight things (at least) correctly: Have a Plan, Communicate, and Measure Results, Dedicate the Team, Automate, Plan for Turnover, Focus on Business

This study examines how leadership, teamwork, and organizational learning can contribute in making mergers and acquisitions work. Our intention is to identify critical factors and practices needed for merger success. Our research is part of an ongoing project, and builds on previous analysis of merger success/failure in such organizations as Standard Oil, Exxon Mobile, and Time Warner-AOL. In this paper, we turn our attention to the recent merger of Pixar and Disney. In our view, the Disney-Pixar case seems to be a good example of a successful merger in progress. This is demonstrated very clearly by recent box office successes such as Academy Award

Oftentimes, M&As look like an easy way to improve a company’s portfolio and market position. Disney’s acquisition of Pixar is a compelling example of successful M&As. However, the dangers of such M&A agreements tend to be underestimated (Rein, 2009). The merger of AOL & Time Warner was disaster because of the lack in harmony and collaboration (DiMaggio, 2009). One of the biggest mistakes acquiring companies can fall into is taking the cultural differences of the acquired company for granted (Rein, 2009).

Within the Army organizations of today knowledge management plays a huge role in the dissemination of information to the unit and it’s soldiers. This is no different for the aviation unit in which I operate. This information can be found in FM 6-01.1, Knowledge Management Operations. It defines knowledge management as the process of enabling knowledge flow to enhance shared understanding, learning, and decision-making. But when the unit was surveyed about their understanding of knowledge management the results were surprising.

This critical analysis will discuss a quantitative study regarding the knowledge process and management’s role. This investigation views knowledge sharing as related to its application. The authors are interested in determining if and how management’s influence effects the knowledge sharing process. This paper will examine the study, providing criticism on the problem statement, academic justification, literature review, research questions, methodological choice, and the findings.

Knowledge management is one of the key enabling technologies of distributed engineering enterprises. It including a wide range of organisational management and technologically oriented approaches that expand the utilization of an organisations ideational assets. Knowledge management approaches may be split into personalization approaches that confirm communication, human recourse and codification approaches that confirm the gathering and organisation of knowledge. This singularity is used to discuss the implementation of knowledge management in engineering design, after first outlining the engineering circumstances that have led to the stream confirmed on the application in software design. The function of information

Knowledge management within an organization is affected by the political practices, the methods of resolving conflict, and the assignment of responsibility for outcomes. Buchanan (2008) stated in relation to a study, "Political tactics mentioned most frequently were blaming others, selective information, creating a favorable image, developing support, ingratiation, creating obligations, rewards, coercion and threats, associating with influential individuals, and forming powerful coalitions" (p. 52). Consequently, within the challenges of an organization Hislop (2013) explained that there is a relationship between authority and information which contribute to divergence and politics. In our school organization there is consistent conflict between central office, school leaders, and faculty members in regards to political processes, the resolving process of issues, and accountability practices.

Another contrasting difference in the subject research is the impact the environmental conditions have with respect to the high-technology mergers. Despite the variety in strategies among the various high-tech companies, one would expect merges would be straight forward. However, that is not the case in many of these partnerships. Actually the merger often reveals many alternatives once the engagement happens. Why is it important to understand the environment in which these pre-merger prospects exist? Technology strategies are very complex to execute and almost always involve cultural and organizational change (Bettis & Hitt, 1995).