The coronavirus numbers curve is growing all the time. The epidemic is killing more people and affecting more and more countries. More than 1,391,890 cases of coronavirus and more than 81,478 have died (ECDC, 8th April 2020). The virus called COVID-19 belongs to the family of coronaviruses. These viruses cause respiratory tract infections and are very common in certain animals, such as bats and dromedaries (World Health Organisation (WHO), 2020). It was in China that the alert to the coronavirus or “COVID-19” was launched at the beginning of January 2020, after several weeks of misguided behaviours. The country was the first to suffer the consequences of the virus, with large-scale containment measures in the province of Wuhan (WHO, 2020). Wuhan, this epicentre of China became a global pandemic in a matter of weeks. While economic growth forecasts on a global scale are lowered for 2020 due to the coronavirus epidemic, initial indicators point to the consequences of the virus on worldwide activity. One of the most affected sector is tourism. Moreover, populations are in quarantine and have to find ways either to occupy themselves or to work from home.
Currently in the middle of the disaster, the question arises as to whether the COVID-19 has many consequences for organisational life.
This paper is split as follows. The primary section analyses how the corona situation might currently affect knowledge acquisition, transfer and retention within organisations. Within the second section, the report can examine how a knowledge manager can deal with any (negative) consequences following from the first part. The third section questions how the current corona situation might affect the future of knowledge management. Thereafter, the essay will end with a conclusion.
How COVID-19 affect knowledge acquisition, transfer and retention?
According to Joanna Roberts (2015), knowledge management (KM) is “any process or practice of creating, acquiring, capturing, sharing and using knowledge, wherever it resides, to enhance learning and performance in organisations”. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 has put a lot of organisations to a stop which in turn has slowed down the sharing of KM in businesses. Multiple governments across the globe have put their countries into lockdown and created a mandatory rule where people have to stay at home.
When being “forced” by governments to be quarantined at home, a lot of companies had to drop everything at once and go home. Due to that a lot of workers may not have time to properly plan their work at home. Employees can have a hard time finding information either in the databases or their computer. They may haven’t have done a good job of documenting processes and capturing knowledge. Roberts (2015) states in her chapter about “knowledge acquisition, retention and transfer” that a member of an organisation has access to knowledge depends of the capacities of the organisation’s workforce and infrastructure. That goes in line with Singh, Hansen and Podolny (2010) who state that having a good infrastructure and network inside the company helps with the flow of knowledge transmission. During this crisis companies are in real need of co-operation, communication,… if they want to keep their businesses running. For example, in connection with Singh et al. (2010) having homophily in organisation can slow down the search of information. Homophily means that people have a tendency to connect and search for experts who are from the same demographics characteristics as themselves (Singh et al., 2010). If employees at home start to ask for information only to individual who are of the same gender or race as them, it will cost the companies a lot of time and money. Same goes for people who are lower ranked in the industry. It will take them a longer time to access the correct expert. Moreover, in the paper of Haesebrouck, Cools and Van den Abbeele (2018), status differences often impede knowledge transfer. If workers of different status have to start working together it may lead to poorer decision making. To illustrate, a group made of different status working through Skype, Zoom,… can create an environment where lower-status individuals fear disapproval or underestimate own contribution. But of course, it all depends on how high-status individuals make constructive responses, cooperative behaviour to help overcome the negative effects. However, health organisations have been sharing their information continually with the world. Between health companies too, reducing duplication and effort (Matson, Patiath and Shavers, 2003). This leads to a more efficient work environment in the saving of patient and vaccine research.
Another drawback of the virus is that cyber-attacks have been on the rise since the outbreak and are expected to increase further in the coming weeks. Criminals know how to be inventive and take advantage of a situation where the Internet has become almost instantaneously the only place for human interaction and the main means of working. Cybercriminals are taking advantage of the reduced vigilance and numerous security loopholes offered by teleworking, which is often implemented in a hurry and with great urgency (Cranley, 5th April 2020).
In addition, « the virus is expected to increase layoffs as companies face supply chain disruptions and fading demand for goods and services » by USA TODAY (19 March 2020). During times of crisis a lot of companies think of restructuring which leads to loss of organisational knowledge (Geisler, 2007).
Additionally, this disease has a tendency of hurting elderly due to their age and health fragility. The loss of elderly in organisations can have a very negative impact on the knowledge retention for companies. Elderly became in a limited amount of time an organisational asset for enterprises (Levy, 2011). Like Levy (2011) states elderly are valuable experts. To illustrate, they either have been doing the same job or have been a member of the organization for a very long time (Levy, 2011). Loosing many seniors can unfortunately be a big step back for organisations during and after this pandemic.
Elderly aren’t the only one hurting companies knowledge. Newcomers are also a liability for businesses (Roberts, 2015). They don’t know all the inside out of the organisation yet. Transfer of information between experts and novices can be complicated (Roberts, 2015). Especially without any face to face interaction, the integration of new employees can be difficult.