Introduction
Sustainability simply refers to a means of continuation or progress. Therefore, when an organization is said to be sustainable, then it has all the necessary elements required for its progress and constant enhancement of its activities. Sustainable organizations can be simply described as self-reliant organizations. However, the process of attaining sustainability by an organization involves the following plans; short, medium and long term planning, visionary leadership, networking skills, resources availability, employees’ commitment to the institution’s missions, financial management and grantsmanship, sufficient and competent staff management and ongoing strategic planning processes (Koenig & Srikantaiah, 2004). Discussed below are some of the knowledge management implementation processes for the interactions between the stakeholders and the Knowledge managers of the Vietnamese-American United Methodist Church (VAUMC).
Body
Expansion and Support
The process of supporting and expanding an organization involves a number of distinct and specific activities including managing stakeholders and all the organization’s processes. The administrative support in northern Virginia for the Vietnamese-American United Methodist Church instituted a bible study group (BSG) to implement all the strategic knowledge management information. This group has successfully implemented the following activities to give a helping hand to the information and knowledge managers of the church in the US. This was extremely important because leading a successful transition enables all the stakeholders to act and to identify their key roles in the organization to manage resistance. Due to the high demands for proper knowledge information managers, the bible study group at the church headquarters in the US invented a number of services that were meant to uncover the obstacles and develop strategies to address the main obstacles hindering the development and church leadership stability.
Uncovering Obstacles and Developing Strategies
The group initiated programs that included setting up a Vietnamese language academy for kids in the US to facilitate knowledge sharing in the bible study group, opening ESL classes, setting up goals and discussing the purposes of the church mission and many others. Furthermore, the bible study group developed their strategies by adding costs and visibility of knowledge management and identifying their resources (Hargreaves & Fink, 2006). The process of leading and learning for organizational sustainability involved the identification and aligning of the key stakeholders, defining the change conditions, evaluating and weighing the change alternatives, and identifying the crucial roles required to support successful changes. This process also involved the application of the new learning tools deployed to the Vietnamese in the US, by analyzing and carefully framing the chief stakeholders of the church, and designing a justified managerial change (Goldsmith, Morgan & Ogg, 2004).
Key Skills for Leadership Groups and fostering Sustainable Change
Quick changes and expansion of the organization by the bible study group in the US were easily achieved when the knowledge managers and champions continuously provided support to their knowledge-sharing efforts by creating public relations and marketing campaigns. For instance, administrative support of the Vietnamese-American United Methodist Church in northern Virginia decided to communicate the knowledge management strategies and their rational to the Church for large-scale and vigorous management. These key skills associated with sustainable leadership by the bible study group and administrative support in northern Virginia included the following, supporting coaching skills for sustainable change, developing integrated plans for strategic communications, influencing the higher authorities and supporting productive relationships to eradicate conflicts, ambivalence and resistances associated with the transition process (Fullan, 2004). However, the BSG should be cautious since the application of these skills involves the integration of communication plans and resistance management within the Church. It is important to note that the training design should incorporate Circle modules focusing on the crucial actions to complete the portions of the actions panned by the BSG, and develop all the necessary skills for successful implementation in delivering the programs for employee engagement (Robinson, 2004).
Incorporation of Changes
Organizations can incorporate limited changes and challenges before the results become distinct and explicit but the behavioral patterns always slows down the response and impacts of the changes made by the knowledge management staff. For instance, taking a cooperative instead of competitive approach for labor relations can significantly cause strikes and other undesired vices in the entire church (Davenport & Prusak, 1998). Hence, considering the stakeholders and following appropriate action plans can suppress externally driven shocks from befalling the Church fraternity in northern Virginia. The bible study group should embark on long-term planning perspectives to assist their subjects and stakeholders in decision-making, behavior and mitigation of potential shocks and risks in the future (Avery & Bergsteiner, 2010).
Conclusion
Radical change is swiftly becoming the norm in very many organizations. Today, the drive for basic management innovation has incorporated imperative management to enhance organizational knowledge management activities. The core learning disciplines in management have built sustainable learning capabilities including; developing new strategies and ways of thinking, coaching from experienced practitioners and shifting from problem-solving to creating newer features and the future of an organization. Leadership and learning sustainability should help the organizational knowledge managers in increasing their managerial skills in the church’s bible study group.
References
Avery, G.C., & Bergsteiner, H. (2010). Honeybees and Locusts. Melbourne, Sydney: Allen and Unwin.
Davenport, T., & Prusak, L. (1998). Working Knowledge. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Fink, D., & Hargreaves, A. (2006). Sustainable Leadership. University of Michigan: Jossey-Bass.
Fullan, M. (2004). Facilitator’s guide, the moral imperative of school leadership. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.
Goldsmith, M., Morgan, H., & Ogg, A. (2004). Leading Organizational Learning: Harnessing The Power Of Knowledge. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Koenig, M., & Srikantaiah, T. (2004). Knowledge of Management. Lesson Learned; What Works And What Doesn’t. Medford, NJ: Information Today.
Robinson, J. (2004). Squaring the circle? Some thoughts on the idea of sustainable development. Ecological Economics. (48) 369-384.