According to the authors, this can be done if employees are given a sense of importance in the organizations. Knowledge workers are already short in supplies and most competing rivals also compete to get the best human resource in terms of knowledge workers. It is therefore essential for any organization to retain this highly skilled part of their workforce and in order to do that organizations must eliminate the autocratic elements and give the employees more say in the organization.
The shortage in supply of specialized knowledge workforce has not only made this type of labor more expensive but also more immobile and difficult to acquire. High employee turnovers with this type of labours can therefore be threatening to organization's sustainable management and long-term success. The company should be more flexible with its bureaucracy. It should allow more decentralization as far as functional and regional departments are concerned (Ireland & Hitt, 2007). Employees will have a more comfortable work relationship with executives that share their own cultural or regional background. Secondly, employee management from the country of origin would mean that the decision maker will have a greater understanding of the market and the culture of the local area. Functional and regional decentralization and delegation of responsibility to lower management levels will bring in more innovation and ideas and that will contribute to a more positive growth and progression for the company Secondly, delegating responsibilities ahead to workers will motivate them, increase their job security and thus, will increase productivity.
In essence the company should consider operating on the lines of Resource-Based View and the Best Practice approach (Foss, 1997). The company should understand the fact that the organization's internal environment is interwoven with external landscape. It must also realized that in order to ensure organizational efficiency, the organization will need to ensure that its resources, both fixed and variable are utilized at its full potential. In order to ensure that an organization maintains its competitive advantage it has to ensure that its resources are not duplicated by the competitors. The company must ensure this by providing its employees a workplace environment that is practically not offered by any other competing organization. It must strengthen the communication channels in order to ensure an efficient flow of information between all hierarchal levels (Collins, 1997). The organizational structure should be redesigned into a flatter structure and employees throughout the organizational structure must be given more participation in the organization's management. The organization will have to open doors for greater prospects for new comers. Continuous growth and grooming of employees must be ensured by providing training and apprenticeship programs (Despres & Hiltrop, 1995). The organization should introduce performance-based remuneration and appraisal system that help increasing employee productivity. The organization should increase focus on working as service providers for clients rather than mentally enclosing the scope of organization within provision of retail services. This will help in further grooming and diversification of skills for the employees. The benefits of Information Technology should be utilized by introducing an efficient intranet that strengthened communication and also assisted in ensuring efficient and effective flow of information. The organization's adherence to a Strategic-Based View approach will minimize the risk of skilled and productive labor being lost to rival companies.
The main reason why authors laid stress on retention of knowledge workers through providing decisive powers and apprenticeship programs because the emotional targets and the ego strength of such skilled workforce lies beyond conventional monetary benefits.
Research Design / Methodology
The research design is based on using an amalgamation of both qualitative and quantitative methods with a greater inclination towards qualitative research methods. While quantitative research design involved testing personality profiles and motive profiles of certain employees for their leadership potential, the qualitative research includes analysis of come case studies in organizations from different sectors.
Qualitative Research
Walmart. Wal-Mart ensures maximum workforce training and satisfaction by minimizing the communication gap between the higher management levels and lower staff. Organizational structure is well defined and leaders and managers direct the subordinates by themselves practically following and demonstrating what they expect from their subordinates to do. Wal-Mart is a major contributor in shaping American labor markets and employs more than 1.6 million people and is one of the major tax payers in the United States of America.
Nowadays, more and more companies tend to focus...
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