Assignment 2: Case study

Instructions for preparing Assignment 2

• In this assignment you are required to watch a video presented by Luke Terry, the Executive Director of Toowoomba Clubhouse (http://www.toowoombaclubhouse.org.au/). You will act as a consultant addressing the following questions based on the information you have obtained from the video as well as from their website:

1. Based on your understanding of learning organisations, how can Toowoomba Clubhouse become a learning organisation?
2. How can Toowoomba Clubhouse strategically utilise the potential of knowledge management systems and what benefits/risks may the organisation gain from using technologies for capturing, organising, storing and sharing knowledge?
3. Discuss how the use of HRM practices can assist in facilitating KM and organisational learning in Toowoomba Clubhouse?
4. What suggestions/recommendations would you provide to Toowoomba Clubhouse in order to develop a knowledge-sharing culture for implementing knowledge management?

• You are required to prepare an 1800 word assignment in report format (i.e. report writing) based on the information you have found from the video as well as from their website. Please refer to the Report Writing guidelines from the Learning Centre for this assignment. Please note that you are not required to include a Letter of Transmittal and an Executive summary/abstract in your report;
• You must include in your report a cover sheet with your Full name, Student ID, Course Name, Course Code, Name of Course Examiner, Semester and Date of Submission when submitting your assignment. Also, you are required to attach a blank Assessment Criteria sheet as the front page (before your cover sheet) when submitting your assignment. You can access a blank Assessment Criteria sheet on the StudyDesk;
• You are expected to maintain a professional level of conduct and language when writing your report. 
• There is no need to use turn-it-in with your report;
• Please note that your answers may be based on less than perfect information supplied. You may need to add your own assumptions in order to complete the assignment. You are NOT expected/required to contact the organisation for information for the assignment;
• You need to demonstrate your understanding of the assignment, research capability, and technical and academic care in your assignment. You are expected to link your learning to the concepts/theories in Module 3, 4 and 5 for the assignment. In doing so you must use a minimum of EIGHT (8) academic peer reviewed references. You MUST reference appropriately throughout your report. Please use the following link to find out information on how to recognise peer-reviewed journals.
• The required EIGHT references do not include the lecture notes or module materials. You can, however, use the selected readings in the course materials as your references. Please make sure you quote from relevant texts and readings to support your answers. References are particularly important when you are making a statement and/or trying to argue an idea. For instance, if you are saying … 'knowledge management systems definitely enhance organisational performance', it is important that you have a reference to support your answer and provide further explanation. Any statement or idea unsupported by academic references may be regarded as guesswork and generalisations and may not pass the assessment;
• Academic references may include refereed journal articles, academic books, and government reports. You should avoid using references sourced directly from the internet (i.e. references with http://www … addresses) as these references have dubious academic value. Practitioner magazines, business publications (i.e. Fortune or Business Review Weekly) and newspaper articles may be used for illustrative purposes only (i.e. they may not be used to support your main argument but materials in them may be summarised to provide very brief examples). As an undergraduate student in a university, you are expected to produce work to high academic standards. Written materials must be presented well, be thoroughly researched, contain appropriate references, and demonstrate considerable thought and appreciation of the subject matter. 
• If you feel a need to attach some other interesting report or facts not required in the main body of your answer, please add this as an appendix. Then in your text close to where you discuss this, you should add, for example, in brackets (please see Appendix 1). 
• Use Times New Roman 12 point font, 1.5 line spacing and 2.5cm left and right margins throughout the report. 
• You are ONLY required to include introduction, main body and conclusion in your report. No other sections are required to be included in the assignment. ONLY these three sections in your assignment will be counted towards the overall word count. Others such as title page, tables, figures and appendices are not included in the word count and thus you are free to use them if require. You are allowed to have 10% +/– allowance on the word count for the assignment. You are not expected to have include a Letter of Transmittal and an Executive summary/abstract in your assignment. Unless otherwise stated, please follow the Report Writing guidelines from the Learning Centre for this assignment. 
• Your introduction should very briefly introduce the assignment purpose, outcome of the team activity, and a brief outline of the overall assignment. An introduction should not be precise and concise. The word count in this section should be no more than 10% of the total word limit. In a short report like this one your introduction should be all in one paragraph.
• Your main body is the key part of your assignment. You are required to integrate your answers in the main body of your assignment. This means you should not answer the questions separately. 
• The purpose of a conclusion is to REVISIT the depth of the main points & discussion; to RECAP these main issues; and, to REMIND the reader of the journey they have travelled. The word count in this section should be no more than 10% of the total word limit. In a short report like this your conclusion should be all in one paragraph.
• To achieve high marks you are expected to demonstrate a high level of understanding of the questions, critical analysis, research capability, and technical and academic care in your assignment. Please use the Assignment Criteria sheet as a guide for your assignment. A sample of the Assignment Criteria sheet is attached at the end of this document for your reference.
• You are allowed to have 10% +/– allowance on the word count for the assignment.

Use Harvard AGPS referencing protocols as outlined on the Library website.

Introduction

Knowledge has become a powerful element in the current technologically advanced economic scenario. Efficiently managing knowledge has become a critical component for successful operations. In the present dynamic environment, organisations are keen to implement continuous improvement programs. However, the rate of change is lower attributing to the lack of or lower level of commitment to organisational learning (Murray & Chapman 2003). The absence of learning causes organisations and its stakeholders to repeat outdated practices resulting in short-lived improvisations. Knowledge management is considered as an effective approach to handle the intellectual capital of an organisation (Hislop 2013). As to any strategic initiative knowledge management strategies have benefits and challenges. Proper planning is required to ensure that the business processes are reengineered to successfully accommodate KM tools. This report discusses evolution of Toowoomba Clubhouse into a learning organisation, strategic utilisation of KM systems and its related benefits and risks from technological implementation.  Further, the use of human resource management (HRM) practices to facilitate KM and organisational learning are discussed. Finally, recommendations are made for developing a knowledge-sharing culture for the smooth implementation of KM practices.

1. Organisational Context

Set up in 1996, Toowoomba Clubhouse aims to improve the life of mentally ill people in the Toowoomba community through innovativeness, research and knowledge sharing (Toowoomba Clubhouse 2017). It was created to offer mental health assistance overcoming the shortages of such services in the community. It adopts a 'non-institutional and restorative' approach to treat and enhance the recovery of mentally ill people. The services offered by Toowoomba Clubhouse include the development of socialisation capabilities, work-related skills and self-determination. According to the organisation, it adopts a 'Fountain House model for psychosocial rehabilitation'.  This is an evidence-based system with the goal of community integration to offer psychiatric intervention to men and women (Raeburn et al. 2013). The strengths of this model include the safe surroundings, supportive relationships and employment opportunities. The risks of this model include the lack of onsite psychiatry health checks and the promotion of self-reliance. 

The participation of members is voluntary and they are given the right to participate and return after substantial absence.  Involvement of members is considered as one of the key to the Clubhouse's success. It offers a cordial platform to build one's self-esteem through productive work culture, participative decision making and support system (Toowoomba Clubhouse 2017). 

2. Evolution of Toowoomba Clubhouse into a Learning Organisation

A learning organisation defined as the intentional use of learning processes to continuously transform the organisation (Thomas & Allen 2006). Toowoomba Clubhouse supports 700 mentally ill people which also encounter 25 to 100 people daily who come with the intention to join them. Also, knowledge sharing sessions are organised throughout the day. The fundamental mechanism of the Clubhouse involves the training of its staff members on the job and training the members to take up the job in the future. These day-to-day activities increase its difficulty to manage people as well as opportunities to support them. This increase the level of knowledge accumulated across the organisation to be vast and unmanageable. According to Luke Terry, one of his mentors has observed the same as 94% of problems are systems related and 6% are human related.  Though a minor percentage, the human related issues are triggered from the lack of systems and learning. Hence, Toowoomba Clubhouse has to set organisational learning as a high priority initiative.

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