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Vincent McKenna MSc

Vincent McKenna MSc

In 2013 Vincent McKenna graduated with a First-Class MSc from DIT in Dublin. McKenna’s Dissertation is now the Bible of most professionally run businesses. While McKenna could have licenced his newly developed concept he choose to give it away free on the Internet so that the work place could become a more rewarding experience for the many tens of thousands of workers who want something more from their work life experience. At 16 years of age Vincent McKenna was the youngest Shop-steward in Ireland when he was a member of The ITGWU and campaigning for workers rights and in particular the inequality against women in the work place.

Vincent McKenna MSc Title

Retaining the People Who Know Your Business, Exploring knowledge sharing as a tool to improve employee retention in the hotel sector.

ABSTRACT

The retention of core workers in the hotel/hospitality sector is a key challenge for human resource management, organisational strategies and operational effectiveness. The purpose of this research was to investigate and evaluate the impact of the introduction of knowledge sharing tools/techniques and change in work practice on the retention attitudes of knowledge workers in two context specific environments. Problems relating to the retention of knowledge workers are not confined to Ireland and are shown in this project to be a global phenomenon.

Traditionally, knowledge workers have been considered to work in professional fields such as computer programming, medicine, engineering and so forth, however, this paper argues that the tacit and explicit knowledge of knowledge workers within the hotel/hospitality industry are the core knowledge ‘assets’ of that industry, and therefore the term ‘knowledge worker’ and its traditional highbrow connotations may be outdated and need to be replaced with a more world view that recognises all worker types in all work environments as ‘knowledge assets’.

The importance and justification for this research project is clearly set out in the introduction and subsequent chapters; the importance of the subject area is established as key themes are outlined and critiqued. A comprehensive review of the literature relating to knowledge management is set out and leads to a discussion which asks if knowledge management is a consultancy creation or a natural evolutionary chapter in the management genre. The challenges facing knowledge management initiatives within the hotel industry are discussed.

Key models from the literature relating to tools and techniques for a knowledge management initiative are presented.

This research project is based on a knowledge audit of core knowledge workers/assets in two context specific environments and that knowledge audit allowed for the construction of a work/training rotational matrix, a new concept developed by this author. The work/training rotational matrix in this project is simply used as a visualisation for the recommendations flowing from the knowledge audit.

The work/training rotational matrix is presented in this project as a paper based prototype, however, beyond the scope of this project it is expected that the work/training rotational matrix will be developed to a stand-alone IT system that will be dedicated to reducing the cost of human resource filtration within the hotel/hospitality sector and improve knowledge worker retention. One of the key aims of the project would be to leverage technology to assist in the implementation of the knowledge management initiative; technology usage will increase as the model matures.

The knowledge audit in this project is based on a unique collective set of 70 pre-tested questions relating to socio-metrics, knowledge sharing readiness, training audit, willingness to train, job rotation, team player, precarious work, motivation, job satisfaction, perception of management on career development, retention, loyalty, turnover intent, motivation and job design. The literature and previous research links all of these elements back to knowledge worker retention.

The project has also uncovered a number of interesting facts including the initial identification of the ‘new precariat’ and the replacement of the traditional model of worker ‘loyalty’ with a much more tenuous model described in this paper as ‘Velcro-attachment’.

This project takes issue with previous research which strongly argues that low paid workers fit-neatly into a clearly defined box labelled as the ‘precariat’.