XIM University, Bhubaneswar

Case: The Intranet: How storing work in online knowledge repositories is

not enough

John McDonald was walking back from a meeting. As he walked through the open plan office,
he saw a small group of his staff sitting at a table having a meeting. As he walked past them
on his way to his office, he overheard something that sparked his interest. The staff were
talking about something that stirred deep in his memory. He turned back and walked up to the
group:
‘Are you talking about the smythsonian stabilizer?’
When the group confirmed they were, he sat down and asked them about their problem. After
10 minutes, he told the group that he had written a report on this topic and it would solve their
problem. He promised the group he would find the report and send it to them.
As he walked back to his office, he muttered to himself how lucky the group was that he had
overheard their discussion. The report would save them weeks of time.
When he returned to his office, he sat down at his computer and opened the intranet and
started looking for the report. He looked at his work calendar and realized he had many other
things to do. His priority was to write a report briefing the senior executive on the issue they
had discussed at the meeting he had just returned from. But this report on the smythsonian
stabilizer was now on his mind. He wanted to help the group. He felt proud that he already
knew the answer to their problem. As their boss, he felt it was his role to help solve their
problems. He was the man they turned to for help. He knew more than them. That was why
he was the boss. So he began searching the intranet for the report.
Two hours later, he was still sitting at his computer looking for the report. It was now 12.30pm.
One of his senior managers, Bill Thompson, knocked on his door and asked John if he wanted
to have lunch. John said no, he was looking for something. Bill asked what it was. When John
described the report, Bill suggested searching for the words smythsonian stabilizer. John
explained that this was the first thing he had done. He scratched his head and explained: ‘The
words are not there for some reason. I just can’t find it.’ Bill suggested giving up. ‘Don’t waste
any more time on this. Just tell the guys you can’t find it. They can just do it themselves.’ John
told him to go ahead to lunch without him. He was frustrated. He could not understand why
he could not find the report. He knew he had filed it on the intranet. All staff were required to
file all of their work on the intranet once completed. He was determined to find the report.
Bill returned at 13.30 and asked John how he was doing. They sat down together and
searched the intranet. After 20 minutes, Bill stood up and said he would ask for help. Bill
returned with Chris Jakemen and Ewan Ball, two of the other senior managers. The four sat
around John’s computer looking at the screen while John tapped at the keyboard searching
without success. Everyone offered their opinion on where to find the report and how to search
the intranet. After a further 40 minutes, Ewan left and returned with Paul Thomas. Paul was
the division’s computer geek. He was 20 years younger than the youngest of the senior
managers sitting around John’s computer. They briefed Paul and he sat down at John’s desk.
The four senior managers stood watching Paul. They felt a sense of obligation to stay and
see this to its end. It was their problem now. If they left, it would seem like they were passing
the problem onto someone else and avoiding their responsibilities in some way. Bill, Chris,

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and Ewan felt a sense of loyalty to John and felt it was their role to help make John’s job
easier. They could see this distressed him in some way and felt they had to help him. But Paul
couldn’t find the report either.
It was now 16.30. John had been trying to find the report for six hours. He had done no other
work since returning from his first meeting of the day. He had not eaten lunch. He did not write
the report for his boss that he had promised he would finish by the end of the day. The four
other staff left his office in defeat. John sat at his desk and considered what to do. He was
angry. He felt inadequate. He rose and walked out of his office to tell the group that he could
not find the report and that they had to start work on their own report. As he walked back to
his office, he reflected on what a bad day it had been. It started well. He wondered what had
gone wrong. He felt incompetent. He felt old. He felt he had let his staff down.

Case Study Questions

1. Should John have got involved in this task? Why, or why not?
2. Why could John not find his report?
3. Is there anything John should have done differently on this day?
4. Why did John feel the way he did?

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