Knowledge Management’s Social Dimension: Lesson from Nucor Steel

I read an article, Knowledge Management’s Social Dimension: Lesson from Nucor Steel. This article was based around social ecology- that is, the social environment within which people operate. While most companies are lacking the social ecology, Nucor Steel is at the forefront of this. In my opinion social ecology is the way information is passed around throughout an organization. Information technology is probably the most viable and efficient way to connect, but it is not the only way and most companies overuse or misuse it. Nucor on the other hand, stayed in front of technology by taking risks and reaping the rewards. While developing these new technologies it is imperative that the information get disseminated throughout the organization, which Nucor was an expert at doing.

The reason for Nucor’s success at social ecology was their leadership style and management which was indicated as giving people the freedom, resources and training to do their jobs but not getting in their way. The way Nucor treated each individual that worked for them really impressed me. Not only were the employees motivated by incentives, they were also self motivated through the open performance records. Nucor also stayed away from the plague of “knowledge is power” in a sense. The reason why I say in a sense is because Nucor did realize that “knowledge is power”, but knowledge throughout the entire Nucor Steel Coperation.

The employee empowerment and incentives really was an effective tool to not only evoke the social ecology, but to also keep Nucor at the top of the steel industry. Giving employees the ability to explore new and more effective ways to be more beneficial also increase their moral, empower them, and also give them a sense of trust. If that wasn’t enough Nucor came up with the “share the pain” program: which stated that any reduction in worker’s compensation was accompanied by a greater reduction in managers’ and the CEO’s pay.

Nucor‘s ability to be effective in knowledge management social ecology came from its leadership.