ManTech Leverages Knowledge Management Approaches for Social Networking

ManTech International Corp., a provider of technologies and solutions for national security programs, encourages a high-performance culture among employees, strives to continuously improve customer relationships and seeks to recruit and top talent. ManTech leveraged its enterprise communities of practice, specifically the Knowledge Management Community of Practice, to develop an enterprise knowledge strategy. The knowledge strategy contains an action plan to provide business impact through people, processes and technology.

People: Knowledge-Sharing Events
Each office at ManTech held social events from time to time, but it was relatively rare for ManTech to gather employees from multiple offices in a face-to-face setting. This year, ManTech held an all-employee cooking competition and an all-employee scavenger hunt. Both events were deemed a success, especially the cooking competition, which included more than 250 participants.

In terms of business value and social networking, the cooking competition provided the opportunity for hundreds of employees to meet face-to-face and share their knowledge. ManTech organized a game that rewarded employees for meeting five new employees and sharing a personal and professional story. Many employees commented that the event was not only fun, but it raised awareness of projects, solutions and expertise across ManTech. The events also built trust, rapport and camaraderie as part of ManTech’s knowledge-sharing culture.

Process: Organizational Network Analysis
ManTech is in the process of conducting an organizational network analysis. like most companies, ManTech maintains an organizational chart that depicts the company’s leadership. But how does knowledge flow across ManTech? Who talks to whom, and how are questions answered amongst thousands of employees? The organizational network analysis depicts the connections between employees in terms of discussions via e-mail, phone, the Internet and face-to-face.

In terms of business value and social networking, the map that depicts these connections provides an easy way to contact everyone at ManTech. Another great value of the map is that the organization can be more agile to change. The flow of knowledge is more efficient because the map displays employees who can most quickly communicate across the organization in a trusted manner.