Making Informed Decision

Making Informed
Decisions
January 2010

EFFICIENCY UNIT
VISION AND MISSION

Vision Statement

To be the preferred consulting partner for all government bureaux and departments and to advance
the delivery of world-class public services to the people of Hong Kong.

Mission Statement

To provide strategic and implementable solutions to all our clients as they seek to deliver people-
based government services. We do this by combining our extensive understanding of policies, our
specialised knowledge and our broad contacts and linkages throughout the Government and the
private sector. In doing this, we join our clients in contributing to the advancement of the community
while also providing a fulfilling career for all members of our team.

i

This brief was researched and authored by the Research Division, Institute of Public Administration,
Ireland ( www.ipa.ie/research ). The Research Division provides applied research services for policy
makers in a wide range of public service organisations, drawing on an extensive network of contacts
and experience gained over more than thirty years.

Other Efficiency Unit Documents

The Efficiency Unit has produced a number of guides on good practice on a wide range of areas,
Full Version Simplified Version
including outsourcing and contract management. These may be found on the Efficiency Unit website
at www.eu.gov.hk.

Making Informed Decisions

Foreword

The public service can be a hostile environment for decision making. We are held to account by
colleagues, superiors, legislators, media and the public for every decision we make. We know that
many of our decisions will affect many people over many years. We know that there is much that
we don’t know. But decisions must be made.

This report does not have the solutions to all the problems that decision makers face, but it does
introduce ideas and techniques that can help improve access to useful information that can give
greater confidence in making and explaining decisions. Much of the information that decision makers
need does exist. Too often it is not known that it exists. Too often it cannot be made available in a
timely manner to those who need it in a format that is capable of meaningful analysis.

This report provides a succinct summary of the key issues involved in managing knowledge and
using it well. It provides some recent, practical examples from real experience elsewhere that
may be helpful to your thinking about how to improve knowledge management and use in your
organisation.

As well as preparing this survey of international best practice, the Efficiency Unit is now developing
an Enterprise Information Management System (EIMS) for its internal work. Through this project
we are learning lessons that will help us to assist you in benefiting from these systems as they are
introduced across the public service to improve access to relevant, reliable information and help
ii you in your decision making. We look forward to sharing our experience from that project with you
in due course. In the interim, we welcome any questions that you may have after consideration of
this report.

Head, Efficiency Unit
January 2010

Simplified Version Options of Red

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Contents

Executive Summary 1

1. Information and knowledge: a broader understanding 4
Drowning in data?
Information and knowledge – some definitions
Why making informed decisions matters
Drivers of knowledge management: information rich or information overload?
Other drivers of knowledge management

2. Implementing knowledge management to enhance decision making 13
How to get started
Knowledge management tools and techniques
Records management
Web 2.0
The invisible web and finding the right information
Security

3. Making the change 31
Technological factors
Cultural factors iii
Leadership factors
Measurement and evaluation

4. Conclusions 36

References 37



Executive Summary
Information and knowledge: a broader an excess amount of information is provided,
understanding making processing and absorbing tasks very
• The implications of managing information difficult for the individual.
and knowledge effectively are far reaching. • Current research suggests that the surging
Put simply, good information supports better volume of available information – and its
decision making and therefore better delivery interruption of people’s work – can affect not
of services and better value for citizens. only personal well-being but also decision
• Decision making is at the core of all business making, innovation and productivity. In one
activity, as executives set strategy and manage study, for example, people took an average of
operations by weighing a vast array of factors to nearly 25 minutes to return to a work task after
arrive at the desired balance of risk and reward. an e-mail interruption.
It is a cause of alarm that executives themselves • Information and knowledge management, which
feel that the quality of decision making in their support better decision making, should be a
organisations is at best mixed, primarily due to major area of concern for governments. It is
the quality of information available to them. not a new problem, but the scale has never
• There is an onus on government employees been so vast.
to ensure that the information brought to bear • Knowledge management is about building
on decision making is as relevant, complete, organisation intelligence by enabling people
accurate and timely as possible. to improve the way they work in capturing,
• Never before has so much information been sharing and using knowledge.
1
so readily available to organisations and their • Business intelligence is a set of technologies
employees. However, what for some is an and processes that use data to understand
information rich age, others might call information and analyse business performance.
overload. Information overload emerges where

From data to better decision making

Information Management

· Managing information overload
· Records and security
management

Data

· Which data Informed Decision Making
· Data collection

Turning Information into Knowledge
· Using appropriate knowledge
management tools and techniques
Simplified Version Options of Red · Effective use of Web 2.0 and
newer techniques

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Implementing knowledge management to innovative products and services. In addition
enhance decision making to communicating with one another, many users
• There are two main connected aspects to using also contribute to the collective development
knowledge management to enhance decision of products and services. By ‘crowdsourcing’
making. One concerns how information and (as opposed to ‘outsourcing’) some businesses
knowledge are captured and shared, the use are harnessing external expertise by engaging
of appropriate tools and techniques and the directly with and rewarding participation from
impact of Web 2.0. The other concerns handling their customers, users and a wide pool of
the volume of data generated, including such informed contributors.
issues as managing information overload, • For governments the particular characteristics
records and security management. and popularity of Web 2.0 tools require attention.
• Organisations must be in a position to capture Increasingly organisations will have to engage
new knowledge in order to continuously citizens in places where they already are (in social
improve and adapt to ongoing change. There network sites and online communities) rather
are a wide array of tools and techniques for than create portals and all-purpose websites,
enhancing organisation knowledge, thereby expecting citizens to come to them.
aiding better decision making. Some of the
Making the change
best know techniques are After Action Reviews
and Communities of Practice. • There is research evidence that the effective
use of information and knowledge can improve
• Records are essential elements of good
decision making and be developed into a
government. They help assure the accountability
transforming capability for organisations.
of government over time and provide a sound
However, in order to extract maximum value 2
basis for historical research. By extending
from the information and knowledge held by an
knowledge of past actions and decisions to
organisation, there is a need for a structured
inform future decision making, they provide
approach, most likely supported by a number
a valuable repository of information for future
of tools and techniques.
administrations and help build trust.
• The right technology is only one of four critical
• Where records are perceived to be of value, they
enablers of effective knowledge management.
need to be captured, managed and safeguarded
Apart from technology, they are cultural factors,
in an organised manner. Records that relate to
leadership factors, and measurement and
high-risk areas of business require most attention
evaluation factors. It is in addressing these
as they need to be kept to provide evidence, to
four factors together that effective change to
support actions and to ensure accountability.
making informed decisions can be made:
• Web 2.0 is the term used to describe the
Technological factors A key point when
emergence of greater user-functionality on
approaching knowledge management is that
the internet. Where Web 1.0 involved only one
technology is helpful, but it is not the driver
way ‘push’ communication, Web 2.0 software
of change. Developing databases of good
such as blogs, wikis and social networking sites
practices on their own rarely achieve the
have enabled anyone to interact and publish
impact hoped for. Staff will rarely take the
online.
time to enter a practice into a database
• A potential strength of Web 2.0 tools with unless it is specifically part of their job.
regard to decision making is their capacity
for collaboration on the development of



Cultural factors An organisation’s culture in to take an active, supportive role. In practical
which people are motivated, supported and terms this may require that the leadership itself
rewarded for sharing information, is a basic is convinced that knowledge sharing has real
prerequisite. This is the most important factor merit and impact. In addition, managers may
related to sharing and transfer of knowledge. have to overcome fears which they themselves
For organisations seeking to develop knowledge have in relation to new technology and sharing
management it is important to recognise that in knowledge.
all but exceptional circumstances some level of Measurement and evaluation There are
resistance to change will surface. Employees will two types of measurement issues involved
need to be convinced that there are compelling in knowledge management, 1) measuring
reasons for change; that staying in the current performance to identify best practice and 2)
situation is jeopardising the organisation, and measuring the impact of initiatives designed
that the new situation will bring enough benefits to aid the transfer of knowledge. There are
that it is worth the journey. In this regard, good challenges in both areas, but both are necessary.
communication is fundamental. The objective within an organisation should be
Leadership factors As with most change on creating a culture of learning from evaluation,
projects, it’s not essential that leaders initially where managers and staff are constantly
endorse knowledge management, only that raising questions about what they are doing,
they don’t quash initiatives. Indeed in some and actively searching for ways of doing things
organisations quite a low-key start up has been differently or better. In this way, evaluation
useful. However, eventually, if a new approach can help make the promise of knowledge
to knowledge management is to blossom management real.
3 across the organisation, management has

The Four enablers of effective knowledge management

Technology Culture
· Not enough on its own! · Good communication
· Emergence of Web 2.0 · Motivation and reward
· IT literacy and · Trust
competencies · Managing resistance

Effective Knowledge Management

Leadership Measurement and evaluation
· Advice and supporting · Evaluation as process
role · Measuring both outcomes
· Participation in use of and activity
tools and initiatives · Active seeking of better ways
of doing things


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1 Information and knowledge: a broader
understanding
Drowning in data? • Using and sharing knowledge is fundamental to
With each advance in our ability to reproduce the concept of KM. Some organisations prefer
and store information, the amount of information the more accessible term knowledge sharing
available has increased exponentially. The internet to KM, which they regard as having become
gives people access to an unprecedented amount overly identified with information management
of data. Writers have talked of a ‘tsunami of data’ and technology.
(Wurman, 1997), and of people suffering from • The idea of tacit (as opposed to explicit)
information overload and anxiety because of knowledge is central to the concept of KM
the sheer volume and the unstructured, chaotic and has been used to describe the skills,
storage of this data. experiences, insight, intuition and judgment
How we collate, store, process and use information held by individuals. Examples range from
should be a major area of concern for governments. riding a bicycle to the way a project manager
It is not a new problem, but the scale has never interacts and communicates during a problem
been so vast. Furthermore, the implications of solving exercise. In other words, it has to do
managing information and knowledge effectively with an individual’s aptitude for doing things
are far-reaching. Put simply, good information or even cognitively thinking about things. This
supports better decision making and therefore type of knowledge is difficult, some would say
better delivery of services and better value for impossible, to capture and represent in explicit
citizens. There is an onus on public servants to form.
4
ensure that the information brought to bear on The distinction between information and knowledge
decision making is as relevant, complete, accurate and, to a lesser extent, data is widely debated.
and timely as possible. Davenport and Prusak (1998) explain the
differences through the following definitions:
Information and knowledge management
• Data is: the raw material that underpins
– some definitions
information, for example facts, observations,
Knowledge management (KM) is about building statistics.
organisational intelligence by enabling people to
• Information is: data with some context or
improve the way they work in capturing, sharing
meaning attached.
and using knowledge. It involves using the
• Knowledge is: the condition of knowing something
ideas and experience of employees, customers
gained through experience or of apprehending
and suppliers to improve the organisation’s
truth or fact through reasoning.
performance. Building on what works well leads
to better strategy, practice and decision making The authors further note that while distinctive,
(Improvement and Development Agency for Local in practice, the three areas may be difficult
Government (IDeA), 2009). to separate. In effect what may emerge is a
continuum of the three, or an evolutionary process.
The definition above emphasises a number of
Kennerley and Mason (2009) support this thinking,
key considerations:
referring to a process whereby data is given
• The objectives of KM are to make organisations
context and meaning and thus converted into
more efficient and effective; to support them
information, which in turn, when combined with
in achieving their business objectives; and, to
the experience and skills of individuals, becomes
make informed decisions.
knowledge with which to make decisions.


A further area of considerable debate is the organisations are practicing the management of
distinction between KM and information knowledge. The organisations studied included
management (IM). IDeA in the United Kingdom Hewlett Packard, Health Canada, the United States
(UK) (2009) explains the differences between IM (US) army and the World Health Organisation.
and KM. IM deals with the structuring, organising, Data published by the various organisations were
classifying and control of information, whereas the compared and analysed under the headings:
challenge of KM is to determine what information
• Stated goals and objectives
within an organisation qualifies as ‘valuable’. All
• Types of knowledge being managed
information is not knowledge and all knowledge
is not valuable. The ultimate goal of IM is to • Sources and the consumers of knowledge
ensure that information is stored and retrievable, • Knowledge processes involved
while the purpose of KM is tied more closely to • Methodologies employed
organisation objectives, for example to facilitate • Technology used.
product innovation or generate cost savings.
The authors conclude that despite the vagueness
Other writers while often noting the complexities of KM, and its potential overlaps with IM, it is
involved in managing knowledge, in particular practiced in many organisations, where it is
tacit knowledge, know-how and experience, made up of various organisational practices
still emphasise the importance to organisations requiring changes in policies, work routines and
at every level of seeking to promote knowledge organisational structures. They found that:
capture and dissemination. According to Chris
• Knowledge in practice is most often defined
Collison, author of the popular knowledge
as tacit knowledge.
management book ‘Learning to Fly’ http://www.
5 learning-to-fly.org. • KM, as it is practiced, really means the sharing
of tacit knowledge.
‘It’s an oxymoron. It’s like herding cats. You can’t
manage it, I can’t manage it. What we can do though, • There are slight differences between private and
is manage the environment in which learning really public sector KM. Private sector organisations
happens, knowledge is captured, distilled, shared – and use KM for internal knowledge sharing. Public
most importantly of all, applied. Making a difference, sector organisations use KM for both internal
improving the outcome’. and external knowledge sharing.
Source: Bouthillier and Shearer (2002)
A very comprehensive glossary of KM terms
BI essentially uses technology to access and
can be found on the website of the UK National
monitor information, facilitating timely, informed
Health Service (NHS) at http://www.library.
decisions. BI dashboards – visual displays that
nhs.uk/knowledgemanagement/Page.
provide up-to-date key performance indicator
aspx?pagename=GLOSSARY
status reports – and scorecards are increasingly
Business intelligence (BI) describes a set of
being used by public sector managers to track
technologies and processes that use data to
performance and budgets.
understand and analyse business performance
For the purpose of this report the concepts of IM
(Davenport and Jarvenpaa, 2009).
and BI are incorporated in the term KM. While
Knowledge management, what’s in a the differences between them are acknowledged
name? (BI has a strong technology focus; IM may
preclude tacit knowledge), they are used broadly
As a means of exploring whether KM represents
synonymously. The focus in this report is on the
‘the salvation of business’ or the ‘emperor’s new
management of the process by which data is
clothes’, Bouthillier and Shearer (2002) conducted
converted into information and information into
Simplified Version empiricalOptions of in a range of public and private
research Red
knowledge with which decisions can be made.
sector organisations to explore why and how

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CASE STUDY
Using Business Intelligence to make better decisions

The city of Richmond in the US has invested in BI. Recently, the police department added
more granularities to its reports. Instead of grouping all violent crimes together, police now look
independently at crimes such as robberies, rapes and homicides. This enables them to zero in
on patterns relevant to a specific kind of crime. For example, the department discovered that
the city’s Hispanic workers were often robbed on paydays. By entering the workers’ regular
paydays into the system and looking at robbery patterns, the police were able to pinpoint the
days and locations where these incidents were most likely to occur. Now, the force pre-emptively
moves officers from other parts of the city into potential problem areas, which has lowered the
number of robberies.

Source:
http://www.govtech.com/gt/articles/575229?id=575229&full=1&story_pg=1 <http://www.gov-
tech.com/gt/articles/575229?id=575229&full=1&story_pg=1>

Why making informed decisions matters 1. High quality data This is a prerequisite for
Decision making is at the core of all business consistently sound decision making. The greater
activity, as executives set strategy and manage your understanding of your organisation and
operations by weighing a vast array of factors to your environment, the more you can move from
guesswork to making strategic choices. 6
arrive at the desired balance of risk and reward.
The enormous growth in the amount of data 2. Employees need access to good technology
is making this process increasingly complex. and training Access to advanced information
It is therefore a cause of alarm that executives systems is crucial to improved decision making,
themselves perceive the quality of decision making as is training to help employees make full use
in their organisations as mixed at best. of them. Such tools must also be easy to use.
According to a survey carried out by the Economist There is no point in spending on new technology
Intelligence Unit (EIU) (2007), 61% of executives if people do not use them.
report management decision making in their 3. Sound judgment Decision making processes,
companies as moderately efficient or worse, with whether formal or not, need to leverage the
one in five believing that management frequently strength of human intuition. Data does not run
gets its decisions wrong. The EIU report identifies companies; people do.
five ingredients of good decision making, all of 4. Trust To gain employees’ confidence in
which are directly or indirectly associated with management decisions, establishing transparency
better KM: and trust is at least as essential as a good track
record.
5. Flexibility Approaches to decision making, and
even the use of data, need to reflect the fact that
the world is a diverse place, and one size does
not always fit all.



CASE STUDY
How better use of information led to better decision making

In London, the numbers of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET)
between 2004 and 2007 were almost all in excess of the national average. A study produced
for the Children and Young People’s Unit at the Greater London Authority identified several
approaches to improving the information used to ‘profile, monitor, review and understand the
circumstances of young people NEET or at risk of becoming NEET’. These included reviewing
attendance, behaviour and attainment data, monitoring information on ‘at risk’ pupils, and
reporting the contribution of local schools to NEET numbers. The report found that these
measures had ‘made a tangible difference to the targeting of school support towards young
people who may be at risk of NEET status’, and the resulting development of tailored support
packages for young people ‘at risk’ had contributed to a notable decline in the number of
young people who were NEET in London.

Source: The Audit Commission, 2008

In an extensive study of information practices in It was recommended that councils should:
local authorities in the UK, the Audit Commission • Develop an environment where decision makers
(2008 and 2009) found a high level of awareness of demand relevant, high quality, well presented
the importance of good information in supporting information
7 better decision making and therefore better
• Ensure a robust, two-way dialogue between
delivery of services. However, according to
decision makers and information providers
the survey carried out as part of the research,
• Invest time in recruiting, training and retaining
two-thirds of councils say members struggle to
skilled staff
understand the information they receive and half
say that senior officers do. While in part this is • Foster a culture of professionalism in the research,
due to lack of training, there are also significant intelligence and information functions.
issues in respect of the relevance, quality and The website of the Audit Commission includes a
presentation of information by public servants to self assessment framework and toolkit designed
senior management and elected council members to help organisations assess how well they are
with responsibility for making decisions. using information in their organisation. See:
The Audit Commission report (2008) concludes http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/localgov/
that, while the information available when a nationalstudies/istheresomething/pages/
decision is made may never be as relevant, selfassessment_copy.aspx
complete, accurate and timely as might be
desired, it is also the case that those who make
decisions are often ill-equipped to draw appropriate
conclusions from whatever is available. On a
more positive note, it is emphasised that these
problems could be overcome without having to
spend more, by good management and learning
from exemplar councils.

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Checklist for managers of public services in using
information to make better decisions

Does my organisation have the relevant information it needs?

• How do we know that senior decision makers have the information they need? How do
they judge what information is needed? Are we getting better or worse at providing it?
• Can we make decisions that affect local areas based on information about those areas?
• Do our papers for decisions contain a range of information, for example, on costs, trends,
comparators, public opinion, as well as performance indicators and targets?
• Do we share data safely and productively within our organisation and with our partners?

Is my organisation’s information based on good quality data?

• For recent important decisions, how confident are we about the quality of the data
underlying the information?
• How do we decide how accurate and timely information needs to be?

Is my organisation’s information well presented?

• Is information presented in a way that senior decision makers find easy to understand and
interpret? 8
• How could we improve the presentation? Do senior decision makers provide helpful
feedback to those presenting information?

Does my organisation have sufficient skills?

• How skilled are senior decision makers at interpreting information? How could we help
them improve?
• Do we have any skill shortages in analysing or presenting information? How are we
addressing them?

How far does my organisation evaluate its information?

• How often do we evaluate whether we have the right information and use it to best effect?
What have we learned?

Source: the UK Audit Commission, 2008, p.4



Drivers of knowledge management: While information is possibly the world’s most
information rich or information overload? valuable commodity, a problem emerges when
Never before has so much information been the volume of information an individual receives
so readily available to organisations and their and or processes has more negative than positive
employees. However, what for some is an consequences. Commentators talk of ‘drowning
information rich age, others might call information in data, while thirsting for information’ (Kennerley
overload. Information overload emerges where and Mason, 2008). In the US it has been estimated
an excess amount of information is provided, that firms sacrifice $900 billion a year in lost
making processing and absorbing tasks very productivity, with the average knowledge worker
difficult. According to a survey conducted by spending about 25% of their day searching for
Xerox Corporation and Harris International among needed information, getting back to work after an
US government and education employees, over interruption and dealing with other information-
half the respondents experienced stress in finding overload effects (MarketWatch, 2009).
the right information to do their jobs. One-third According to the Harvard Business Review (Hemp,
agreed that their organisations are drowning in 2009), the surging volume of available information
paper, while a quarter acknowledged that, on - and its interruption of people’s work - can affect
occasion, they have used the wrong information. not only personal well-being but also decision
There are real challenges in identifying the right, making, innovation and productivity. In one study,
accurate and timely information to support for example, people took an average of nearly 25
decision making. minutes to return to a work task after an email
Over the past decade internet use has risen interruption. Intel managers have estimated that
exponentially, with more and more people an average employee loses about eight hours a
9 conducting their own research and latterly, through week of productivity to the interruptions associated
the rise of interactive networking tools, producing with trying to keep up with the data stream and
as well as consuming data. Each day information with stopping and starting activities because of
workers are bombarded with, on average, 1.6 data-driven interruptions.
gigabytes of information in the form of emails,
reports, blogs, text messages, calls and more
(MarketWatch, 2009).


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CASE STUDY
Struggling to evade the Email tsunami

Email has become the bane of some people’s professional lives. Michael Arrington, the founder
of TechCrunch, a blog covering new Internet companies, stared balefully at his inbox, with 2,433
unread email messages, not counting 721 messages awaiting his attention in Facebook. Mr.
Arrington might be tempted to purge his inbox and start afresh — the phrase ‘email bankruptcy’
has been with us since at least 2002. But he declares email bankruptcy regularly, to no avail.
New messages swiftly replace those that are deleted unread.
When Mr. Arrington wrote a post about the persistent problem of email overload and the
opportunity for an entrepreneur to devise a solution, almost 200 comments were posted within
two days. Some start-up companies were mentioned favourably, like ClearContext (sorts Outlook
inbox messages by imputed importance), Xobni (offers a full communications history within
Outlook for every sender, as well as very fast searching), Boxbe (restricts incoming email if the
sender is not known), and RapidReader (displays email messages, a single word at a time, for
accelerated reading speeds that can reach up to 950 words a minute).
While helpful, none of these services eliminates email overload because none helps us prepare
replies. A recurring theme in many comments was that Mr. Arrington was blind to the simplest
solution: a secretary. To Mr. Arrington, however, having assistants process his email is anathema.
His blog, after all, is dedicated to covering some of the most technically innovative companies
in existence. ‘I can’t believe how many commenters think the solution to the problem is human
labour,’ he wrote.
10
We all can learn from H. L. Mencken (1880-1956), the journalist, essayist and member of the
Hundred Thousand Letters Club, who corresponded without an assistant. His letters were
exceptional not only in quantity, but in quality: witty gems that the recipients treasured.
Marion Elizabeth Rodgers, the author of ‘Mencken: The American Iconoclast’ (Oxford, 2005),
shared with me (via email) details of her subject’s letter-writing habits. Whether the post brought
10 or 80 letters, Mencken read and answered them all the same day. He said, ‘My mail is so
large that if I let it accumulate for even a few days, it would swamp me.’ Mencken also reminds
us of the need to shield ourselves from incessant distractions during the day when individual
messages arrive. The postal service used to pick up and deliver mail twice a day, which was
frequent enough to permit Mencken to arrange to meet a friend on the same day that he
extended the invitation. Yet it was not so frequent as to interrupt his work.
Today’s advice from time-management specialists, to keep our email software off, except for
twice-a-day checks, replicates the cadence of twice-a-day postal deliveries in Mencken’s time.
We can handle more email than we think we can, but should do so by attending to it only
infrequently, at times of our own choosing.

Sources: ‘Struggling to Evade the Email Tsunami’, New York Times, 20-4-2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/technology/20digi.html?_r=4&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
See also: ‘Lost in Email, Tech Firms Face Self-Made Beast’, New York Times, 14-7-2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/14/technology/14email.html?_r=2&scp=2&sq=information%20
overload%20research%20group&st=cse



Other drivers of knowledge management • An important reason why KM has become
The KM literature (Knight and Howes, 2003; so popular is that new technology makes it
Evans, 2000) refers to a range of other common easier to share knowledge. At its simplest,
issues that motivate organisations to consider conference phone calls means that several
KM. These can be considered under three broad people in different cities can talk together on
headings, avoiding so-called ‘costs of ignorance’, the telephone. Electronic databases make it
the emergence of new technology, and the possible to store vast amounts of knowledge,
recognition of knowledge as a valuable asset to which others can be given access. Email
and source of competitive advantage: means people can communicate quickly, cheaply
and over long distances. More recently, the
• An independent Norwegian-based foundation
advent of the second generation internet, where
DNV-CIBIT (2009) suggests that an effective
interactivity among users is key, has opened up
approach to KM can help mitigate ‘costs of
many exciting new ways for organisations to
ignorance’. Typical ‘costs’ include:
communicate with both their employees and
• People have difficulty finding the information and
customers.
knowledge they need to make key decisions
Technology has also resulted in huge advances
• Employees lose productivity by searching for
in relation to the effective recording and storage
information across disconnected, non-validated
of information and experience. Organisations
and non-compatible knowledge repositories
need good records management for awareness,
and databases
business use, sound decision making, security,
• Good ideas and best practices are not evidence and accountability.
shared, which raises overall costs of providing
• For many organisations the collective expertise
11 service
and experience of its workers is a vital resource.
• Findings from research and development are Economic developments that can result in
not making their way into practice quickly organisations outsourcing or restructuring,
enough and demographic factors such as large scale
• Costly mistakes are duplicated because earlier retirements, have highlighted to organisations the
ones were not recorded or analysed importance of firstly, being aware of workforce
• Work is redone because people are not aware trends and secondly, the implication of these
of activities and projects which have been trends for their businesses.
executed in the past One work force trend that has emerged is the
• Useful sources of information and knowledge impact of an ageing workforce, with large numbers
are frequently stumbled across by accident of employees who joined organisations in the
• One or two key employees hold crucial decades after the second world war reaching
knowledge, and continuity of operations is at retirement age. The resulting loss of knowledge
risk when they retire or are transferred. and experience and the requirement to accelerate
the learning curve of any new staff represents a
Source: DNV-CIBIT, a Netherlands branch of the significant challenge.
Norwegian consultancy firm DNV
http://www.dnv.com/services/consulting/knowl-
edge_management/Drivers_for_knowledge_man-
agement.asp


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CASE STUDY
Preparation for a retirement boom

The Social Security Administration (SSA) in the US predicted a retirement boom among its
own workforce. It estimated that from 2000 to 2010 the agency would lose more than half its
employees, including a large number of leaders.
Having been made aware of the extent of its ageing problem and the consequent loss of
organisation knowledge and know-how this would entail, the SSA set about developing a more
strategic approach to managing its workforce. The programme, Future Workforce Transition
Planning, provided agency leaders with a framework for identifying the key trends likely to affect
its workforce as well as the strategies they should pursue to address these challenges.
Using this strategic workforce planning process, the SSA has turned crisis into opportunity.
By aggressively recruiting new talent and reshaping its workforce, while improving the skills
of employees through training and development, the SSA’s productivity and service to its
customers has continuously improved each year.
The US think-tank, Partnership for Public Service, who analysed the SSA experience noted that
collecting and analysing workforce data, to support fact-based decisions by agency leaders
has been a hallmark of SSA’s human capital management.

Source: Partnership for Public Service
http://www.ourpublicservice.org/OPS/publications/viewcontentdetails.php?id=81
12



2 Implementing knowledge management
to enhance decision making
Using KM to enhance decision making has several A typical audit will look at:
aspects. Firstly, making better use of the knowledge • What are the organisation’s knowledge
that exists within an organisation, through the needs?
appropriate use of tools and techniques that
• What knowledge assets or resources does it
support knowledge capture and sharing. Related
have and where are they?
to this is the area of records management. Records
• What gaps exist in its knowledge?
are an essential element of good governance.
They provide evidence, ensure accountability • How does knowledge flow around the
and inform decision making. Also relevant is the organisation?
emergence of Web 2.0, which facilitates greater • What blockages are there to flow, e.g. to what
user-participation through the internet. In various extent do its people, processes and technology
ways, activities like blogging, the development of currently support or hamper the effective flow
wikis and similar software can support knowledge of knowledge?
capture and sharing that leads to more efficient There are a wide variety of approaches to
decision making. conducting a knowledge audit, with varying
levels of coverage and detail. According to the
How to get started
UK NHS KM team, an organisation may choose
Knight and Howes (2003) suggest that to use some or all of the following:
organisations frequently come to KM because they
13 1. Identifying knowledge needs The first step
have spotted a gap in how well the organisation
involves clarifying what knowledge the organisation
does things and look to undertake or commission
and the people and teams within it need in order
some work to address this. It could be a database,
to meet their goals and objectives. Common
intranet, discussion board or some kind of
approaches include questionnaire-based surveys,
specialist software deployment. However, many
interviews and facilitated group discussions, or
organisations are disappointed at the impact of
a combination of these.
their intervention, which fail in their objective of
2. Drawing up a knowledge inventory
promoting internal communication and knowledge
A knowledge inventory is a stock take to identify
sharing. When this happens the issues are seldom
and locate knowledge assets or resources
technical, rather the interventions are not fulfilling
throughout the organisation. It involves counting
their potential because they are not perceived
and categorising the organisation’s explicit and
to address the real IM and knowledge sharing
tacit knowledge. In the case of explicit knowledge
problems within an organisation and, furthermore,
it examines things like, numbers, types and
they are seen to generate more work without any
categories of documents, databases, libraries,
consequent benefits.
intranet websites, links and subscriptions to
A more comprehensive route into dealing with
external resources etc, and also their purpose,
knowledge issues is to conduct a ‘knowledge
relevance and quality. In the case of tacit
audit’, that is, a sound investigation into an
knowledge, there is a need to consider staff;
organisation’s knowledge ‘health’ or ‘where are
who they are, where they are, what they do, and
we now’?.
their qualifications, skills and experience.


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3. Analysing knowledge flows An analysis Carrying out a knowledge audit is not a quick or
of knowledge flows looks at how that knowledge simple process, and so the time and effort required
moves around the organisation – from where it is needs to be justified by a clear purpose and set
to where it’s needed. The focus at this stage is of actions that will be taken as a result of what
on people: their attitudes, habits and behaviours the audit reveals. An organisation may choose
in respect of knowledge sharing. This will usually to document the latter in a KM strategy. This is
require a combination of questionnaire based a statement of the role played by knowledge in
surveys and follow-up qualitative research. the organisation and how it can be mobilised in
For more details see: http://www.library.nhs. support of business objectives. The purpose of the
uk/KnowledgeManagement/ViewResource. strategy is to establish a framework and concrete
aspx?resID=93807 action plan in respect of the generation, capture
and sharing of knowledge. As with all strategies,
Other approaches to conducting a knowledge
a KM strategy should be clearly aligned with
audit are available from the UK IDeA www.idea.
business objectives and should include details
gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=8179066
on issues such as the context and rationale for
the strategy, key stakeholders, resources and
methods of evaluation.

CASE STUDY
Developing a knowledge management audit and strategy

There is a particular premium on past experience, know-how and information in state legal 14
offices. Both the Attorney General’s (AG) and the Chief State Solicitor’s (CSS) Offices in Ireland
have a Library & Know-how Unit which is managed by a qualified information professional,
and both units include a Know-how Officer on their staff. The Offices’ Statement of Strategy
includes the objective ‘to provide staff with the knowledge and information required to deliver
high quality services through the provision and development of professional library, research
and know-how resources and services’.
In order to progress this objective, an inter-disciplinary steering committee, with representatives
of both the AG and CSS was established. Consultants were appointed to conduct an information
audit and to develop the strategy with the project team. Through conducting personal interviews
and focus groups with a cross-section of employees, it was possible to establish the critical
knowledge and information used by staff to undertake their work and to identify gaps in the
provision and sharing of that knowledge and information. The audit also identified a range of both
enablers and barriers to knowledge and information sharing within the two organisations.
The purpose of the KM Strategy is to provide a framework for identifying, capturing, delivering
and re-using AG/CSS offices’ knowledge and information, to enable greater work efficiency
and enhance the delivery of high quality legal services. In order to achieve these objectives
the strategy particularly emphasises the role of people and their behaviour, noting that, if staff
believe that they will benefit from sharing their knowledge, they are more likely to participate in
new procedures and use the facilitating technology.
The consultants’ report makes twenty recommendations to support the knowledge management
strategy. Selected examples of these recommendations are outlined on the following page.


Knowledge Management Strategy Recommendations
(selected examples) see case study, p.14

Capture and storage of knowledge and information

Recommendation 3
Implementation of a staff specialisms and This will ensure that staff are aware of the subject
skills locator specialisms and skills of their colleagues.

Capture and storage of legal knowledge and information

Recommendation 4
The development of an Intranet-based shared To ensure increased efficiency, reduced
know-how application (to replace the existing duplication of effort and the promotion of
know-how database in the AG’s office) consistency and quality in the generation of
legal advice. The know-how application will
facilitate the indexing, abstracting, updating
and retrieval of legal know-how.

Generating and sharing knowledge and information

Recommendation 15
15
Introduction of a joint legal bulletin A monthly legal bulletin will inform staff of legal
developments and could include, for example,
details of new legislation, pending legislation,
judgments received, books received and recent
additions to the know-how application.

Recommendation 19
The introduction of Communities of Practice CoPs are informal groupings of individuals
(CoP) (initially it is recommended that a pilot who share their interest and knowledge of
CoP be launched) a particular area through a range of forums,
e.g. face-to face meetings, bulletin boards,
conference calls etc.

Source: O’Riordan (2005)


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Knowledge management tools and The purpose of all tools and techniques is to
techniques help in the process of recording and packaging
Tools and techniques for enhancing organisation knowledge for reuse. Organisations must be in
knowledge and thereby facilitating better decision a position to capture new knowledge in order
making, are categorised under a wide range to continuously improve and adapt to ongoing
of headings including knowledge capture, change. There are a wide range of tools and
knowledge creation, knowledge harvesting, methods for achieving this. Some of the more
mobilising knowledge, generating knowledge, important ones are discussed here.
managing knowledge and knowledge sharing.
There is considerable overlap between all these
concepts.

There are a number of useful guides to KM tools and techniques, used in the
preparation of this report, available on-line:

The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation has a comprehensive guide under the
title ‘Dare to Share’. An overview of each tool is provided, its benefits and a step-by-step
guide to how to go about it. Available at: http://www.daretoshare.ch/en/Dare_To_Share/
Knowledge_Management_Toolkit?officeID=73

The library of the NHS in the UK has an excellent section on knowledge tools and techniques
which can be found at: http://www.library.nhs.uk/KNOWLEDGEMANAGEMENT/SearchResults. 16
aspx?tabID=289&catID=12417

The UK IDeA has a guide that categorises tools under three headings, connecting people to
information and knowledge; connecting people to people; and organisation improvement:
http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/aio/8595069



After Action Reviews (AAR) The size of an AAR may reach from two individuals
An AAR (also known as a retrospective review) is conducting a five minute AAR at the end of a short
a discussion of a project or an activity. It enables meeting, to a day-long AAR held by a project team
the individuals involved to learn for themselves at the end of a large project. Activities suitable for
what happens, why it happens, what went well, an AAR simply need to have a beginning and an
what needs improvement and what lessons can end, an identifiable purpose and some basis on
be learnt from the experience. The spirit of an AAR which performance can be assessed. AARs are
is one of openness and learning – it’s not about particularly relevant for helping decision making
problem fixing or allocating blame. Lessons learnt in times of crisis or difficulty, as was referenced in
may be shared on the spot by the individuals the Efficiency Unit’s report on crisis management,
involved or explicitly documented and shared p. 28 http://www.eu.gov.hk/english/publication/
with a wider audience. pub_bp/files/crisis_management.pdf

CASE STUDY
US Wildland Fire Use, after action review
In November 2006, a gathering of wildland fire managers assembled to review that season’s
wildland fire use activities and incidents. Participants included national level programme leaders
from the federal wildland agencies, regional and geographical managers, agency administrators,
members of interagency fire use management teams, and experienced interested practitioners.
Experiences were compiled in an AAR.
17 The group reviewed a range of themes: programme advances and management support, policy
interpretation and implementation, and incident management, under three headings: what was
planned, why did it happen the way it did, and what can we do next time? A range of useful
conclusions were arrived at in respect of the future management of wildland fires, with an
emphasis put on acting on and disseminating these so that improvements could be realised.

Source: http://www.wildfirelessons.net/Home.aspx


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Knowledge exchange/Exit interviews Knowledge exchanges enable an organisation
A knowledge exchange should take place when to ascertain the skills and experience they are
someone is moving on from their current position. about to lose and to determine if further action for
It aims to recover unique and valuable information example, coaching or mentoring of the person’s
from them before they leave. An exit interview replacement, is required. For the departing
more specifically relates to why an employee is employee there is the opportunity to articulate
actually leaving the organisation, either due to their contributions to the organisation and to
retirement or to work elsewhere. Exit interviews ‘leave their mark’. The greatest benefit arises
have evolved from human resource management where knowledge exchange is a formalised and
feedback interviews to become a KM tool, as a structured process, prepared by all parties.
means of capturing the experience and know-how
of a departing employee.

CASE STUDY
Knowledge retention
The UK National Savings and Investment Bank, formerly the Post Office Savings Bank, faced
a significant problem when a long-serving and key member of staff requested early retirement.
The bank realised that it needed to act consciously and deliberately to capture the knowledge
that it was about to lose.
John, the employee in question, had been with the Treasury before joining the bank in the
early 1970s. Since then he had built up an impressive knowledge base of relevant statutes,
18
key processes and protocols. His career had been built on the accumulation of important
knowledge. However, he was not prone to communicate that knowledge proactively, though
when asked he would always share his know-how. He revelled in the mystique about what he
did and what he knew and tried to maintain his reputation as an organisation guru. ‘Ask John’
became a habit and a phrase that reinforced the situation. Not surprisingly then, the Bank and
in particular John’s division were thrown into turmoil when he announced that he had applied
for early retirement.
John had no wish to see the organisation suffer through his immediate departure and agreed
to work for a further nine months and in return the Bank agreed to a reduced working week.
Some of John’s tasks and responsibilities were shared out to other colleagues, thereby reducing
the pressure of losing such a significant volume of knowledge in the future. In addition, John
was actively involved in recruiting his successor who worked alongside him for three months
until his retirement. In this way John’s unique knowledge base was captured through a process
known as ‘guided experience’.
John’s retirement acted as a catalyst for the bank in implementing an improved process of
KM, which they had been aware was required in order to meet Freedom of Information and
compliance requirements. The new system supported improved record keeping and the
documentation of know-how etc.

Source: DNV-CIBIT http://www.cibit.com/site-en.nsf/p/News-Knowledge_Retention_at_NS_I



Knowledge banks Two examples of knowledge banks are the US
Knowledge banks (also referred to as knowledge army’s Centre for Army Lessons Learned and
repositories or knowledge centres) are online the UK Learning and Skills Improvement Centre’s
services and resources which hold information, Excellence Gateway, an online service for those
learning and support. They are typically used to working in the post-16 learning and skills sector
showcase the information, expertise and learning in England ( http://www.excellencegateway.
of an organisation and to provide signposts to org.uk/ ).
documents, articles and toolkits.

CASE STUDY
What does the US army know about hurricane clean-up?
Several years ago Professor John Henderson of Boston University was talking to a group of
senior BP managers. He began by asking whether BP had any formal approach to capturing
strategic knowledge. The chief engineer raised his hand and described a database of ‘project
lessons learned’.
John then told them of a US army colonel he had interviewed. This colonel had once got a
call at eight o’clock on a Saturday morning, shortly after a hurricane had hit the surrounding
region. The orders to the colonel were: ‘Go down there. Provide any support necessary to the
people. And don’t screw up’.
19 This colonel had never actually commanded any operation related to civilians. He’d always
been in the front line, in hot action. But he did have the benefit of an army executive education
programme, where he’d been exposed to the Centre for Army Lessons Learned. So he got his
laptop computer, dialled into the army net, hooked into the Centre for Army Lessons Learned,
and asked the following question. ‘What does the Army know about hurricane clean-up?’
Within four hours he had:
• A profile of troop deployments after the last three hurricanes in North America, including
types of staff, types of skills, and numbers of skills
• A pro-forma budget - both what budget was required and what the actual budget was, as
well as where previous cost overruns had occurred
• A list of ‘ten questions you will be asked by CNN in the first thirty minutes after your arrival’
• A list of every state and federal agency that had to be contacted and coordinated with,
including the name of the each agency’s contact person and the army liaison currently
working with each agency
• Established an advisory team of the three commanders who had managed those previous
hurricane relief operations
At the end of the story, the chief engineer again spoke. ‘You asked whether we had a formal
approach to capturing knowledge. Well, we have nothing, nothing at all, that is anything like
that’.

Source: http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=98&contentId=2000666


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Communities of Practice • Clear and well-defined domain: there is a specific
A CoP is a network of individuals with common thematic orientation; the domain is relevant and
problems or interests who get together to meaningful to members.
explore ways of working, identify common • Links to own practice: members are active in the
solutions and share good practice and ideas. given domain. Shared experiences, concepts
CoPs pool resources related to a specific area and strategies spring from and are being tested
of knowledge. In theory they should be organic against the individual reality of practice.
and self-organising, evolving from recognition of • Personal motivation: membership is voluntary
a specific need or problem. and based on personal interest.
Informal communities exist in some form in every • Mandate: members’ organisation(s) are
organisation. The challenge is to support them interested in the focus and objectives of the
so that they can create and share organisational CoP. The commitment of members is supported
knowledge. Technology allows people to network, by providing necessary working time and
share and develop practices online and overcomes resources.
the challenge of geographical boundaries. Many
• Informal structure: the CoP may cut across unit,
CoPs only interact online.
organisation and hierarchical boundaries.
A report by the Swiss Agency for Development Source: http://www.daretoshare.ch/en/Dare_To_Share/
and Cooperation documents six essential aspects Knowledge_Management_Toolkit/Community_of_
Practice
of a successful CoP:
• Strong community: a group of (more or less)
active members with a lively interest in the
CoP and its topics and who give it priority. It
20
is acceptable, and in fact desirable, that the
member pool fluctuates.

CASE STUDY
Online platform for Communities of Practice
The IDeA has developed an online platform that allows people to set up and join CoPs
specifically for local government bodies. The initiative was a winner at the UK eGovernment
National Awards in 2008.
The CoPs are professional networking sites that utilise interactive internet technology to support
the sharing of knowledge, know-how, skills and good practice across local government.
At its launch in 2007, the platform was set a target by senior management of registering 13,000
users by 2009. This figure has been significantly surpassed. The site has 100% coverage among
the 411 councils in England and Wales and incorporates over 500 individual communities
on issues ranging from health to social issues, community issues, education and so forth.
Membership of communities ranges from a handful of people to several hundred.
According to one user of the Policy and Performance CoP, the most popular CoP on the platform:
‘It’s unique because you can dip in and out when you want to. You are not constrained by
attending conferences or pouring over journals. It’s there if you want to use it and it’s useful.
We’re all serving the same cause and trying to serve the public. If a document, policy or strategy
on the CoP works in one area, chances are it will work Full Version
in yours’. Simplified Version

Source: www.communities.idea.gov.uk


Records management To avoid problems associated with technical
Records management is a function or set of tasks obsolescence, it is necessary to continually
and activities which authorities must carry out upgrade systems and renew commercial software
to operate effectively. Where records are being licenses.
created and received it is necessary to have a The benefits of good records management are
system to keep them, to link them, to find and considerable:
refer to them again and to decide when and • Decision making and operations are properly
how to dispose of them when they are no longer supported and informed by relevant records
needed. Records management is not an arcane • Accountability is demonstrated because the
art; rather it is a practical and common-sense records provide reliable evidence of policy,
activity that supports the goals and functions of decision making and actions/transactions
the organisation.
• Records are managed in compliance with and
The Australian National Archives provide the as required by standards and regulations
following definition of a record:
• Staff time is saved in both the filing and retrieval
A record is all information created, sent and of records by having a system in place
received in the course of carrying out the day
• Record storage is more cost effective because
to day work of an organisation. Records have
redundant records are removed.
many formats, including paper and electronic.
Source: UK National Archives (2006)
Records provide proof of what happened, when http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/
it happened and who made decisions. Not all what_rec_man.pdf
records are of equal importance or need to be According to Smith (2007), it should always
kept. However, where records are perceived to be remembered that the main driver for good
21
be of value they need to be captured, managed records management is business efficiency.
and safeguarded in an organised manner. The international standard ISO 15489 was
Records that relate to high-risk areas of your developed in response to a consensus within the
business require most attention as they need international records management community to
to be kept to provide evidence, to support your standardise international best practice. It focuses
actions and to ensure accountability. particularly on the business asset that records
Source: National Archives of Australia provide to an organisation. It emphasises that
http://www.naa.gov.au/records-management
a good record management system provides a
Increasingly the vast majority of government source of information about business activities
records are produced electronically (‘born digital’). that can support subsequent activities and
These include word-processed documents, business decisions and can ensure accountability
spreadsheets, multi-media presentations, email, to stakeholders. See http://www.iso.org/iso/
websites, online transactions and databases. The catalogue_detail?csnumber=31908#
management of electronic records raises particular
As with any resource that requires management,
challenges in respect of their appraisal, selection,
organisations need to know the quantity and
transfer, storage, sustainability and delivery. In
nature of the records that they wish to retain.
particular, the physical carriers of digital information
The best way to do this is through carrying
are vulnerable to damage and not as durable as
out a comprehensive record survey or audit.
traditional storage media such as paper. Also,
The survey is the basis for the physical and
the hardware and software used to access digital
intellectual management decisions about the
information changes constantly.


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organisation’s records. It provides an organisation The UK National Archives ( www.nationalarchives.
with all the information needed to manage their gov.uk ) has extensive guidance in respect of all
records effectively, including efficient and effective aspects of record management. In particular,
storage and retrieval, improved records filing they have prepared substantive guidelines in
systems, disposal schedules and vital records respect of machinery of government changes.
protection. A machinery of government change is a transfer
The actual survey (either by interview or of functions between ministers, either across
questionnaire) should encompass knowledgeable departments or between a department and an
members of staff representing all business agency. The guidelines provide advice for both
areas who will be able to provide the necessary the ‘exporting’ and ‘importing’ departments in
information on their team’s records. Consideration relation to the transfer of records, information and
also needs to be given to how to hold the knowledge. See: http://www.nationalarchives.
information. A relational database will enable gov.uk/documents/mog.pdf
production of searchable and sorting-enabled The National Archives Office of Australia has a
tools such as a full records inventory, retention check-up tool for assessing an organisation’s
schedules, vital records inventories, file plans records management capacity. This is available at:
etc. In smaller organisations a spreadsheet may http://www.naa.gov.au/Images/Check-up%20
be sufficient. text%20version_tcm2-12664.pdf
Ultimately, records are created and captured Also see guidelines of the National Archives of
in order to be used, therefore record keeping the US at: http://www.archives.gov/records-
systems must include effective mechanisms for mgmt/policy/
retrieving records and tracking their whereabouts
and use. Procedures should be put in place to 22
ensure swift retrieval, an audit trail for use and,
for paper records, their accurate return. A good
records retrieval operation should contain the
following elements:
• Effective finding aids to identify the record and
provide location details and access restrictions
particular to it (e.g. indexes, databases, file
plans)
• Authorisation for access (e.g. for named staff
or according to their role and function)
• Security clearance system, if appropriate
• For paper copies, a register to record details
of records accessed, their location, member
of staff responsible and return.
Source: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
documents/recordkeeping_rec_maintenance_
guide5.pdf



Assessment: Quickly assess your organisation’s records
management practices

The National Archives Office of Australia lists questions your organisation can use to quickly
assess its records management activities. The answer to all questions should be ‘yes’.
Does your agency have:
• An information management framework in place to strategically capture and manage
information, including records, in a co-ordinated way
• A strategy in place to guide the systematic planning of records management improvement
activities
• A records management policy on creating and managing records
• Assigned records management responsibilities
• A knowledge of what records it needs to make and keep to support its business
• A developed procedure and system to ensure the capture and management of these
records
• Systems in place which will ensure that records: can be proven to be genuine; are accurate
and can be trusted; are secure from unauthorised alteration, deletion and access; are findable
and able to be read; are related to other relevant records
• Trained staff to meet their records management responsibilities
• A preservation strategy for records
23
• A regular schedule of audits of record management practices

Source: National Archives of Australia (2008)
http://www.naa.gov.au/Images/Check-up%20text%20version_tcm2-12664.pdf

Web 2.0 (as opposed to ‘outsourcing’) some businesses
Web 2.0 is a label for the emergence of greater are harnessing external expertise by engaging
user-functionality on the internet. Where Web 1.0 directly with and rewarding participation from their
involved only one way ‘push’ communication, customers, users and a wide pool of informed
Web 2.0 software such as blogs, wikis, social contributors (Reference: www.wikinomics.com/
networking sites and mapping technologies have book ).
enabled anyone to interact and publish online. A report by the UK Cabinet Office (2009a) on
It is this mutual or collaborative characteristic of innovations internationally in public service delivery,
Web 2.0 innovations that have led them being notes that in many instances governments and
described as individual or user-centric. providers of public services have responded
A potential strength of these tools with regard to the World Wide Web by simply transferring
to decision making is their capacity to facilitate information from paper to an electronic format.
collaboration and dialogue. In addition to While this is of value in making it easier to find and
communicating with one another, many users search for information, it is far from harnessing
also contribute to the collective development the full potential of the internet, now available
of products and services. By ‘crowdsourcing’ through Web 2.0 technology.


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The challenge for public service organisations a ‘crisis’. Tim Berners-Lee, the developer of
will increasingly be to engage citizens and the World Wide Web, has expressed concern
customers in places where they already are (in at the growing potential of the web to ‘spread
social network sites and online communities) misinformation and undemocratic forces’.
rather than creating portals and all-purpose Effective engagement with citizens is increasingly an
websites and expecting citizens and customers area of concern for public services internationally.
to come to them. During the 1980s management Web 2.0 technology offers groundbreaking
guru Tom Peters advocated that all executives, opportunities in this regard, with governments
whether in the private or the public sector, practice increasingly seeing opportunities for citizens to
‘managing by wandering around’ as a key to become more involved in the design and delivery
leadership excellence. At the time this meant of services (as for example, in the highly innovative
being physically on the office or factory floor, Cologne case study cited below). However,
in an employee or constituent’s office or in the initiatives in this regard need to be approached
canteen. Two decades later, to be an effective with care. Considerable time and organisation
leader, it has been suggested, there is a need to resources need to be dedicated to maintaining
‘wander online’ (Wyld, 2007). these services and ensuring that their content is
However, Wyld (2007) also notes that several balanced and reliable. There is also a significant
commentators have struck a note of caution cultural challenge for many administrations to
in relation to the opportunities afforded to overcome, in evolving towards a situation of
organisations by Web 2.0 tools. He cites Matthew transparency in respect of government information
Taylor, a chief political strategist of former British (Cabinet Office 2009a).
Prime Minister Tony Blair, as describing the internet
as ‘fantastic’ for democracy, but adding that 24
the often shrill discourse found on the internet
could be problematic perhaps even approaching

CASE STUDY
Participatory budgeting through Web 2.0
Participatory budgeting was introduced in Cologne in Germany as part of a wider agenda of
‘services for citizen participation’. The municipal administration recognised that to put citizens
at the centre of governance it is necessary to give them a say over public funds. Participatory
budgeting has been piloted in the city through an e-participation internet platform. The platform
empowers citizens to participate in planning the budget by submitting proposals, comments
and assessments, and submitting votes for or against specific proposals.
The system encourages ongoing online discussion, rather than dialogue always being part of a
tightly time-limited event. To manage the flow of conversation and to target contributions, the
interactive website was carefully and transparently overseen by forum facilitators.
The success of the project is largely due to its high profile across the city – the project was
publicly advertised and information leaflets were sent to each household. The levels of involvement
in Cologne surpass comparable projects elsewhere in Europe – there were around 5,000
proposals submitted, more than 52,000 votes entered, and around 120,000 unique visitors to
the site. The pilot phase of the project cost about €300,000 to set up and run. The initiative is
now developing towards the introduction of improved systems in 2010.
Source: Cabinet Office 2009a http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/224869/world-class.pdf


A discussion paper with detailed descriptions of There is growing interest in blogging across
some well-known Web 2.0 tools can be found governments. Budd (2005, cited in Wyld 2007)
on the website of the UK based Chartered identified the principal benefits of blogging to
Institute of Personnel and Development at: http:// government as the capacity ‘to communicate
www.cipd.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/98069864- directly with the community, bypassing both internal
4E82-494D-A9C8-1FC4FDB6D23C/0/ and news based editorial control’ and ‘to give a
web20andhumanresources.pdf human face to often monolithic organisations’.
This report will discuss two of the more prominent Other commentators have referred to blogging
Web 2.0 tools - blogs and wikis. as making governments more ‘open’ and ‘putting
a human face on government’.
Blogs Blogging can be demanding. Posts need to
Blogs – a shortened form of weblogs – are a be of high quality and regularity to maintain an
personal online publishing system. Utilising software audience, so careful consideration needs to be
developed for the purpose (e.g. Wordpress or given to whether an organisation, part of an
Blogger), individuals can simply and quickly write, organisation or individual are prepared to make
publish and distribute their own opinions via the the commitment. David Wyld has some tips for
internet. Entries appear in chronological order, those who do:
hence giving the appearance of a simple diary. • Define yourself and your purpose
However, blogs should be interactive, with readers
• Do it yourself
able to leave comments and generate discussions.
• Make a time commitment
For many this latter feature is fundamental.
According to Mike Cornfield, a professor at George • Be regular
25 Washington University in the United States (cited • Be generous
in Wyld, 2007, p.36) ‘without comments, a blog However, even if some organisations are hesitant
is just a glorified press release’. about starting their own blogs, all organisations,
Two further advantages of blogs are their public and private, should care a great deal about
immediacy, you can speak to your audience no what bloggers, employees or customers, are
matter where you happen to be, via a mobile saying about them.
phone or Blackberry. Secondly, blogs, because
of the dynamic nature of the content, are search
engine friendly. Through judicious blogging (quality
content, the use of key words and phrases, and
links to more information), blogs can act as a
funnel to an organisation’s main website.


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CASE STUDY
The challenges of public service blogging
Clayton Wilcox is the superintendent of schools in Pinellas County, Florida. In 2005 he started a
blog, dubbed ‘The Classroom’. The blog allowed Superintendent Wilcox the chance to present
his views on a wide variety of educational matters and attracted a high level of attention, with
one of his posts eliciting over 800 comments. However, in May 2006, Superintendent Wilcox
abruptly ended his blog with the following post:
‘I imagine this will be my last post…I will try to archive the posts received up to this date…
some will say that I wimped out…I will just say this…the lies, distortions and mean spiritedness
of some – was not worth my time or worthy of this district’.
Wilcox subsequently commented that the blog had been an effective tool for a while, However,
‘the lack of civility’ of a few anonymous commenters who came to dominate the blog ruined
it, and the ‘forum became ugly’.
In late 2006, the blog was restarted, but with new rules. The blog, now shared by Superintendent
Wilcox and other top district administrators, restricts comments to registered participants
only and does not allow the anonymous comments that proved so troublesome in the past.
Additionally, a strict policy in relation to inappropriate comments was introduced.
The Classroom can be viewed at http://blogs.tampabay.com/classroom/

Source: Wyld (2007)
26
CASE STUDY
Sharing intelligence through blogging in the US military
The American military is realising that its traditional top-down structure, with long decision cycles
and one-way flow of information is not a good fit for today’s needs. It is seeking to replace the
traditional ‘push’ model of information, where vast amounts of information flow down to the
field, inundating commanders with data, with a ‘pull’ model, whereby soldiers can search and
retrieve the right information at the right time.
In response to the threat of a rapidly evolving enemy that can act quickly, the US Strategic Command
(STRATCOM) is in the process of implementing 24-hour, real-time, secure communications
from generals to soldiers. The centrepiece of the effort is the Strategic Knowledge Integration,
or SKI-web, ‘a 24/7/365 virtual intelligence meeting, with blogging and chat as essential parts
of the operation’.
Blogging is central to General James Cartwright’s efforts to transform the culture and information
flow at STRATCOM: ‘The metric is what the person has to contribute, not the person’s rank,
age or level of experience. If they have the answer, I want the answer. When I post a question
on my blog, I expect the person who has the answer to post back. I do not expect the person
who has the answer to run it through the OIC (officer in charge), the branch chief, the executive,
the division chief and then get the garbled answer back before he or she can post it to me. The
Napoleonic Code and Netcentric collaboration cannot exist in the same space and time.

Source: Wyld (2007) Full Version Simplified Version


Wikis Wikis use ‘open source’ Mediawiki software. This
A wiki (from the Hawaiian term for ‘quick’) is a was originally written for Wikipedia, the web-based
collaborative type of web application allowing encyclopaedia, established in 2001 and written
end-users to create and update content, so collaboratively by volunteers.
generating an online community responsible for Within organisations wikis can prove beneficial by
improving the quality and accuracy of content having often remote users create organisational
overtime. The theory behind wikis is that end knowledge that is permanent and searchable.
users are the ones in the know and are therefore
the best people to develop and edit content.

CASE STUDY
Using Mediawiki software to develop a knowledge bank at
Cardiff Council

Cardiff Council is the largest employer in Wales, with more than 18,000 staff. There was a
clear need for a knowledge management system that was flexible, low-cost and relevant to
the needs of staff.
The solution was to use free, ‘open source’ Mediawiki software to develop the Cardiff knowledge
bank. Any member of staff with a username and login ID can access the knowledge bank
through the Council’s intranet. Technical knowledge is not necessary and staff can:
27 • Search existing articles
• Edit and expand articles or create new content
• Share knowledge
• Work collaboratively on developing new initiatives.
While the knowledge bank is supported by a dedicated knowledge officer, the real work is done
by the 157 active users who have to date added about 900 pages of content in relation to all
aspects of council business. While new pages are patrolled, the quality has been found to be
very good, possibly reinforced by the fact that every entry is recorded against a user ID.
For the Council the principal benefits are the reduced time staff spend looking for information,
coupled with the added knowledge gained by using the knowledge bank. In addition, more junior
staff feel valued as a result of being able to contribute to the Council’s ‘body of knowledge’.

Source: IDeA http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=9374555


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The Invisible Web and finding the right Publicly funded and free to use services such as
information the Librarian’s Internet Index ( www.lii.org ), which
The visible and invisible web are terms that have provide weekly updates on high-quality websites
emerged to differentiate between information that carefully selected, described, and organised can
can/cannot be found by using general purpose also guide users to invisible web content.
search engines (e.g. Google or Yahoo!). The Databases form a huge part of the invisible web.
invisible web (also known as the ‘deep web’ or These are typically organised with a special
‘hidden web’) represents by far the largest sector purpose or subject in mind and the information is
of online information resources on the internet. of high quality. Some databases are government
Some of the reasons why information resources sponsored and free to use (for example in the US,
cannot be accessed by the likes of Google are ERIC, an online digital library of education research
technical. In addition, subscription or fee-based and information or PubMEd, the database of
databases are not always available to search the US National Library of Medicine), others are
engines and, certainly, the depth of content will commercial such as EBSCOhost, an electronic
not be accessible. Similarly websites that are journals service.
very deep and rich in content form a substantial Lastly, finding the right content on the internet
part of the invisible web. Search engines set a can simply be a matter of digging deeper into
limit on how much material they index from a likely and recommended websites. Navigating
site. This means that information rich websites a site requires more than just using its search
contain regularly overlooked material. This will features. It may require probing the material
invariably include the most current and recently available and recognising what links can lead to
added information. useful information. Also helpful is an understanding
of the structure of the website. Ultimately the 28
The existence of the invisible web presents
challenges for researchers looking to access benefit of time spent in this way is that it is the
relevant information on the internet. No researcher who makes the decisions, rather than
corresponding tool to Google exists to access depending on a computer program to determine
the invisible web, and so those looking to explore relevancy.
a topic comprehensively must learn to utilise An excellent introduction to the invisible web,
many search tools and give more time to invisible from which much of this section draws on, can
web searching. be found in Devine and Egger-Sider (2009),
Some entry points to the invisible web include ‘Going Beyond Google’. The book includes a
the use of web tools that call themselves search list of web myths, an edited version of which is
engines for the invisible web (for example: www. included below.
completeplanet.com or www.incywincy.com ).



Some common internet myths:

Everything worth finding is already on the Web, or if it can’t be found on the Web, it’s
not worth finding: While information on the internet can be easier to access, the world of
information still includes print sources, other formats and people with expertise.

Google searches the whole web: The overwhelming number of results that users call up with
their queries probably creates this mistaken impression. Studies have shown the invisible web
to be about 500 times the size of the visible web.

The best information is found in the first ten results: There is no guarantee that the search
engine’s assessment of relevancy will match the users. Furthermore, web designers can create
websites that will ensure top placements in web searches.

Searching is easy: Successful research can be time consuming. A saying in the library world
is that ‘searching is easy; finding is more difficult’.

Everything important is free: Information is a commodity and sometimes it is necessary to
pay.

Everything is truthful, authoritative and accurate: Even where providers have the best of
29 intentions information may be tainted with bias and inaccuracies. Good evaluations skills are
always required.

Source: Devine and Egger-Sider, 2009

Bookmarking and Tagging At its most basic, Delicious stores bookmarks on its
Related to the topic of effective internet searching website and accounts may be shared by multiple
is the idea of bookmarking. Even the first web users within an organisation. However, it is also
browser offered ways to mark frequently used able to tell individual account holders how many
websites in order to be able to return to them other users have added the same link and give
easily. However, bookmarks are rarely well them access to their accounts. This is the social
organised (typically just one long list without aspect of the service. It is assumed that users
any way to find a specific one). Also they are who add the same resources are interested in the
restricted to the computer they were created on same topics and so gives people the scope to
and therefore not available to other users unless browse material accumulated by others. A further
manually copied. resource that facilitates information searching is
the option to use notes and tags. The notes field
One solution to these problems is for someone
allows users to enter a narrative description of the
within an organisation to create a well organised
link being added, while tags allow users to add
webpage with useful links. An alternative solution
additional keywords associated with the links,
that requires no knowledge of how to create web
which facilitate in the organisation of bookmarks
pages is the use of dedicated software such as
(for further information see Sauers, 2009).
Delicious ( http://www.delicious.com ). This is a
service that allows users to tag, save, manage and
share webpages from a centralised source.

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Security The Strategy highlights the need for government,
Governments are taking an increasingly high level organisations across all sectors, international
of interest in cyber security. According to the UK partners and the public to work together to meet
Government’s Cyber Security Strategy (Cabinet its objectives of reducing risk and exploiting
Office, 2009b – http://www.cabinetoffice.gov. opportunities by improving knowledge, capabilities
uk/reports/cyber_security.aspx ): ‘As the UK’s and decision-making in order to secure the UK’s
dependence on cyber space (i.e. all forms of advantage in cyber space. Both the UK and the US
networked, digital activity) grows, so the security governments were, in autumn 2009, in the process
of cyber space becomes even more critical to the of establishing offices of cyber security.
health of the nation. Cyber space cuts across Individual organisations also need to keep abreast
almost all of the threats and drivers outlined in a wide range of security issues. Many of these will
the National Security Strategy: it affects us all, it be addressed by ensuring that the organisation has
reaches across international borders, it is largely standard good practice Information Technology (IT)
anonymous, and the technology that underpins and Human Resource Management procedures.
it continues to develop at a rapid pace’. Organisations must also have procedures in
place in relation to employee’s use of email and
the internet.

Effective email and internet security policies
It could be argued that the best defence against viruses, worms and Trojans is to not allow
your computers access to the outside world, which is virtually impossible these days. Banning 30
all attachments is not the answer either. However, an effective email and internet policy will
significantly reduce the risk and an effective firewall and virus scanning software should hopefully
handle the rest. Some points that should be in your email and internet policy are:
• Personal use of an employer’s email is permitted, but should be kept to a minimum
• Employees should be informed that they have no expectation of privacy or guarantee of
confidentiality in email sent or received through your organisation’s email system or in
websites accessed
• Inform employees that the organisation reserves the right to monitor the email system and
internet usage
• Indicate that employees should treat email messages in the same manner as other written
business communications – with professionalism, care and confidentiality
• State that usage and access to the organisation’s computer, email system and distribution
lists should be restricted to its employees
• Make perfectly clear that use of the email system or internet that could be described as harassing,
discriminatory, defamatory, fraudulent, obscene, indecent, embarrassing or intimidating will
not be tolerated, and may lead to discipline up to and including termination
• All employees should be required to sign a form acknowledging and agreeing to the policy.
Reinforcement of the policy at every opportunity is also recommended.

Source: Information Enterprise Australia (2002) http://www.iea.com.au/web/Publications/
Information_Overload_Newsletter/?newsid=51 Full Version Simplified Version
The UK National Archives have also produced Guidelines on Developing a Policy for Managing
Email. This is available at: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/managing_emails.pdf


3 Making the change
The effective use of information can improve While adopting new work systems will involve
decision making and be developed into a IT, their success should not be dependent on
competitive capability for organisations (Kennerley the IT department. In order to overcome these
and Mason, 2008). However, in order to extract difficulties, an organisation needs to:
maximum value from the information and • Provide accessible, user friendly and joined up
knowledge held by an organisation, there is a technologies
need for a structured approach to working with
• Make sure people are supported in using
information, most likely supported by a number
technology
of tools and techniques. However, according to
• Help people to use technology appropriately
O’Dell and Grayson (2000) the right technology
by developing acceptable user policies and
is only one of four critical enablers of effective
protocols
KM. Apart from technology, they are cultural
factors, leadership factors and measurement and • Raise the standard of IT competencies through
evaluation factors. It is in addressing these four the adoption of accredited training.
factors together that effective change to making
Cultural factors
informed decisions can be made.
Cultural considerations, where people are
Technological factors motivated, supported and rewarded for sharing
A key consideration when approaching KM is that information, are a basic prerequisite and are the
technology has a helpful role to play, but it will not most important factor related to sharing and
31 be the driver of change. Developing databases transfer of knowledge. Learning by involvement is
of good practices on their own rarely achieve far more effective than learning by communication
the impact hoped for, as staff will rarely take the (receiving reports, attending seminars etc.).
time to enter a practice into a database unless Furthermore, it is estimated (Perrin, 2003) that
it is specifically part of their job. Furthermore, as as much as 80% of knowledge that needs to be
noted by O’Dell and Grayson (2000), ‘the really transferred is not easily documented (i.e. tacit
important and useful information is too complex knowledge). For these reasons organisations
to be put online, too much tacit knowledge is need to actively work to promote a knowledge
required to make a process work’. Instead, they sharing culture.
suggest, ‘effective databases are brief rather than According to Skapinker (2002), this has become
comprehensive and are designed to enhance more difficult in recent years, because employees
and support, rather than replace, existing sharing feel far more insecure than they did 20 or 30 years
mechanisms. They can provide insights into ago. The idea of a job for life has disappeared.
what has been done, not ‘the right answer’. In Most people have seen colleagues and friends
this regard, many organisations have found that lose their jobs, so why pledge all your knowledge
directory or pointer systems, assisting people in and expertise to an organisation that has little
making contact with others, can be at least as commitment to you? In times of economic
useful as a listing of good practices. uncertainty these fears will be particularly
Many organisations also experience a range of exacerbated. Knowledge is power, and if you
further technical ‘barriers’ that may impact on the know something nobody else knows, the company
development of a KM system. These include poor will find it hard to get rid of you.
IT literacy and lack of support in using technology. Addressing these issues is not easy, they strike

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at the heart of an organisation, its corporate more insecure jobs are perceived to be. While
culture and impact all areas, its leadership and in most organisations it is not possible to offer
management approach, its human resource and employees a job for life, it helps to be honest
employee development policies and IT. However, about the implied contract of employment that
they are issues which organisations need to exists between the organisation and its employee.
concern themselves with or they risk operating Furthermore, organisations can offer fulfilling
at a significantly sub-optimal level. employment and assure people that for as long
While there is no comprehensive checklist for as they work with the organisation they will be
creating a knowledge-sharing environment - it is given opportunities to develop themselves and
a constant process - there are some items that learn.
appear to be consistent in organisations with the
Level of resistance
right corporate culture (Skapinker, 2002):
Lastly, for organisations seeking to develop KM it
Pride is important to recognise that in all but exceptional
Pride creates the sort of organisation that circumstances some level of resistance to change
people are happy to boast about to their family will surface. Employees will need to be convinced
and friends. An organisation with a reputation that there are compelling reasons for change; that
for ethical behaviour and the delivery of high staying in the current situation is jeopardising the
quality products or services creates a sense organisation and that the new situation will bring
of belonging among employees that facilitates enough benefits that it is worth the journey. In
knowledge sharing. this regard, good communication is fundamental.
KM is all about changing people’s behaviour –
Trust without the right messages, fully understood, it 32
Trust is the basis for effective participation and will be very difficult to build sufficient conviction
collaboration. Without trust people are unwilling to implement effective new approaches.
to participate and collaborate with each other. It is necessary to constantly push the need
However, building trust is not a linear progression. for people at all levels to take responsibility for
It is a cyclical and iterative process. To build and voluntarily participating in the activity of sharing
reinforce trust it is important to: and leveraging knowledge. Managers can ask
• Recognise that everyone has something to regularly what people are learning from others,
learn and everyone has something to share and how they have shared with colleagues
• Champion collaborative working, recognising ideas they think worthy. Changing the reward
the role of trust in successful collaboration system to encourage sharing and transfer is
desirable. Leadership can help by promoting,
• Encourage inclusion and active participation
recognising and rewarding people who model
• Get started; it can be hard to know when you sharing behaviour, as well as those who adopt
have established sufficient levels of trust to best practices.
initiate collaboration
• Set common and realistic objectives, start with
something small and build on it.

Look after your employees
The problem of knowledge hoarding is worse the



CASE STUDY
Fostering knowledge sharing in organisations

Texas Instruments is a company that is extremely serious about encouraging reuse of ideas and
designs by its engineers. To encourage this process the company periodically holds a contest
within the organisation to collect the best story based on ‘We didn’t build it here but we used
it anyway’. Teams within Texas Instruments scramble to come up with the best example of
design re-use. They then share the story with others at an awards dinner. The stories and the
activities of the company serve to foster their knowledge sharing culture.
Caterpillar Inc. is the world’s number one supplier of earthmoving machinery. The organisation’s
strategic driver for CoP was just-in-time learning. In the past, employees attended in-class
training on topics that they might or might not find relevant in their daily work. By contrast CoP
provide a platform through which employees can obtain timely answers to current issues or
problems. Communities at Caterpillar are very narrowly focused in order to maintain a direct
relationship between community activities and daily work. The organisation has approximately
3,500 CoPs with about 40,000 unique participants.

Source: Balboul, 2009

33 CASE STUDY
Identifying the benefits of knowledge sharing at IBM

As with most KM initiatives, an ongoing challenge for the knowledge team at IBM is to convince
people of the benefits of sharing knowledge and, as a consequence, to build it into their daily
routine. In this respect senior management support and example is critical. To help ensure that
this happens, a ‘buddy’ system was established to give managers a private opportunity to learn
how to use the resources available. This is complemented by the linking of KM and sharing
activities to appraisals, thereby ensuring that managers are specifically asked what they have
done to enhance knowledge sharing within their teams. However, ultimately the main driver of
KM at IBM is the promotion of the business case.
A core task for the KM team is to show the time and therefore financial savings which accrue
through better information management and knowledge sharing. The KM team surveys users
of the KM system on an ongoing basis, asking them to estimate the amount of work-time
using the system has saved them. The number of hours saved is then extrapolated against
the average cost per hour per employee, providing an indication of the ‘dollar value’ of having
a KM system. In addition, ‘success stories’ are collected which demonstrate the different ways
in which KM has supported the business.

Source: O’Riordan (2005)


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Leadership factors In practical terms this may require that the
As with most change projects, it’s not essential that leadership is itself convinced that knowledge
leaders initially endorse KM, only that they don’t sharing has real merit and impact. In addition,
quash initiatives. Indeed in some organisations managers may have to overcome fears which they
quite a low-key start up has been useful. However, themselves have in relation to new technology,
eventually, if a new approach to KM is to blossom sharing knowledge etc. It also helps if they are seen
across the organisation, management has to take to use knowledge sharing tools and participate
an active and supportive role. in initiatives like CoPs.

CASE STUDY
Leadership buy-in at Centrica

Centrica was formed in 1997 from the de-merger of British Gas and is the UK’s leading provider
of energy and essential services. The following case study is taken from a report of a workshop
run by Chris Collison.
As he was leaving the room, one of the directors turned to me and said, ‘You know, Chris, this is
good stuff, but what I really need is something practical to challenge me and remind me tomorrow
morning what I need to do differently. Something that fits on the back of a postcard’.
After drawing on Centrica’s knowledge-sharing network, I proposed that the director place a
card on his desk containing the following five statements:
34
• When encountering a business problem, how can I reinforce the importance of learning from
others, rather than simply providing an answer?
• How can I personally demonstrate that asking for help is a sign of strength rather than
weakness?
• How do I react when someone fails? Is it purely a loss to the business or is it an investment
in their education?
• When reviewing a project proposal, have I checked that it brings to bear knowledge from
other projects?
• How much time in my diary this week is likely to include ‘real’ conversations?
Six months later, at the next executive forum, all sixty members of the top team scored
themselves against these statements, and committed to refer to them on a daily basis. They
have now been incorporated into the company’s leadership competency framework and built
into the development plans of thousands of managers around the Centrica group.
What are the next steps? Walking the talk and demonstrating the benefits though success stories
must follow the positive rhetoric. A number of cross-company networks have subsequently been
launched, each one sponsored by a member of the senior team. The success of these networks
is critical to building commitment to knowledge sharing throughout the organisation.

Source: Collison (2005)



Measurement and evaluation Measuring the effectiveness of KM practices can
According to O’Dell and Grayson (2000) there similarly pose challenges. In particular, isolating
are two types of measurement issues involved the impact of KM on performance can be difficult.
in KM: 1) measuring performance to identify best One way around this is a two-pronged approach
practice and 2) measuring the impact of initiatives that seeks to measure both outcomes and activity
designed to facilitate the transfer of knowledge. (O’Dell and Grayson, 1998).
There are challenges in respect of both areas, Measuring outcomes focuses on the extent to
but both are necessary. which a project or a process achieves its stated
Clearly, evaluation is critical in order to establish objectives. The success of the project or process
what in fact is a good practice. According to serves as a proxy measure for the success of the
Perrin (2006), information about why the superior KM processes embedded in it. In other words, KM
results were obtained, how this was done and the is seen as an integral tool for improving a project
circumstances in which this took place is essential or process, rather than as a separate thing.
in order to be able to act upon this information. Measuring activities then shifts the focus to
Evaluation that provides understanding about what the specific KM practices that were applied in
has happened and why is at least as important the project or process. What were the specific
as the actual results. activities and what was their impact? In measuring
The importance of context (situational and activities you are looking specifically at things like
extraneous variables) in evaluating good practice how often users are accessing, contributing to,
is the reason why there is a danger in relying solely or using the knowledge resources and practices
on metrics in benchmarking (performance league that have been set up. Some of these measures
tables etc.). According to O’Dell and Grayson will be quantitative (the number and frequency of
35 inputs and hits to a discussion board). However,
(2000), they can be misleading and, furthermore,
there is a danger that comparisons of internal data there is also a need to look at qualitative measures,
may in fact jeopardise the sharing of knowledge for example, asking people about the attitudes
through ‘paralysis by analysis’. and behaviours behind their activities.

The nature of evaluation is therefore critical, with In summary, with a learning approach, the objective
Perrin (2006) talking of evaluation as a process should be on creating a culture of evaluation,
rather than a product and of a learning approach where managers and staff are constantly raising
to evaluation. Attempts at replication of even well questions about what they are doing, and actively
documented exemplary programmes generally searching for ways of doing things differently or
have resulted in disappointment. Instead the better. In this way, according to Perrin (2006),
objective should be on identifying general evaluation can help make the promise of KM
guidelines or theories underlying a given practice real.
and on providing ideas to consider and adapt,
rather than imposing highly-prescriptive and
specific approaches.


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4 Conclusions
While information is possibly the world’s most there is a need for a structured approach to
valuable commodity, a problem emerges when working with information, most likely supported
the volume of information an individual receives by a number of tools and techniques. However,
and or processes has more negative than positive KM is about people changing the way in which
consequences. Current research suggests that they work and, consequently, putting in place the
the surging volume of available information – and right technology won’t of itself produce benefits
its interruption of people’s work – can affect not for the organisation.
only personal well-being but also decision making, Cultural considerations where people are motivated,
innovation and productivity. supported and rewarded for producing relevant,
Knowledge management is about improving high quality, well presented information, which
organisation capability by enabling people to is shared appropriately, is arguably the most
improve the way they work in capturing, sharing important consideration in respect of KM. For
and using knowledge. It involves using the ideas public sector organisations, often with traditional
of employees, customers and suppliers to improve grade structures, silos and organisational
organisation performance. Building on what hierarchies, bringing about this cultural change
works well leads to better strategy, practice and represents a significant challenge. However, not
decision making. to do so means that we may not be bringing the
In order to extract maximum value from the right information and knowledge to bear on our
information and knowledge held by an organisation, decision making.

36



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Breu K and Smith G (2002), Developing a High Performance Workforce: Practical Strategies for
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