Stealth KM: how to make KM successful in any organization
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/03055720610667408 |
| Published date | 01 January 2006 |
| Pages | 97-107 |
| Date | 01 January 2006 |
| Author | Niall Sinclair |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Stealth KM: how to make KM
successful in any organization
Niall Sinclair
Institute for Knowledge and Innovation, The George Washington University,
Washington, DC, USA
Abstract
Purpose – The knowledge economy presents new demands forgovernment departments andagencies
to deliver improved levels of service to their clients. Citizens expect services to be delivered effectively
and economically, and at the same time they expect the knowledge that government holds will beshared
with them, to be part of the products government delivers. To meet this increased level of expectation,
departments and agencies have begun focusing more on the need to managetheir corporate knowledge
with the same diligence with which they manage their other organizational assets. This article seeks to
look at ways to help organizations and individuals to meet these business objectives.
Design/methodology/approach – The article presents a strategy and approach for implementing
knowledge management (KM) successfully in any organization, one that takes KM right back to its
basics.
Findings – Despite the pressure to address knowledge-related issues, it appears that government
institutions are not adopting KM as an organizational imperative. In fact some of the early KM
adopters have fallen by the wayside, and the public sector in general is struggling to make the
connection between its desired business outcomes and the benefits of doing KM.
Originality/value – The article examines: why governments are having a problem with KM; what
can be done to make the KM connection in public sector organizations; and what comprises a winning
strategy for KM programs in the public sector.
Keywords Knowledge management, Knowledge economy
Paper type Viewpoint
Government, in its very essence, is opposed to all increase in knowledge. Its tendency is
always towards permanence and against change (H.L. Mencken).
I am not entirely sure that I would endorse Mencken’s bleak assessment of the
organization we know as, “government incorporated”. However, I suspect that he
speaks for the frustrated citizen in all of us, and I personally have seen my fair share of
tendencies towards permanence and against change in the public sector. In fact this
article is really the result of such a moment. Several years ago, while working for the
Canadian government, I had what could only be described as a business epiphany.
Perhaps epiphany is a bit of an over-statement, but either way it was definitely a
revelatory moment that completely changed my approach to the job I had been hired to
do: making knowledge management (KM) a factor in the daily business of a leading
government organization.
The cause of this direction-changing moment was a senior member of a government
department who said to me one day:
Our department isn’t going to be doing KM, as we have too many other issues to cope with at
the moment.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0305-5728.htm
Stealth KM
97
VINE: The journal of information and
knowledge management systems
Vol. 36 No. 1, 2006
pp. 97-107
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0305-5728
DOI 10.1108/03055720610667408
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