Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water ...

Question 2: Which (if any) of the below is your organization currently doing, planning to
do, or interested in?
Respondents were asked to place a D (Doing), N (Planning to Do) or I (Interested in
doing) next to each of seven items (see below). The 207 responses received this reporting period
showed the following results:
D N I Responses
Communities of Practice 25 17 58 100
Knowledge Base Development 53 27 49 129
Yellow Page Library/Expert Locator 6 25 54 85
Team-Based Decision-making 109 20 26 155
Action Learning 60 9 39 108
Knowledge Sharing 117 18 26 162
Knowledge Retention of Individuals 84 33 46 163
Who are Retiring
Table A.2: Response to Question 2
In the “other” category included at the end of the list there was five entries: “Strategic
planning”, “Succession Planning” and O&M manuals capture institutional knowledge for
training.
Question 3: Are your employees learning fast enough to keep up with changes needed by
your organization?
Of the 207 responders, 163 (78.7%) said yes and 38 (18.4%) said no. Five responders
answered both yes and no. Comments made by these responders are as follows. Note that the
size of utility follows the comment.
Not in all areas- due to lack of resources, some learning retention efforts are lagging.
Examples are: GIS mapping; field verification; assembly and access to record
documents; specifications; basis of design documents. However as time/resources allow,
progress is being made in each area. 130
Depends on the Dept. Some train continuously, some very little. 200
Depends on Employee. Depends on how “need” is defined. 150
In some cases yes, in some no, depends on experience and desire of individual. 379
In addition, one participant responded: N/A (Not applicable).
Additional comments have been organized in the following generic areas (largest to
smallest group): training, change, technology, time, teamwork, knowledge retention,
communication and other.
Training
Even though we are small, employees attend
training seminars, contact others in their
field, read, in-house meetings
We try to keep up through education.
High level of participation in continuing
education programs and current technology
Certification of staff is an issue.
Training and development are focused on
core competencies
Certification requirements/ programs
A-11
©2011 Water Research Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.