Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water ...

causes them to have serious concerns. These concerns can easily create opposition to new
projects, especially when those projects impact them individually and very personally in terms of
how they think, behave and relate to their fellow employees
KM STRATEGIES AND INIATIVES IN DRINKING WATER UTILITIES
Knowledge Management (KM) strategies and initiatives are underway in a large number of
drinking water utilities. During the WaterRF 4003 survey process, 207 separate drinking water
utilities provided information about their organizations and the KM and KM-related strategies
and projects underway. Many of these responders also provided information indicating KM
strategies and initiatives they were planning to implement and interested in implementing.
Figure A.7 below shows the survey responses to the following KM strategies and
initiatives: Action Learning, Communities of Practice, Expert Locator (Yellow Pages),
Knowledge Base Development, Knowledge Retention, Knowledge Sharing, and Team Based
Decision-Making. Five additional write-ins included: strategic planning, succession planning
and development of Operations & Maintenance manuals to capture institutional knowledge for
training.
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Interested In
Planning
Doing
Source: Project 4003 survey process
Figure A.7 Breakout of survey responses regarding the number of KM strategies and
initiatives in drinking water utilities in terms of those underway, in the Planning stage, or
those which have sparked interest.
As indicated by this data, Knowledge Sharing, Team Decision-Making, and Knowledge
Retention represent the largest number of KM strategies underway in these drinking water
utilities. There are also a large number of utilities doing Knowledge Base Development. In
contrast, the largest focus in the planning stage is on Knowledge Retention, followed closely by
Knowledge Base Development and Expert Locator. The largest focus of expressed interest is on
Communities of Practice and Expert Locator, followed by Knowledge Base Development and
Knowledge Retention.
Appendix A 48
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