Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water ...

toolkit process. You might also wish to review several initiatives in the Tools and Ideas sections
of the toolkit under Resources; specifically, Dialogue, Social Network Analysis, and Knowledge
Sharing.
Q16-2: Selecting level 2 indicates that there is below average communication among
departments, and specific actions are needed to create an environment within which employees
communicate easily and effectively. This lack of communication makes it difficult to implement
KM strategies such as building a knowledge centric Utility or nurturing a knowledge sharing
culture. The toolkit is full of resources that support knowledge sharing and communication. For
example, see the section on Growing a Knowledge Network in the Preparing phase of the
toolkit process. You might also wish to review several initiatives in the Tools and Ideas sections
of the toolkit under Resources; specifically, Dialogue, Social Network Analysis, and Knowledge
Sharing.
Q16-1: Selecting level 1 indicates very poor or little communication among departments of the
Utility. While it may be feasible to successfully implement a knowledge initiative within a given
department where communication is effective, a Utility-wide KM strategy would be very difficult
to implement. The Social Network Analysis tool in the Tools section of the toolkit under
Resources provides a methodology for identifying the areas that are holding communications
back as well as the integrative points within an organization. The toolkit is full of resources that
support knowledge sharing and communication. For example, see the section on Growing a
Knowledge Network in the Preparing phase of the toolkit process. You might also wish to
review other initiatives in the Tools and Ideas sections of the toolkit under Resources.
Q17: The level of management’s empowerment of the workforce is ...
Q17-3: Selecting level 3 indicates that the overall empowerment of employees for this Utility is
average. The specific level of empowerment should be determined. There is a discussion of
empowerment included in the MQI monogram, A Model for Team Learning and Success, which
is located in the Resource Document section of the toolkit under Resources. If it is insufficient
to encourage knowledge creation, sharing, and collaboration among employees steps should be
built into the KM strategy to strengthen this aspect of utility effectiveness. Relationship Network
Management, an approach to developing self empowerment, is included as a MQI paper in the
Resource Documents section of the toolkit under Resources.
Q17-2: Selecting level 2 indicates a general overall lack of empowerment of employees. To
successfully implement a KM strategy under these conditions would mean building up employee
confidence and practice in taking actions, creating and sharing knowledge, and accepting
responsibilities for their decisions. This goal could be made part of the overall KM strategy
implementation. Without employees feeling empowered to create and share their knowledge
with others, they are likely to have a difficult time meeting the KM strategy objectives. A
discussion of empowerment is included in the MQI monogram, A Model for Team Learning and
Success, which is located in the Resource Document section of the toolkit under Resources.
Relationship Network Management, an approach to developing self empowerment, is included
as a MQI paper in the Resource Documents section of the toolkit under Resources.
Q17-1: Selecting level 1 indicates that there is very little, if any, empowerment of employees in
the Utility. Since empowerment is very important to knowledge creation and sharing, solutions
to this limitation should be identified and implemented prior to or during a KM strategy start up.
There is a discussion of empowerment included in the MQI monogram, A Model for Team
Learning and Success, which is located in the Resource Document section of the toolkit under
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