Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water ...

and Success” and the MQI paper “Collaborative Leadership.” Both can be accessed through
the Resource Document section of the toolkit under Resources.
Q30-1: Selecting level 1 indicates that very few or perhaps none of the employees in the Utility
are empowered. This situation would make it quite difficult to implement a KM strategy for the
Utility. Most often, this is a leadership/management problem that must be addressed before
moving ahead with a KM strategy. You may wish to review the Leading and Managing section
in the Executing phase of the toolkit process and the MQI paper on “Collaborative Leadership”
in the Resource Documents section of Resources.
Q31: For the critical processes of the Utility, workforce discipline is ...
Q31-3: Selecting level 3 indicates that not all critical processes are implemented by workers
with high discipline. Critical processes would be considered as those that ensure safe drinking
water for the public, or those that require safety procedures that must not be compromised. The
challenge here is that—when implementing a KM strategy for the entire Utility—employees
involved in the critical processes maintain their discipline and careful performance on a daily
basis while simultaneously learning and sharing their knowledge and helping others perform
well. Considerations such as these may need to be taken into account in the creation of KM
strategy implementation. Note that workforce discipline and management control are not
synonymous.
Q31-2: Selecting level 2 indicates that there are critical processes within the Utility in which
employee discipline may be lower than desired. Under these conditions, this discipline must be
reinstated. If the KM strategy is implemented it should support both disciplined processes as
well as collaboration and knowledge sharing.
Q31-1: Selecting level 2 indicates that the critical processes within the Utility are not
implemented with sufficient employee discipline. While this rarely occurs due to the critical
nature of the drinking water industry, if such a situation does exist it should be corrected
immediately and prior to implementing any KM strategy.
Q32: The level of trust between employees and managers is ...
Q32-3: Selecting level 3 indicates that while there is a level of trust between workers and
management in this Utility, there is also some distrust. Trust is an essential ingredient in the
workplace before collaboration and knowledge sharing can be implemented effectively. Thus
actions should be considered early in the implementation phase of the KM strategy to improve
the level of trust between management and the employees. Trust is an underlying theme
throughout the discussions on knowledge strategies and initiatives. It is also a major area in the
extended APQC and MQI studies and reports located in the Resource Documents section of the
toolkit under Resources.
Q32-2: Selecting level 2 indicates that there is not very much trust between management and
the employees. Under these conditions it may be best to approach and resolve the trust issue
prior to implementing a KM strategy. Trust between management and the employees
represents a foundation upon which empowerment, knowledge sharing and learning can be
built. Without this foundation the challenges may be too great for the Utility to successfully
implement a KM strategy. You may wish to refer to the MQI paper on “Collaborative
Leadership” in the Resource Documents section under Resources. Trust is an underlying
theme throughout the discussions on knowledge strategies and initiatives. It is also a major
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