Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water ...

area in the extended APQC and MQI studies and reports located in the Resource Documents
section of the toolkit under Resources.
Q32-1: Selecting level 1 indicates that there is little or no trust between management and the
employees. When this situation occurs, it would be very difficult to implement almost any form
of KM strategy unless the strategy is specifically designed to improve the level of trust
throughout the Utility. Building trust takes time, significant effort and patience by all concerned.
It is particularly challenging if the lack of trust is organization-wide and management is control
oriented with silos and/or old boy networks built into the culture. You may wish to refer to the
APQC best practice report on “Creating a Knowledge-Sharing Culture” and the MQI paper on
“Collaborative Leadership” in the Resource Documents section under Resources.
Q33: The level of employee training, learning, and development in this Utility is ...
Q33-3: Selecting level 3 indicates that this Utility has a medium level of employee training,
learning and development. This may be an adequate baseline to initiate a KM strategy.
Depending on the specific strategy selected, it may be important to look at the various
departments within the Utility to determine if training, learning and development are adequate to
meet current and anticipated needs relative to the creation, sharing and application of
knowledge and the empowerment of employees. Refer to the Sharing and Learning sections in
the Sustaining phase of the toolkit process.
Q33-2: Selecting level 2 indicates that while there is some employee training, learning and
development it may not be adequate. Specific actions may be necessary to upgrade training,
learning and development either prior to commencing—or as part of—a KM strategy. Refer to
the Sharing and Learning sections in the Sustaining phase of the toolkit process.
Q33-1: Selecting level 1 indicates that there is little or no employee training, learning and development.
If this is the case, the KM strategy should not be implemented unless it contains training, learning and
development as part of the strategy, or perhaps that could be the strategy. Organizational learning and
knowledge management go hand in hand. You might wish to read the MQI paper on organizational
learning and knowledge management located in the Resource Documents section of the toolkit under
Resources.
Q34: The percentage of employees that think in terms of systems, and how their work affects
other employee efforts and the mission of the organization, is ...
Q34-3: Selecting level 3 indicates that there are some employees within the Utility who do think
in terms of systems and how their work affects other employee efforts and contributes to the
mission of the organization. This is a positive situation upon which KM strategies may be built.
A discussion on Thinking About Systems is included in the Planning phase of the toolkit
process. For those desiring a deeper treatment of systems and complexity, there is an MQI
paper on this topic as related to decision-making included in the Resource Documents section
of the toolkit under Resources.
Q34-2: Selecting level 2 indicates that there are perhaps a few employees who think in terms of
systems and how their work affects other employee efforts and the overall mission of the
organization. Since the capacity to think in terms of systems and interaction among workers
provide significant support for any KM strategy being implemented, this characteristic in the
Utility may need to be further developed by using teams, or perhaps training in systems and
complexity. While this situation may not preclude a successful KM strategy, it would be
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