Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water ...

40 | Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water Utilities
difficult.” Another individual noted that, “Most staff are very busy and the related time constraints
can limit the ability for employees to embrace and/or properly evaluate new initiatives.”
This was reflected in the Project 4003 survey results. On a Likert scale where 1 is very low
and 5 is very high, the statement “Number of new ideas implemented annually” evoked a 3.22
mean from 207 responders. This is considerably below the mean of means (the average for this
survey response) of 3.44. In contrast, the question “How well does your organization accept and
implement new initiatives?” had a mean of 3.49 from 198 responders.
Resistance to Change
Employee resistant to change can present a challenge to the implementation of new projects
such as KM strategies or initiatives. Some employees are stuck in their old ways and have
difficulty learning new practices or ways of interacting with other employees. This frequently
shows up as a lack of enthusiasm in changing the way things are done in a given situation or
utility.
As one responder noted, “A high percentage of employees with greater than 15 years experience
find it hard to change their old ways of thinking.” Other aspects of resistance would include
concern or fear over new technologies, protecting one’s turf, conservative personalities and a
strong belief that the old way of doing business is still sufficient.
Lack of Manpower
It may be difficult for a utility to identify the people who could be put on new initiatives for
implementation without serious impact on the normal operation of the utility. This may be particular
true for small utilities which are already stretched thin. Another aspect is the inability of management
to staff individual assignments at the necessary levels to ensure effective KM
implementation.
Politics
Another barrier to implementing KM initiatives may be political opposition from the utility’s
governance group or, in some cases, the utility’s customer base. Resistance can also come
from labor unions, bureaucratic inertia or even senior managers concerned with maintaining their
silos or personal control. utilities embedding stovepipes or silos may run into resistance from manager’s
intent on protecting their turf. Stovepipes are where each department operates independently
with little cooperation among departments.
Leadership and Management
In situations where leadership has a track record of creating new management initiatives
that turn out to be the “flavor of the month,” a mindset has been accepted by employees that every
new initiative will turn out this way. As this pattern continues, employees become very reluctant to
support any new initiative. Where senior managers and leaders do not have a common vision for
the utility—reflected through different perspectives and ineffective communication throughout the
organization—employees again feel like the initiative is bogus and will never amount to much.
Where there is a lack of trust between managers and employees, resistance to anything new and
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