Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water ...

CHAPTER 7
AN ASSESSMENT TOOL
INTRODUCTION TO THE INSTRUMENT
The Assessment Instrument is designed to aid drinking water utility leaders and managers
in determining the readiness of their utility to implement KM strategies. It takes 10–15 minutes to
fill out, and is designed to help answer the question: Is my utility ready to implement a knowledge
management strategy? A knowledge management (KM) strategy is a program to implement KM
throughout the entire utility as compared to implementing a KM initiative that would impact a
department, division or some subset of the utility.
For a utility to be ready to successfully implement a KM strategy it should have certain
characteristics and capabilities. Reflecting those characteristics and capabilities specific to drinking
water utilities, the questions in this tool were developed from a number of research sources.
These include 23 interviews with senior utility leaders, four workshops with groups of utility leaders
and managers, the results of the Project 4003 survey of 207 individuals from drinking water
utilities, and the results of a literature search as well as the experience of the researchers.
There are 40 questions in the assessment instrument that are divided into five areas, each
area pertaining to a specific aspect of the utility. These areas are: General, Leadership, Management,
Culture and Alignment. A list of the assessment questions is provided in Appendix D. Each statement
or question asks for a response based upon a five-point Likert scale in one of the following
ways:
1..........very low;
2......... low;
3......... medium;
4......... high; and
5..........very high.
High scores indicate the utility’s readiness to implement a knowledge management strategy. Low
scores may or may not impact the utility’s readiness dependent upon the specific nature of the
question as well as the specific KM strategy to be implemented. Low scores may also be used to
identify areas in which the utility may want to improve via its knowledge management strategy or
perhaps prior to commencing a full KM strategy implementation.
It is assumed that a specific KM strategy has been selected or is being contemplated.
Because each utility is unique and possesses a wide variety of characteristics—complete with its
own history—this instrument should be used in concert with informed reflective thought prior to
making a readiness decision. What this assessment will do is provide key questions and aspects of
the utility to stimulate your thinking before implementing a KM strategy. From the answers to the
assessment questions and reflection on what you know about your utility, you will be able to make
an informed judgment on whether to proceed with implementation of your KM strategy, or take
some preparatory steps prior to implementation of a KM strategy.
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