Knowledge management initiatives frequently fail because of lack of time and staff insecurity.
That was the message Dutch consultant Jean-Yves Prax gave delegates at a workshop on information sharing in organisations.
Prax said time needs to be dedicated to the sharing of information within organisations to demonstrate to staff that it is regarded as important.
He said, “We all know that lack of time means lack of priority.
“Motivational issues are also important. Why? Because staff think knowledge is power and sharing knowledge is not something that most people want to do.
“They think that knowledge sharing will lower their individual benefits.”
Prax said a tendency for organisations to treat knowledge management as an end in itself was another reason projects fail. Instead, he said, companies need to look at it as a tool to achieve clearly defined objectives.
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
He added that a piece of information is useless unless made available to others in an organisation and then used for the customer’s benefit.
“We believe knowledge management is a very common sense concept. It is not something that is new. People say ‘we have to implement it’. I say it is already there. The question is how to improve it.”
