Posted by Akhil Shahani on September 20, 2001 at 04:48:50:

Hi all,

one of the issues I've faced while implementing KM strategies for my clients is the 'principal-agent' problem. i.e. often the motivations & needs of the organization (the principal) do not match with those of the individual employees (the agents).

so a successful KM implementation requires everyone in the organization to share openly & freely for the long term good of the organization. however, many employees have set up their personal equations & powerbases, & asking them to do the above goes against what they have built up. also, the long term good of the organization often clashes with the short term good of the individual (i.e. promotion prospects etc.)

I know that organizations are exhorted to create incentive structures to deal with exactly that. but from what i've seen, these are not as successful as expected.

what I'd like to know from those of you who have actually IMPLMENTED KM for an organization, from your experience how did you deal with these issues?

were there any KM implementation's you found to be as successful as you expected? I mean in terms of adoption by the employees of the whole organization.

unfortunately, ive seen a major mismatch between what KM theory states & what KM actually does.

take care,

Akhil

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Follow Ups:

• Re: KM with the 'principal-agent' issue Mohan 19:34:07 09/20/01 (0)
• Re: KM with the 'principal-agent' issue Tarun Satiya 12:28:21 09/20/01 (0)
• barriers Chris 10:34:15 09/20/01 (1)
  • Re: barriers Chris 11:21:15 09/20/01 (0)

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