Posted by Trevor MacLean on October 08, 1997 at 18:45:18:

In Reply to: KM - HR or IT? (or just too many acronyms?) posted by Boris on July 25, 1997 at 07:23:24:

First, let me state that I am quite impressed with the overall quality of the discussion on this board. Second, as this is my first time at this site you may have to excuse me if my comments reflect an ignorance of the overall themes being developed.

Nevertheless, ......

I cannot agree that KM is the purview of either HR or IT or both. Indeed, I submit that KM falls within the strategic realm and hence is a matter first and foremost of executive management and leadership. While KM has both human dimensions and technological dimensions, we should not make the mistake of associating those dimensions with a parallel function within an organization. Rather, the objective would seem to be the full integration of a KM vision within all the operating processes of the organization. Consequently, executive management must be involved in both the vision and oversight of the execution. It is a truism of the business world that speeches, awareness training etc are insufficient to the integration and adoption of new ideas in the form of practical change. For instance, many quality initiatives have failed for precisely this reason: senior management did not actively create the environment for quality management to flourish. To successfully implement change, the actual operating processes must be changed in concert with the introduction of the vision. Hence, if you do not change the financial, HR, manufacturing, etc processes, procedures but instead 'layer on' quality processes, or in this case KM processes, you are doomed to failure. It is amazing how quickly cynicism can invade corporate culture when a new initiative is announced with great fanfare, but the underlying infrastructure remains unchanged and impervious. Those seeking to set up a seperate KM position/structure (ie: another corporate island) beware! You are much better off if you can get senior management to include discussion of KM on the agenda for ALL their meetings (preferably topic #1). You then stand a chance to assemble the multidisciplinary support you need to actually implement something.

Perhaps we need a philosopher-king?

Cheers

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