What Has All Of This Got To Do With HR?

In the introduction to this book I made the point that one of the ways in which HR, in their strategic partner role, can add value in the knowledge management arena is to challenge other people’s thinking about what does, and does not, need changing within the organisation. Although HR may not necessarily be as closely involved with the detailed design of any technological solution for managing knowledge, they could add value by at least finding out whether the questions outlined above have been asked. HR could get away with asking what might seem the naive questions – Could we do KM without technology? – something that the technologists may never consider, because they are often motivated by designing and building systems, irrespective of the real need.

There is growing consensus that when developing knowledge management solutions a multi-disciplinary team approach should be adopted drawing on resources such as: Information Services, IT, HR, Marketing, Chief Knowledge Officer and/or Knowledge Management team, Communications Department, as well as representatives from different user groups.

One model of working identified as background research for this book involved:

• The Head of IT putting forward an outline suggestion for ways of enhancing IT systems from a knowledge management perspective.

• This is followed by the organisation setting up a series of focus groups as a way of building an understanding of what is required versus what is possible.

• The output from the focus groups are then incorporated into a formal proposal, which is then fed back to senior managers and focus group members for approval, before any development work commences.