Chapter 5: HR s Role In Building A Knowledge-Centric Culture

Overview

HR has a pivotal role to play in helping to build a knowledgecentric culture and yet their involvement to date has been limited and patchy. It is fair to say that HR practitioners, particularly those working in operational/administrative roles, have had little or no involvement in knowledge management. The main interest in knowledge management has come from those working in a developmental role. Yet as other writers point out, the irony is that HR is well placed to take an active role in knowledge management since they are the guardians of a variety of data about the organisation’s employees, which could be used to ensure a more strategic knowledge management approach is adopted.

With the role of HR changing from operational to strategic, as discussed in Chapter 2, HR professionals should be in a better position to adopt a more strategic standpoint with regard to knowledge management.

So what should HR’s role be? Where can HR add value?