Reserve Bank of New Zealand 215Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without writtenbeen primarily facilitated through either face-to-face meetings or through the use of e-mail.
The Bank was an early adopter of a document management solution as a way of encouraging
collaboration and the sharing of unstructured information across business units.
At an early stage, management identified issues related to collaboration and
investment in both human and technology capital. However, business case justification
of any major investments in technology has been challenging, given the size of the
organization, particularly in the last five years. This has been countered by a management
philosophy that accepts that some initiatives are strategic and, as such, may not always
stand to business case justification in the traditional sense. The management also had
the foresight to recognise the risks related to management of intellectual capital and
embarked on initiatives to mitigate these risks.
SETTING THE STAGE
In the early 1990s, the Bank employed approximately 800 staff, many of whom had
been with the organization for a considerable period of time. In one instance, a staff
member had been with the Bank for over 40 years. In another, a governor of the Bank
recently left after 33 years of service. The length of service, combined with the specialist
skill set required by Bank staff, resulted in a high percentage of knowledge workers.
Consequently, there was a significant risk of potential loss of knowledge as a result of
a staff member leaving.
Towards the end of the 1990s, with the rapid advances in technology and the
accompanying shift to a global community, the Bank began to experience a slight rise in
the level of staff departures. Initially, staff were leaving from predominantly operational
areas where the loss of knowledge was not as critical. In these areas, much knowledge
had been captured through documented processes and procedures. However, when staff
concerned with policy started leaving, it became critical to consider how to deal with this
potential loss of knowledge.
As a policy-making organization, the Bank had always been reasonably good at
sharing information. When any development was taking place, it was normal practice for
information to be readily exchanged with problems arising only where previous actions
Table 1. The Reserve Bank’s balance sheet (adapted from Reserve Bank, 2002)
Assets
2002/2003
Liabilities
Foreign Reserves $5.1 billion Debt to fund the purchase of foreign
reserves
Assets arising from managing the
Crown’s cash operations$3.4 billion Obligation to repay the Crown’s and
others’ deposits with the Reserve Bank
Government bonds purchased with
monies received from issuing currency$2.8 billion Obligation to replace bank notes and
coins already in circulation
Equity
Assets, including the Reserve Bank
building in Wellington, and so forth, and
government stock, bought with equity$0.4 billion The Government’s net investment in the
Reserve Bank
Total
$11.7 billion