Governance of Strategies to Manage Organizational Knowledge 97Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without writtenthe STDO. This has included exhaustive examination of KM case studies of similar
institutions as well as more generalist implementations.
Current activity includes the pilot and broad distribution of a survey to all staff into
the knowledge-sharing practices of both individual researchers and support staff. This
forms an audit of tacit knowledge transfer and adds to the organizational knowledge map.
The aspects of tacit knowledge-sharing practices that are being examined through over
300 variables comprehensively include the cultural issues affecting KM. They also
canvass frequency and mode of communication (e-mail, phone, interactive chat ses-
sions, or in person) and whether this is with internal and/or external contacts. This task
relates to the use of communication through professional reading activities that are
expected at the STDO as part of maintaining currency of knowledge. They seek to
establish the quantity of the information that is found on the Web, in academic literature,
and that is verbally or even physically passed on to others as relevant and useful. They
seek to establish use patterns of the STDO’s library resources and services and the STDO
intranet. This will produce a pattern of individual information needs and preferences
reflecting both reliance on tacit and, in part, on explicit resources.
Another facet of tacit knowledge sharing that is being examined is that of the role
of informal communities within the STDO. This is described as the relationships with a
group of people whom individuals can turn to when they have questions or problems
within technical, professional, or research work in the STDO. Initial research by the STDO
found that “they [researchers] sourced most of their information through networking and
their colleagues” (Informant 6). As well as providing technical/professional or research
help, internal KM research seeks to audit whether the informal networks include those
who help each other work in the organization, by describing their own experiences of
activities in the organization, giving advice and suggestions for how to gain promotion
and perhaps how do work within STDO’s administrative structures.
An important activity that has a long history in the STDO, and is now incorporated
into the IMKM plan, are the practice hubs that are actually examples of communities of
practice. These were created between 1996 and 2001 for the exchange of information and
views in the various disciplines. The other priority was to make possible the gathering
of research work across STDO divisions, to support scientific excellence, and to develop
the interaction between researchers at STDO and their equivalents at other R&D
institutions and universities. Membership of the hubs is voluntary and is built on the
technology interests of research staff within the following fields: Radio Frequency,
Opto-electronics, Human Factors, and Simulation Activity. Each hub has defined a
number of subordinate foci. The four STDO research hubs are overseen but not claimed
by the IMKM Governing Board as their own. This is a conscious decision because “at
a whole lot of levels we were doing knowledge management, but just not calling it that.
That was also an expectation issue — there was no point in going and grabbing
something. I mean if I put out a knowledge management plan that included the hubs..
. if [we were] wandering around checking up on what the hub’s doing as secretary of the
Information Governance Board, people would say, ‘Why were you doing that? That’s
my core business’” (Informant 1).
The third facet of the management of tacit knowledge is through the knowledge
improvement plan. Some projects that are currently being investigated for this strategy
include a Science Excellence Forum, a STDO Yellow Pages, and an alumni involvement