218 Anand, Pauleen, and Dexter
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As a result of this report, the New Zealand Government developed a vision of New
Zealand as a world leader in e-government, with the Internet being the dominant means
of access to government information, services, and processes. In addition, it was their
intention that public sector innovation should support a wider knowledge based society.
Hearn and Rooney (2002) posit that it is the role of governments to facilitate the technical,
cultural, and social aspects of waves of innovation. This role is widely supported
throughout the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD),
where the majority of central government organisations regard knowledge management
as a priority and have knowledge management strategies in place (OECD, 2003).
It was at this point, and with the combination of national and local drivers, that the
Bank developed a corporate vision that focussed on knowledge management as a key
component. The vision was led by the then deputy governor, whose involvement
signified the high level of importance that the Bank attributed to knowledge management.
This was an important first step and allowed the Bank’s vision to permeate the
organisation, providing staff with a needed sense of purpose that transcended everyday
activities (Gold, Malhotra, & Segars, 2001). The Bank’s new corporate vision prompted
the required changes within the organisation (Kanter, Stein, & Jick, 1992). In this case,
the vision encapsulated the contribution that knowledge-based value creation can make
(Earl, 2001).
The first step after development of the corporate vision was for the Bank to develop
a business case to move forward in developing a knowledge management program.
Development of a business case for knowledge management is difficult given the
seemingly intangible benefits and difficulty in quantifying or measuring the potential
outcomes of initiatives. Although the Government vision and the national drivers arising
from this were a key source of support for the Reserve Bank vision, they did not assist
in the development of a direct business case for the undertaking of a knowledge
management program. However, the Bank’s status as a quasi-government department
enabled it to leverage government interest in building the knowledge economy and
positioning the public sector as the driver of the knowledge economy was of particular
importance to the Bank. The Bank also emphasised its view that government departments
should be showing leadership. By emphasising the importance of leadership from the
public sector, the Bank was able to add significant weight to its own business case.
One of the most significant steps in the Bank’s journey to knowledge management
was the establishment of the Knowledge Services Group. This group, comprising staff
from across the organisation, was charged with identifying the importance of knowledge
management for the Bank and, subsequent to this, implementation and maintenance of
organisational knowledge management practices. The Bank appointed Yogesh Anand
to the role of chief information officer (CIO). His role was to head the Knowledge Services
Group and take overall responsibility for the Group’s combined areas of knowledge
management, information management, and technology. A critical part of Anand’s role
was to take the knowledge management vision and understand what it meant for the Bank,
to refine it, to elaborate it, and finally to replace theory with action.
From the outset, involvement in the knowledge management initiative came from all
levels. The Bank’s governor directly sponsored the initiative, and this top-level support
was particularly helpful in communicating the importance of the initiative to all staff. A
clear corporate vision (Kanter, Stein, & Jick, 1992; Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995) and top-