Reserve Bank of New Zealand 225Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without writtenThe third area identified as a potential contributor to facilitating a change in
organisational culture was the provision of incentives for knowledge sharing. This area
has generated much thought within the knowledge management literature and the Bank
was not convinced that the introduction of incentives, particularly in terms of financial
rewards, was necessarily a positive step. Through careful research, the Bank found that
although this approach had appeared to work in other organisations, some problems had
occurred. These problems included determining the value of the knowledge and the need
for increased payments for greater amounts of knowledge to avoid some being held back.
The literature in this area is also divided. While some posit that that productivity and
quality occur within corporate cultures that systematically recognise and reward indi-
viduals, both symbolically and materially (Willmott, 1993), others argue that extrinsic
rewards, such as monetary awards, will have a negative impact on intrinsic motivation
(Deci & Ryan, 1985). The Bank decided that while it would continue to monitor
developments in this area, the incentive approach was counter to what it was trying to
achieve in terms of its culture.
The gaps analysis also made apparent difficulties in the availability of information
in terms of access and integrity. A good example of this was the proliferation of contact
databases operating within the Bank. It was common for each database to contain the
same or similar information as that contained elsewhere and there was no common system
for updating or deleting material. As a consequence, there were significant overlaps, data
redundancy, and integrity-type issues. In addition, access was not available to everyone
and some staff were still operating using business cards. The approach to this problem
was to consolidate the databases in order to bring the contact information into one
location.
On the surface, consolidation of the various contact databases appeared to be a
very low-level issue. In reality, it was one of the most difficult and time-consuming
projects that was undertaken. The main difficulties arose from the reluctance of individu-
als to move from their own contact database, which in some cases had been used for over
15 years, to a database that would be maintained centrally and where access would be
available to all.
A large project team was formed to work through the issues that the changeover
presented. The project team consisted of three working groups each consisting of 12
people. With the participation of the working groups, a new intranet solution was
identified, and the changeover commenced. In order to ensure that the changeover ran
as smoothly as possible, the Bank ran multiple training seminars and carried out a great
deal of one-on-one hand-holding. Today, the intranet is the primary contact source
within the Bank and has been extended to include a contracts link so that all the contracts
held within the bank are also held centrally. However, as the CIO states:
I know that probably some people have still got business cards. You can’t force people
to give them, but now if you spot an anomaly you can fix it, and that updated information
is available to everyone (Anand, 2004).
In total, this process took 18 months, which was longer than expected, and was
mainly due to the reaction to the change and the feelings of loss of direct control.
The Bank also undertook a review of all of its electronic records and document
management activities. The Bank had been an early adopter of document management