228 Anand, Pauleen, and Dexter
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ment as a sunk investment and focussed on getting acceptance to the framework. Once
this was completed, it provided a reference point for the specific initiatives that could
be looked at in terms of how well they delivered against the framework.
Culturally, the Bank is at an interesting crossroads. The organisation is becoming
wary of what might be termed as “consulting labels.” As the organisation’s awareness
of knowledge management concepts has increased, the term “knowledge management”
has become a less favoured label. As a result, one of the challenges for the Bank is to
progress the knowledge management initiatives but package them differently.
There is also a need to move the Bank’s ongoing development of knowledge
management strategies to the next level. To date, a best-practice-based approach has
provided a good framework for the Bank. However, one school of thought for ongoing
evolution is to explore the more unstructured process for developing knowledge
management strategies. Embracing complex adaptive systems theory, this approach can
be used to create a sense-making model that utilises self-organising capabilities to
identify a natural flow model of knowledge creation, disruption, and utilisation (Snowden,
2002). Snowden concludes that the enabling of such descriptive self-awareness within
an organisation will provide a new simplicity that can facilitate new meaning through the
interaction of the formal and informal in a complex ecology of knowledge (Snowden,
2002).
EPILOGUE AND LESSONS LEARNED
Epilogue
This case illustrates the challenges inherent in implementing knowledge manage-
ment initiatives into knowledge-intensive organisations. With no tried-and-true frame-
works or models to follow, organisations, such as the Reserve Bank, must grapple with
devising and implementing strategies appropriate to their own needs and circumstances.
Although it is unlikely that prescribed knowledge management implementation strate-
gies will ever be off the shelf in the sense of providing an easy and effective solution for
any given organisation, it is possible to foresee a time when a great enough body of
research and practice has been accumulated to offer an organisation such as the Bank
enough successful models of knowledge management implementation to pick and
choose strategies that might be appropriate to at least begin working with. This case
helps point the way forward for others by detailing the journey of one organisation that
is seriously pursuing a comprehensive programme.
Lessons Learned
Knowledge management is not a project; it is a continuum
At the outset, the Bank viewed knowledge management in terms of a project, with
a distinct time frame and process. In broad terms, knowledge management was viewed
as a problem that required fixing. In retrospect, the Bank considers that knowledge
management is not a distinct task, but rather as the way you work, encompassing all
aspects of the organisation. Essentially, it is an intrinsic part of an individual’s approach
to work, as well as intrinsic to the Bank’s culture.