The Human Factor in Knowledge Management for International Development Cooperation [Relevance]

We are in the middle of writing articles about our research, which is a painstaking process costing a lot of time. Who said writing and publishing was easy?! The posting frequency on this site has therefore been a little lower than what we strive for.In the future this will change: keep posted!

We would like to share the main reasons we chose to research the human factor in knowledge processes in this article. It has an focus on international development, but might also prove to be interesting for other sectors: you decide!

Background

In my work for MDF-Training & Consultancy I got more and more involved in knowledge management. I realized its enormous potential, propably just like many of you already have. Especially in International Development, where we all strive to attain the same goals in the end, getting rid of poverty, knowledge management seems a good answer to share good practices and not reinventing the wheel. With such big international organizations working as an umbrella over more local ones, it provides big opportunities. So it’s no wonder that Knowledge Management is a big issue in this sector.

Since the pivotal report “Knowledge for Development” of the World Bank, most other development agencies have taken steps in adopting some sort of knowledge management strategy, though approaches have varied quite widely, as has the terminology used, and the levels of investment made (Barnard, 2003). Overall, the promise and potential of these initiatives, as with the overall ‘Knowledge for Development’ movement is yet to be fully realized. Clearly, the knowledge ad learning approach can and does provide useful tools and approaches, which, if properly, consistently and thoughtfully applied, can help address some of the symptoms of the institutional malaise faced by modern development organizations (Ramalingam, 2005).

But what he also states is that “Major challenges of knowledge and learning in the development sector still need to be addressed” The centrality of knowledge to development strategies is not recognized or, if it is, not acted upon: “even in those organizations where knowledge is central to the overall mission, systematic knowledge-based approaches are not widely accepted and applied (Ramalignam, 2005).

What has tended to happen in development is that organizations have generally leaned towards linear and technocentric interpretations of KM, more in line with the descriptive early traditions of knowledge management and organizational development or ‘institution building’ (Hovland, 2003)

The Human Factor in Knowledge Management

Careful attention is needed to the processes by which values and purpose are defined and articulated so as to create an enabling environment for knowledge management to succeed. Without these processes, organizational learning and knowledge management merely become toolkits and methodologies in a vacuum (Pasteur et al., 2006). There is also a need to better understand how knowledge and learning may practically address and deal with issues of personality, culture, language, religion, and so on (Ramalingam 2005).

As Davenport and Prusak (1998) put it: “Effective knowledge management cannot take place without extensive behavioral, cultural and organizational change (…) Technology alone won’t make a person with expertise share with others. Technology alone won’t get an employee who is uninterested in seeking knowledge to hop onto a keyboard and searching or browsing.”

Knowledge management is first and foremost a people issue. Does the culture of your organization support ongoing learning and knowledge sharing? Are people motivated and rewarded for creating, sharing and using knowledge? Is there a culture of openness and mutual respect and support? Or is your organization very hierarchical where ‘knowledge is power’ and so people are reluctant to share? Are people under constant pressure to act with no time for knowledge-seeking or reflection? Do they feel inspired to innovate and learn from mistakes, or is there a strong ‘blame and shame’ culture? These questions are essential to ask and to solve. There is a need to further understand the reasons why people engage in knowledge sharing behavior. This study tries to provide some answers.

The research on ‘the human factor in knowledge processes‘ tries to shine a light on the human factors that promote or impede effective behavior of people within different knowledge processes. By taking a multi-cultural focus it wants to provide a cross-section of the world we live in. And on this site you’ll find a diverse overview of relevant psychological theories that are translated to the specific world of knowledge management in development settings. This site publishes some main outcomes of this cross-cultural study. Finally it also gives recommendations how to make the human factor flourish in your organizations.

However, we would also really like your input and experiences in unraveling this people factor in knowledge management. We look forward to sharing and discussing strategies and practice with you. For in the end: together, we know more!

This article was only a short overview on the reasons why we chose to research the human factor in knowledge processes. A more extensive overview on the current state of knowledge in development will follow later. Meanwhile the articles presented here below provide an excellent starting point to read about the current state of affairs of KM in International Development. If you want to become active in the KM4DEV movement, you can visit this community.

References

Barnard, G. (2003) Knowledge sharing in development agencies: knowledge fortress or knowledge pool? Information Development. 19, 4, 280-288.

Davenport & Prusak ( 2000) “Working Knowledge” Harvard Business School Press; 2nd edition

Hovland, I. (2003) Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning: An International Development Perspective Working Paper 224 Overseas Development Institute, London.

Pasteur, K., Pettit, J. & Schagen, B. Van (2006) Knowledge Management and Organisational Learning for Development KM4Dev Workshop 2006 Background Paper Institute of Development Studies

Ramalingam, B. (2005) Implementing knowledge strategies: lessons from international development agencies Working Paper 244 Overseas Development Institute, London.

Worldbank (1998) World Development Report – Knowledge for Development