CHAPTER 5: RESULTS PRESENTATION
5.2 Questionnaire results
5.2.4 Section D: Knowledge management readiness assessment
This section aimed at asking respondents questions that provide a quick analysis of where the KZN DPW is when benchmarked against the three important success elements of people, processes and technology. The main aim of readiness evaluation is to measure the specific position of where a department stands concerning the important success measurement of these supports elements (Ganesh, Mohapatra and Nagarajan 2014:179). For that reason, these findings were needed to help determine the Department’s level of readiness to implement KM initiative.
95 Table 3: Knowledge management readiness assessment (N=61)
1. Leadership: relates to vision, mission and values regarding KM YES NO DON’T
KNOW Does your Department have a convincing knowledge management
vision, mission and strategy, actively promoted by your top management that clearly articulates how knowledge management contributes to achieving organizational objectives?
75% 12% 13%
2. Processes: relates to capture of knowledge
Our Department has systematic processes for capturing or gathering, organizing, exploiting and protecting key knowledge assets, including those from internal and external sources.
69% 13% 18%
3. Explicit knowledge: relates to store of knowledge
There are regularly maintained knowledge records with structured knowledge and clear ownership of knowledge entities that is readily accessible across the Department.
43% 16% 41%
4. Tacit knowledge: relates to codification of tacit knowledge I know the best experts in the different domains of key knowledge within my section and there are mechanisms in place to codify their tacit knowledge into an explicit format.
53% 16% 31%
5. Culture/structure: relates to encouragement towards KM Is knowledge sharing across departmental boundaries actively encouraged and do your workplace settings and format of meetings encourage informal knowledge exchange?
62% 30% 8%
6. Knowledge centres: relates to facilitations for KM
Is there a knowledge management directorate that coordinates knowledge repositories and acts as a focal point for the provision of information to support key decision-making?
26% 40% 34%
7. Infrastructure: relates to technical support for KM
i. We are able to find important information from the intranet (or similar network) using technologies.
67% 26% 7%
ii. We use KM tools like blogs, Facebook, Twitter, mobile phones etc. to access information.
31% 57% 12%
iii. We use databases to access information. 64% 25% 11%
iv. We use Groupware software like email to access information. 69% 20% 11%
v. We use bulletin boards or e-departmental notices to access information.
72% 18% 10%
vi. We have a Knowledge Management Officer who manages the intellectual capital in our Department.
12% 52% 36%
8. Organizational Strategy
Priority is given in ensuring that knowledge that is generated is accurate, reliable, and delivered in a timely fashion (gets to the right person in the right format at the right time).
52% 23% 25%
9. Human Recourses
There are procedures regarding employees who are retiring from or leaving the Department in terms of capturing their tacit knowledge.
49% 20% 31%
Source: Field data (2017)
As per the results presented in Table 3 above, the KZN DPW leadership in term of its vision, mission and values towards KM does promote the management of knowledge, as forty-six
96 respondents (75%) said “yes:” to this statement, while eight respondents (13%) did not know and seven (12%) of them said “no”.
Forty-two respondents (69%) stated that processes that relate to capturing knowledge within the Department are effective in gathering; organizing as well as exploiting key knowledge, while eleven respondents (18%) indicated that they did not know and eight other respondents (13%) disagreed with said the statement that the knowledge capturing process of the Department is effective.
Twenty-six respondents (43%) supported the statement that the Department does have regularly maintained organizational knowledge records that are readily accessible across the Department, with twenty-five respondents (41%) who did not know about this stored knowledge and ten respondents (16%) who did not support the statement.
The majority of the respondents, at thirty-two (53%), mentioned that they know the dominant specialists in the various areas of knowledge inside their section and that there are mechanisms available to systematize personal knowledge into organizational knowledge. Nineteen respondents (31%) did not know about these experts or the mechanisms in place to transform tacit to explicit knowledge, while ten respondents (16%) indicated that knowledge codification does not take place in their section.
Thirty-eight respondents (62%) agreed that employees share a common belief of disseminating knowledge across the Department and that the Departmental structure encourages KM, whilst eighteen of the respondents (30%) were of the view that KM is not encouraged and the culture of sharing knowledge is not active. Five respondents (8%) did not know whether the Departmental culture and structure encouraged knowledge sharing and knowledge management.
In addition, results of the findings indicate that the KZN DPW does not have knowledge centers that facilitate KM and that coordinate the supply of information to sustain imperative decision- making, as indicated by twenty-four respondents (40%). Twenty-one respondents (34%) did not know how to respond to this statement while sixteen respondents (26%) stated that the Department does have knowledge centers in place. In terms of the Department’s technical infrastructure that can support effective KM if implemented, most respondents, at forty-one
97 (67%), indicated that they are able to find important information using technologies available within the Department. However, sixteen (26%) said that they are unable to find information using these technologies and four (7%) did not know.
According to thirty-five respondents (57%), the Department does not use KM tools like blogs, Facebook, Twitter, mobile phones etc. to access information even though other respondents, numbering nineteen (31%) indicated that these tools are being used while seven respondents (12%) did not know. The KZN DPW does use databases to access information, as per the opinion of thirty-nine respondents (64%); fifteen respondents (25%) mentioned that there are no databases in use; while seven respondents (11%) did not know whether or not databases to access information are in existence. With regard to the Department making use of groupware software, such as emails for employees to access information, the majority of the respondents, numbering forty-two (69%), confirmed this, while twelve respondents (20%) disagreed with the majority by stating that they do not use groupware software to access information, and seven other respondents (11%) did not know.
The Departmental information is accessible through bulletin boards or e-Departmental notices, something that forty-four respondents (72%) confirmed, even though eleven respondents (18%) did not support this statement, while six respondents (10%) indicated that they do not know.
According to thirty-two respondents (52%), the Department does not have a knowledge management officer responsible for storing and organizing the intellectual capital and making it accessible. Other twenty-two respondents (36%) did not know whether a KM officer was employed in the Department, while seven respondents (12%) stated that a KM officer was present in the Department.
With regard to the organizational strategy as one of the enablers identified in this study, respondents were asked to indicate whether the KZN DPW organizational strategy gives priority to safeguarding that produced information is true, dependable and supplied in an appropriate method. In response to this question, the majority, at thirty-two respondents (52%) stated that the strategy does give priority to the generation of knowledge. However, fifteen respondents (25%) had no knowledge about such an initiative and fourteen others (23%) indicated that the Departmental strategy does not give priority to knowledge creation.
98 The final question under this section focused on human resources as one of the KM enablers.
The aim was to find out whether the Department has any procedures that employees are aware of regarding departing or retiring workforce members in terms of capturing their tacit knowledge. Thirty respondents (49%) indicated that such procedures are available while nineteen respondents (31%) did not know and twelve respondents (20%) stated that the Department does not have such procedures in place.