The Readiness of IDSC to Adopt Knowledge Management

Abstract

Over the last two years Knowledge Management has become the latest hot topic in the business world. Companies are realizing that their competitive edge is mostly the brain power or intellectual capital of their employees and management. Many organizations are drowning in information, but starving for knowledge. In order to stay ahead of the pack, organizations must leverage their knowledge internally and externally to survive. Knowledge management is believed to be the current savior of organizations. Creative and innovative people form the core of any organization. In turn, those people form the corporate memory. The Information Decision Support Center for the Cabinet of Ministers for the Egyptian Government (IDSC) faces a problem of employees’ high turnover rate (17%), which threatens to cause IDSC to lose its memory. One common mistake many organizations make when they implement KM initiatives is to place too much emphasis on the technological aspect of KM and ignore the human resources aspects. IDSC developed a knowledge management system called the Organizational Memory (http://www.home.idsc.gov.eg/), but ignored the human factor of KM. The purpose of this chapter is to test the readiness of employees and managers working at IDSC to adopt knowledge management. Human issues were clearly shown to outweigh any technology constraints, and views of managers and employees differed to some extent. It is recommended that these human and managerial concerns be addressed if KM is to be successful in organizations.