With experienced long-term employees retiring at ever-increasing
rates, water utilities face a significant loss of
institutional knowledge at a time when stringent regulations
and increasing demand require even more technological
know-how. To stem the knowledge drain and improve
workforce performance, the author suggests a two-pronged
strategy integrating organizational development, human
resources, training, and leadership with emerging information
and knowledge management systems.
Positive incentives and work environments can help
spur employees to create value and use technology.
Human resources staff play a major role in building
workforce capacity and facilitating knowledge capture,
but utility leadership must take the lead in these efforts
by demonstrating genuine interest and involvement in
workforce and knowledge management programs.
Through information systems, water providers can
identify, capture, and manage both explicit and tacit
knowledge. However, best practices indicate that the
roadmap to "knowledge-enabled" performance should
focus primarily on organizational improvement rather
than technologies. Includes 14 references, figures.
| Edition : | Vol. 98 - No. 9 |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 250 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 9 |
| Published : | 09/01/2006 |
