Abstract:
The genesis of this paper was an after-action professional reflection of a large
scale project encompassing information and knowledge management. The
Sydney 2000 Olympic Games provided a challenging environment for the
production, control and dissemination of information. From the perspective of
information management the project was successful. This success was largely
driven by the skills and aptitudes of an information-literate workforce. In
retrospect the goal of capturing and transferring knowledge (KM perspective) to
future event organising committees would have been maximised by an additional
set of skills and aptitudes that we consider to the foundation of a new concept -
'knowledge literacy '.
The paper shows that historically. there has been a concern for the human
dimension in changes to work and social processes. It begins with a discussion
of information literacy, a well-established discourse. It then proposes another
level of literacy brought about by the demands of new pressures within the
workplace. Many of these pressures we believe are serious factors that impinge
upon an employee's personal and professional comfort. This 'comfort zone'
needs to be identified and recognised in KM planning and implementation. One
of the goals of a KM initiative should be to maintain a balanced comfort zone.
This paper links the achievement of this goal to the knowledge literacy skills of
the workforce. Further we are convinced that the management initiatives of staff
development, training, internal communications, change management all have a
contribution to make in developing knowledge literacy in a workforce. The
challenge in practice is to really understand the implications of a KM initiative
and to get the mix right to ensure the employees are 'comfortable' and thereby
maximising their contribution to the knowledge-enabled workplace.
Finally the case study of the large scale project is discussed in detail in the light
of knowledge literacy.
