AWWA JAW63486 Journal AWWA - Workforce Development and Knowledge Management In Water Utilities

Journal Article by American Water Works Association, 09/01/2006

Grigg, Neil S.

Full Description

With experienced long-term employees retiring at ever-increasingrates, water utilities face a significant loss ofinstitutional knowledge at a time when stringent regulationsand increasing demand require even more technologicalknow-how. To stem the knowledge drain and improveworkforce performance, the author suggests a two-prongedstrategy integrating organizational development, humanresources, training, and leadership with emerging informationand knowledge management systems.Positive incentives and work environments can helpspur employees to create value and use technology.Human resources staff play a major role in buildingworkforce capacity and facilitating knowledge capture,but utility leadership must take the lead in these effortsby demonstrating genuine interest and involvement inworkforce and knowledge management programs.Through information systems, water providers canidentify, capture, and manage both explicit and tacitknowledge. However, best practices indicate that theroadmap to "knowledge-enabled" performance shouldfocus primarily on organizational improvement ratherthan technologies. Includes 14 references, figures.

Product Details

Edition: Vol. 98 - No. 9 Published: 09/01/2006 Number of Pages: 9 File Size: 1 file , 250 KB