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Knowledge Management

increasingly be framed in such a way that they also most departments. It is a state of affairs that
reflect our daily experiences in operationalising KM make it even harder to develop a clearer value
activities in departments. proposition for KM in the Public Service, let
alone advocate for KM as a strategic enabler in
Leveraging ICTs Government institutions.

The need to leverage Information Communication • KM activity indicators
Technology to drive knowledge management within The lack of alignment between KM and
departments is also emerging as a significant theme. departmental business plans provides a strong
At the same time, the emergence of new technologies argument for such alignment and the creation of
has driven mainly this in the context of the 4th particular performance metrics for KM-related
Industrial Revolution (4IR). Technology’s important operations. To do this, knowledge managers
role was made more apparent during Covid-19 when must urge that knowledge management
the whole country had to go into lockdown, resulting indicators be included in departmental plans
in significant shifts in how Government did its work, for continuous reporting; however, the extent to
such as the practice of remote working. There is which this can be done will mainly rely on the
undoubtedly a large body of lessons learned from knowledge management maturity level of the
the constraints of the various national lockdown. The various organisations.
most significant part of these experiences and related
lessons learned, relate to how departments managed • KM strategy tools
to carry out their work using available technological Continuous assessment of KM maturity is not an
tools. This is an area where the most significant end in itself. It merely indicates a department’s
impact needs to be made in terms of influencing, progress during the long process of trying things
leading and advising on appropriate technologies that out and readjustments based on feedback. In
organisations should utilise to enhance information this journey, the development of strategies could
and knowledge sharing. use various environmental scan and analysis
techniques, such as the McKinsey 7s, which list
State of KM in the Public Service the factors that must be taken into account for
any organisation to flourish. The 7-S Framework
The August 2022 KM Forum was also held against the include staff, structure, strategy, systems, skills,
backdrop of finalising the Knowledge Management and shared values. To accomplish innovation
Maturity Assessment (KMMA) across the Public that will benefit service delivery, all of these
Service. Its purpose was to assess and evaluate the must be smoothly incorporated into knowledge
state of implementing KM policies and practices in management.
departments in order to develop better supportive
interventions. The KMMA found revealed the following The most important lesson to be learned from
issues would require ongoing attention in the coming the August 2022 Knowledge Management
years: Forum and beyond is the necessity of continuing
to reflect on and share our changing experiences
• A clearer value proposition for KM as we connect KM with the NDP’s 2030 vision.
The results showed us that knowledge
management is unplanned, and random, and
activities are ad-hoc rather than systematic in

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