Essentials of Knowledge Management

2.7. Upsetting the Corporate Equilibrium

Ideally, implementing a program designed to improve the bottom line should make life easier for management as well. After all, when it comes to Knowledge Management, what managers wouldn't want to know exactly how the employees they supervise are performing their duties? However, often a KM initiative represents a challenge to all levels of management, especially if managers aren't flexible enough to redefine their roles in the organization.

One challenge is staying focused on managing, as opposed to micromanaging. Management doesn't need to know every detail of how things are accomplished; effective managers intuitively know when to delegate responsibility and operation details to their subordinates. Knowledge of processes to a fine level of granularity leads to the temptation to micromanage processes.

Even though the goal of Knowledge Management isn't reengineering, a KM program is likely to highlight inefficiencies and inequities in the corporation that management may feel compelled to rectify. For example, if a KM initiative reveals that higher-level employees are performing tasks that could be done less expensively by other employees, then the burden of work may shift, pitting the higher- and lower-salaried employees against another. If senior management discovers that it's better for the bottom line of the organization if some of the administrative tasks currently performed by the professional staff are offloaded to administrative ...