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The Role of Organizational Culture 259

change goal. The following are some recommendations for bringing about the cultural
change needed for KM to succeed:
• Clearly defi ne desired cultural outcomes
• Assess the current cultural state
• Diagnose the existing culture with respect to desired knowledge-sharing
behaviors
• Assess tolerance to change
• Identify change enablers and barriers
• Assess the maturity level of KM within the organization
• Identify KM enablers and barriers
• Conduct a gap analysis to yield a map on how to get from where the organization
is currently to where they would like to be culturally

Practical Implications of Organizational Culture

At a minimum, the following solutions to potential cultural barriers should be put
into place in order to catalyze and successfully implement desired organizational
cultural changes (see table 7.9 ).
Cultural change is often thwarted by lack of attention to some of the more basic
requirements such as providing employees with a place to meet and legitimate time

Table 7.9
Common barriers to cultural change and possible solutions
Cultural barrier Possible solutions
Lack of time and meeting places Seminars, e-meetings, redesign of physical
workspaces
Status and rewards to knowledge Establish incentives, include in performance
owners evaluations, develop role models
Lack of absorptive capacity Hire for openness, educate current workforce
Not-invented-here syndrome Nonhierarchical approach based on quality of
ideas and not status of source
Intolerance of mistakes and need Accept and reward creativity and collaboration,
for help, lack of trust and ensure there is no loss of status for not
knowing everything
Lack of common language (not Establish a knowledge taxonomy and knowledge
just English vs. Spanish but dictionary for knowledge content, standard
engineer-speak vs. formats, translators, metadata, and knowledge
manager-speak) support staff