At your service ...

We hope
The interview for the Manager of the Knowledge Services was a strong indication of the
complex interrelationships which would need to be managed at Sampla Industries, reflected
Sarah, as she greeted the case of thousands seated around the interview table. Well, it wasnt
really thousands, but a panel of 13 was a large interview by anyones standards. She smiled
confidently and shook hands with the CEO, Manager of Information Technology, Manager of
Human Resources, Manager of Research and Industry, Manager of Innovation and
Commercialization, Manager of Decision Support, Two heads of Operational Units, Two union
representatives (one for professional staff and one for researchers), a leading researcher, and two
staff who would be moving to the Knowledge Services section once the manager was appointed.
The interview progressed in rather a strange fashion. Whenever Sarah was asked to respond to a
question, the debate would start to rage as to what knowledge management was, and how it
should be supported in Sampla. Sarah wondered who had developed the job description it
appeared that many of the concepts were quite new to those at the interview. Take the first
question, for example. The CEO provided some background context by outlining how important
knowledge management was going to be to the organization, and how he had chosen to appoint a
Manager of Knowledge Services rather than a CKO because he knew it would need some
intensive work to start with. He asked Sarah to present her philosophy for the service, and
listened carefully as she outlined the need for widespread consultation and involvement of the 40
operational units which would be supported. As she paused to take a breath, the Manger of
Innovation and Commercialization interjected:
Surely you dont need to bother people with all that claptrap? Just set the thing up and get it
organized. And did I hear you say that you needed to meet with us regularly? Why do we need to
do that? This is just like a library or the IT service really. Just do it we really dont have time to
spend chatting to you all the time. And dont use the term knowledge management if you can
help it we dont really like things that havent been properly tested or validated. Its really just
glorified records management when all is said and done.
He glared around the table and sat back in his chair, arms folded.
Whooee, thought Sarah, thats going to be a challenging one to win over. As she took another
breath to respond, the Manager of Human Resources interjected:
Marc, it really is important to have this role work closely with us. We know how challenging it
is to introduce organizational change, and this is quite a big change for Sampla. You dont reeducate 4000 staff overnight. And I, for one, would be very unhappy if I wasnt part of the
planning process. We have to be involved.
And we would certainly expect to see what was planned, agreed the two union members. In
face, we would want to take it back to our people to get approval before anything happens.

Theres another issue, interjected the Manager of Information Technology. This really has to
link to our systems, and I would want to see how we are being represented. I have a lot of staff
involved with training everyone in using the new system.
You might think were being trained, but you really need to look again, suggested the younger
union representative. Your people havent got a clue how to get us set up they keep coming in
and doing it for us instead. We have no problem with them doing the work for us, but I suppose
we will have to learn sometimes. So they need to learn how to work with us to build our skills,
and we would really like them to listen about how we want our systems set up to work with our
other processes.
These are important issues, agreed the young researcher, but lets get focused again. This
position is supposed to help us see how we can work more effectively across all departments and
groups. I was talking to my research team the other day, and we really do want to get more
organized with our networks. But we just dont get time. I didnt even read my email for 5 days
while my last experiment ran, let alone have time to chat with anybody. So we need some real
help to build a community of practice, especially with half of the firm located in Brisbane and
the rest of us here in Melbourne. So we need to hear what Sarah would suggest.
Sarah thankfully picked up the thread again, offering what she hoped was a reasonably complete
view of how she would provide the service. She could already see, however, that this was going
to e a tough assignment. And she wanted it what fun to turn all of these people into her
knowledge champions and stewards. This was going to be an interesting role! She kept her
fingers crossed as she delicately negotiated with each of the stakeholders through the rest of the
interview.

Questions
1. If you were appointed as this firms Manager of Knowledge Services, what would be
your first priorities?
2. What types of services do you think would be needed in the first year of operation? How
would you evaluate their effectiveness?
3. The knowledge service needs to work in a coordinated manner with information
technology, human resources and other service areas. How should the manager handle
this process?
4. What steps would you advise for initiating support for communities of practice?
5. Given that this is new, and users would largely be unaware of what might be provided
through the service, how should it be promoted and publicized?