Knowledge Management vs. Knowledge Control

November 22nd, 2009

Reality check

In previous posts we’ve discussed the significance of KM to organizations and listed the barriers that affect employees’ participation in KM initiatives. An additional barrier may emerge when employees ask what organizations actually do with their employees’ knowledge. The assumption is the org will use it to its own ends.

But when the organization is a multinational with profits in the billions, is it within employees’ purview to question whether their knowledge should be used simply to create shareholder profit or to serve some greater end, such as corporate and social responsibility programs that ensure the org gives back a significant share of its profits to those in need. Can employees use what they know as leverage for organizations to behave more responsibly?

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Threatening a professor with a lawsuit if he tries to translate the results of a report about a dam threatening to displace several tribes and flooding thousands of hectares in the Mapuche land in Chile, or suppressing the findings of this report from investors and stakeholders are activities authorized by the World Bank. To hide its blunders and obtain more loans, the World Bank has been censoring knowledge coming from within the organization as well as from independent sources.

How can you stop the censorship or face a multibillion-dollar organization? I have pondered this question and think the better way to ask it is CAN you stop an organization such as the World Bank from steering its knowledge in the way the administration sees fit?

A light at the end of the tunnel

Some may argue that organizations in a position to censor knowledge that may have profound public impacts should be monitored by public agencies. Yet, who sets the rules for a “proper” and independent supervision? An independent committee, maybe. Having a committee that monitors the World Bank’s activities and produces independent reports for stakeholders can help. However, it is a tricky decision to make especially if this committee was in a position to be manipulated by investors or pressured by other interests.

For more information, please visit these websites:

http://www.mapuche-nation.org/english/html/news/pr-39.htm

http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/art-4385

~asia