Public sector knowledge management

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1 The British Standards Institution's view of the distinctiveness of public sector knowledge management
2 The size, range, complexity and centrality of the public sector knowledge challenge
3 How the BSI believes the public sector provides a perfect 'fit' with traditional KM theory
4 Specific examples of public sector KM projects studied by the BSI Report
5 See also

[edit] The British Standards Institution's view of the distinctiveness of public sector knowledge management

British Standards (BSI) [1] is the National Standards Body of the UK responsible for facilitating, drafting, publishing and marketing standards and related information products. It has identified knowledge management, and in particular public sector knowledge management, as a key area of interest.

According to the British Standards Institution, (British Standards Institution 2004 "Knowledge Management in the public sector") public sector knowledge management is growing in importance, requiring a distinctive understanding from traditional private sector approaches. The BSI Report observed

"The understanding and practice of Knowledge Management has been growing rapidly throughout the public sector over recent years. Yet a constant comment from existing and nascent public sector KM practitioners has been that, until now, most of the analytical literature concerning Knowledge Management has sought to understand and explain it within a mainly private-sector context. There has not been a single, easy-to-digest national study that objectively and specifically analysed the growth of KM in the public sector and thereby set out the evidence-based public sector context within which Knowledge Management can add value to the work of public servants. The British Standards Institution, through this Guide to Good Practice, has sought to plug this important gap".

According to the BSI, it is a not uncommon trend for the public sector to lag behind the private sector in its adoption of new management theories or approaches. Experience suggests that the jury is currently still out on public sector Knowledge Management. Some public sector practitioners believe that what is currently termed ‘knowledge management’ is in actual fact what public servants have always done since time immemorial – objectively and collectively collating, analysing and deploying knowledge in an effort to inform, develop and enact the policies of the Government of the day. Others believe that KM is a fad.

The BSI Report suggests that whether it is recognized explicitly or not as being ‘Knowledge Management’, there are a range of knowledge and learning based activities going on around the public sector today which are delivering real innovation and demonstrating tangible benefits.

The BSI Report also argues that, for the public sector, knowledge is a key component for providing services and developing policy, rather than a marketplace tool . Knowledge shared in much of the public sector does not mean private sector competitive advantage diminished. It is no surprise that many of the largest and most advanced examples in the United Kingdom of online ‘Sharing Best Practice’ are to be found amongst groups of public sector staff, often geographically or organizationally dispersed, but working in a common area (eg Local Authorities CPA [2], or Health Informatics [3], or development of public sector standards, such as e-GIF and e-GMF [4]).

The BSI analysis rests on the argument that public sector organizations are clearly a major part of modern knowledge economies. They are also highly diverse in their governance structures, functions, personnel and outputs. We aim to respect this diversity in the report by acknowledging the different experiences of a wide range of organizations. At the same time, it is important to recognize that organizations in the public sector do experience a set of challenges in implementing KM that are not experienced by large swathes of private sector business.

For example, according to the BSI:

The public sector cannot pick and choose its ‘customers’, ‘markets’ or areas of activity – it provides services to every citizen by right and obligation, not solely by choice or commercial strategy;

The public sector needs to co-operate internally and with a range of external but related organizations to meet complex policy goals – it cannot pick and choose its partners;

The majority of the explicit knowledge held within public sector organizations should be capable of being accessed by organizations and citizens through Freedom of Information – fully retrospectively in the UK from January 2005 for all information held by public organisations, not just that created after Jan 2005;

The evidence base for a particular policy or programme is constantly under the most intense scrutiny and challenge by policiticians, parliaments, stakeholders, citizens and the media to a degree and depth that is not always present in the private sector;

The development and implementation of policy is a highly public matter – often involving years of debate, consultation, policy analysis, policy development, design and enactment of legislation, and programme delivery and implementation – the majority of which is conducted in the glare of the public eye;

The current drive for efficiency and ‘citizen centred’ services is putting an immense strain on already stretched public sector resources.

[edit] The size, range, complexity and centrality of the public sector knowledge challenge

The BSI Report argues that knowledge lies at the very heart of what Government does, arguably in a way that is centrally more so than many private sector companies. Not only is the relative importance of information and knowledge greater in the public sector, the sheer size and complexity of the public sector dwarfs most private sector companies. So the significance and distinctiveness of the challenge in the public sector, according to the BSI, is four-fold :

size,

range,

complexity

centrality to the sector’s activity.

To back its arguments about the size, range and complexity of the challenge, the BSI Report asks readers to consider the following facts:

Figures published in 2004 by the UK Cabinet Office show that, as of 1 April 2003, there were 512,000 (Full Time Equivalents) permanent Civil Servants [5];

This does not include the over 1 million people who work for the National Health Service, which if it was a private company would be the biggest company in Europe;

This does not include the hundreds of thousands of public servants who work day-in, day-out in UK schools and universities, local government, the police force and emergency services;

A recent copy of the UK Government's “List of Ministerial Responsibilities” ran to 108 pages, covering the work of 111 Government Ministers, Government Whips and Spokespersons in the House of Lords, 19 Ministerial Departments, 90 Executive Agencies, 9 Government Offices for the Regions and 21 Non-ministerial Departments; [6]

Every month, over 647 gigabytes of e-mail is handled by the Government Secure Intranet, with over 12 million messages handled overall, 6 million of these messages are handled from the Internet. (only 7 years ago, it was virtually impossible to send an internal e-mail within Government); [7]

On average, The Stationery Office publishes 14,500 new titles per year for Her Majesty’s Government. There are 45,000 titles currently available from TSO stock, with a further 61,490 titles available on demand – the equivalent of 322 million pages [8]

[edit] How the BSI believes the public sector provides a perfect 'fit' with traditional KM theory

Looking at the centrality of knowledge to the public sector, the BSI believes we can consider 2 classic aspects of Knowledge Management theory

The relationship between data, information and knowledge;

The inter-play between explicit and tacit knowledge.

The types of data that BSI identified that Government knowledge workers require and produce can be widespread and numerous. It gives the following examples:

Official Statistical sets and publications produced by the Office for National Statistics;

Scientific data underpinning major policy positions;

Economic data assessing and analysing the state of the economy;

Departmental statistical systems, databases and knowledge repositories;

Financial, human resources and performance management information;

Project and delivery reporting data;

local and regional data on the implementation and effects of national policies;

external information from commercial, academic and international sources.

According to BSI, that data begins to become information as it is contextualized and understood by policy makers and policy implementers in their day to day activities. Examples cited by the BSI include:

within central government, policy option papers produced for discussion and debate of various policy options within policy units, across departments and at Ministerial and other Committee meetings;

within local government, health or education, performance management information and analysis both as part of policy delivery and as part of external assessment

creation and responses to policy publications and proposals, such as Government Green Papers, White Papers and Policy and Delivery Frameworks;

speeches, statements, presentations, press release and articles that have been produced to publicly explain a particular policy or practice;

Regulatory Impact Statements and Explanatory Notes to Bills and Acts of Parliament explaining the intention and/or impact of items of primary and secondary legislation;

e-mail discussions, postings, downloads etc available on departmental Intranets and/or web sites.

According to the BSI, the data and information becomes transformed into knowledge through the application of policy and adminstrative expertise and experience. In other words, what a Knowledge Manager would recognize as the interplay of explicit and tacit knowledge.

[edit] Specific examples of public sector KM projects studied by the BSI Report

The BSI Report includes case studies of the following public sector KM projects

The UK Government's Knowledge Network Programme
The National College for School Leadership’s ‘Networked Learning Communities’ programme; [9]
The Department of Health’s KM programme; [10]
The Countryside Agency’s ‘Learning Networks’ initiative
The ODPM New Deal for Communities’ stakeholder involvement programme;
The World Bank’s ‘Knowledge Bank’; [11]
The Financial Ombudsman Service’s KM strategy.