People-focused knowledge management

4. The rate of change is higher than at any time before. New 
technologies, new business conditions, new regulatory and 
legal requirements, new practices, and new demands are being
introduced more quickly than ever before. These changes
require proactive stances to detect future needs and very 
different approaches to plan, create, and implement 
solutions.
5. Workers demand greater involvement and are less satisfied with
traditional employment situations. Only a small fraction of
enterprises treat their employees “right” (Lawler 2003). Typical
business–employee relationships are impersonal and provide
little understanding of, involvement in, and sense of contribu-
tion to the enterprise’s strategy and direction. As stated by
Dawn Lepore: “Employees will work for money but will give
a piece of their lives for meaning!” (Anonymous 2001a)
6. Needs for conventional training and education often exceed
allocated time. The knowledge economy requires frequent
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updating of both personal and structural knowledge to adapt
to new demands and conditions. However, many — perhaps
most — organizations expect their employees to maintain and
renew their personal knowledge on their own time (Shellen-
barger 2001). This often creates moral and family problems,
and can decrease the motivation and effectiveness of the work-
force. Computer-based training material — e-learning — is fre-
quently provided but appears to be less effective than is often
perceived, and many companies report bad experiences, with
low knowledge retention and other problems ranging from
cheating to negative attitudes (Anonymous 2001b).
Instead of wide separation of work from education and training,
many organizations now pursue “just-in-time training” as part of
regular work using sophisticated computer-based knowledge support
systems, shadowing, “buddy coaching,” and tailored e-learning
accessible to managers, professionals, and crafts people. However,
these approaches require new practices, application of new tech-
nologies, and revision of work in general. They often provide better
knowledge transfer as we now start to understand it from new cog-
nitive psychology findings (see Chapters 3, 4, and 5).