The 4 main (internal) stakeholder groups for KM

 There are 4 main stakeholder groupings for internal-facing Knowledge Management, and you need to create value propositions for each of the 4. 

 

Implementing Knowledge Management is a change process; changing hearts and minds, attitudes and beliefs, and work patterns across the organisation. In many ways, the role of the KM team is to act as change agents, influencing the stakeholders to understand, try, and adopt KM. But who are the stakeholders?

Here are the 4 main internal stakeholder groups you need to work with, that will apply in any organisation wishing to improve the internal flow of knowledge. 

Please note that not all organisations focus internally. Some focus on providing knowledge for external parties (the WHO for example, or the major development banks, or the customer service departments of some retailers), and for them there is a 5th stakeholder group - the external knowledge customers.

For now, lets look at the internal stakeholder groups.

1. The senior managers
The number one barrier to KM, and at the same time the greatest enabling factor is the level of support from senior management. Without this support, you will struggle. With support from the top, you will succeed.

The senior managers need to understand the benefits that Knowledge management will bring to the organisation (the cultural and reputational benefits as well as the financial benefits), and need to be reassured that KM will work, is doable, and will not cost more than the value it delivers. You need to make the business case for KM, and show that KM will deliver greater efficiency, greater effectiveness, faster growth, bigger market share, faster time to market, and happier customers.

This blog contains much advice about gaining senior management support (see here for example, and also here), or contact us for further advice.

2. The middle managers
Middle management can form an almost impenetrable layer to knowledge management in many organisations. These are the people who have tough choices to make. They have demanding customers, tight budgets, and tighter deadlines, and you are asking to divert the attention of their people away from what they see as the Day Job, and onto KM. Every penny they spend on KM is a penny less to spend on operational issues.

KM, for them, is two steps away from operations (the first step is that operations requires knowledge, the second is that knowledge requires management). The result is that these are the people for whom KM is the toughest sell - the people who won't be swayed by high level arguments or appeals to emotion. Make sure your stakeholder management plan clearly addresses the middle managers as a core group, and that you have a well worked business case that addresses their concerns. Without this, they can derail the whole program, so convince them that KM exists to increase the productivity of the knowledge workers in their teams and projects.

3. The knowledge workers
These are people who need to use knowledge and judgement in order to do their work. The better the knowledge we can supply them with, the better the judgements they will make. Some of the managers mentioned above are knowledge workers as well. They too make judgements and decisions, and need knowledge to do this well. The value proposition for the knowledge workers is simple -

"When we have a functioning Knowledge Management framework in place, it will make your life easier. It will provide you with easy access to reliable knowledge that will save you time, will reduce your risk of failure, and will make your results better".

4. The Experts
The experts form one of your core stakeholder groups in KM, and your change management approach needs to explicitly address these people. For many years they may have acted as sole sources of much of the knowledge, and their personal status may be tied up with their own knowledge. They may be the people with the most to lose through KM. KM needs to offer them a new role, which can be seen as an opportunity rather than a threat. They will take leading roles in the management of knowledge in their areas of expertise, becoming the stewards and custodians of knowledge rather than the sole holders. Make sure these new roles are clear, made explicit and built into their job descriptions.


There are other stakeholder groups in some organisations - Research and Development, for example, may need consideration, also HR, also the customer service agents, sales staff and so on. There may be external stakeholders - it may be important to your main customers that you have a reputation and capability for KM, for example.

However the 4 groupings above will be present in almost every organisation, and you need a strategy and plan to address each one. 

The Middle Management layer in KM - blockers? Or enablers?

Middle management can form an almost impenetrable layer to knowledge management in many organisations.

Image from wikimedia commons

The two main stakeholder groupings for KM are the senior managers and the knowledge workers. The value proposition for the senior managers is that KM will deliver greater efficiency, greater effectiveness, faster growth, bigger market share, faster time to market, and happier customers. The value proposition for the individual knowledge workers is that KM will provide then with easy access to reliable knowledge that will save them time, will reduce their risk of failure, and will make their results better.

However between these two groups lies a layer of middle management; the sales directors, the plant managers, the project managers etc.

These are the people who have tough choices to make. They are the resource allocators. They have demanding customers, tight budgets, and tighter deadlines. Every penny they spend on KM is a penny less to spend on operational issues. KM, for them, is two steps away from operations (the first step is that operations requires knowledge, the second is that knowledge requires management).

The result is that these are the people for whom KM is the toughest sell - the people who won't be swayed by high level arguments or appeals to emotion.

Here is what John Keeble, CKO at Enterprise Oil, had to say

"It is that bunch between (top management and the "coalface" that I think are almost the most important - the team leaders, the middle management. They are the people who are constantly trying to juggle this dilemma of too much to do and not enough people. So if you cant convince them of the value of knowledge management, its likely not to get the resources applied to it. So then you get the situation where in theory you have support from the top, and demand from the base, but that demand from the base is being frustrated by the fact that their managers aren't freeing them up to do it. And that can be a very negative cycle if you get trapped in it. Overall I think you have got to get support from all levels, but it is very easy to overlook that middle management level, and they are perhaps the most important"

Make sure your stakeholder management plan clearly addresses the middle managers as a core group, and that you have a well worked business case that addresses their concerns. Show them how KM is an investment in resource, how knowledge is a resource for them and their teams, and how currently its unmanaged, or mismanaged. Show that that KM is not a waste of resources, but an application of resources, which will benefit their results and streamline their activities.

If you can get them on board they are your greatest enablers. If not, they can be the toughest blockers.

A useful matrix for mapping senior stakeholders

We know that senior level support for Knowledge Management remains the greatest challenge for KM, and that once established, it is by far the greatest enabler. But how do you gain this support?

My Knoco South Africa colleague Ian Corbett uses the matrix shown here to identify areas where KM sponsorship is likely to be forthcoming. This is controlled by two factors;

1. The corporate need for change (either the need for growth, or the need to close a performance gap, or fix a problem)
2. The character of the senior manager (whether they are open to help, closed to help)

You can plot your senior stakeholders onto this matrix, and look for those in the green quadrants who are open to improving the business performance, and then start a conversation with them to discuss how better access to better knowledge can either aid the growth or help to close the performance gap.

For those who plot in the orange or red sectors, you can decide whether to continue to work with them in order to change their perception of KM (often a long term struggle), or to wait until either circumstances force them to be more open to help, or the success of their colleagues is demonstrated through the application of Knowledge Management.

We also use these two factors (potential business impact, and the openness of the business sponsor) when we shortlist Knowledge Management pilot project opportunities, in combination with two other factors - the complexity of the pilot project and the ability to scale up the results.

However when it comes to getting senior management buy-in, then you need to look for two things

A real business need, and a senior sponsor who is open to receiving the help that KM can bring

The 4 key stakeholders for Knowledge management

There are 4 main stakeholder groupings for Knowledge Management, and you need to create value propositions for each of the 4. 

FIGURE 09.1 Goals per stakeholder, by Jurgen Apello, on Flickr

Implementing Knowledge Management is a change process; changing hearts and minds, attitudes and beliefs, and work patterns across the organisation. In many ways, the role of the KM team is to act as change agents, influencing the stakeholders to understand, try, and adopt KM. But who are the stakeholders?

Here are the 4 main internal stakeholder groups you need to work with.

1. The senior managers
The number one barrier to KM, and at the same time the greatest enabling factor is the level of support from senior management. Without this support, you will struggle. With support from the top, you will succeed.

The senior managers need to understand the benefits that Knowledge management will bring to the organisation (the cultural and reputational benefits as well as the financial benefits), and need to be reassured that KM will work, is doable, and will not cost more than the value it delivers. You need to make the business case for KM, and show that KM will deliver greater efficiency, greater effectiveness, faster growth, bigger market share, faster time to market, and happier customers.

This blog contains much advice about gaining senior management support (see here for example, and also here), or contact us for further advice.

2. The middle managers
Middle management can form an almost impenetrable layer to knowledge management in many organisations. These are the people who have tough choices to make. They have demanding customers, tight budgets, and tighter deadlines, and you are asking to divert the attention of their people away from what they see as the Day Job, and onto KM. Every penny they spend on KM is a penny less to spend on operational issues.

KM, for them, is two steps away from operations (the first step is that operations requires knowledge, the second is that knowledge requires management). The result is that these are the people for whom KM is the toughest sell - the people who won't be swayed by high level arguments or appeals to emotion. Make sure your stakeholder management plan clearly addresses the middle managers as a core group, and that you have a well worked business case that addresses their concerns. Without this, they can derail the whole program, so convince them that KM exists to increase the productivity of the knowledge workers in their teams and projects.

3. The knowledge workers
These are people who need to use knowledge and judgement in order to do their work. The better the knowledge we can supply them with, the better the judgements they will make. Some of the managers mentioned above are knowledge workers as well. They too make judgements and decisions, and need knowledge to do this well. The value proposition for the knowledge workers is simple -

"When we have a functioning Knowledge Management framework in place, it will make your life easier. It will provide you with easy access to reliable knowledge that will save you time, will reduce your risk of failure, and will make your results better".

4. The Experts
The experts form one of your core stakeholder groups in KM, and your change management approach needs to explicitly address these people. For many years they may have acted as sole sources of much of the knowledge, and their personal status may be tied up with their own knowledge. They may be the people with the most to lose through KM. KM needs to offer them a new role, which can be seen as an opportunity rather than a threat. They will take leading roles in the management of knowledge in their areas of expertise, becoming the stewards and custodians of knowledge rather than the sole holders. Make sure these new roles are clear, made explicit and built into their job descriptions.


There are other stakeholder groups in some organisations - Research and Development, for example, may need consideration, also HR, also the customer service agents, sales staff and so on. There may be external stakeholders - it may be important to your main customers that you have a reputation and capability for KM, for example.

However the 4 groupings above will be present in almost every organisation, and you need a strategy and plan to address each one. 

Middle managers -the KM blockers

Middle management can form an almost impenetrable layer to knowledge management in many organisations.

The two main stakeholder groupings for KM are the senior managers and the knowledge workers. The value proposition for the senior managers is that KM will deliver greater efficiency, greater effectiveness, faster growth, bigger market share, faster time to market, and happier customers. The value proposition for the individual knowledge workers is that KM will provide then with easy access to reliable knowledge that will save them time, will reduce their risk of failure, and will make their results better.

However between these two groups lies a layer of middle management; the sales directors, the plant managers, the project managers etc.

These are the people who have tough choices to make. They have demanding customers, tight budgets, and tighter deadlines. Every penny they spend on KM is a penny less to spend on operational issues. KM, for them, is two steps away from operations (the first step is that operations reauires knowledge, the second is that knowledge requires management).

The result is that these are the poeple for whom KM is the toughest sell - the people who won't be swayed by high level arguments or appeals to emotion.

Here is what John Keeble, CKO at Enterprise Oil, had to say

"It is that bunch between (top management and the "coalface" that I think are almost the most important - the team leaders, the middle management. They are the people who are constantly trying to juggle this dilemma of too much to do and not enough people. So if you cant convince them of the value of knowledge management, its likely not to get the resources applied to it. So then you get the situation where in theory you have support from the top, and demand from the base, but that demand from the base is being frustrated by the fact that their managers aren't freeing them up to do it. And that can be a very negative cycle if you get trapped in it. Overall I think you have got to get support from all levels, but it is very easy to overlook that middle management level, and they are perhaps the most important"

We heard the same message from Lutz Lemmer at Transport for London last week, and have heard it from many many clients over the years.

Make sure your stakeholder management plan clearly addresses the middle managers as a core group, and that you have a well worked business case that addresses their concerns. Without this, they can derail the whole program.

Who are the knowledge workers?

The knowledge workers represent one of your two main stakeholder groupings for Knowledge Management implementation. But who exactly are they?

HA0510-079 by Highways England on Flickr

Firstly we can eliminate from the group "knowledge worker" anyone who is purely a manual worker - someone who follows orders or preassigned inflexible procedures. Labourers on a construction site, individuals on an assembly line and so on.  These are not the customers for KM.

However they could become knowledge workers.

Toyota led the way in showing that assembly line workers could become knowledge workers, if you involve them in analysing the work they do. Kaizen-style meetings provide a format where the manual workers can become knowledge workers, accountable not just for doing the work, but improving the way the work is done.

If we eliminate any manual workers that remain, we are left with a group we can call the decision makers.  These are people who need to use knowledge and judgement in order to do their work.  The better the knowledge we can supply them with, the better the judgements they will make.

This definition of knowledge worker includes people such as;

• Engineers making design decisions
• Sales staff deciding how to sell to a customer
• Lawyers trying to decide the best legal solution
• R&D scientists trying to develop new technology
• Government staff determining policies
• Aid and development staff trying to design and apply interventions
• Medical staff making decisions about patients
• Soldiers making decisions on the battlefield
• Maintenance engineers trying to decide how to maximise the utility of equipment

and so on.

Don't forget the managers

Then there is a group which is often neglected in KM initiatives - the middle and upper managers. 

Management also make decisions, and often very big decisions, with costly implications. They also need access to the best knowledge they can find, and if your KM program cannot help them they will need to hire in expensive external consultants. 

So the following are also knowledge workers;

• Project managers making decisions on major (and minor) projects
• Divisional managers making decisions about market penetration
• Sales managers deciding how to enter new markets
• Plant managers deciding how to optimise their plant
• Senior managers deciding how to set up new business
• Senior managers making decisions about acquisitions and divestment
• Technical managers, making decisions about developing organisational capability

and so on

One of our clients focused their KM applications at senior level, and likened this to "KM removing the thorn from the lion's paw". If you solve the lion's problems, the lion will always be on your side!

The biggest decisions are made at the highest level, and there the need for knowledge may be greatest and the application of knowledge can yield the best return. That's where some of the thorniest issues can be resolved through the application of Knowledge.  That's where some of your most influential knowledge workers reside.

How to address the knowledge workers in your KM program

Early in your KM implementation program, identify your customer base, and determine how best to support them.

1. Conduct a stakeholder analysis
2. Clarify who the knowledge workers are, at all levels
3. Get to know their knowledge needs
4. Ask how they would like KM to support them in their work
5. Find out their high-value knowledge
6. Determine the places where KM will add greatest value
7. Don't forget the middle and senior managers- solving their KM problems will often add more value than solving lower level problems, and what is more will gain you that much-needed senior support. 

Contact us if you need help in analysing your stakeholders - at all levels in the organisation.