James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, wanted a shift in paradigm from knowledge repositories and communities of practice. He was looking for a deepening in maturity of KM activities more towards engaging with external partners and utilising the combined knowledge towards effective local solutions.

In 1996 James Wolfensohn put forward a vision of the World Bank as a 'knowledge bank'. He did not see lending alone as achieving poverty reduction. Instead, he believed that knowledge sharing of 'know how' on project implementation internally within the World Bank and with external partners was more likely to have a greater impact. Knowledge was clearly seen as more powerful in poverty reduction than simply providing financial loans. This was a radical step away from former perceptions of the role of the World Bank and called for a radical change in mindsets of all employees. Information technologies and the internet were seen as useful catalysts for tapping into the vast store of dispersed knowledge within the World Bank and mobilising this knowledge for local initiatives.

At this time, Washington was the central locus of World Bank activities. Anything of any importance had to be sanctioned through the Washington HQ. Often when field officers contacted Washington offices over development assistance, the problem would be resolved on the ground before any response was forthcoming. It usually could take a month simply for documents to go backwards and forwards between Washington and the field site. The effectiveness of these centralised operations was being questioned.

James Wolfensohn recognised that technology could provide an answer to some of their challenges, but he was mindful that in many client countries there was a lack of basic infrastructure such as electricity and telecommunications capabilities. Following an in-depth analysis of the various technological options, the World Bank selected satellite technology as the most appropriate global communications technology particularly given the deficiencies of basic infrastructure in many countries.

In order to become a 'knowledge bank', the World Bank adopted the notion of 'communities of practice as a key strategy. They called these 'thematic groups' and saw them as the best way of creating and sharing knowledge. The thematic groups were informal groups that had some work-based social connection. The informality of the groups allowed trust to develop and a greater propensity for colleagues to engage in dialogue and discussion over work-related issues. This often resulted in individuals freely sharing their knowledge and expertise and, at times, the creation of new knowledge from the dialogue and interaction. Soon there were more than 100 thematic groups recognised by the bank. The combination of web-based satellite technology and the thematic groups meant that people could interact with one another in a way that had never been possible before.

Stories and storytelling were important tools ion the thematic groups. Dr Steve Denning, the former Head of Knowledge Management at the World Bank, saw stories as agents for mobilising knowledge and action. 'Perhaps the most powerful role of stories today is to ignite and drive changes in management policy and practices.' He recognised that stories engaged listeners as participants to share in the experiences and to co-create the story, which changed on each occasion it was retold. Stories often spell out a predicament and are often filled with drama, crises and conflicts before they reach some form of conclusion.

A noteworthy example of the power of satellite communication technology and thematic groups came from Nigeria. A team leader sent an e-mail to a thematic group asking advice on good practice for a national transport strategy in Nigeria. The first response arrived in 20 minutes and there were detailed responses from eleven countries with 24 hours. These responses included transport strategy reforms in other countries and working papers on strategy development. The consequence of this query was to reduce the technical assistance costs and speed up development of the national transport strategy. Cross-border knowledge sharing requires a considerable investment in time, money and people to generate the necessary levels of trust and cultural sensitivity, particularly between individualistic and more family-oriented cultures.

In terms of technological advances to aid knowledge sharing, the World Bank had instigated a Development Gateway website as a platform for the development community. This portal included help-desk and advisory services, knowledge repositories on the web, tacit knowledge debriefings and sites for the thematic groups.There were more than 20 advisory groups acting as knowledge intermediaries on all aspects of the bank's business. In addition, the satellite technology allowed videoconferencing around the world, interactive TV, online learning applications such as WebCT, web-based video casting and online discussion forums and newsletters. There was some resistance and scepticism to these interventions by staff. The cynics viewed knowledge management as the latest fad with the 'techies' taking over the organisation.

The World Bank had received accolades through the MAKE (Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise) awards and named as Best Practice Partner with the American Productivity & Quality Centre.

Source from: Jashapara, A. (2011)Knowledge Management an Integrated Approach, Pearson Education Limited, UK.

Group Presentation Topic

What were the visions, concepts and activities of knowledge management (from KM process perspectives) the World Bank had employed in its transition towards being a 'Knowledge Bank'?