ABSTRACT
If the achievement of effective information and knowledge management (IKM) can be said to be dependent upon one factor above any other, it must surely be the importance that is attached to maximising the value of organisational input made by employees. In previous chapters the discussion of issues around IKM has focused upon important concepts that are contained within and interact with these linked management disciplines. However, somewhat paradoxically, it is the pivotal role that the public sector employee, working at all levels and across all functions of public service, can play in the achievement of a dynamic information and knowledge generating and utilising organisational structure, that remains the least understood and least practised route to achieving public sector change and improvement agendas. As Drucker argues: ‘All organizations now say routinely, “People are our greatest asset.” Yet few practice what they preach, let alone truly believe it’ (Drucker 1992:8).
