Knowledge Management Practices in the South African Civil Service

This paper explores how knowledge is managed and perceived in the South African civil service. The paper also looks at how civil servants in the South Africa generate and share knowledge and information. Recognition of knowledge as a strategic resource is growing at a phenomenal rate both in the private and public sectors. However, managing knowledge as a valuable economic resource is a relatively recent phenomenon in the South African civil service. Various national departments in the South African civil service have established fairly high-ranking. positions for knowledge management. It is now common to find such high ranking positions as chief director, director, deputy director and chief information officer responsible for knowledge management in various government national and even provincial departments. This paper looks at the kind of responsibilities such positions are charged with and how the practice of knowledge management in the South African civil service is expected to contribute towards the enhancement of delivery of government services. The paper further looks at how systems for managing knowledge in the South African civil service are designed and whether those responsible for designing such systems take into account the human and social factors at play in the production and sharing of knowledge in an environment bereft of competition and high quality service. Factors impeding effective sharing of knowledge and information in the South African civil service are looked at. The paper further looks at the general level of South Africa's preparedness for a knowledge society and how it scores on the variables which, according to the World Bank determine a country's capacity to effect a knowledge economy. The author of this paper employed two methods to collect data. One was a thorough review of recorded literature on knowledge management in general and any literature available on knowledge management in the South African civil service. The author also depended on information gathered from those charged with knowledge management in the various national departments of South Africa as well as users of knowledge in the national departments. Results of the study show that a few national departments in the South African civil service have initiated knowledge management programs, while majority of the departments have not initiated any knowledge management programs. It is recommended that knowledge management should be integrated in all the South African national departments in a bid to improve service delivery and that those charged with managing knowledge in the departments should be trained on-the-job.