IS NAVAL INFORMATION WARFARE CENTER (NIWC) PACIFIC BUILDING AN EFFECTIVE ORGANIZATIONAL KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE?

Abstract

This paper will draw upon program management principles such as requirements collection/management and successful KM to assess whether NIWC PAC’s approach will meet the evolving organizational needs of a highly specialized environment. The analysis will also attempt to answer the question of whether NIWC PAC is trending in a positive direction to establish a comprehensive and scalable KM framework to allow for streamlined processes, data collection, and rigor to ensure the sharing of relevant content. NIWC PAC is a diverse organization with an array of partners and customers. The organization itself is compartmentalized into departments, each specializing in its own area of practice with methods of conducting business unique to their customer base in support of the Navy’s C4ISR mission.

The challenge at NIWC PAC is to capture, maintain, and share organizational knowledge and information, some of which include the lack of a refined search functionality, inadvertently creating stove-piped environments, not identifying a centralized repository for business-related products, establishing disparate platforms to share duplicative information, and a lack of rigor to ensure information is accessible to the appropriate audience. Adding to the issues was the workforce’s reluctance to change after previous efforts repeatedly introduced various Content Management Systems (CMS) that forced users to relearn how to use new platforms, which left them fatigued, confused, and skeptical.