The prevalence of knowledge management practices in the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

In a knowledge economy the ‘knowledge’ of an organisation is its competitive advantage \nwhere it plays a role in productivity and acts as the main driver of growth, wealth creation \nand employment (Storey and Barnett, 2000). The knowledge of the organisation has \ntherefore become the dominant resource for creating a ‘knowledge economy’ \ncharacterised by massive investments in knowledge creation and distribution efforts \nthroughout all levels of the economy. With the new economy being global in nature, i.e., \nnot confined to time and space, and characterised as highly dynamic, competitive, swift \nand ever evolving, the new economy public sector thus needs to demonstrate fast paced \ninnovation to efficiently address increasing needs with an ever-increasing need for \nimprovement in productivity. \nThe aim of the research was to investigate the prevalence of KM practices in The \nDepartment of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) (focussing specifically on the \nAgricultural component of DAFF) to enable its delivery on its mandate by exploring \nDAFF’s position in relation to specific KM enablers. Survey data was collected from 42 \nparticipants within the Agricultural component of DAFF in Pretoria across five post \ngrades (11-15). The research findings indicated that DAFF’s leadership and \norganisational culture do not serve as enablers for KM practices. DAFF’s IT \ninfrastructure and the use and co-ordination of KM practices were found to partially meet \nthe requirements as KM enablers.