Rethinking Knowledge Management post COVID-19

Paper number

IAC-21,D5,2,3,x62787

Author

Ms. Roberta Mugellesi-Dow, United Kingdom, European Space Agency (ESA)

Coauthor

Mr. Siegmar Pallaschke, Germany, Consultant

Coauthor

Mrs. Melanie Krajovan, United Kingdom, Consultant

Year

2021

Abstract

While the coronavirus continues to spread relentlessly to all parts of the world, a new “normal” is emerging.  Industries are reassessing their entire business model, assessing new ways to use advanced technology tools, reinforcing the impact of the growing online commerce and prepare contingent actions in order to return their business. Opportunities to push the digitalization and automation adoption has accelerated by the rapid learning about what it takes to drive productivity in the organizations when staff are unavailable and without the resources they would normally access. The pandemic has also restricted and shaped a new working life / environment with a combination of remote and on-site working, a hybrid virtual model, in which some employees are on premises, while others work from home. 

With the explosion of workforce conversations on digital collaboration tools, knowledge flows now dynamically across the digital communications channels that now define the new working relationships. This implies that the organizations’ approaches to knowledge management need to consider how these emerging technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence, may support problem-solving and help workers innovate and uncover new insights.  For example, AI technologies can take a contextualized information and push it to the organization’s teams and systems, allowing the knowledge to flow through the workforce. The paper aims to perform an analysis of the impact innovative technologies solutions many have on the implementation and application of KM initiatives and activities, in particular regarding the sharing and preserving the knowledge.

As knowledge management and working life are strongly connected to each other, the relation between working life and knowledge management is further analyzed. The pandemic has forced people to reconsider how and where they work, therefore, terms such as digitalization, smart working, New Work or Work 4.0 are frequently used. The changes that have taken place following the pandemic, i.e. virtual meetings, are all examples of “new work” and are having an enormous influence on organisations and their processes. The paper will investigate these trends, discuss their criticality and applicability and will bring concrete examples from agencies and industries in the space sector. 

To summarise, the paper will highlight the changes that have been inevitably introduced by the pandemic in the organizations and in the ways the employees work, in particular not only acquire and create new knowledge through the use of technology but persistently disseminate it throughout the organization.

Abstract document

IAC-21,D5,2,3,x62787.brief.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-21,D5,2,3,x62787.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.