Knowledge Management (KM) has been promoted as a method to leverage an enterprise “core competence” to gain an advantage in the market place. The objective is to make the enterprise more competitive and nimble. The ultimate objective of KM is to increase the performance of knowledge-work processes. This research reports on an in-depth evaluation of a DoD organization and the subsequent process redesign to improve knowledge-management (KM) capabilities at a Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) field activity. The entity initially targeted for the initiative is the Submarine Electromagnetic Department of NAVSEA Newport, Undersea Warfare Center Division, but the thesis results are expected to generalize to the NAVSEA enterprise as a whole and possibly well beyond the Navy. Strategy is formulated and the processes of the organization are redesigned to enhance performance through KM. An action research method is employed to understand the culture, people, processes and products of the targeted organization in order to design a KM system that fits the entity. The initial goal is to enable the entity to gain a competitive advantage in its areas of excellence with the long-term goal of expanding the KM initiative across the entire NAVSEA enterprise to maximize NAVSEA’s contributions to the fleet.
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