Operational Knowledge Transfer in Municipal Utility Organizations

Municipal water and wastewater utility systems experience several challenges related to maintaining an experienced operations workforce. One of these issues is the loss of operational knowledge as the current experienced workforce reaches the age of retirement. The future success of system operability depends upon a process that transfers the knowledge of the experienced employee into the organization before he or she retires. Recent investigations highlight the importance of, and the methods for, knowledge transfer; however, current literature does not include significant information on the municipal utility industry. The objective of this investigation is to identify how operational knowledge is being transferred within municipal utility organizations. This investigation, which used a qualitative research approach to evaluate knowledge transfer in six municipal utility organizations, uncovered several different methods being used to transfer operational knowledge. This investigation also identified barriers and enablers and potential improvements to achieve better operational knowledge transfer within municipal utility organizations. These results can be used to both to further study knowledge transfer in municipal utility organizations, as well to provide a foundation for research and development in the area of knowledge transfer