Knowledge Management In Chile'S Public Sector: Identification Of Current Structural Objectives

In recent years, the emerging concept of knowledge management has captured increasing interest in the public sector in Chile. The social and economic progress of the country in the last quarter of a century has led public-service organizations developing new strategies to cope with a more complex and demanding environment; one in which knowledge and learning are increasingly recognized as being critical (Oviedo-Garcia et al. 2014). However, although the growing interest of public managers in this subject, there is a significant lack of research on KM practices in the public sector in Chile, how these experiences have been put into practice; how organizational and cultural barriers influences the development of KM programs and what results have been achieved. The aim of this article is to describe and analyze the implementation of policies, practices and knowledge management tools in the Chilean public sector. To do this we have identified what we call the five structural objectives of knowledge management in the Chilean public sector, obtained from the qualitative analysis of six experiments in public organizations these practices have been implemented successfully. Likewise, those aspects of the Chilean social and cultural environment that facilitate or hinder the implementation of knowledge management in the organizations of the Chilean public sector are analyzed. The relevance of this research is given by the need to cover the obvious lack of research on how knowledge management appears in the public sector, particularly in developing countries. On the latter, it is essential to know the degree of penetration that this model has had in the organizations of these countries, and then the way in which their specific social and cultural context has affected the implementation of knowledge management policies and practices.