| Dr Peter Massingham from UOW’s Centre for Leadership and Knowle... Dr Peter Massingham from UOW’s Centre for Leadership and Knowledge Management, who is leading the research project to help the Royal Australian Navy cope with loss of corporate knowledge due to large-scale retirements of the Baby Boomer generation |
UOW research helps Navy cope with Baby Boomer retirements
10 Jun 2008 | Nick Hartgerink
University of Wollongong researchers are about to embark on a research project to help the Royal Australian Navy deal with the loss of corporate knowledge when Baby Boomers retire.
Commodore Steve Gilmore of Navy Systems Command and UOW’s Acting deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Lee Astheimer jointly committed to the $240,000 project to determine effective ways to retain specialised corporate knowledge when long-standing employees retire.
The research will be led by Dr Peter Massingham, director of UOW’s Centre for Leadership and Knowledge Management, who has worked with the Department of Defence on a series of consulting and research projects since 2000.
Signing the contract at the Australian Research Council offices in Canberra today (10 June), Commodore Gilmore said the outcomes of UOW’se knowledge management project will be directly applied to Navy’s maritime engineering community.
“Like many Australian organisations, Navy’s maritime engineering community has long-standing personnel approaching retirement age who have specialised corporate knowledge amassed over many years,” Commodore Gilmore said. “This project will provide the methodology to ensure effective transfer of this valuable corporate knowledge. It will contribute to maintaining the Nation’s security through the sustainment of Navy’s military and naval engineering capability.”
“Another benefit will be the accelerated knowledge growth and enhanced future career prospects of our newer civilian and military maritime engineering personnel,” Commodore Gilmore said.
Professor Astheimer, who is UOW’s Acting Deputy Vice-chancellor (Research), said the research had major implications for all Australian organisations.
“Managing specialised corporate knowledge is critical to an organisation’s operational effectiveness,” Professor Astheimer said. “Knowledge loss represents the most significant business risk in the 21st century. Organisations face the very real threat of substantial knowledge resources walking out the door en masse, due to increasing retirements and employee turnover.
“This project will maximise retention of irreplaceable knowledge by capturing and sharing valuable corporate knowledge before it can leave the organisation,” Professor Astheimer said.
The Australian Research Council has contributed $180,000 to the project, and ARC Chief Executive Officer Professor Margaret Sheil congratulated the Navy for recognising the importance of collaborative research to Australia’s ongoing prosperity.
“The outcomes achieved and the relationships developed through ARC Linkage schemes help to strengthen our national innovation system and solve real world problems,” Professor Sheil said. “The results of this project will benefit the Navy, but they will also benefit the wider community because the knowledge gained by the University of Wollongong researchers will have wider applications. In addition, the project will provide expert training to a talented postgraduate research student.”
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