Introduction

Earlier chapters have begun to indicate the extent of change required to bring about improvements in collaboration within interprofessional networks. Attempts to facilitate change in the commercial sector highlight the importance of introducing a specialist position of ‘champion’ or ‘agent’ of change. This individual is responsible for encouraging staff to engage in best practice and to work collaboratively across disciplinary, organisational and cultural boundaries in the pursuit of mutual interests (Crane, 1998; Davenport and Prusack, 1998). In the child protection context, the introduction of the designated and named doctor/nurse roles can be seen as a means of developing this change agent role.

There are two interrelated roles undertaken by change agents. One may be described as that of the ‘knowledge champion’, and this role has received considerable attention in the growing body of knowledge management literature. The acquisition of new knowledge and its transfer among workers is increasingly seen as a critical corporate attribute, central to the pursuit of competitive advantage (Blackler, 1995). Organisations are exhorted by management theorists to tackle dysfunctional actions like knowledge hoarding, inertia or resistance to new knowledge by creating a specific position of ‘chief knowledge officer’ (Davenport and Prusak, 1998; Duke et al, 1999) or ‘knowledge manager’‘(Ichijo et al, 1998) to lead their corporate knowledge strategy.

Drawing on this literature, the tasks of knowledge champions can be delineated as being to:

• • collate and distribute already explicit knowledge in accessible formats;

• • exhort or cajole staff to engage in knowledge sharing and drop their resistance to new knowledge or ways of working;

• • serve as a ‘human interface’ by passing issues from the field up to management levels;

• • develop training content and the technologies to make it accessible and utilised;

• • serve as the central focal point for knowledge use and sharing by providing ‘help-desk’ support and structured debriefings;

• • coordinate and manage learning and knowledge-sharing initiatives; and

• • encourage discursive reflection on actions and reactions.

Whereas these efforts are largely ‘internal’ in terms of building the necessary technological and cultural infrastructure to foster innovation between different disciplines/tiers within organisations, they may also involve relationships with other organisations.