Case Study: World Bank's Knowledge Management for Global Development

This case study examines the World Bank's transformation into a 'Knowledge Bank' under the leadership of James Wolfensohn. It highlights the shift from traditional lending to knowledge sharing as a more effective strategy for poverty reduction and global development. The case discusses the challenges of centralized operations and the importance of decentralization through effective knowledge management. The implementation of satellite communication technology and the creation of a knowledge bank facilitated better communication, improved project implementation, and enabled the World Bank to address complex developmental issues more efficiently, ultimately transforming its vision and mission in the globalized world. Desklib provides access to similar case studies and solved assignments for students.

Running head: WORLD BANK KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT
World Bank knowledge management
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note:

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WORLD BANK KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction..............................................................3
Background..............................................................4
Transformation of World Bank into Knowledge
Bank.........................................................................6
References................................................................8

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WORLD BANK KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Introduction
The following presentation showcases
the different types of organizational tasks that
were undertaken by the management of World
Bank. The management of World Bank
concentrated on the improvement of the
Knowledge Management to ensure the
creation of“Knowledge Bank”. The creation of
the knowledge Bank was necessary as
because it could help in the bank to reach out
different new areas and help the people of
these distant areas with effective and
innovative solutions from a vast range of stored
knowledge (Lord and Washington 2018). The
stored knowledge of the organization had
always a greater impact than any instant idea
of poverty reduction or any other kind of
developmental activities being undertaken by
the management of the organization. The
Knowledge Management of the organization

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WORLD BANK KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
helped them to decentralize their operations
and reduce their dependency on Washington
D.C. The reduction of dependency helped the
organization to be more effective in nature. The
main change of the organization was brought
in the strategy. The strategy of the company
helped them to achieve their goals and
objectives.
Background
The absence of Knowledge
Management in the company was a long
standing problem for the organization. The
management had to innovate new ideas every
time they undertook a project which was
always time consuming as well as involved a
huge expenditure. Apart from this
developmental projects undertaken in distant
places often faced a number of different
hurdles. This included lack of proper funding,

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WORLD BANK KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
absence of expert ideas, centralized
permission for every type of the projects and
the permission to start the project or start a
part of the project. The main sanction thus
always came from Washington D.C. which was
clearly a great operational problem for the
organization as field officers had to contact the
headquarter for any kind of assistance. This
assistance often came too late which delayed
the project and also led to certain technical or
logistical problems within the project (Enns
2015). The effectiveness of the centralized
operations was thus often questioned as
without proper efficiency the projects were just
of no use. This was the time for a revolution in
the name of the creation of a Knowledge Bank,
which could help to change the total picture
and make the global development Bank one of
the best ever developmental banks.

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WORLD BANK KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Transformation of World Bank into
Knowledge Bank
James Wolfensohn was the creator of
the Knowledge Bank in World Bank. The main
importance of the Knowledge Bank was the
help it could provide to the World Bank in
different kinds of developmental activities
across the globe (Oppenheimer and Prusak
2014). The biggest benefit that was achieved
through the creation of the Knowledge Bank
was the communication skills that were
implemented by the management. The
management started the use of the satellite
communication technology to communicate
and use the technology to develop distant
areas of the globe that lacks basic
infrastructure and telecommunication
technologies (Visser and Tolhurst 2017). The
implementation of the strategy helped the
organization as it was now able to decentralize

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WORLD BANK KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
most of its operations and easily rely on the
storage of knowledge bank to find effective
solutions to different kinds of new and complex
projects. The transformation of the vision and
the mission of the company to an enriched
bank full of expert knowledge was the key to
the success of the bank in the globalized world.

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WORLD BANK KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
References
Enns, C., 2015. Knowledges in competition:
Knowledge discourse at the World Bank during
the Knowledge for Development era. Global
Social Policy, 15(1), pp.61-80.
Lord, D. and Washington, S., 2018.
Introduction. In Safe Mobility: Challenges,
Methodology and Solutions (pp. 1-10). Emerald
Publishing Limited.
Oppenheimer, D. and Prusak, L.,
2014. Knowledge Management at the World
Bank. John F. Kennedy School of Government,
Harvard University.
Visser, W. and Tolhurst, N., 2017. The world
guide to CSR: A country-by-country analysis of
corporate sustainability and responsibility.
Routledge.