Information, Knowledge and the Organization of the Olympic Games

In recent years the Olympic Games have become larger, more technically complex and with increased stakeholder accountability. To deal with these transformations, their organization has become more professional. Consequently, many aspects of the Games are now being managed far more strategically than in the past. While the management of human and infrastructure resources is a ‘given’, resources considered to be less tangible but nevertheless mission critical, such as information and knowledge, are essential to this progress. There is now a somewhat belated but accepted realization that the corporate information and knowledge of an Olympic Games are valuable assets that should be effectively captured, shared, managed, transferred, utilized and exploited for the benefit of subsequent hosts (Halbwirth and Toohey, 2004). To achieve such outcomes involves instigating complex information processes and encouraging staff to effectively share and use knowledge. The Olympic Movement is not alone in valuing knowledge as an asset. Wenger, McDermott and Synder (2002) have contended that the twenty-first century ‘knowledge has become the key to success [for] it is simply too valuable a resource to be left to chance’ (p. 6).