Mapping Workflows and Managing Knowledge: Simply, Sensibly, Flexibly, and without Software

An approach to graphically describe and diagnose any workflow in any organization, that can be applied by anyone, and clearly communicate results and recommendations.

John Kmetz is President of Transition Assistance Associates, a selective firm of professionals helping firms meet complex performance challenges and with international work involving functioning in other cultures. He is also Faculty Director of the Project Management Certificate Program, and Associate Professor in the Department of Business Administration, at the University of Delaware. He has combined his academic interests with a wide range of experience. He worked his way through a BS at Penn State. He took his MBA and Doctor of Business Administration at the University of Maryland. While doing his DBA he also served as Vice-President and a member of the Board of Directors of a Washington consultancy, and continues to train and consult for many domestic and international clients. His work focuses on how organizations process information and structure themselves to accomplish their goals. He has done projects on logistics management and avionics maintenance for the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command, other Department of Defense organizations, and the Canadian Air Force to improve management of aircraft support, and assists aerospace and other companies in preparation of technical proposals. His interest in international business began with a program at the Science Center Berlin in 1978, leading to his service as a project manager for three USAID contracts with the University of Delaware. In the 1980's, he managed a planning project for utilization of renewable energy in the Republic of Panama. In 1991 and 1992 he served as Director of Management Training for a USAID grant to assist business and economic transition in Bulgaria. He wrote the winning proposal for a $10 million USAID contract to establish an MBA program in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, completed in 2008. He served as Faculty Director of International Programs for the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics from 2001-2010. His research is derived from his technology-industry activities and his international work. In 1998 he published a book on the information processing theory of organization, another on business research in 2000, and has published many works in journals, conference proceedings, and book chapters. His current projects are concerned with the futility of much business-school research and the pragmatics of knowledge management in global enterprises. He is married, has two adult children and three grandsons, and lives in Newark, Delaware, USA.