Common Measurement Approaches
There are a number of approaches that are increasingly being used to measure the value of, and progress in, knowledge and knowledge management in corporate :
There are a number of approaches that are increasingly being used to measure the value of, and progress in, knowledge and knowledge management in corporate :
a. Measuring the impact of knowledge management on the corporate performance
O'Dell & Grayson recommend a two-pronged approach that seeks to measure both outcomes and activities. Measuring outcomes focuses on the extent to which a project or a process achieves its stated objectives. In measuring activities, you are looking specifically at things like how often users are accessing, contributing to, or using the knowledge resource and practices you have set up. Some of these measures will be quantitative ('hard') measures such as the number and frequency of hits or submissions to an intranet site per employee.
b. The Balanced Scorecard
The balanced scorecard focuses on linking an organization's strategy and objectives to measures from four key perspectives : financial, customer, internal process, and learning and growth.
c. Return On Investment (ROI)
d. The knowledge management life-cycle
The aim of road map to knowledge management result is to provide corporate with a map to guide them from getting started right through to 'institutionalizing' knowledge management - embedding it in the organization and making it an integral part of the way a corporate works. The map has 5 stages :
1. Get Started
2. Develop a strategy
3. Design and launch a knowledge management initiative
4. Expand and support
5. Institutionalize knowledge management
e. Employee Surveys
The steps in developing measures
Dhansujhal & Chaudhry outlines the following steps in developing measures :
a. Revisit the corporate goals
b. Know the audience for the measures
c. Define the measures :
- Valid : they actually measure what they are intended to measure rather than something else reliable - they give consistent results
a. Revisit the corporate goals
b. Know the audience for the measures
c. Define the measures :
- Valid : they actually measure what they are intended to measure rather than something else reliable - they give consistent results
- Actionable :they give information that can be acted upon if necessary.
d. Decide what information will be collected and how it will be collected
d. Decide what information will be collected and how it will be collected
e. Review the combination of measures
Three reasons for measuring the success of a knowledge management system :
1. To provide a basis for corporate valuation
2. To stimulate management to focus on what is important
3. To justify investment in KM activities.
Two of the KMS Effectiveness Models
1. The Knowledge Value Chain
Good KM is defined as using KM to improve corporate competitiveness.
2. Jennex Olfman KMS Effectiveness Model
This model evaluates success as an improvement in organizational effectiveness based on use of and impacts from the KMS. Descriptions of the dimensions of the model follow :
- System Quality
Defines how well the KMS perform the functions of knowledge creation, storage/retrieval, transfer, and application.
- Knowledge / Information Quality
Ensure that the right knowledge with sufficient context is captured and available to the right users at the right time.
- Use / user Satisfaction
Indicates actual levels of KMS use as well as the satisfaction of the KMS users. Actual use is most applicable as a success measure when the use of a system is required. User satisfaction considered a good complementary measure of KMS use when use of the KMS is required, and the effectiveness of use depends on users being satisfied with the KMS.
- Perceived Benefit
Measures perceptions of the benefit and impact of the KMS by users and is based on perceived benefit model. It is good of predicting continued KMS use when use of the KMS is voluntary, and amount and/or effectiveness KMS use depends on meeting current and future user needs.
- Net Impact
This model recognize that the use of knowledge may have good or bad benefits and allows for feedback from these benefits to drive organization to either use more knowledge or to forget specific knowledge.
This model evaluates success as an improvement in organizational effectiveness based on use of and impacts from the KMS. Descriptions of the dimensions of the model follow :
- System Quality
Defines how well the KMS perform the functions of knowledge creation, storage/retrieval, transfer, and application.
- Knowledge / Information Quality
Ensure that the right knowledge with sufficient context is captured and available to the right users at the right time.
- Use / user Satisfaction
Indicates actual levels of KMS use as well as the satisfaction of the KMS users. Actual use is most applicable as a success measure when the use of a system is required. User satisfaction considered a good complementary measure of KMS use when use of the KMS is required, and the effectiveness of use depends on users being satisfied with the KMS.
- Perceived Benefit
Measures perceptions of the benefit and impact of the KMS by users and is based on perceived benefit model. It is good of predicting continued KMS use when use of the KMS is voluntary, and amount and/or effectiveness KMS use depends on meeting current and future user needs.
- Net Impact
This model recognize that the use of knowledge may have good or bad benefits and allows for feedback from these benefits to drive organization to either use more knowledge or to forget specific knowledge.
