Knowledge Management System
by LIM KE YING
Types of KM Assessment
The following are the two types of KM assessment:
- Qualitative assessment: Qualitative assessment aim to develop a basic understanding of whether the KM effort are working
- Quantitative assessment: Quantitative assessments of KM produce specific numerical scores indicating how well an organization, an organizational subunit, or an individual is performing with respect to KM
How KM Assessment is Done
For KM assessment of an organisation, KM assessment tool is used. KM assessment tool is a survey questionnaire designed to help organizations conduct an initial and rapid assessment of its readiness for Knowledge Management (KM). The assessment is carried out in the beginning of the KM program. Before starting on the KM journey, the organization needs to know its strengths and opportunities for improvements. The organization can then focus on its KM programs to address the gaps identified through the assessment. The KM Assessment Tool is based on the KM Framework as shown in Figure below.
Figure: KM Framework
The starting point of the KM Framework is the understanding of the organizational vision, mission, business goals, and strategic directions. These help the organization to identify and analyze core competencies and capabilities that it has and need to develop. The four accelerators (people, processes, technology and leadership) can help the organization understand to what extent these drivers and enablers are prevalent in the organization, enabling a successful KM implementation. The five core knowledge processes ( identify, create, store, share, apply) provide an initial assessment of existing practices related to KM that can be leveraged on during implementations.
Organizations, sometimes, can already be practicing KM without realizing it. The outcomes of KM efforts measure the effectiveness of the knowledge processes supported by the critical success factors (accelerators, vision and mission). The outcomes must be able to demonstrate enhancement of learning and innovation that build individual, team, organizational and societal capabilities and ultimately lead to improvements in the quality of products and services, productivity, profitability and growth.
Importance of KM Assessment
The KM assessment tool provides a means to identify areas the organization should focus its KM initiatives. The assessment results highlight the organization's strengths and areas for improvement. Specifically, the objectives of the KM Assessment Tool are to:
- Determine if KM is already being practiced in the organization and to what degree it is being applied
- Determine if the organization has the right conditions for building and sustaining systematic KM processes
- Identify the organization's strengths and opportunities for improvement in managing knowledge.