Investigation of key performance indicators using balanced scorecard approach to evaluate academicians’ tacit knowledge

Abstract

In the academic sector, academicians are viewed as the main knowledge resource. Such resources should be managed effectively to improve the competitive advantages of university services such as teaching, researching, and supervision. For effective management of knowledge resources in universities, the tacit knowledge of academicians needs to be evaluated in order to understand how to elicit and capture the knowledge resources to address the university missions. The evaluation of tacit knowledge is difficult due to its intangibility nature. This may result problems in identifying and determining the knowledge levels of the individual. The main objective of this study is to investigate the importance of key performance indicator (KPI) based on balance scorecard (BSc) approach to evaluate the performance and value of academicians' tacit knowledge in universities. KPI-BSc is based on two types of indicators: (1) non-financial measurement and (2) financial measurement. The non-financial indicators evaluate the performance level of tacit knowledge according to knowledge quality and quantity, while the financial indicators evaluate the knowledge based on the financial returns that gained from knowledge activities and production. To address the objective of this study, a questionnaire survey was conducted among 179 academicians from three Iraqi universities. The results of this study significantly show that it is important to apply non-financial and financial indicators to provide a reliable evaluation of academicians’ tacit knowledge levels. This approach is novel as individuals tacit knowledge is evaluated based on the combined use of financial and non-financial measurement indicators.