Assessing your company's KM status: The first step towards a successful KM implementation

Abstract

Over the past decade, KM is receiving increasing attention from researchers and practitioners alike. However, a well-integrated and holistic framework that would unify the discipline and guide practice is currently missing. In an effort to address the identified gap, we propose a holistic, modular and easy to use KM implementation methodology that aids the structured and gradual realization of KM, through the provision of practical guidelines and useful tools. In this paper, we focus in the first and one of the most significant phases of our methodology, this being the KM assessment. Deciding to go through the transformational process towards a knowledge leveraging organization is a complex decision that requires above all having a clear understanding of your organization's current knowledge capabilities. The aim of the assessment phase is exactly to specify the organization's advancement stage with regard to KM in order to designate the alternatives routes and select the most appropriate one. In doing so, we provide a KM assessment tool, designed to support the qualitative evaluation of an organization's knowledge capabilities. Knowledge assessment is the first step of the proposed methodology mainly because it intends to support the first decision that has to be made: the appropriate adjustment of the proposed methodology to the organization's KM advancement level and its respective needs. Since the modular nature of the proposed methodology permits it, an organization can choose to start at a different phase and step, and emphasize on different modules of the methodology. Finally, the KM assessment tool could also be used for the identification of existing KM pitfalls, the promotion of the need for change and the development of the overall organizational awareness regarding knowledge and its management.