Information and Knowledge Management

Contents
Question 1 ................................................................................................................ 2
Question 2 ................................................................................................................ 7
Question 3 .............................................................................................................. 12
Question 4 .............................................................................................................. 17
References ............................................................................................................. 22
Question 1

The organisation lacks a formal knowledge-sharing system. Different departments use

their own methods, leading to silos and fragmented information. Develop a detailed plan
for capturing and sharing both explicit and tacit knowledge within the organisation.

Answer
Introduction
The expansion of the organisation is more than just the physical elements that is required
to unlock the potential but also the requirements to build on sound management practises,
streamline processes and ensure customers gets the same quality experience in all
regions. The management of information either structure or unstructured must be done
using sound information knowledge practises to ensure that the organisation can benefit
from the sharing of information and mitigation of niche knowledge between employees
and regions. Capturing unstructured data that resides with employees can be challenging
if the organization does not make a deliberate effort to unlock this from employees while
reassuring employees that it will not impact their value to the organisation in sharing this
information. Alves and Pinheiro, (2022) highlights the fact that knowledge has become a
valuable resource for organizations, but tacit information depends on several factors and
developing a knowledge management strategy. The study further highlights factors that
can influence tacit knowledge sharing as the organizational structure, the person or
individual that has the information, the knowledge management strategy and culture
(Alves and Pinheiro, 2022). Unstructured data are most often not documented, used in
daily operations and employees are unwilling to sometimes share the information.
Structured data on the other hand is more formal data that can reside in databases or
formal documentation repositories that is widely shared and accesses by organisational
resources.

The insights of employees are based on their own unique experience where lessons are
learnt, and knowledge are gained. Without a deliberate strategy the organisation will be
unable to capture his information that could be beneficial for the organisational expansion
effort to ensure quality services are rendered across all regions. The establishment of a
knowledge management program is critical to the success of capturing this information
that will enable employees to freely share this information in the organisation. The loss of
tacit information can impact the organisation when employees leave the organisation and
would require the establishment of sound practises in the organization to limit this as far
as possible (Phaladi and Ngulube, 2022).

Discussion
The expansion of the organisation has highlighted the need to understand where the
structured and unstructured data reside, especially the tacit information. As the
Information Knowledge Manager, I would launch a formal program in the organisation to
assess the current situations and conduct a formal audit of the location of the information.
This would allow me to clearly identify all the sources and determine if there is a structured
way it is current shared between employees and if there are any current barriers that can
be detected preventing employees form sharing information willing. While formal
documentation is easy to assess, tacit information would however need to follow a
process where department heads, team leaders and subject matter experts are engaged
to understand what information can be valuable and should be captured. A thorough
analysis of any client remediation action and cross referencing it as part of the
engagement would aid in understanding the location of tacit information better.

The geographical location of the organisation needs to be considered when determining

tacit information as employees with this type of knowledge can be operating in silos.
Improvement in the way teams work across regions, and establishing multi-functionals
teams can ensure information like this is shared and potentially captured in the
information knowledge management system. The Method in capturing information must
be repeatable and standardised across regions to ensure it is effective. Starting with
known information like standard operating procedures policies and drafted documents
employees are using would enable the information knowledge manager to review these
documents for relevance and effectiveness. Integration of these documentation and
access must form part of employee onboarding and training processes to ensure
employees could easily access the information. Modern tools like document repository
management solutions that is easily accessible like a companywide intranet platform can
be used in such a case. This would need to be integrated with tracking of known
documents to ensure changes and new documentation are shared based on the platform
permission and employees’ requirements. Tacit information is more of a challenge to
capture and would require the establishment of several ways to engage and share
information across regions. This can be in the form of webinars, open discussion forums
and one on one sharing session between employees. Experience in any organisation is
such a valuable commodity that the organisation must establish methods to ensure
information between employees are openly shared. Personal experience has shown me
informal whiteboard session allows for the sharing of information in ways employees can
easily grasp it while also having the ability to engage and ask questions. This enables a
personal learning journey for employee and builds relationship between knowledge
experts and employees. Taking notes during this session would allow for sharing to a
wider company audience or even on platforms like Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Using these
platforms can allow recording of session and enabled continuous reference for current
and new employees.

The discussion above highlights the need for a comprehensive audit of information. The
audit would highlight the known and unknown information based on employee interaction.
During this process, a review must be done in how information is stored, shared, and
updated. Establishing a clear framework for this to occur would also current and future
capturing of information mitigating the need to “redo” a similar action in the future.
Embedding the framework in the organisation would simplify the sharing of information
using tools like a knowledge management platform. This system must be accessible to
employees in a way that is integrated into their way of working. The most frustrating thing
for employees is to manage and login on multiple system to just do their work.
Standardisation of access and systems and ensuring system access sin all regions allow
for a good user experience can go a long way to build a culture in using the knowledge
management system. This would speed up “ticket” resolutions and allow for employees
to get expert assistance in asking questions based on recommended solutions for the
system. Formal management of the system must be implemented to ensure information
that is captured is accurate. This can be done through the identification of experts in the
organisation that would have the means to approve documentation and through the
system tracks any changing or deviations on the quality of these documentation.
Employee sin new expanded region would need to rely on expert skills and knowledge
within the organization that can limit the quality of service if information’s is not available.
This is especially relevant in tacit information that resides with employees. Employees
may be reluctant to share information the information of fear of being undervalued.
However, management must establish a trust relationship and build a culture of sharing
in the organisation, as the information knowledge manager I would engage management
teams to set the groundwork for such engagement and establishing ways to encourage
openness and communication. Daily standups and inter departmental sessions would be
a great way to allow information to be shared and captured. Encouraging employees
during these sessions to capture comprehensive information on resolutions of tickets
would also allow the knowledge manager to mine the data for resolutions and cross
reference it with known documentation. This can aid in highlighting tacit information that
is used for resolutions that is not captured in formal documents.

Information champions must be identified during the audit process that can take
ownership of their specific area’s and ensure documentation is updated based on new
lessons learnt or formal schedule updates. Information Knowledge can easily become
stale if it is unused and not updated, resulting in new employees not getting the require
value out of the system. This must be prevented by driving a culture of sharing and
maintaining information across organisational region and considering new lessons that
can be learnt based on user sown personal experiences. Knowledge management
platform can track the versions of documentation and allow for automation notifications
to be sent for a review of the document. This can also be achieved by integrating fault
resolutions into the documentation process allow for a continuous updating of expert
knowledge in the documentation repositories. This would drive more employees to the
single point of knowledge and aid in improving the culture.

Data analysis of existing documentation with a cross referencing of expert knowledge

during standups would identify any shortcoming in documentation enabling teams to
update and improve documentation. It is well known that employees are reluctant to
update and share information if they feel it will not benefit them or can impact their value
in the organisation. Establishing processes to integrate information sharing into the
employee value chain would ensure employees can be rewarded and recognized for their
value and contributions in updating and maintaining the knowledge management system.
As the information knowledge manager, I would establish clear processes to regularly
review the value of the knowledge management systems through a cross functional
committee that would be the overarching custodians of information. This would ensure
that information knowledge management is integrated into the culture of the organisation
and not a once off tasks. The organisation would benefit in simplifying resolutions,
improving the customer experience and can also be used as a competitive edge.

Conclusion
Regular assessment of the knowledge management systems with eh establishment of a
framework to ensure new information is captured and maintained key to a multinational
organisation. Culture differences and employees’ personal experiences can have a
negative effect if not managed effectively. As the manager of information knowledge
management, I would need to understand the goals of the organisation and align the
value of the system with the geographical changes in the organisation as we expand.
Regular updates of information and engagements of employees through formal and
informal session would ensure tacit information can be identified.

Management’s commitment to a knowledge management system is critical to ensure

success and adoptions within the business is successful. This is especially in newly
managed areas as the business expands. Setting up regular training with these
employees and making them part of well-established teams enables them to improve
services and drive a more competitive behaviour. Information is created by multiple
sources and the organisation must focus on integrating this information into their existing
processes to streamline resolutions and improve customer experience. Regular
evaluation of this can be done through customer engagements and understand how the
information aided in improving customer service, especially in newer regions where there
may be a lack of knowledge and experience. According to Phaladi and Ngulube, (2022)
the lack of succession planning and established coaching practices is a reason older or
more experience resources are unwilling to share knowledge. Creating a platform in
where employees can safely share information while incentivising the updated and
maintenance of documentation can ensure the organisation get the required value out of
the process that contributes to the organisations overall value.
Question 2
As the company expands, managing information governance and ensuring the security
of knowledge assets becomes critical. Develop an information governance policy that
addresses data integrity, privacy, and security.

Answer
Introduction
The digital transformation in most companies happened faster than expected resulting in
policies and protection measures not keeping up with modern times to adequately
address the concerns in information governance and security. Organisation with a
multinational footprint needs to adapt to local laws and regulations to protect information.
Doing business in South Africa requires the compliance to the Protection of Personal
Information Act (POPIA) to ensure that personal information is secured and treated with
the sensitivity is needs. International there could be various local laws, but a popular one
is General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that is used in European union.
According to Ige et al. (2024) these regulatory hurdles can be challenging to navigate.
Expanding into new regions makes this complex as the company must first know what
data they have, and it must be classified based on the criticality and sensitivity.

Data has become such an important factor for business not just in the use but the trust
that consumers put in organisations safeguarding their information. Data governance
requires the organisation to create clear policies and procedures that employees can
use to ensure data is not just secure but confidential. The lack of adequate controls can
be devastating for the organisation and lead to a loss of business, thus the need to
establish access controls based on the roles in the organisation. Using well established
external frameworks and standards like ISO27001 and NIST can ensure the controls
meet the requirements needed to protect data. Ige et al. (2024) study further highlights
that data integrity can be affected by cyber attacks or even insiders compromising data
and controls. To mitigate this the organisation would need to have the right level of
monitoring in their environment and the ability to respond to security incidents. The
misuse of data can affect the competitiveness of the organisation that can lead to fines
or loss of business.
Discussion
Policy creation must align with established frameworks considering local laws and
regulations. Key areas that must be focus on in the policy development process is to
document the current data footprint, who has access to this data and for what are the
data used. This can ensure that when a policy is developed it aligns to the business
practises currently in place and can aid in highlighting any changes needed when
practised are misaligned to data protection efforts. A policy should focus on the following
key areas namely the purpose of the policy, data integrity, data privacy, data security that
should align with it security policies, roles and responsibilities of parties involved in
managing and maintaining data. Key focus areas would be how to educate users in data
governance, allowing them to report when data is mismanaged. Adherence to the policy
is not just a data governance requirement but the organisation must ensure that policy
adoption and acceptance is done through the onboarding process especially the fact that
eh organisation is expanding, and new employees would need to understand the
importance of data protection. The onset of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has brough in new
concerns around data security as users often expose sensitive data to these AI models,
highlighting the importance of user’s education and policy requirements. The organisation
would be able to leverage the use of data to accelerate innovation and improve customers
satisfaction, this would however be impacted if there is not clear data governance
established within the organisation.

Access Management
With the expansion of the organisation, data security can become more complex as new
systems can be onboards based on mergers and acquisitions. Using measures to protect
data and ensure it is used by the right individuals requires the organisation to establish
clear policies that identify the roles of users to enable them to have access to only the
info they should. This however can be complex that may require an initial audit to identify
the exact requirement. Larger organisation also leads to employee attrition or inter
departmental transfers. Making sure that adequate monitoring of this is done can ensure
that the controls are not just a once off but helps in maintaining the security of the data
throughout the lifecycle of the data.
Establishing additional policy like an IT Security Policy can guide the organisation on the
controls needed to protect the data. Controls like two factor authentication (2FA) or using
modern identity access management solutions can ensure that data is accessible only to
those that needed it for the period that need it for. This would also allow the organisation
to audit and review and misuse of information to allow the execution of initiative-taking
actions to prevent data loss from occurring. Threat actors like “ransomware gangs” have
made this more of a necessity rather than a nice to have and allow for broader protection
than just access to information. With the expansion of the organisation resource may
need to be upscaled using contractors, managing access to data is not just internally but
also any external resources or integration points. Modern data is heavily integrated into
business processes and must be protected across work streams and the technology
landscape.

Regulations and Laws

The onset of data focus organisations using it to unlock new revenue streams have
highlight the need for more broader level data protection to be in place. Multinational
organisation that is expanding into more regions, the organisation must ensure it comply
with the local laws and regulations in the specific country. South Africa have implemented
POPIA that broadly requires the organisation to protect sensitive people related
information. Other countries like the Euro block of countries have implemented GDPR
that focus on similar elements and protection. The Data governance policies within the
company must make sure that the role and responsibility are clearly defined and the
guidelines are set that aligns with eh local laws. This can be in the form of reporting any
misuse of data to the local regulator through a well-defined repeatable process. The
organisation must also establish an oversight team consisting of local data experts in
each region that understands the local laws and regulations allowing the team to
monitoring the use of data for noncompliance. The policies must clearly indicate the
requirements for reporting that can guide the internal team to create well define processes
and standards across the originations.

Implementation of additional measures like encryption or data masking functionalities can

ensure that sensitive data can be protected and most international laws would require this
as a minimum standard. The challenge for the organisation could be link to centralisation
of services, especially where data sovereignty come into play requiring specific data to
reside in the country where it is created. This can cause a challenge for a knowledge
management system for example that could lead to higher cost and diluting the overall
value of systems where data is shared within the organisation. According to Ige et al.
(2024) the anonymization of data can aid in protecting individuals combined with
encryption and other techniques.

Auditing and Monitoring

Data access and changes must be monitored to ensure that known systems and
individuals access the data. This can improve data integrity and allow the organisation to
build reports that can be used to improve decision making and track the expansion
initiatives based on performance. The policy must set clear guidelines in the auditing of
information and define the frequency of the assessments. The onset of laws and
regulations makes it mandatory to continuously improve data governance practices in an
organisation and without auditing, gaps would not be easily identified limiting the ability
to make improvements in how data is managed. Independent reviews by external parties
with skills based on the regions the organisation operate would ensure the data security
controls are adequate in protection information. These reviews can be used to give
independent oversight of data governance practises to senior management highlight any
risk or challenges.

The disposal and retention policies of data must be clearly defined in the policy and
monitored to ensure data is kept for genuine business practises or to satisfy specific
regulatory requirements. Monitoring access to data goes beyond what is used on daily
basis but also need to focus on how backup and restored data is accessed. Data
governance must ensure that processes are defined in the organisation across the
regions to prevent data being restored and used without approval. This would require
central management and oversight of security and access controls to proactively indicate
who accesses data and for what purpose. Auditing these access controls on a regular
basis would ensure compliance to the policy and prevent the misuse of data. Additional
monitoring may be required to ensure that sovereignty is adhere to that aligns to the
regulatory and laws of the specific country. People’s right to privacy must be protected
and to achieve this regular auditing and monitoring is required.
Conclusion
Organisations like in the medical sector, data integration would be of critical importance
to the health of patients (McCaig and Rezania, 2021). The ease of access to data has put
the spotlight on integrity and protection as organisations relies on data to make strategic
decisions. The organisation must ensure that clear ownership of data is defined and
implement best practises controls that aligns to local and international standards. This
would maximize the ability for the organisation to safeguard the assets while it uses
access controls and data managing techniques to share and access data across the
different regions. Manipulation of data can have far reaching consequences for the
organisation as it would rely on this data to be accurate for reporting and decision-making
purposes. Establishment of regular reporting within the governance framework would
ensure that data integrity is maintained combines with access controls and secure backup
and restore functionality. The baseline security assessments must be conducted across
regions to identify any gaps in the way data is managed to allow for the continuous
improvement in policies, and processes. The different regions would highlight the need
for employee training to educate users in the safe use of data. Most data breaches are a
result of people send or sharing information to unknown or third parties. Secondary
technologies like data leak prevention (DLP) should be considered that can allow the
organisation to label and classify data in accordance with the sensitivity. The impact of
mismanagement of data can cause legal implications for the organisation and cause
reputational impact. This would impact the expansion of the organisation and limit its
ability to gain consumer trust in the new markets it is entering.
Question 3
Your organisation has decided to implement a knowledge management system (KMS)
to integrate data from various departments. Identify the key features your KMS should
include and describe how it will improve decision-making and operational efficiency.
Also, outline the steps for deploying the KMS and managing change within the
organisation.

Answer
Introduction
Improvements in organisational efficiency goes beyond just measuring key performance
area is but enabling employees to be efficient and effective. This can be achieved by
establishing a knowledge management system (KMS) that can improve how employees
manage systems and drive innovate ideas in sharing information between employees.
This would be of great benefit in multinational organisations where time differences and
cultures sometimes make it difficult to interact with each other. Standardising in the way
the organisation work using a KMS would ensure business processes are efficient,
reducing overheads and time wasting. A well-established KMS can also enable the
possible use of automation in the organisation due to the high-level nature of well
documented process and procedures.

Analysis of data within the KMS should not be overlooked as a tool to improve expansion
of the organisation into new regions as this would aid in onboarding of new resources and
reduce overall cost. Multinational organisations however do have its complexities due to
data sovereignty, systems access challenges and embedment of the KMS. Tacit
information does not always feature on a KMS, and employees must be encouraged to
contribute and add to unlock the true potential of a companywide KMS system. The
organisation would need to do a through analysis of the current situations and understand
where data artifacts live and potential value in the organization before blindly creating a
KMS. Organisations with different people demographics may struggle to adopt a KMS
system without deliberate focus by management to embed such a system (Nezafati et al.,
2021). Management buy-in is such a key driver to the success of the KMS due to
employees misunderstanding of the value of the KMS in decision making and business
performance. Management must contribute to the system in the form of knowledge
sharing and engage experts in the company to add their own tacit knowledge.

Discussion
Key features of a KMS
Multinational organization often have challenges when it comes to data management and
customers information. A KMS will enable the organization to have a single source of
truth that breaks down the information silo’s and improve decision making. The KMS
must be the single source of truth for information as it will improve the usage and adoption
of the systems in the organization. Often systems are complex to use especially if there
are barriers like culture and language. The KMS must be user-friendly to allow the
operational team to get to what they need as fast as possible. This can be achieved by
doing regular insights on the information, making sure relevant information like top
challenges are readily available for users.

Simple “What’s hot now” feature would ensure employees have fast access to the lates
information and often used queries. This can be improved between inter departmental
integration that should be a key feature of the KMS to allow seamless integration
between systems using different technologies. Building integration will allow for data
enrichment and lead to improve decision making and validation of strategic goals
achievements. Multinational organisation often is made up of people from different
backgrounds speaking a diverse language, the system must be able to translate and
capture these languages to allow operational teams to benefit across the organisation.
This would improve data analysis and remove the complexities in integration of data that
is created in different regions. System accessibility and scalability must be able to
adjust to the organisational needs, as the organisation expands into new regions. The
lack of scalability can prevent the adoption of the KMS in new regions that can lead to
poor operational performance. A review of the KMS should be done regularly to ensure it
still deliver on the organisational needs and the features and benefits are being achieved.

Benefits of a KMS
According to Di Vaio et al., (2021) some of the best KMS’s are integrated with big data
allowing for better decision making and closer alignment to strategic goals. The study
further highlights that if the organization embraces digital innovation it would lead to
overall better value of the KMS but also unlocked more innovation opportunities link to
the strategic goals of the organization. Operationally the organization can use the KMS
to fast-track customer queries as employees would be able to use the system to get
information about prior similar challenges that would lead to faster resolutions. During this
process analysis of the system and current queries would enable cross regional
information to be compared to pick up trends and allow for information to be shared with
employees enabling proactive challenges to be resolved for customers due to the trend
analysis. Customers would end up with the best possible experience due to the
information that is available, this would also improve employees’ efficiency and reduce
long tedious troubleshooting sessions. This said it would require the system to be simple
and effective to add real value to the organization else employees would refrain from
contributing and using the system.

Sharing information in multinational organization would be simplified using a KMS but

also allow for different departments to collaborate more effectively due to updated of the
KMS being available across the organization. This can allow department-like operations
to highlight challenges in a system that development would need to resolve. Giving them
enough information can fast track the development of fixes and enable better feedback
for customers from the operating teams. Operational teams would be able to use this to
improve overall performance to support the strategic goals of the organization.
Employees moving in a large organization can cause a loss of skills, using an effective
KMS can mitigate this and allow for the information to be retained. This would mitigate
gaps in departments and allow for teams to learn and “get up to speed” faster when they
join the organization or get new unknown tasks. Management would be more at ease in
decision-making as it simplifies some of the usual risks of recruitment and upskilling
employees in the operational space. This is due to the ability to regularly improve and
update operational documentation like standards operating procedure with more relevant
and efficient data from the KMS data. Improvements in operational performance would
lead to being a more competitive organization and can also give the organization an edge
in new expanded regions using the KMS.
Implementation and Deployment of a KMS
Implementation should be focus on adoption within the organisation with management
buy-in to embrace the new way of working as it would improve decision making that would
lead being competitive due to organisational efficiencies. According to Budianto and
Sardjono, (2022) the impact of people to influence the use and adoption is one of the
highest contributing factors to the success of a KMS. To increase the success the
organisation adoption of a KMS the organisation can even go as far to give special
rewards to early adopters that will improve the overall implementation.

Prior to deploying a KMS the organisation must first assess what they trying to achieve
by gathering organisational wide information around current processes and
shortcomings. This can be achieved by direct engagement with management and experts
and doing analysis on current systems and reoccurring challenges. Cross refencing the
information with the current documentation and processes could highlight challenges like
working in silos, the lack of cross departmental collaboration and the difficulty for
resources working in different regions due to language and culture barriers. Setting the
success metrics needed must be defined and tracked throughout the implementation and
deployment of the KMS. The analysis process should overlap with data governance
components on the classification of data as it would simply the onboarding information
and ensure access management is simplified in who must access what information. Often
challenges arise where information is not correctly classified leading to inefficient
searching within in the system. The design of the system should be focussed to prevent
such inefficiencies and considering scalability of the system int eh future to mitigate any
performance related challenges.

Once the technology solution has been selected through an evaluation of possible
solutions the organisation must establish processes to onboard data. This should be done
in a controlled fashion linked to organisational controls in access management, data
validation and process improvement exercises. The system would be only as good as the
data it retains; this would improve user adoption and drive continuous improvement of the
system. Once the KMS have been deployed and initial data have been onboarded the
organisation must focus on small scale implementation to address any system gaps and
user challenges. This direct feedback can assist in establishment of champions within the
KMS space and create initial how to guides and supporting documentation. The
champions or early adopters would be able to train other internal resources to ensure the
system are used in a way that compliments current processes to drive efficiency.

Integration of the KMS into employee onboarding would increase the use of the system.
This should form part of the full deployment of the system with a systematic plan to ensure
all business areas are able to adopt the system address any challenges and gaps they
my identify. These could be items like integration challenges, inaccurate data or even just
accessibility of the system due to technical challenges in their region. These can be
overcome by monitoring the system , setting performance baselines, and ensuring any
deviations can be corrected and improved. The design of the system must also enable
for prominent information to be prioritised to users. This would showcase changes to the
system and updates of information that would include new knowledge sections. Identify
improvements is critical for the KMS to evolve to more than just a static data system.
Building integration layers between customers management systems and support
systems would allow users to identify additional changes that must be discussed between
the various system champions and business owners.

Conclusion
Expansion of the organisation would benefit from a well-designed and adopted KMS
solution. This would aid in bridging the language and culture barriers while improving
decision making within the origination. Monitoring the success of a KMS and its
contribution to the success of its strategy should form part of the overall process. This
would allow management to proactively identify challenges and implement system
improvement and changes to correct it. Customer satisfaction benefits due to process
efficiency and employees being able to recall data using integrated search functionality
will improve competitiveness of the organisation and drive success in new expanded
regions. Regular employee training and awareness campaigns must form part of the
culture in adoption of the KMS that is integrated in the way employees work, rather than
a standalone system. Management would need to drive the success of the KMS based
on the defined goals the organisation wants to achieve.
Question 4
After implementing your knowledge management strategy, the company wants to
measure its effectiveness. Propose a set of metrics or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
that the company should track to assess the success of its knowledge management
practices. Justify why you selected each metric, and how it will contribute to the
continuous improvement of knowledge management.

Answer
Introduction
The organisation must align the knowledge management strategy with the organisations
own organizational strategy to ensure it can meet the objectives and improve overall
business performance. Monitoring and regular reporting on progress would allow the
organisation to ensure the investment in the knowledge management strategy is having
the desired effect and deviation from the goals can be corrected. According to a study by
Adegbembo, (2022) performance measurement in a knowledge management systems
follow three phases to ensure the area being measured is relevant, namely understanding
the objective of the knowledge area that will be measured, model the specific focus area
to meet the objectives and clearly identify each component needed as part of the
measurement model. Identify the key performance indicators should be base don’t he
goals of the organisation; how mature the knowledge management systems are and
regularly updated based on changes in employee behaviour and business strategy.

The impact of a knowledge management systems can be measures through the decisions
made that improves business efficiency using the information. If the organisations
struggle to derive value from this initiative, it may be at risk of not getting the desires
return on investment. The organisation must set clear guidelines in how, what and who
will be monitoring the success if knowledge management. Developing a knowledge
management system should focus on critical knowledge to ensure the business can
leverage the most value out of the initiative. Let’s discuss some of the key performance
area and how it will improve knowledge management.
Discussion

Access and Usage

The origination can implement reporting and monitoring in how many times specific
articles and sources are accessed and by whom. This would allow certain content to be
prioritised for all employees based on the potential value because of high level of use.
Other content that is never used would be able to be archived. This is one of the basic
ways to ensure the organisation can track the internal cultures of employees using the
knowledge for operational and decision-making purposes. The lack of use can easily be
addressed and discussed with employees. Employees with expert knowledge may also
more likely update the information if they see their knowledge adds value. Page
impression based on the total users of the systems should be used as a basic tracking
tool to enable content improvement.

User Feedback
Configuring ratings on the knowledge management systems would allow employees to
promote knowledge that adds value or those they that see as poor quality. This would
enable management and knowledge champions to update the content to be more relevant
that would increase the use of the system. Adding an additional comment section would
allow employees to recommend topics and data they would like to access that can be
evaluated by the data owners and implemented if need be. User feedback should be one
of the most common ways to track the success and allow for regular updates to occur in
the knowledge management systems based on employee feedback. Using a rating scale
of 1-10 would allow for granular details and enable more specific content to be improved.

Senior Leadership Usage

Monitoring the usage of senior leadership and reporting on it would not just allow the
organisation to show senior leadership buy in into the knowledge management system
but also enable the tracking of how much time senior leadership spend on operational
versus strategic tasks. This would have a direct impact on innovation but also improve
employee’s usage due to leading by example. Senior leaders for example would be able
to add new ideas and review ideas that was added by employees. Adding full project
details and budgeting would enable tracking of more than just knowledge but
understanding the return of investment on new innovations. This usage must stand out
for management as new innovative ideas can also be tracked based on documentation
and how many times this information is accessed, driving a process of continuous
improvement.

Learning Metrics
Expanding the organisation into new regions would mean new employees. These
employees would require training that comes at a cost. If learning material is added to the
knowledge management system new employees will be able to be more easily trained
and upskilled while allowing them to ask questions to a broader business landscape.
Measuring the training completing rates and linking it to performance reviews would
ensure operational efficiency and drive continuous use of the systems. Further the
training department would also continuously update the portal with new training content
that is relevant to business processes or new business areas.

Savings and time management

Implementing a knowledge management system would allow employees to complete
tasks more efficiently, that would reduce waste and optimise resource usage. Cross
linking tasks where there is information on within, the knowledge management systems
can allow management to understand how long tasks take with and without easily
accessible information. This can drive management to encourage employees to capture
new information to improve areas that is lacking documentation or information. The
organisation should be competitive and driving down cost is a way of achieving this while
enabling investment into other areas like innovation.

New Content added

With the organisation growing each region may have specific ways they operate linked to
laws and regulations. This would require specific update and new information to be added
to the knowledge base system to enable effective and efficient operations. Tracking the
rate of change and how many new documents are added would highlight if the knowledge
is static as a knowledge management systems should constantly undergo change as part
of a continuous improvement objective. This key performance area would allow
management to track the rate of culture adoption in employees understanding the benefits
of the knowledge management system.

Strategic value
Measuring how the knowledge management system goals are enabling the strategic
business objectives to be met through innovation, employee retention rates and the rate
of success in new business regions. This would allow highlight any improvements needed
to the knowledge system or changes to the strategic goals if the business operations are
already optimized and not resulting in the required value. New business regions would
need constant tracking of market penetration; this would be possible in using a knowledge
management system as historic data and future forecast can be used to track the success
rate.

Conclusion
The organisation must identify quantitative and qualitative metrics as it is easy to use
statistics to evaluate a system, however getting feedback from employees can improve
areas like the user interface, employee satisfaction and enabled information champions
to directly engage employees to improve areas of knowledge. This approach would allow
for continuous improvement of knowledge in the organisation and enable operations to
be more efficient. Identify key performance indicators should be relevant to what the
organisation wants to achieve by being specific like in the case of user’s statistics. The
knowledge management strategy must enable the organisations strategic goals to be
achieved through evaluating the key performance indicators and adjusting the knowledge
management strategy and adoptions of the systems if it is not effectively improving
business efficiency and innovation. The organisation can base their knowledge
management systems on an international standard like ISO 30401 that would give it the
needed guidelines to drive continuous improvement of knowledge management in the
organisation. Using this standard as a guide would ensure relevant critical information is
captured and a systematic approach is used to identify the key performance indicators.

Monitoring the adoption rates of the system in the organisation and tracking changes to
information would allow management to drive a more continuous improvement of the
knowledge management systems and ensure they get the relevant return on investment.
Key performance indicators should be regularly evaluated to ensure they are still relevant
in ensuring success and aligns with current business objectives. Operational changes like
the expansion of the business would also require changes to key performance areas to
measure the success of the business expansion and how the knowledge management
system is enabling this. A knowledge management system is normally started to assist in
improving operations, however if used correctly can be a powerful business enabler that
can drive innovation and improve the ability to achieve strategic objectives.
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