The Search for Knowledge Management Success

How do we know when a knowledge management (KM) project or initiative is successful? Jennex, Smolnik, and Croasdell (2007, 2009) explored KM success and proposed that KM success is getting the right knowledge to the right people at the right time and is measured in four dimensions: impact on business processes, impact on knowledge management strategy, leadership/management support, and knowledge content. This chapter continues the previous studies by reporting on a further study that used a proposed set of measures and a survey to see if these measures were observed in a specific knowledge management project or initiative. The results of these studies are a definition of KM success and a set of measures that shows KM practitioners and researcher where to look for KM success. Knowledge is a new currency used by an organization's knowledge workers to achieve goals or produce an economic benefit. Knowledge systems and knowledge management (KM) initiatives support knowledge workers in the performance of their jobs. An organizations ability to access its corporate knowledge stores (organizational memory) and to make that knowledge actionable (organizational learning) potentially improves its competitive stature/position in global business environments (Davenport, DeLong, and Beers, 1998). Organizational strategy is necessary, but not sufficient, for implementing knowledge-based initiatives that will support and enable knowledge workers while also enhancing organizational performance, effectiveness, and competitive position (Jennex and Olfman, 2002, 2006). Knowledge systems should consider success factors, effectiveness metrics, and key performance indicators to assess the systems' success and usefulness. Given the prevalence of knowledge work and knowledge workers in global business environments, it becomes increasingly important to assess knowledge management systems and initiatives (Jennex and Olfman, 2002). Earlier work by Jennex, Smolnik, and Croasdell (2007, 2009) sought to define knowledge management success along with appropriate measures for assessing and measuring KM success. This work resulted in the definition: " KM success is a multidimensional concept. It is defined by capturing the right knowledge, getting the right knowledge to the right user, and using this knowledge to improve organizational and/or individual performance. KM success is measured by means of the dimensions: impact on business processes, impact on KM strategy, leadership/management support, and knowledge content. " This chapter presents research that validates the above success dimensions and examines metrics for assessing these dimensions. The research hypothesis is that KM projects/initiatives that are perceived to be successful will use more measures of success from each of the …