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CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS IN KM - PRELIMINARY FINDINGS.
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CASE RESULTS

People / HRM

Researchers observed similar emphases in this discipline to that of the world literature, including :

•  Top management commitment.
•  Coaching leadership style.
•  Establishing the right culture/environment, a mature TQM program helps.
•  Emphasis on learning and education.
•  Attention to trust, reward and recognition, selection and recruitment.

An particular newer development has been multi-skilled project teams. Layers of project teams with specific briefs are being used for quicker response times to market needs.

A second newer development is increased priority status for KM paralleling TQM's rise to prominence.

Finally, performance management systems are being aligned to rewarding the new generation of knowledge workers being cultivated.

Information Technology

One company typified the advanced in this discipline. A leading international consulting business had as its unique selling proposition rapid response and lean development of training courses and solutions to client needs. Worldwide internal and external supplier networks were developed and best practice databases were being established. However, employees were only contributing "second-level" information and knowledge and withholding and guarding their hard-won "trade secrets." A low relevance knowledge database with waning appeal was the unfortunate outcome. Things had to change.

The new generation knowledge database consists of clearly articulated high-value subject areas. It also now involves expert panels who evaluate the raw contributions for relevance, resulting in high value white papers being published. Also, a reward system has been included for valued contributors :

'Some employees have earned time out or research grants to
develop ideas. Others have been given significant career opportunities to manage project teams.'

These knowledge databases being created have the distinctive of emphasising people, resources, knowledge, and skills.

Quality and Marketing

'All of the organizations we have studied have mature TQM or business excellence programs in place. Respondents believe that such programs have provided a strong basis for KM.'

They see alignments in:

•  Culture and environment.
•  Premium strategy.
•  Team emphasis.
•  Continuous improvement.
•  Empowerment.

The business drivers to KM implementation clearly is competence and capabilities enhancement that lead to innovation and creativity for new products and services.

'The consensus of opinion is that KM must be customer and  market led.'

With quality emphasis comes overall performance measurement. All organisations studied operate a balanced scorecard approach. None of the companies have as yet determined satisfactory intellectual capital metrics here. It may mean more of an emphasis on qualitative indicators rather than quantitative ones.

Conclusion

The researchers are becoming satisfied that nearly all the variables used in KM have been identified. Now it is possible to sequester the ones that are likely to be the critical success factors in effective KM implementation through further analysis in relation to the five organisational disciplines. This is their next objective.

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