What Are Knowledge Management Metrics?Knowledge management has been along for quite some time but has never been really defined as a process until the last few years when business researchers started realizing exactly how important it was to the growth and prosperity of their company. They have been able to create several software processes for knowledge management and are now devising a way to measure the effect that it has on the business by using knowledge management metrics. This form of measurement uses a metric or gauge that consists of 4 different types of measures which include awareness, behavior, outputs, and outcomes. The awareness measure in the knowledge management metrics is measuring the knowledge of what to document, how to document it, how to access knowledge management databases, along with other forms of written or documented factors of a company. The behavior measure takes the measure of participation in knowledge management activities by associates and employees such as committees, teams, making presentations, along with other forms of people communication within the company. The outputs measure in the knowledge management metrics is the measure of the actual creation of databases, white papers, reports of lessons learned, best practice presentations, and other forms of progress that are created. The outcomes measurement is the measure of the impact that the new knowledge on the key measures of organizational performance on such areas of the company as product sales, productivity, cost reduction, or quality improvement. When researchers put these measurements of the knowledge management metrics into practice, they found that the awareness and behavior measurements really did not give them any kind of concrete evidence that created any really meaningful outcomes. Databases were built, knowledge sharing meetings were held, and presentations were made, but the overall company performance had failed to improve. The outputs and outcomes of the knowledge management metrics showed a bit more promise. The outputs and outcomes measurement was used to measure how many ideas or approaches were developed in one part of a company that were then adopted and put into practice within another part of the company. This showed that by sharing the knowledge, the company was improving one department at a time. While this type of measurement was put in to place first, then the behavior and awareness measurement was more effective by the paper trail or proof of the improvement. The knowledge management metrics system is not yet made history of its grand measure, but it is well on its way if implemented correctly and companies do not fall into the trap of just measuring teams, meetings, databases, or other types that be put on a spreadsheet but measure the actual improvement that the knowledge gives to the company. |