What is a Knowledge Audit?

What is a Knowledge Audit?
What is a knowledge audit?
A knowledge audit also known as k-audit or knowledge management (KM) assessment provides sound investigation into an organization’s knowledge health. The main purpose of a knowledge audit is to help the audited unit determine what it knows, who knows what, what it does not know, what it needs to know and how it should improve the management of its current knowledge wealth. A knowledge audit can also be performed as an initiative for Organizational Knowledge Management.
According to Debenham and Clark (“The Knowledge Audit”, 2004), knowledge audit is a planning document which provides a structural overview of an organization’s knowledge in a designated section or target area. Audit document gives a qualitative and quantitative view of the individual chunks of knowledge stored in repositories. Knowledge repositories could be electronic (databases), paper based (files) or individuals (experts).
Types of knowledge audit measures
Both qualitative and quantitative measures must be used for knowledge audits. According to Becerra Fernandez (2004) organizations mature with KM should use quantitative measures as compared to organizations that have just started working in KM.
When to perform knowledge audit
Knowledge audits can be performed periodically for an entire organization or a sub-unit. At the start of a KM project for building business case or After a KM project is implemented
What are knowledge audit steps?
Identify target area for your knowledge audit. Your target area could be a sub-unit, several departments or even your entire organization. Identify existing knowledge in your target area. Determine potential sinks, sources, flows, constraints in your target area. Determine environmental factors that could affect your target area. Identify knowledge repositories in your target area, both containing tacit (experts) and explicit (databases) knowledge. Develop a knowledge map of your target area. Identify missing knowledge in your target area. Perform a Gap Analysis to find what knowledge is missing in the target area. Find who needs the missing knowledge. Analyze collected data. Provide recommendations from the knowledge audit to the management.
Impacts of knowledge audit
Impacts on Employees Supports employee learning Increases job satisfaction
Impacts on Processes Increases effectiveness Increases efficiency Increases degree of innovation Supports value-added products
Points to remember
Establish a baseline Remember people are important Consider qualitative methods of measures Keep it simple Be conservative in your claims