Conducting a knowledge audit - KM toolkit: inventory of tools and techniques - Knowledge Management - NeLH Specialist Library

Conducting a knowledge audit
What is a knowledge audit?
The term ‘knowledge audit’ is in some ways a bit of a misnomer, since the traditional concept of an audit is to check performance against a standard, as in financial auditing. A knowledge audit, however, is a more of a qualitative evaluation. It is essentially a sound investigation into an organisation’s knowledge ‘health’. A typical audit will look at:
What are the organisation’s knowledge needs? What knowledge assets or resources does it have and where are they? What gaps exist in its knowledge? How does knowledge flow around the organisation? What blockages are there to that flow e.g. to what extent do its people, processes and technology currently support or hamper the effective flow of knowledge?
The knowledge audit provides an evidence-based assessment of where the organisation needs to focus its knowledge management efforts. It can reveal the organisation’s knowledge management needs, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats and risks.
What are the benefits?
Among the key benefits of a knowledge audit are:
It helps the organisation clearly identify what knowledge is needed to support overall organisational goals and individual and team activities. It gives tangible evidence of the extent to which knowledge is being effectively managed and indicates where improvements are needed. It provides an evidence-based account of the knowledge that exists in an organisation, and how that knowledge moves around in, and is used by, that organisation. It provides a map of what knowledge exists in the organisation and where it exists, revealing both gaps and duplication. It reveals pockets of knowledge that are not currently being used to good advantage and therefore offer untapped potential. It provides a map of knowledge and communication flows and networks, revealing both examples of good practice and blockages and barriers to good practice. It provides an inventory of knowledge assets, allowing them to become more visible and therefore more measurable and accountable, and giving a clearer understanding of the contribution of knowledge to organisational performance. It provides vital information for the development of effective knowledge management programmes and initiatives that are directly relevant to the organisation’s specific knowledge needs and current situation.
Some examples of situations in which a knowledge audit can be beneficial include:
you are about to embark on creating a knowledge management strategy and so need to establish exactly ‘where you are now’ people are having difficulty in finding the information and knowledge they need to make key decisions useful sources of information and knowledge are frequently stumbled across by accident there is duplication of information and knowledge gathering activities across different departments or teams, and hence duplication of costs questions are being raised about the value of knowledge management systems, initiatives or investments when findings from research and development are not making their way into practice quickly enough.
How do I go about it?
There are a wide variety of approaches to conducting a knowledge audit, with varying levels of coverage and detail. As a general rule, most knowledge audits will involve some or all of the following:
Identifying knowledge needs
The first step in most knowledge audits involves getting clear about precisely what knowledge the organisation and the people and teams within it need in order to meet their goals and objectives. A knowledge audit provides a systematic way of finding this out to some level of detail. Common approaches taken to collating this information include questionnaire-based surveys, interviews and facilitated group discussions, or a combination of these. In asking people about knowledge needs, it is important to provide a point of focus, as ‘knowledge’ can be seen as being quite conceptual and therefore difficult to articulate. To get around this, and to ensure that you are concentrating on vital knowledge, invite people to think about their goals and objectives, and the core processes, activities and decisions that they perform in the course of their day-to-day work. You might ask them to also consider their main problems and challenges, and how might faster access to better knowledge help them in that regard.
It is always beneficial to begin a knowledge auditing process with identifying knowledge needs. This enables you to then use your understanding of these needs to guide the rest of the auditing process, and therefore be sure that you are focusing on the knowledge that is important to the organisation.
Drawing up a knowledge inventory
A knowledge inventory is a kind of stock-take to identify and locate knowledge assets or resources throughout the organisation. It involves counting and categorising the organisation’s explicit and tacit knowledge. In the case of explicit knowledge, this will include things like:
What knowledge we have – numbers, types and categories of documents, databases, libraries, intranet websites, links and subscriptions to external resources etc? Where the knowledge is – locations in the organisation, and in its various systems? Organisation and access – how are knowledge resources organised, how easy is it for people to find and access them? Purpose, relevance and ‘quality’ – why do these resources exist, how relevant and appropriate are they for that purpose, are they of good ‘quality’ e.g. up-to-date, reliable, evidence-based etc? Usage – are they actually being used, by whom, how often, what for?
In the case of tacit knowledge, the inventory will focus on people and look at things like:
Who we have – numbers and categories of people Where they are – locations in departments, teams and buildings What they do – job levels and types What they know –academic and professional qualifications, core knowledge and experience What they are learning – on the job training, learning and development.
The knowledge inventory gives you a snapshot of your knowledge assets or resources. By comparing your inventory with your earlier analysis of knowledge needs, you can begin to identify gaps in your organisation’s knowledge as well as areas of unnecessary duplication. This is also explored in greater detail in the next step.
Analysing knowledge flows
While an inventory of knowledge assets shows what knowledge resources your organisation has, an analysis of knowledge flows looks at how that knowledge moves around the organisation – from where it is to where it is needed. In other words, how do people find the knowledge they need, and how do they share the knowledge they have? Again, the knowledge flow analysis looks at both explicit and tacit knowledge, and at people, processes and systems:
The relative focus in this stage is on people: their attitudes towards, habits and behaviours concerning, and skills in, knowledge sharing and use. This will usually require a combination of questionnaire-based surveys followed up with individual interviews and facilitated group discussions.
In terms of processes, you will need to look at how people go about their daily work activities and how knowledge seeking, sharing and use are (or are not) part of those activities. In most organisations, there will be pockets of good knowledge management practice (though they may not be called knowledge management). You will also need to look at what policies and practices currently affect the flows and usage of information and knowledge, for example are there existing policies on things like information handling, records management, web publishing? Are their other wider policies and practices that, while not directly related to knowledge management, act as enablers or barriers to good knowledge practice?
On the systems side, some assessment is needed of key capabilities that will be used in any recommended actions or solutions. This includes the technical infrastructure: information technology systems, content management, accessibility and ease of use, and current actual levels of use. In short, to what extent do your systems effectively facilitate knowledge flows, and help to connect people with the information and other people they need.
An analysis of knowledge flows will allow you to further identify gaps in your organisation’s knowledge and areas of duplication; it will also highlight examples of good practice that can be built on, as well as blockages and barriers to knowledge flows and effective use. It will show where you need to focus attention in your knowledge management initiatives in order to get knowledge moving from where it is to where it is needed.
Creating a knowledge map
A knowledge map is a visual representation of an organisation’s knowledge. There are two common approaches to knowledge mapping:
The first simply maps knowledge resources and assets, showing what knowledge exists in the organisation and where it can be found The second also includes knowledge flows, showing how that knowledge moves around the organisation from where it is to where it is needed.
Clearly the second approach provides the most complete picture for the knowledge auditor. However, the first is also useful, and in some organisations is made available to all staff to help people locate the knowledge they need.
Are there any other points I should be aware of?
Be clear about your purpose. The knowledge audit is not a quick or simple process, and so the time and effort required needs to be justified by a clear purpose and a set of actions that will be taken as a result of what the audit reveals.
When conducting a knowledge audit, bear in mind the widely-accepted statistic that around 80% of an organisation’s knowledge is tacit, hence beware of focusing too much time and energy on explicit knowledge and not enough on tacit knowledge.
The ease or difficulty that you have in gathering and collating the information you need as part of the audit process is itself a good indicator of the status of your current knowledge management capabilities.
If you decide to commission a knowledge audit from external consultants, be aware that the quality and depth of work that comes under the general banner of ‘knowledge auditing’ varies quite. Many vendors use the term ‘knowledge audit’ to describe what is in fact an information audit – which will only look at explicit knowledge. Auditing tacit knowledge is probably where the greater challenge lies, and is hence the area in which expert help is likely to be most valuable.
Resources and references
Articles
Bontis, N. Assessing knowledge assets: a review of the models used to measure intellectual capital. International Journal of Management Reviews, 2001, Volume 3 No 1, pp 41-60
Bouthillier France and Shearer Kathleen.Understanding knowledge management and information management: the need for an empirical perspective. Information Research, 2002, Volume 8 No 1
Burnett Simon, Illingworth Lorraine and Webster Linda. Knowledge auditing and mapping: a pragmatic approach. Knowledge and Process Management. 2004, Volume 11 Issue 1, pp 25-37
Liebowitz Jay, et al. The knowledge audit. Knowledge and Process Management. 2000, Volume 7 Issue 1, pp 3-10
Stevens Larry. Knowing what your company knows: a knowledge audit is a necessary precursor to a new KM initiative. Knowledge Management, 2000, December
Websites
KnowMap: The Knowledge Management, Auditing and Mapping Magazine
A US-based bi-monthly online magazine for knowledge management, auditing and mapping.