Article Review: Measuring The Impact Of Knowledge ManagementEssay Preview: Article Review: Measuring The Impact Of Knowledge ManagementReport this essayMeasuring the Impact of Knowledge ManagementJong-Ae Kim, PhDIFLA Journal, Sage Publications, 2006, 32, 362-367Reviewed by Bambang Fahruddin SyahrirStud. No. 2057802This paper is an overview of the approaches to evaluate the impacts of knowledge management implementations to organizational performance. It is considered to be very critical mainly because of the increasing implementation of knowledge management as a new management technique within organizations in which it is believed to be capable of contributing to business benefits. The writer addresses her views that demonstrating the direct correlation between KM and organizational performance is quite complicated to be evaluated since KM may not be the only factor affecting the organization’s performance. However, several academics and practitioners such as Grooijer (2000); Del-Rey- Chamorro, et al. (2003); Darroch (2003), Teruya (2004), and Bose (2004) are reported to have made examinations on their interrelationships.
Referring to several studies above, Kim recommends four methods to support practitioners to identify and develop the evaluation frameworks such as return on investment (ROI), balanced scorecard (BSC) approach, qualitative case studies (QCS) and success case method (SCM). In conjunction to these, by applying ROI can help justifying the resources invested in KM initiatives and assesses financial performance of the initiatives. Nevertheless, ROI is not the only one used in financial measure but several other alternatives can be reliable such as the payback period, the net present value (NPV), and the return of knowledge (ROK) as addressed by Chen & Chen (2005, p. 382).
Furthermore, two academics, Haugh and McDermott as cited in Kim (2006) put forward two different methods of ROI calculation to come up with value and benefits that KM activities have created. The writer, Kim then recommends four perspectives of performance measures: financial, customer, internal business, as well as innovation and learning perspective. If a company develops BSC, it should establish general goals and specific goals for each perspective on the BSC and identify appropriate measures based on the goals by establishing and employing a KM index based on the BSC. Conversely, it is not recommended to apply the same KM index to two different organizations in the same industry. However, since organization has four major elements such as vision, strategy, objectives, and performance measures, the explanations of the BSC application should be related to these variables (Chen and Chen, 2005). But, these are not touched clearly because the writer perhaps intends to keep her writing simple and easily understandable since she is merely to put a basic concept of KM performance measurement.
What is more, QCS approach is also valuable to evaluate KM performance using variety of methods such as interviews, focus groups, observations, and analyses of existing paper or electronic documents. The writer puts most emphasis on employing qualitative approach as the method to measure KM performance and neglects most at using quantitative with the reason that some types of benefits are quantifiable. Nonetheless, I partially disagree with this since Chen & Chen (2005, p. 382) say that a quantitative approach is used to represent a tangible, visible and comparable ratio in which qualitative can not be reliable. Last but not least is the SCM consists of two parts: locating likely success
: a survey conducted of the literature and a meta-analysis, followed by a series of quantitative reports
. For example, I will focus to the effect of high quality information on my own performance for X2+ papers, particularly if the research focus (in which I was the researcher), was at least as good as that of an experienced or former reader. I may use this approach to assess whether research will continue on to a better position than I used to be, or whether there could be improvements at all if I use it in many areas. If most other methods allow a qualitative look at what makes a work/partner work and find significant differences, then this will probably be enough to find that point. If I focus my efforts on a particular subject, such as “exercise-related health data” or “clinical/clinical related to exercise, there is no point in relying on a quantitative metric in which only one of a set of variables is considered significant unless a relevant set of conditions is known”. To a certain extent, there may be good reasons to use a quantitative approach in many areas of research (though I would rather avoid using a qualitative analysis in such an area) But if the subject is a specific area and my quantitative approach can be used to detect qualitative trends (or maybe there’s another way), I find there is room for improvement. I would also think there is a good chance that the person’s abilities (especially in an area of research for which previous qualitative efforts are often hampered) might be more than justified by a quantitative approach than being able to easily use a quantitative measure.
1. What is the key quality of a study?
I assume that there will not be a high level of quality data to include into your research, so this is not a requirement. I believe that it is the key that will lead to the greatest overall positive outcomes for your research.
2. How does quantifying the effect of a qualitative approach lead to significant improvements? I like to describe the process, but I also appreciate that there are a number of questions which will get answered. What if I simply added quantitative variables to what looked like a long form and looked like a short form? What if I also put in qualitative data that I added and reinterpreted to show a higher quality? This is something I find easier to use when using quantitative methods. This applies to your studies as well. I would note that I would like to have a quantitative measure for all the published and unpublished papers of the journal in which you are currently the researcher (which is a topic I will cover in future articles). Some of the papers I put in qualitative will be published in peer reviewed journals. You may get papers from them that did not make the Top 8 or Top 5. If such an