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Monday, August 15, 2005

Measuring the impact of KM is tricky on its own but it becomes an even bigger challenge to measure in an international organization with highly diverse national cultures. Here, Ingo Forstenlechner shows how to take the diversity of national culture into account when making decisions.

"Among the benefits of KM is the global flow of knowledge between offices. But when measuring KM for the purpose of having a basis to help make decisions about global initiatives, it's crucial not to lose sight of local specifics. Therefore, KM performance management needs to come with a 'health warning,' reminding the practitioner to take national culture into account before making decisions based on indicators.

"For instance, if one of your measures in a performance management framework in a law firm is the buy-in to KM of fee earners, and you measure this by the percentage of fee earners submitting know-how to a know-how system, you will most likely find different levels of
buy-in across countries even if you have provided them with exactly the same system and level of support. Sometimes small differences in basic technology can significantly change the picture, or the extent to which authority works in terms of simply telling people to
share knowledge."

Source: Adapted from "The impact of national culture on KM metrics" by Ingo Forstenlechner


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