Where to Look for Knowledge Management Success Murray E. Jennex San Diego State University mjennex@mail.sdsu.edu Stefan Smolnik EBS Business School Stefan.Smolnik@ebs.edu David Croasdell University of Nevada, Reno davec@unr.edu Abstract Defining when a knowledge management (KM) project or initiative is successful is difficult. Jennex, Smolnik, and Croasdel [14] [15]l proposed that KM success is measured in four dimensions: impact on business processes, impact on knowledge management strategy, leadership/management support, and knowledge content. This study proposes a set of measures that operationalizes these four dimensions and then survey respondents to see if these measures were observed in a specific knowledge management project or initiative. The results of the survey is that the more successful a knowledge management project/initiative is perceived to be the more of the tested measures will be observed and more likely the organization is to see success in all four dimensions. 1. Introduction We live in a knowledge economy where knowledge is used to produce an economic benefit. Knowledge workers rely on their ability to create and share knowledge relevant to their work environments. Knowledge workers outnumber all other workers by a 4 to 1 margin [1]. Efficient production relies on information and know-how. Over seventy per cent of workers in developed economies are knowledge workers [23]. Knowledge-intensive companies (those that have forty percent or more knowledge workers) such as professional services firms account for twenty eight percent of the total U.S. employment and produced forty three percent of all new employment growth [22]. Knowledge systems support knowledge management (KM) initiatives. An organizations ability to access its corporate knowledge stores (organizational memory) and to make that knowledge actionable (organizational learning) potentially improves its competitive stature/position in global business environments [7]. Organizational strategy is necessary, but not sufficient, for implementing knowledge-based initiatives that will support and enable knowledge workers while also enhancing organizational performance, effectiveness, and competitive position [10], [11]. Knowledge systems should consider success factors, effectiveness metrics, and key performance indicators to assess the systems’ success and usefulness. Given the prevalence of knowledge work and knowledge workers in global business environments, it becomes increasingly important to assess knowledge management initiatives and strategies [11]. This study extends previous studies by validating success metrics for knowledge management initiatives. Earlier work sought to define knowledge management success [14] along with appropriate measures for assessing and measuring KM success [9] [10], [Jennex et al. 2008]. This work resulted in the definition: “KM success is a multidimensional concept. It is defined by capturing the right knowledge, getting the right knowledge to the right user, and using this knowledge to improve organizational and/or individual performance. KM success is measured by means of the dimensions: impact on business processes, impact on KM strategy, leadership/management support, and knowledge content.” This study validates the above success dimensions and examines metrics for assessing these dimensions. The research hypothesis is that KM projects/initiatives that are perceived to be successful will use more measures of success from each of the above dimensions. The converse is also expected, that those KM projects/initiatives perceived to be less successful or not successful will use significantly fewer measures that may not be from all of the above dimensions. The contribution of this research is a validated knowledge management success model and a set of metrics that should be used by organizations for determining the success of their knowledge management projects and initiatives. The structure of the paper is as follows: Beginning with a presentation of the background, the literature review, and prior research, we proceed with the description of our research methodology comprising survey development, data collection, and data analysis. The subsequent section gives a detailed presentation of our study’s results. Thereafter, we discuss these results. 2012 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 978-0-7695-4525-7/12 $26.00 © 2012 IEEE DOI 10.1109/HICSS.2012.641 3931 2012 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 978-0-7695-4525-7/12 $26.00 © 2012 IEEE DOI 10.1109/HICSS.2012.641 3969