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Knowledge management governance: the road to continuous benefits realization

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Journal of Information Technology

Abstract

Investment in knowledge management (KM) programmes is often contentious due to the challenge of meeting the need for continuous and sustainable benefits realization. In KM, the word ‘sustainable’ describes how programmes of strategies to leverage organizational knowledge remain productive over time: that they deliver strategic value to the organization. The focus of this paper falls on the constructs of the governance of KM and on its leadership, in KM strategy development and implementation, including risk management, financial controls and transparent evaluation mechanisms for continuous benefits realization. This paper presents a KM governance model and explores its recent validation through six case studies of large, distributed, multinational organizations, and through these introduces the granular constructs of KM governance. Exploration of the impact of KM governance on developing and implementing KM programmes in each case study organization demonstrates that there is a clear nexus between strategic KM governance and benefits realized from those programmes.

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Acknowledgements

Our thanks to Professor Rudy Hirschheim and Professor Judy McKay, and to colleagues at the following conferences for their constructive feedback in the ongoing development and refinement of this research: ACIS, 2009, ICDSS 2007, ACKMIDS 2007, HICSS39 2006, IFIP WG8.3 – DSS 2004, ISD 2003 and ECIS 2002.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia

    Suzanne Zyngier

  2. Monash University, Victoria, Australia

    Frada Burstein

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  1. Suzanne Zyngier
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Correspondence to Suzanne Zyngier.

Appendices

Appendix A

Table A1

Table A1 Interview subjects, location and schedule
Full size table

Appendix B

Table B1

Table B1 Example of interview text analysis
Full size table

Appendix C

Interview questions

  1. 1

    What is the corporate philosophy or approach behind the way that your organization manages knowledge?

  2. 2

    What prompted the initiative to manage knowledge?

  3. 3

    Please describe the implementation of this initiative and who has the responsibility for putting the initiative in place?

  4. 4

    Who has authority over the management of knowledge?

  5. 5

    Please describe the organizational structures and processes that govern this initiative.

  6. 6

    What impact if any has the size and distributed nature of this company had on the effective implementation of the management of knowledge?

  7. 7

    Where benefits are leveraged through the investment in management of knowledge?

  8. 8

    What factors contribute to the success of the management of knowledge strategy?

  9. 9

    What obstacles if any have been encountered in the management of knowledge?

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Zyngier, S., Burstein, F. Knowledge management governance: the road to continuous benefits realization. J Inf Technol 27, 140–155 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1057/jit.2011.31

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