Knowledge management audit is a systematic examination and evaluation of organizational knowledge health, which examines organization’s knowledge needs, existing knowledge assets/resources, knowledge flows, future knowledge needs, knowledge gap analysis as well as the behavior of people in sharing and creating knowledge. In one way, a knowledge audit can reveal an organization’s knowledge strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats and risks. A knowledge management audit should also include an examination of organization’s strategy, leadership, collaborative, learning culture, technology infrastructure in its various knowledge processes.

In order to transform an organization into a learning organization and ensure an effective knowledge management strategy, a knowledge management audit should be conducted, which will provide a current state of knowledge capability of the organization and a direction of where and how to improve that capability in order to be competitive in this fast changing knowledge era.

I. Objectives of Knowledge Management Audit (InKM-KMA)

1. It gives tangible evidence of the extent to which knowledge is being effectively managed and indicates where improvements are needed.
2. It explains how knowledge moves around in, and is used by, that organization.
3. It provides a map of what knowledge exists in the organization and where it exists, revealing both gaps and duplication.
4. It provides an inventory of knowledge assets, allowing them to become more visible and therefore more measurable and accountable.
5. It provides vital information for the development of effective knowledge management programmes and initiatives that are directly relevant to the organization’s specific knowledge needs and current situation.
6. It helps in leveraging customer knowledge.

II. Components of a InKM-KMA

A Knowledge audit can have the following components (not necessarily need to be in order):

A. Knowledge need analysis:

The major goal of this task is to identify precisely what knowledge the organization, its people and team possess currently and what knowledge they would require in the future in order to meet their objectives and goals.

Knowledge need analysis can help any organization to develop its future strategy.

The Knowledge need analysis can also measure the staff skills and competency enhancement-needs and opportunities for training and development, corporate knowledge culture-practices such as knowledge sharing attitude, collaboration, team spirit, rewards and recognizations & staff relationship with their superiors, peers and subordinates.

B. Knowledge inventory analysis:

Knowledge inventory is a knowledge stock taking to identify and locate knowledge assets and resources throughout the entire organization. This process involves counting, indexing, and categorizing of corporate tacit and explicit knowledge.

Knowledge inventory analysis comprises of 2 entities: Physical (Explicit) Knowledge inventory and Corporate Experts (sources of tacit knowledge) inventory.

1. Physical (Explicit) Knowledge inventory of an organization:

a. Numbers, types and categories of documents, databases, libraries, intranet websites, links and subscriptions to external resources

b. Knowledge locations in the organization, and in its various systems

c. The organization and access of the knowledge (how knowledge resources are organized and how easy is it for people to find and access them)

d. Purpose, relevance and quality of knowledge (why do these resources exist, and how relevant and appropriate they are for that purpose, are they of good quality - up to date, reliable, evidence based, making sense, relevance to the organization)

e. Usage of the knowledge (are they actually being used by whom, when, what for and how often)

2. Corporate Experts (sources of tacit knowledge) inventory:

a.Staff directory and their academic and professional qualifications, skill & core competency levels and experience

b. Training and learning opportunities

c. Future potentials-leadership potential

The Knowledge inventory analysis may involve a series of surveys and interviews in order to get relevant answers to the above questions on both tacit and explicit knowledge that an organization may hold and have.

By making comparison between knowledge inventory and the earlier analysis of knowledge needs, an organization will be able to identify gaps in their organization’s knowledge as well as areas of unnecessary duplication.

C. Knowledge Flow analysis

Knowledge flow analysis look at knowledge resources move around the organization, from where it is to where it is needed. In other words, it is to determine how people in an organization find the knowledge they need, and how do they share the knowledge they have. The knowledge flow analysis looks at people, processes and systems:

1. Analysis of people: examine their attitude towards, habits and behaviors concerning, and skills in knowledge sharing, use and dissemination.

2. Analysis of process: examine how people go about their daily work activities and how knowledge seeking, sharing, use and dissemination form parts of those activities, existence of policies and practices concerning flow, sharing and usage of information and knowledge, for example, are there any existing policies such as on information handling, management of records, web publishing etc? Or are there other policies that exist that may directly or indirectly affect or relate to knowledge management, which may act as enablers or barriers to a good knowledge practice?

3. Analysis of system: examine technical infrastructure: for example, information technology systems, portals, content management, accessibility and ease of use, and current level of usage. To what extend those existing systems facilitate knowledge sharing and flow, and help to connect people within the organization.

An analysis of knowledge flows will allow an organization to further identify gaps in their organization’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 an organization needs to focus attention in their knowledge management initiatives in order to get knowledge moving from where it is to where it is needed.

D. Knowledge mapping

The knowledge map is a navigation aid to explicit (codified) information and tacit knowledge, showing the importance and the relationships between knowledge stores and dynamics. The knowledge map, an outcome of synthesis, portrays the sources, flows, constraints and sinks (losses or stopping points) of knowledge within an organization.There are two main approaches to knowledge mapping:

1. Mapping knowledge assets and resources- the map shows what knowledge exists in the organization and where it can be found (holders of the knowledge-knowledge creator, collector, connector, users and knowledge critics, data repositories)

2. Mapping knowledge flows- the map shows how knowledge moves around the organization from where it is to where it is needed.

III. Deliverables of a knowledge audit

Common approaches and tools that can be applied to conduct a knowledge management audit are: Site observation, questionnaire-based surveys, face to face Interviews, focus group discussion, forums. A knowledge audit could be divided into four parts: background study, data collection, data analysis and data evaluation. So the deliverables of a knowledge audit could be:

- A list of knowledge items (Knowledge needs & current Knowledge assets) in the form of spreadsheets

- A knowledge network map which shows the flow of knowledge items

- A social network map that reveals the interaction among staff on knowledge sharing

These deliverables will help an organization in identifying the gap between “what is” at present and “what should be” in the future from a KM perspective

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