Monitoring and Evaluating Knowledge Management Strategies

How to measure and evaluate the impact of knowledge management strategies is the core question of this paper. We have developed a framework, called the Ripple model to discuss the impact assessment of knowledge management strategies. The monitoring aspect involves tracking progress over time throughout the whole knowledge management process, while the evaluation aims to assess progress at a fixed point in time. While the model provides us with a way of talking about impact and knowing where to search for impact, it does not solve the main challenges associated with assessing the impact of knowledge management strategies within the development sector. These main challenges include: the lag time between cause and effect; demonstrating causality and attribution; quantifying the unquantifiable; power relations and ownership; reflection, critical thinking and documenting experiences; finding the right balance between the cost and the results of the assessment; working across multicultural settings and in a multicultural context; and proving results versus risk-taking and innovation. One way of dealing with these challenges is to engage in a participatory design process of the appropriate and necessary way of monitoring and evaluating, making use of measurements and narratives like storytelling, using triangulation, and agreeing on what level you can realistically measure. By comparing scores before and after the knowledge management strategy, professionals can indicate whether new knowledge has been created or existing knowledge processes have been improved. What methods are appropriate for assessing the impact of knowledge management strategies? Before you start measuring the impact, you will need to do some research into the epistemology of the organization regarding its knowledge, knowledge processes, and knowledge productivity. The assessment method chosen will further depend on the perspective on knowledge management. After providing some food for thought to those people who have to make decisions regarding the monitoring and evaluation design, the paper ends with a few issues for further research, namely: How are knowledge management strategies chosen and what are the predominant strategies? How do leaders in knowledge management strategies and interventions gain support for their strategies?'