Knowledge productivity: designing and testing a method to diagnose knowledge productivity and plan for enhancement

Our economy has changed from an industrial into a knowledge economy in which knowledge productivity has become the main challenge. The lack of appropriate techniques to reveal knowledge productivity hinders organizations to design effective policies aiming at improving knowledge-based performance. The objective of this research is to develop and test a method that helps organizations to diagnose knowledge productivity and plan for enhancement. As the aim is to develop and test a method, this research follows a design approach.

After exploring the concept of knowledge productivity from the perspectives of knowledge management (KM) and intellectual capital measurement, a management method (KP-enhancer) was designed and subsequently tested in seven case studies (medium-sized knowledge-intensive organizations).

Within this research, the KP-enhancer has proven to be an effective method to plan knowledge management initiatives. The method helps organizations to create awareness about the importance of knowledge productivity, it helps to assess the quality of the process of knowledge creation, and it produces a plan for KM(KP-statement). The method can be used either to translate organizational strategy into KM initiatives or to connect existing KM initiatives to strategic objectives.