Knowledge Audit
What is a Knowledge Audit?
What is an Audit?
“The most general definition of an audit is an evaluation of a person, organization, system, process, project or product. Audits are performed to ascertain the validity and reliability of information, and also provide an assessment of a system’s internal control. The goal of an audit is to express an opinion on the person/organization/system etc. under evaluation based on work done on a test basis. Due to practical constraints, an audit seeks to provide only reasonable assurance that the statements are free from material error. Hence, statistical sampling is often adopted in audits. In the case of financial audits, a set of financial statements are said to be true and fair when they are free of material misstatements – a concept influenced by both quantitative and qualitative factors.” –However a knowledge audit works a little differently, its more of a qualitative evaluation. Its essentially an investigation of an organizations knowledge “health”.
How to Implement a Knowledge Audit?
In today’s knowledge economy it is obvious that knowledge can provide numerous sources of competitive advantage including an ability to learn or an ability to learn faster, increased creativity, increased profits and potential for growth, enhanced reputation and so on. These benefits imply that the knowledge audit process cannot be a simple process or a quick fix solution. On the contrary, it is a complex and multidimensional fact-finding and analytical process, which aims to record all the quantitative, and qualitative variables related to knowledge and to the ability to use it effectively to create business value (knowledge management). A qualitative variable is typically a variable that cannot be ranked in order. Examples include the sex of employees (male or female), the unit someone works in, etc. In surveys during data analysis we use these variables to group the answers and compare variable values to make meaningful
What is an Audit?
“The most general definition of an audit is an evaluation of a person, organization, system, process, project or product. Audits are performed to ascertain the validity and reliability of information, and also provide an assessment of a system’s internal control. The goal of an audit is to express an opinion on the person/organization/system etc. under evaluation based on work done on a test basis. Due to practical constraints, an audit seeks to provide only reasonable assurance that the statements are free from material error. Hence, statistical sampling is often adopted in audits. In the case of financial audits, a set of financial statements are said to be true and fair when they are free of material misstatements – a concept influenced by both quantitative and qualitative factors.” –However a knowledge audit works a little differently, its more of a qualitative evaluation. Its essentially an investigation of an organizations knowledge “health”.
How to Implement a Knowledge Audit?
In today’s knowledge economy it is obvious that knowledge can provide numerous sources of competitive advantage including an ability to learn or an ability to learn faster, increased creativity, increased profits and potential for growth, enhanced reputation and so on. These benefits imply that the knowledge audit process cannot be a simple process or a quick fix solution. On the contrary, it is a complex and multidimensional fact-finding and analytical process, which aims to record all the quantitative, and qualitative variables related to knowledge and to the ability to use it effectively to create business value (knowledge management). A qualitative variable is typically a variable that cannot be ranked in order. Examples include the sex of employees (male or female), the unit someone works in, etc. In surveys during data analysis we use these variables to group the answers and compare variable values to make meaningful