The knowledge audit: Meta-Matrix analysis

Abstract

Knowledge management is a method for simplifying and improving the process of sharing, distributing, creating, and understanding organizational knowledge. By conducting a knowledge audit, an organization can assess its stores of knowledge and the flows of this knowledge throughout the organization. This paper introduces a new approach to modeling and evaluating the results of a knowledge audit – Meta-Matrix analysis. Meta-Matrix analysis is a fairly new mathematical approach developed to model the various network relations of an organizational system. Meta-Matrix analysis focuses on the (1) agents (employees), (2) knowledge categories, (3) resources, and (4) processes or tasks. The resulting model represents the various network relations of an organization by integrating multiple and related network matrices into a single interrelated unit. A graphical representation of the model can be employed to provide a means of visually understanding the relationships. In addition, Meta-Matrix analysis provides an extensive collection of performance measures.

Keywords:

• knowledge audit
• knowledge management
• knowledge stocks and flows
• networks

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ronald Dattero

About the authors

Ronald Dattero is Professor of Computer Information Systems at Missouri State University. He holds a Ph.D. from Purdue University. His research interests include knowledge management, IT professional and personnel issues, IT service management, and applied statistics. His work appears in such journals as Journal of Management Information Systems, Knowledge Management Research & Practice, Journal of Knowledge Management, Knowledge and Process Management, Information and Management, Information Systems, Information Resources Management Journal, Decision Support Systems, Communications of the AIS, and Communications of the ACM.

Stuart D Galup

Stuart D. Galup is Associate Professor of Information Technology at Florida Atlantic University. He holds a D.B.A. from Nova Southeastern University and is a Certified Computing Professional. His professional work in the transformation of information technology organizations was featured in Computerworld and Datamation. His research appears in such academic journals as Communications of the AIS, Communications of the ACM, Information Resources Management Journal, Communications Research, ACM Computer Personnel, and Journal of Computer Information Systems. He is the co-author of ‘Building the New Enterprise: People, Processes, and Technology’ and ‘The IT Organization: Building a World-Class Infrastructure’ both published by Prentice-Hall.

Jing ‘Jim’ Quan

Jing ‘Jim’ Quan is Assistant Professor in the Department of Information and Decision Sciences in the Perdue School of Business at Salisbury University. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Florida and is an MCT/MCSE and CNI/CNE. His research interests include Information technology (IT) and organizations, IT human resource management, and e-commerce. His work appears in such journals as Journal of Management Information Systems, Communications of the ACM, Communications of the AIS, Information Resources Management Journal, International Journal of Information Management, Journal of Information Technology and Information Management, and Journal of Computer Information Systems.