Knowledge management and measurement in Public Sector Organizations

Abstract

Knowledge Management (KM) is a strategic component that enables development, growth and continuous improvement of Public Sector Organizations (PSO). This thesis is bounded to this specific context. Indeed, we critically and comprehensively study the factors that characterize KM strategies and those that foster its development and success in PSO, then finally we propose metrics to measure and evaluate, in order to continuous and systematically improve KM practices in PSO. Main problems are related to the lack of academic literature that explains the elements that KM address in the given context. In addition, it is identified as a problem the lack of criteria for measuring and evaluating KM in PSO, from a different viewpoint than business perspective. The contribution of this thesis is that it provides valuable elements for an academic debate on the previous factors, strategies and metrics to promote KM initiatives in PSO. To achieve the research objective of this thesis we performed a comprehensive systematic literature review in order to discover what the KM critical success factors are, and also we integrated and proposed some metrics to evaluate and assess the performance of KM in PSO. We conducted an in-depth study among different Public Sector Organizations in order to learn what are the critical success factors that must be first considered before implement KM initiatives. based on this. Finally, based on this methodological proposal and as a result of this research, we were able to analyze and explain the critical success factors, we identified some strategies to encourage the success of KM and integrated a proposal of metrics, from different approaches, for KM in PSO.