Parameters of knowledge management success

We offer a perspective on knowledge management (KM) activities that can occur in most any organization, viewing them as parameters in a functional specification of organization effectiveness. Nine such activities are examined; they are mutually exclusive, relatively comprehensive, and segmented into those that focus on direct manipulation of knowledge resources (first order) and those that are managerial influences on the conduct of knowledge management (second order). We argue that any of the activities can be adjusted in the interest of achieving greater success from an organization’s KM efforts. Together, the nine parameters form a checklist for auditing how KM is being handled in an organization, for systematically formulating new KM initiatives, for studying how to improve an organization’s practice of KM, and for avoiding blind spots in a search for avenues to KM success.