Preface for the Third Edition - Read

13. Organization 517
one or multiple subjects, to review contributions to that subject or to answer questions
within a given time (e.g., 24 hours).
However, one organization also experimented with objective criteria like the
number of articles published in the corporate Intranet. Within a year they abandoned
this practice as it only led to a flood of articles of questionable quality, but
neglected other important KM goals like the reuse of existing knowledge. Thus, it
seems very important to design the reward system around the KM goals and to
ensure that the system is understood by the participants.
The immaterial rewards for cooperative behavior ranged in the middle of the
scale. So far, it seems that in many organizations to be a helpful and cooperative
organizational member was not strongly credited, neither in terms of recognition,
nor in terms of financial profit or advancements in the career.
cooperative behaviour strongly rewarded
knowledge sharing supports careers
knowledge sharing strongly
rewarded financially
FIGURE C-14. Factor 3: rewards for knowledge sharing 69
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
2.23
2.94
4.05
Overall mean: 4.14
Organizations questioned in the ILOI study reported quite similar results. 17%
of the organizations had a reward system for holders of key knowledge and only
11% had measures in place to give material incentives to employees according to
the knowledge transferred or shared (ILOI 1997, 16). Similarly, in the 1998 KPMG
study, a total of 23% of the organizations with KM initiatives gave incentives and/
or rewards for knowledge-related activities and 14% were planning to establish a
system (KPMG 1998, 13). 36% of the very innovative organizations studied by the
APQC, rewarded employee behavior supporting effective KM. Especially those
organizations that focused the individual employee’s responsibility for knowledge
development and sharing, monitored KM related activities as part of their professional
and career development programs (APQC 1996, 50).
Factor 4: knowledge sharing outside the workspace. The fourth factor shows to
what extent organizational members meet outside their work environment and normal
work hours to exchange ideas. Some organizations invested considerably to
create opportunities for their employees to spend their leisure time together, e.g., at
company events, company-specific sports clubs or sports facilities, or even holi-
69. Diamonds represent the means of the item. The ranges indicate the interval [-;
+] using the standard deviation .