According to Marshal et al. (1996) in their study entitled “Financial  Risk and the Need for Superior Knowledge Management”  stated that knowledge management, to be truly effective, must be accomplished by organizational change. They further indicated that:

• The firm needs to understand what knowledge it has and seek out the knowledge it needs
• Organizational knowledge should be transferred to those who need it in their daily work.
• Organizational knowledge should be accessible to those who may need it as events warrant
• New knowledge should be rapidly generated and made accessible throughout the organization
• Controls are developed to embed the most reliable and robust knowledge
• Organizational knowledge is tested and validated periodically and
• The firm should facilitate knowledge management through its culture and incentives. Examples of incentives include awards (non-monetary) and recognitions, bonuses and other monetary rewards, personnel evaluations and promotions, special focus meetings, and general communication approaches.

O’Dell and Wiig in their book entitled “Knowledge Management Study” (1997) cited six major knowledge management strategies:

1. Use knowledge management as a business strategy. This would be the most comprehensive and enterprise-wide strategy, where knowledge is a product to be sold.
2. Provide a mechanism for transfer of knowledge and best practices. In this strategy, systemic approaches to knowledge reuse and transfer are used whereby knowledge is obtained, organized, repackaged, and distributed. There is a need to reward suppliers and users.
3. Customer-focused knowledge, whereby customer knowledge is captured, developed and transferred. This involves understanding the customer’s needs, preferences, and business, and bringing knowledge of the organization to bear on customer problems.
4. Personal responsibility for knowledge – In this approach one identifies, maintains and expands one’s own knowledge and also understands, renews, and shares knowledge assets with others.
5. Intellectual asset management – This involves managing structural knowledge assets and best practices sand renewing, organizing, evaluating and protecting market assets.
6. Innovation and knowledge creation – This involves basic and applied research and development, and experimentation.

Davenport and Prusak in their book entitled “Working Knowledge” (1998) talked about leveraging existing management approaches.

 
In a research funded by the U.K. Library and Information Commission in 1999, it has found several emerging trends in knowledge management. These are:

1. Most organizations talk about the need identify the achievable knowledge management activities that will have an impact on the business and to concentrate on those.
2. Knowledge management is no longer confined to very large commercial corporations. Both public and private organizations are now considering ways of benefiting some of the knowledge management concepts.
3. There is no blueprint for knowledge management. Knowledge management is a home-grown activity which has to reflect the organization, its unique place in the market, and its culture.
4. The importance of commitment from the very top of the organization is essential for knowledge management to have a fighting chance.
5. The role of the Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) is becoming more clearly defined as a leadership role, generally time limited, to provide the necessary focus and drive to steer a change management through crucial stages
6. Knowledge management labeled roles are more likely to emerge as a realignment of an existing role, become an additional role for an existing post, or if identified as a new role, to be filled by existing staff.

With the foregoing trends, new roles were coined such as knowledge analysts, knowledge architects, knowledge managers, knowledge brokers, knowledge auditors, knowledge navigators, knowledge guardians, and the like.

ONLINX Research Inc. defined knowledge audit as

• a review of the firm’s knowledge assets and associated knowledge management systems (including the human capital, structural capital, and customer capital)
• a systematic and dispassionate review of the adequacy and integrity of important organizational assets and systems

The knowledge audit approach of ONLINX are the following:

1. Assess the strategic position of the firm (identify and clarify the true sources of the competitive advantages for the firm – namely, core competency areas and associated strategic advantages)
2. Construct and assess the value network for each important business and associated critical success factors (also citing critical knowledge functions)
3. Map associated competencies and skills and assess by interviews, surveys and other forms of research and data gathering (e.g., competitive benchmarks).

Moreover, ONLINX identified the following values of a knowledge audit:

• To demonstrate exactly where value is being created through human and structural capital
• To highlight where leverage can best be applied through improved knowledge sharing and organizational learning
• To help prioritize projects for improving knowledge management practice
• To demonstrate firm capabilities to shareholders and other stakeholders
• To act as a key component to strategic planning for any knowledge-based enterprise
• To act as a key adjunct to due diligence and business planning in mergers, acquisitions, strategic alliances, venture capital and new company formation.

The knowledge audit team needs to determine the objective of the audit. Typical questions and issues include the following:

• Are you looking for knowledge-based opportunities in the market?
• Is your focus knowledge flows, stores and sinks in the organization?
• Is the audit to check compliance in the standard operating procedures?
• Are you searching for ways to leverage internal processes using knowledge?
• Will you focus on knowledge objects or are you interested in cultural barriers?
• Is the audit strictly for gathering baseline data (descriptive) or is there a prescriptive element?
• Is the audit part of a larger business process reengineering project?
• Does the mandate include all stakeholders, suppliers, customers, stockholders,etc?
• Where does the learning take place that generates the knowledge?
• How fast is the learning?
• What are the key leverage points in the learning process?

In a Delphi Group’s survey, it has identified the following reasons why companies are implementing knowledge management solutions: