Assessment of the knowledge management systems in public administrations of Southern Italy
Authors: Pietrantonio Rinaldo 
Published: September 2007

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to present a developing scheme to assess the efficiency of the knowledge‐management systems (KMS) and provide a quantitative‐based estimate of its performances.

Design/methodology/approach

Defined in previous researches the theoretical scheme presented here to assess the efficiency of the KMS is based on a combination of a structured set of indicators of the intellectual capital (IC) and the balanced scorecard (BSC). To test such a scheme a small sample of relatively homogeneous subjects was used in order to obtain a reliable estimate generated by applying the scheme. The test was mainly conducted by questionnaires used to collect the data elaborated to obtain the discussed estimates; on the other hand, a number of interviews were conducted with the officers in charge of the information systems units of each organization involved in the test in order to verify the appropriateness of the indicators selected in each case to address the IC and outline a qualitative reference point to compare with the estimates generated by the assessment scheme.

Findings

The estimates generated by the test proved that a low‐level efficiency characterizes the KMS operating at the public administrations of Southern Italy (i.e. the subjects constitute three high‐level representatives). No significant positive effects were found to be generated by such systems to the IC of the subjects, which should have led them to attain good performances.

Research limitations/implications

The test reported here was conducted on a very limited sample of subjects characterized by specific features, which do not apply to a large number of other organizations (e.g. private firms), so that the validity of the outcomes is to be considered relatively limited and further tests are needed to be conducted on different subjects in order both to verify the validity of the basics of the scheme, and to distinguish indicators and parameters that could be considered general and valid for a large class of subjects and those that have to be considered specific for small classes of subjects.

Practical implications

The main implication of the paper is probably related to the need for leading further researches on the measurement of the performances of the KMS not only towards more strictly connected sets of indicators and parameters, addressing the efficiency of the activities directly supported by such systems, but also towards the impact of such support on the achievement of the objectives and aims of any organizational unit which is directly or indirectly connected through the different functions of a KMS.

Originality/value

The value of this paper stems from the innovative way it proposes to match an analysis scheme related to the structure of the IC of one organization with a performance‐oriented assessment scheme which is the BSC. This allows one to produce a reliable quantitative‐based estimate of the very difficult and widely debated performances of the KMS, and further it provides a useful insight regarding the status quo of the level of development and use of knowledge‐management throughout the Italian Public Administration.