Depiction of the Irish in children's literature 1840-1940, as represented by the Dorothy Neal White Collection, National Library of New Zealand

Abstract

This project examines the knowledge management initiatives and measures of success within one large company in New Zealand. The project outlines a number of knowledge management initiatives and the ways in which they are measured. It then explores the company's measurement systems in the context of the current literature relating to the measurement of knowledge management initiatives, looking at what they do well and what they could do better. Finally, the project briefly explores the theory of complex organisations in relation to knowledge management. The project consists of a qualitative case study of one large company within New Zealand, who were known to have implemented knowledge management initiatives. The company was selected on the basis of size, evidence of knowledge management and agreement to participate in the study. The project concluded that while the participating company did attempt to measure the success of their knowledge management initiatives, the measurements focussed on quantitative results and ignored the more difficult quantitative measures that would show the 'true' success of their initiatives. The reasons why these types of measurement are more difficult become clear when complexity theory is applied to organisations who deal with knowledge management.