Auditing and Mapping the Knowledge Assets of Business Processes – An Empirical Study

Abstract

A systematic, contextual and action-oriented methodology was developed and has been adopted in a large business unit in a public utility company in Hong Kong to map out the company's explicit and tacit knowledge assets based on input from both structured questionnaires and interactive workshops conducted in an open and participative manner. Outputs from the knowledge audit include a critical knowledge inventory list, an assessment of the level of diffusion and codification of the knowledge sources, and a knowledge map for each of the business processes. The inquiry process makes the data collection transparent and also facilitates knowledge sharing, interaction, mutual understanding and consensus among workshop participants.