Determinants of knowledge management technology projects in Australian law firms

Abstract

Information technology support for knowledge management can be classified into four categories of knowledge management technology projects. The first category of projects is concerned with end user tools that are made available to knowledge workers, the second category is information about who knows what, the third category is information from knowledge workers, and the final category is information systems solving knowledge problems. This paper reports results from an empirical study of law firms in Australia. While current projects in most firms were concerned with end user tools, few firms had projects storing information about who knows what, some firms were storing what they know, and few firms were implementing systems solving knowledge problems. Discriminant analysis indicates that firm size in terms of number of lawyers and IT department size in terms of number of IT personnel are significant determinants of category of knowledge management technology projects in each firm.