Knowledge Audit Approach for a Large-Scale Government KM Strategy

The promise of increased organizational performance has brought about a high level of interest for knowledge management (KM). Organizations and Governments are also actively launching KM projects to meet increasing needs of high quality and responsiveness. This interest has contributed to the development of various aspects of KM, but has also underscored a lack of effective methods, as evidenced by the sheer number of proposed approaches, along with a lingering scepticism about their relevance in practice. In this article, we argue for the necessity for a more global and high level analysis for orienting KM strategic planning and propose different steps to go about it. We used an action research approach in the context of Quebec's efforts in planning a global and integrated KM strategy for managing its water related knowledge. This research project shows that the proposed auditing approach provided a useful guide to identify critical issues and projects in KM planning, particularly in a complex and large-scale governmental environment.