Individual knowledge measurement: organizational knowledge measured at the individual level
Journal of Knowledge Management
ISSN: 1367-3270
Article publication date: 11 October 2021
Issue publication date: 28 June 2022
Abstract
Purpose
Fundamental classifications of knowledge may be measurable as factors of production and can reveal evidence of specialization between adjacent stages of production even in the presence of shared substantive knowledge. This study of aims to distinguish between, and empirically measure, relative reliance on fundamental classifications of knowledge at the individual level.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, investment managers were asked in an online survey to weigh their relative reliance on tacit, codified and encapsulated knowledge in executing different investment strategies for diverse client groups. Measures of relative reliance on each fundamental classification of knowledge were derived from weights assigned by each survey respondent in a series of six questions.
Findings
Survey respondents provided reliable measures of their relative reliance on tacit, codified and encapsulated knowledge. Reliance on these fundamental classifications of knowledge is shown to differ between investment managers, depending on the investment strategies being used and client groups served. These differences were exhibited notwithstanding all the respondents sharing common substantive knowledge.
Research limitations/implications
Measures of relative reliance on three classifications of knowledge were based on self-reported ratings rather than on objectively observed phenomena, making them subject to measurement error. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to observe relative reliance on tacit, codified and encapsulated knowledge in future studies.
Originality/value
The divergences in relative reliance on the fundamentally different knowledge-based factors of production were found in the presence of jointly held substantive knowledge, suggesting that fundamental classifications of knowledge are measurable and can provide evidence of specialization.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful for the thoughtful comments provided by two anonymous reviewers on earlier versions of this paper. Thanks also to those Chartered Investment Managers who gave of their time to participate in our survey.
Citation
van den Berg, H.A. and Kaur, V. (2022), "Individual knowledge measurement: organizational knowledge measured at the individual level", Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 26 No. 6, pp. 1409-1437. https://doi.org/10.1108/JKM-10-2020-0774
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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