Designing an expert fuzzy system to select the appropriate knowledge management strategy in accordance with APO model and Bloodgood KM strategies. A case study

Published date14 May 2018
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/VJIKMS-08-2017-0051
Date14 May 2018
Pages277-293
AuthorPeyman Akhavan,Maryam Philsoophian
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management,Knowledge management,Knowledge management systems
Designing an expert fuzzy system
to select the appropriate
knowledge management strategy
in accordance with APO model
and Bloodgood KM strategies
A case study
Peyman Akhavan
Department of Management, Malek Ashtar University of Technology,
Tehran, Iran, and
Maryam Philsoophian
Malek Ashtar University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Purpose Selection of knowledgemanagement strategies (KMS) is one of the most important and effective
factors in acquiringthe competitive advantage and elevating the knowledge level of the organizations.Those
organizationsthat have taken steps toward knowledge managementnecessarily need to pay utmost attention
to the matter of KMS before taking any further steps in their activities.One of the effective ways in adopting
the proper KMS is evaluating the knowledgemanagement maturity level in the organization. The purpose of
this paper is to design an expert fuzzy system to adoptthe KMS based on Bloodgood model in accordance
with the maturitylevel of the organization.
Design/methodology/approach In this method, with the help of expert fuzzy system, a model has
been designed, by usingMATLAB software, to adopt the KMS. The KM maturitylevel, tacit knowledge and
explicit knowledge are chosen as inputs, and each one of Bloodgoods KMS (production, transfer and
protecting the knowledge) are chosen as outputs. To perform the system, the maturity level of knowledge
management of an industrial organization that has been evaluated by the standard Asian Productivity
Organization questionnaire is used as the input, which has been given to expert fuzzy system. Then,
consideringthe output of the system, KMS for the organizationhave been recommended.
Findings Knowledge managementmaturity level of the organization is on Level 4; consideringthe expert
fuzzy system that has been designed, knowledgeproductionstrategy is recommended for the organization
under study.
Originality/value An expert fuzzy system has been designed regarding the maturity of knowledge
management and Bloodgood modelthat can be used as a guide for organizations and academicpeople as an
appropriatepractical model for selecting knowledgemanagement strategies.
Keywords Knowledge management, Knowledge management strategy,
Knowledge management maturity
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
One of the most important assets of each organization is knowledge, which can bring about
stability and protability for the organization. Competitiveness of organizations in todays
Expert fuzzy
system
277
Received24 August 2017
Revised30 October 2017
Accepted8 January 2018
VINEJournal of Information and
KnowledgeManagement Systems
Vol.48 No. 2, 2018
pp. 277-293
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2059-5891
DOI 10.1108/VJIKMS-08-2017-0051
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2059-5891.htm
world entails proper utilization of knowledge; many organizations have stepped toward
trying to better take advantage of knowledge. Knowledge management is the area that
organizes these endeavors as well as materializing them, and its presence as one of the
methods to achieve favorable performance and being competitive is essential. Organizing
knowledge management activities and having a plan for successful performance of the
activities regarding knowledgemanagement are of utmost importance; commensurately, in
order for the organizations to compete and succeed in ups and downs, there is the need for
making use of adaptable and smart strategies which cover the processes of knowledge
management (Philsoophian et al.,2016). Knowledge management strategies (KMS) specify
the knowhow for the organization on how to use their knowledge resources as well as their
capabilities (Choi and Lee, 2003,Mehralianet al.,2012);proportionally, recognizing the KMS
is of great necessity for the organizationsto differentiate. One of the most effective factors in
choosing correct and systemic strategy for knowledge management is recognizing the
maturity on a surface level (Akhavanet al.,2017). Thus, by recognizing the maturity level of
knowledge management in an organization, one can codify different KMS and distinguisha
better conformity among them for the organization. Limited and disorganized studies have
been done regarding adopting the strategy for the organization form KM perspective.
Despite all that has been done regarding KMS, few studies have explored maturity level
through an expert fuzzy system.
Fuzzy logic has been recognized as one of the computational tools which is used for
modeling decision support systems(Samuel and Omisore,2013a; 2013b). Therefore, a fuzzy
logic derived from decisionsupport system to choose the KMS based on the maturitylevel of
the organization is designed. In this system of fuzzy inference, levels of maturity of
knowledge management, tacitknowledge and explicit knowledge are inputs, and the output
is Bloodgood KMS type. Also, after recognizing the maturity level of knowledge
management in the organization under study and inserting it into the expert fuzzy system,
KMS that suits the organization has been recommended. To evaluate the maturity level of
the organization under study, AsianProductivity Organization (APO) framework has been
used for implementation. This is a prescriptive framework that introduces the different
steps for implementation of knowledgemanagement. This framework has been designed for
Asian countries and is more adaptableto these countries considering the culture and can be
implemented in many organizations. The framework that has been used to evaluate the
maturity level has offered the standard questionnaire as the means of evaluation. Also, by
referring to Bloodgood in this study, its practicality in comparison with the other models,
and considering the expertspointof view, this model was adopted as the basis.
This research undertakesto provide replies for the following question:
Q1. How to determine and select knowledgemanagement strategies in an organization?
Literature review
In this research, we explained the relevant literature about both KM strategy and KM
maturity model regardingthe research question.
Knowledge management
Nowadays companies needto manage knowledge because they want to develop plans in the
organization to achievecompetitive advantage (Canzano and Grimaldi, 2012).
As a matter of fact, knowledge management focuses on systematic analysis,
programming, accumulation, creation, development, storage and utilization of the
knowledge of the organization,and tries to change human resources into a structural capital
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