Evaluation of knowledge synergy components

Abstract

There is no doubt that knowledge is a key asset of any organisation, enabling it to get a competitive advantage, implement innovation, deal with difficulties and improve its management processes. Requirements on employees´ knowledge have been rising in recent years, especially with regard to the new trends and currently the widely discussed fourth industrial revolution. In the emerging network economy and knowledge society, organisations must be ready for complex knowledge dissemination and management processes. Knowledge is collected, stored, assessed, and created by an organisation and shared by its members. In the course of knowledge dissemination, members of the organisation create synergy which generates unique knowledge. Managing organisational knowledge necessary for the creation of added value and the acquisition of a competitive advantage requires evaluating the knowledge synergy and its components. The paper aims at identifying knowledge synergy components and providing an evaluation method of employees’ knowledge synergy and its components to have a rational and objective evaluation of employees’ knowledge, relations among employees, and organisational knowledge synergy. To achieve this aim, knowledge synergy components are identified, evaluation issues are revealed, types of knowledge synergy relations are presented together with an evaluation formula for each of these relations, components of employees’ knowledge and factors reflecting knowledge content are specified, an evaluation formula for each component is provided, and an organisational knowledge synergy evaluation method is described. Due to its versatility, presented results are applicable in any industry or business area for measuring and improving intellectual capital as well as for benchmarking purposes. The research applies methods of analysis, synthesis, graph theory and combinatorics as well as a systematic approach.