Journal of Knowledge Management Practice, May 2005 Exploring Failure-Factors Of Implementing
Knowledge Management Systems In Organizations
Peyman Akhavan , Mostafa Jafari, Mohammad Fathian, Iran University of Science and Technology
Analysis Of Knowledge Management Failure Factors In Calibro
As it was explained in the previous section, first idea of implementing knowledge management system in Calibro Company was a conference that manager of Calibro had taken part in it and also studying a book about knowledge management. Even after the manager decided to implement a knowledge management in his company, he himself didn’t study more and hadn’t deep understanding about the subject. Theses subjects caused that he didn’t support the project in different times and especially at some milestones that the project needed direct support of management. So we can say that lack of commitment and support of management had a main role in failure of knowledge management project in Calibro. Also this subject that the management was not familiar with knowledge management dimensions was effective in failure.
The other factor of failure was selecting someone for leading the knowledge team that was not sophisticated enough to manage the knowledge project. Manager of Calibro made a mistake by this wrong selection because in spite the fact that the knowledge management leader showed tendency to manage the project, he/she didn’t have expertise about knowledge management and this made many problems during the implementing of the project. The selected leader couldn’t control and manage the project effectively and also couldn’t pass it safe through crises and solve the bottlenecks.
Unfortunately the employees who were selected as the knowledge management team members didn’t have competency for this duty. They were also unconscious and didn’t have sophistication and knowledge about the dimensions of knowledge management. It shouldn’t be forgotten that the variety and the number of employees who were involved directly in the project were not enough (only three persons). Also there were only one person who was selected from the company for the team, and he hadn’t high rank of authority in the company. So the selected team hadn’t good familiarity with the organization and its internal relations and occasionally the project implementation faced with crises. Also lack of someone that hadn’t higher rank of authorities in the company caused that knowledge management team hadn’t had enough strength for maneuvering in the organization.
Wrong planning and incorrect forecasting about the dimensions of the project were the other important failure factors of the project. Knowledge team leader didn’t consider that the project took so long and due to increasing the time of project, he/she missed control on it.
Considering the fact that implementing an important project such as knowledge management system needs money, it is necessary to assign separate and suitable budget for it. But in Calibro this wasn’t done and the project started and continued by current budget of Calibro laboratories. This faced the project with financial problems because an independent budget hadn’t assigned to it.
Lack of cooperation between organization employees and knowledge management team is the other factor of project failure. We should consider the main reasons of this in some topics such as lack of suitable infrastructure, lack of transparent support of management between employees, organizational culture and finally resistance against the change. When the employees understood that top management didn’t support the project directly and also didn’t know the project as a high priority, so they didn’t cooperate with the project and said sentences such as: ”… I have other important projects in my hand, the priority of this project is lower than current projects, I don’t have enough time to do this projects …”
Organizational culture also plays an important role in knowledge management projects in the organizations, but in Calibro, suitable culture was not prepared. The employees were also worry about the changes during knowledge management systems implementation and top management and the team leader didn’t have any program to conquer the resistance against the change. This factor was the other reason of knowledge management system failure in Calibro Company.
As the current systems of Calibro had not been studied completely, knowledge management team faced with many problems during the creation of knowledge storage bases and repositories especially when they understood nonconformities between new systems and current systems. For solving these problems, it was necessary to spend much more money and time, so this factor also played an important role in knowledge management failure.
The ten most important failure factors of knowledge management system implementation are summarized below:
1. Lack of familiarity of top management with dimensions of KM and its requirement
2. Selecting an unsophisticated and inexperienced person for leading KM team
3. Improper selection of knowledge team members
4. Wrong planning and improper forecasting for the project
5. Lack of separate budget for knowledge management project
6. Organizational culture
7. Lack of support and commitment of top management
8. Resistance against the change
9. Inability of KM team for distinguishing organizational relations
10. Nonconformities between current systems and new systems
These factors and the relations between them have been illustrated in Figure 1. As it has been depicted in the figure, lack of CEO support and commitment is located in the center of the figure that shows the violent importance of this factor clearly. Considering the lack of CEO support and commitment, some factors follow it. Improper team leader selection, lack of separate budget for knowledge management project, lack of familiarity mensions and also lack of cooperation between knowledge team and employees are the factors that run after lack of CEO support and commitment.
Of course when the CEO himself doesn’t support the project directly and doesn’t commit to it, he is not sensitive to selecting a meritorious person for leading the project. He also doesn’t feel that he himself should understand knowledge management deeply and because of lack of familiarity with the dimensions of the project, he will not support allocation a separate budget for it, so the project faces with financial problems during implementation. Also when the other employees understand that CEO himself doesn’t mind and support the project, so they don’t cooperate with knowledge team members and the project faces with some obstacles in progress . It is also depicted in the figure 1, knowledge team leader plays an important role and if he/she isn’t selected properly and doesn’t have sophistication, the project will face with some problems such as incorrect planning and forecasting. Also as the team leader doesn’t have enough knowledge and sophistication about the project , so he/she will mistake in selecting team members including problems about the number and also variety of specialists that are needed for putting the project forward. Lack of enough knowledge for team leader also makes some problems for adapting available system with new systems. It shouldn’t be forgotten that some organizational problems such as available culture and organizational relations, existing systems and also resistance against the change are the other main factors that play important role in failure of knowledge management efforts, specially the factor of resistance against the change is a subject that should be studied carefully by CEO and knowledge management team leader through organizational culture.
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Peyman Akhavan , Mostafa Jafari, Mohammad Fathian, Iran University of Science and Technology, “Exploring Failure-Factors Of Implementing Knowledge Management Systems In Organizations”, Journal of Knowledge Management Practice, May 2005.
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