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The Role of Organizational Culture 243

Table 7.7
Forrester Group KM maturity model

KM maturity model phase Description Typical KM initiatives
1. Assisted • Culture adapts strategically • KSO
• Operation model changes • Yellow Pages
dynamically based on • Communities of Practice
environmental changes
• Professionals compete to work
for corporation
• Employees fi nd info with the
help of librarians
2. Self-service • Employees codify on their • Push technologies
own without help • Customized KM
• Employees fi nd info using
search engines
3. Organic • KM happens in the • Personalized KM
background — it is embedded in
business
• Info provided when needed
(JIT, JET)

Source: Shevlin et al. 1997

knowledge repositories, in order to fi nd content and link to experts by themselves. In
the fi nal phase, organic, KM has ceased to be an “ extra ” burden but has instead become
part and parcel of how the knowledge work gets done every day.
The Forrester KM maturity model is quite useful in determining the level of knowl-
edge support that will be needed for effective KM to be established within a given
organization. For example, an organization that is at the assisted phase stands to
benefi t greatly from an expertise location system and a knowledge support offi ce
(KSO), which is essentially a 24/7/365 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year)
help desk for knowledge content. Employees typically have a 1-800 telephone number
as well as an e-mail address through which they can contact the KSO in order to obtain
help in locating, accessing, and making use of valuable knowledge content.
The wide variety of KM maturity models makes choosing one a diffi cult decision.
An alternative approach, advocated by Liebowitz and Beckman (2008) would be to
develop a comprehensive KM maturity model, which they refer to as K3M. This inte-
grated approach is needed to provide a foundation for KM strategy development. The
authors describe K3M as the fi rst KM maturity model that is based on learning, com-
petencies, and business strategy.