The most powerful incentives in KM

Another interesting result from our 2014 Knowledge Management Survey was a comparison of the effectiveness and use of common KM incentives.

The bar chart above shows the result for 8 mechanisms for incentivising KM, namely

• Clear management directive for KM 
• KM embedded within normal job expectations 
• Centrally organised recognition scheme 
• Peer recognition scheme 
• KM added to personal objectives 
• KM added to "expected competences" 
• Gamification 
• Monetary or material award

People reported on the effectiveness of these incentives, by rating them

• Very powerful (green)
• Powerful (yellow)
• Useful (orange)
• Not useful (red)
• Too early to tell (light grey)
• Not used (dark grey)

Om the bar chart, and in the list above, the incentives are listed in order, with the most powerful being at the top, and the least powerful at the bottom.

 This is shown more clearly in the graph below, with the usage as a blue bar and the relative effectiveness shown as a red bar (this is a weighted average of the effectiveness ratings, with "very powerful" weighted as 3, "powerful" weighted as 2 and  "useful" weighted as 1).

We can make the following conclusions

1. The most powerful incentives are a clear management directive, and embedding KM into the normal job.
2. The least powerful are gamification and monetary reward.
3. The most underused incentive (3rd in effectiveness but 6th in usage) is a centrally organised recognition scheme.

If you would like more insights into the way KM works, you can order a copy of our survey results.