The manner in which a business strategy was formulated ten or even as little as five years ago, no longer applies. This phenomenon can to a great extent be attributed to a shift in the strategic importance of information and knowledge. The aim of this paper is to supply strategic thinkers with a holistic “bird’s eye view” of the interdependency between strategic management and strategic knowledge management. By analyzing the different perspectives with regard to strategy formulation from a business point of view, as well as a knowledge management perspective, a generic model incorporating knowledge management strategy formulation within business strategy formulation has been developed.

In a recent article Kruger and Snyman hypothesized that progressions in knowledge management maturity (from a strategic perspective) are directly related to an increased ability to speed up the strategic cycle of imitation, consolidation and innovation. The arguments proposed, however, neglected to supply the reader with a practical toolkit or even a roadmap (a time-related matrix, or questionnaire) to successfully measure succession in knowledge management maturity. This article builds on the previous one and proposes a
questionnaire consisting of six sections, containing 101 descriptive questions, to enable organizations to test and assess their knowledge management maturity empirically. The development of an instrument to measure knowledge management maturity required
adhering to a research design that combined theoretical propositions with practical experimentation. As a point of departure, a knowledge management maturity matrix consisting of seven maturity levels was formulated. All questions contained within the matrix
were benchmarked against a survey questionnaire developed by the public management service of the OECD (PUMA) and were also pre-tested and validated. This process of refinement led to the formulation of the Knowledge Management Maturity Questionnaire. To
avoid any taint of this research being based only on theoretical propositions, the questionnaire was tested by 178 master students of the University of Pretoria, South Africa, in nine different industries. The proposed questionnaire provides a bridge between theoretical propositions and practical usability, not only enabling knowledge management practitioners to assess the level of knowledge management maturity reached successfully but, more importantly, also serving as a guideline to institutionalize further and future knowledge management endeavours

Purpose -The institutionalization of knowledge management (KM) principles, policies and strategies could be summarized as being diverse, problematic and located across the spectrum of views. Studies suggest that very little is reported on how these principles are institutionalized in organizations. This paper seeks to examine the role these principles play in the establishment of KM and report on an empirical study conducted in 86 South African-based organizations.Design/methodology/approach -From a large urban South African University engaged in numerous collaboration programs with industry, the authors gained insight into KM maturity in industry groupings over a five-year period. The authors applied an inventory developed by Kruger and Snyman to a set of 86 organizations distributed over nine economic sectors in South Africa. In total 434 employees were interviewed over three managerial levels (operational, middle, and senior). This was achieved by having 178 senior practitioners to each interview three subjects (one in each group level).Findings -Findings indicate that there is a definite trend towards the establishment of KM principles and the successful implementation of KM across South African industries. Industries achieving higher than average scores in the establishment of KM principles also achieved higher than average scores in the implementation of KM. Findings strongly support the argument that elements such as the formulation of strategy, measurement, policy, content, process, technology and culture enable or influence KM ability to manage knowledge. Originality/value -The paper is of relevance to KM practitioners interested in gaining insight into KM maturity that occurred in the extremely diversified environment of South Africa.

PurposeBeyond critique of current maturity models, the research literature has neglected to supply empirical evidence of the value knowledge management (KM) holds for organizations. The majority of studies, in common with other emergent business philosophies, are focused on large organizations of developed economies, where readily available implementation resources are an underlying assumption. This paper aims to address this issue and to assess the correlation between the successful institutionalization of KM and organizational performance (OP) in a developing economy.Design/methodology/approachFrom a large urban South African university engaged in numerous collaboration programs with industry, the authors gained insight into KM maturity and organizational performance (OP) of three industry groups, over a five‐year period. The authors apply an inventory developed by Kruger and Snyman to a set of nine organisations distributed over three economic sectors in South Africa.FindingsBy evaluating the relationship between KM maturity and OP from within three “time dependent” perspectives, insight was gained to answer the aim of the research undertaken, “Is there a correlation between KM maturity and OP in South Africa?” Diagrammatic presentation of OP scores and KM maturity growth revealed that in five out of the nine organizations there is a clearly identifiable relationship between KM maturity and OP in South Africa in both entities over the period under investigation. In certain instances, the correlations were not easily noticeable and/or were non‐existent. From a mathematical perspective, in comparing the correlation between growth in KM maturity and year‐on‐year growth in OP, it was revealed that six of the eight companies that recorded positive growth in KM maturity also recorded positive (year‐on‐year) growth in OP. In a similar manner, it was established that the company recording negative growth in KM maturity also recorded negative (year‐on‐year) growth in OP.Research limitations/implicationsBecause the South African scenario can be considered a benchmark for developing economies characterized by continued change, diversity and even elements of silent intolerance and conflict, this study may be viewed as a “pilot study” to provide a baseline and insight into future research of KM for enabling OP.Originality/valueThis paper is of relevance to strategic managers and KM practitioners interested in gaining insight into the correlation between KM maturity and organisational performance.

Purpose -Wilson argues that knowledge management (KM) maturity is an extension of information management and effective management of work practices. Gallagher and Hazlett state that there is too much effort addressing technological concerns in KM while offering little practical assistance. Kruger and Snyman believe KM is a strategic resource with ICT and information management as enablers in establishing KM maturity. These three positions of KM growth and maturity reflect the huge spectrum of and diverse views. But, very little is known about the KM growth or maturity that occurs in different industries, or how employees and managers perceive growth in KM maturity. This paper aims to address these issues. Design/methodology/approach -From a large urban South African University engaged in numerous collaboration programmes with industry, the authors gain insight into the growth of KM in industry groupings over a five-year period. The authors apply an inventory developed by Kruger and Snyman to a set of 86 organisations distributed over nine economic sectors in South Africa. In total 434 employees are interviewed over three group levels (operational, middle and senior management). This is achieved by interviewing 178 senior practitioners in three subjects (one in each group level). Findings -Analysis of the growth in KM maturity, as it relates to different organisational sizes, reveals that there are statistical differences between the score reported by small, medium, large and extra-large organisations and between the scores reported by senior, middle and operational personnel. Findings also indicate that growth in KM differs between industry groupings, with high growth in construction, building materials and mining (^70 per cent), and low growth in educational institutions (^40 per cent). Originality/value -This paper is of relevance to KM practitioners interested in gaining insight into KM maturity growth that occurred in different organisational groupings and at different operational levels across an extremely diversified environment.