Designing a Knowledge Management System for Social Services Not-For-Profit Organisations

This article discusses knowledge management system design for SSNFPOs. The transfer of best practice knowledge management to SSNFPOs is not easy. SSNFPOs have different strategies and ways of doing business compared to ‘for-profit' organisations. Sector reforms in disability services, aged care, and child services in Australia threaten to disrupt social value as new for-profit rivals enter and pursue economic value. In response, the case study organisation (CSO) has been working with the research team to consider how knowledge management might help it become a stronger organisation and ensure its survival and growth in the reformed sector. The research was informed by discussions involving the CSO's management and the research team over an 18 month period. A general framework for designing knowledge management for SSNFPOs was developed. It involves six theoretical platforms, along with problems associated with theory and practice, how knowledge management may address these problems, and measures of impact.