On Measuring Individual Knowledge in Organizations

Abstract

How can knowledge held by individuals and groups be accurately measured when the a priori ``right'' answers are unknown? This article presents a promising new approach, based on anthropological consensus theory, to solving this common research problem. Using a unique data set, we compare the consensus approach with more traditional approaches (e.g., standardized testing). The results suggest that a consensus-based method may be a highly accurate way to estimate knowledge levels in a number of settings.