TITLE:
Knowledge Management: Human Intellectual Capital (HIC) Measurement by Item Response Theory (IRT)
AUTHORS:
Álvaro António Pinheiro Barroqueiro, Célia Maria da Silva Fernandes, Sílvio Manuel da Rocha Brito
KEYWORDS:
Knowledge Measurement, Management, Organization Performance, Human Intellectual-Capital (IC), Item Response Theory (IRT)
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.12 No.4,
April
25,
2024
ABSTRACT: Man is always in search of knowledge; the discoveries of fire, animals’ domestication and agricultural procedures, astronomy or navigation, all allowed at their time important leaps in Humanity’ evolution. Today, Knowledge is fully present in our daily lives, as in the way we work, socialize or spend our free time. In economy, it is undeniable that it is the true worth of today’s organizations, which compete in each day more globalized market. Every day we witness companies that emerge to satisfy needs that we didn’t feel until recently, where the incorporation of knowledge is condition for competitiveness and wealth generation. And due to the conditions that this new knowledge economy has been imposing on market, also the professional’s profile is evolving. Now, it is the workers themselves who carry their means of production, their own intellectual capacities. On the other hand, this change brings new and deep challenges also to higher education institutions (HEI), committed on training those who will be the pillars of technological innovation and economic development, the knowledge workers. In this context, Human Intellectual Capital (HIC) is defined as the tools for knowledge put into practice for wealth generation. But are companies aware of their intellectual assets? Can it be measured and managed? Since the middle of the 20th century, companies have begun to understand the value of knowledge for their economic sustainability, and different methodologies have been tested for their evaluation, however complex and of difficult implementation, and none applied to HIC. The aim of this work is to build an HIC measurement tool based on Item Response Theory (IRT), whose results are consistent with the theoretical framework, demonstrating this way to be a reliable tool for the management of Knowledge processes, as well as a contribute to better understand the components of intellectual capital (IC) and its impact on the organization performance.