knowledge management importance essay

Knowledge management

Ivan Andreev

Demand Generation & Capture Strategist

ivan.andreev@valamis.com

February 22, 2022 · updated April 2, 2024

14 minute read

Taking advantage of all the expertise within an organization is a great way to maximize its potential. Companies have a well of untapped knowledge within their workforce that is lying dormant or siloed to individual staff or departments.

With the proper management structures in place, this knowledge can be found, stored, and made accessible to the wider workforce, offering tangible business benefits.

What is knowledge management?

Knowledge management in practice, types of knowledge, examples of knowledge management.

• Importance of knowledge management

Benefits of knowledge management

Knowledge management process, knowledge management methods, what are knowledge management systems.

Knowledge management is the conscious process of defining, structuring, retaining, and sharing the knowledge and experience of employees within an organization.

As organizations evolve, expand into new areas, and define their approach to business, they develop significant institutional knowledge . This information is invaluable to the company. Imparting it to new or less experienced staff is vital for maintaining successful operations.

The primary goal of knowledge management is facilitating the connection of staff looking for information, or institutional knowledge, with the people who have it.

With practical knowledge management in place, organizations can spread information and raise the level of expertise held by specific individuals or teams to improve the efficiency of their practices.

It often refers to training and learning in an organization or of its customers. It consists of a cycle of creating, sharing, structuring, and auditing knowledge to maximize the effectiveness of an organization’s collective expertise.

Knowledge management can be separated into three main areas:

• Accumulating knowledge
• Storing knowledge
• Sharing knowledge

By accumulating and storing the staff’s knowledge, companies hold onto what has made them successful in the past. In addition, sharing this information throughout the organization informs staff of past approaches that improve performance or better inform new strategies.

To achieve the goal of knowledge management, companies have to enable and promote a culture of learning and development, creating an environment where employees are encouraged to share information to better the collective workforce.

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When discussing knowledge management, it is helpful to consider the different types of knowledge and how it is possible to share them within an organization.

The information knowledge management covers can generally be broken down into three main types:

1. Explicit knowledge is knowledge and information that can be easily codified and taught, such as how to change the toner in a printer and mathematical equations.

2. Implicit knowledge is knowledge that explains how best to implement explicit knowledge. For example, consider discussing a task with an experienced co-worker. They may provide explicit steps detailing how to complete the job. But they may also use their understanding of the situation to consider different options and decide the best approach for your given circumstances. The experienced employee utilizes and shares their implicit knowledge to improve how the team operates.

3. Tacit knowledge is knowledge gained through experience. Therefore, it is more intuitive and less easy to share with others. Examples of tacit knowledge are “know-hows”, innovative thinking, and understanding body language.

While knowledge management for implicit and tacit knowledge can be harder to implement, with correct procedures in place, you can ensure all relevant information is shared around the company and retained as staff retire or move on.

Utilizing all the expertise in your company benefits the business as a whole, creating best practices for everyday tasks, improving situational awareness, developing employee intuition for course corrections, and enhancing organizational capacity.

Staff retiring

An employee’s knowledge and skillset grow as they spend time with an organization. As a result, staff typically retire with a wealth of expertise that the company needs to mine using efficient knowledge management processes in order to reduce disruption and prevent workforce knowledge gaps.

This means identifying and capturing the meaningful information that needs to be retained by the organization and determining the best approach for storing and distribution.

Employee transfer or promotion

When staff change positions within a company, they must develop additional skillsets and expertise to match their new role.

Efficient knowledge management procedures simplify delivering this information to create a seamless transition from one position to another.

Why is knowledge management important?

Knowledge management is important because it boosts the efficiency of an organization’s decision-making ability.

By making sure that all employees have access to the overall expertise held within the organization, a smarter workforce is built that is more able to make quick, informed decisions, benefiting the entire company.

Knowledge management allows innovation to grow within the organization, customers benefit from increased access to best practices, and employee turnover is reduced.

The importance of knowledge management is growing every year. As the marketplace becomes ever more competitive, one of the best ways to stay ahead of the curve is to build your organization in an intelligent, flexible manner. You must have the ability to spot issues from a distance and be able to respond quickly to new information and innovations.

Companies begin the knowledge management process for many different reasons.

• A merger or acquisition could spur the need for codifying knowledge and encouraging teams to share their expertise.
• The imminent retirement of key employees could demonstrate the need to capture their knowledge.
• An upcoming recruitment drive shows the wisdom in using knowledge management to assist in training new employees.

52% of respondents in Deloitte’s 2021 Global Human Capital Trends Survey stated workforce movement as the driving force behind proactively developing knowledge management strategies.

Whatever the reason is, implementing knowledge management processes offers tangible benefits that drive value. This is backed up by research , showing knowledge management positively influences dynamic capabilities and organizational performance.

A survey of over 286 people working in knowledge management across a range of industries, locations, and company sizes found the most significant benefits to be:

• Reduced time to find information
• Reduced time for new staff to become competent
• Reduced operational costs
• Improved customer satisfaction
• Improved bid win/loss ratio

Making knowledge management a significant part of a company’s leadership approach produces a more streamlined workforce with faster onboarding and well-informed staff that provide a better experience for customers.

Knowledge management is a critical tool for any company that wants to increase its bottom line and market share .

IDC estimates that Fortune 500 companies lose $31 billion from not sharing knowledge within their organization every year. Studies estimate improving employee access to information and tools could save organizations roughly $2 million a month for every 4000 employees.

Implementing effective knowledge management requires proactive strategies and incorporating multiple new processes.

Companies have to uncover the existing knowledge available to them, understand how to spread this information to produce additional value, and plan what this looks like in action.

Knowledge management process. Credit: Valamis. ( CC BY 4.0 )

1. Discovery

Every organization has multiple sources of knowledge, from employees to data and records.

This could be the education and skillsets staff bring to the job, the experience and unique expertise they develop on the job, or hard drives of data that can positively affect the business with proper analysis.

During the discovery process, organizations must identify all the available sources of knowledge, with a particular emphasis on information that could be easily lost.

This process is simplified by a strong understanding of where and how knowledge flows around the organization.

2. Collection

Collecting all the available knowledge and data creates the foundation from which future processes build.

Sloppy or incorrect knowledge collection leads to decisions without a complete understanding of the organization and its capabilities.

Companies must audit their existing staff expertise, documentation, and external knowledge sources. A range of tools is available to help, including automated surveys, document scanning, and metadata.

Post-implementation, many organizations redefine internal processes to make capturing institutional knowledge a part of everyday processes. This could be through continual employee feedback systems or more in-depth offboarding procedures.

3. Assessment

This process involves the deep analysis of the knowledge gathered in the previous two steps. Data must be assessed and organized into a structured, searchable, and easily accessible form.

Assessment of the gathered knowledge is required to ensure it is accurate, offers value, and is up to date.

Then teams can determine how best to share information to improve company performance and give staff the knowledge they need to maximize performance.

Utilizing the right knowledge management system simplifies this process by allowing leadership to organize, assess, segment, and store a comprehensive knowledge database.

The whole point of knowledge management is to give staff the expertise and information they need to do their job to the best of their ability.

Once you have built a detailed and accurate body of knowledge related to your company, you need to plan how it will be shared.

See the “Knowledge management methods” section below for examples of how to share information around your company.

While there are many examples of sharing information, one thing that should be universal is creating a cultural shift towards learning and development .

Leadership must prioritize and reward knowledge sharing, creating an atmosphere where team members are actively encouraged to both teach each other and learn from one another.

5. Application

This is the step where organizations reap the rewards of knowledge management. Discovering and storing institutional knowledge is just the beginning.

Staff utilizing newly acquired expertise in their tasks brings a range of benefits in productivity, accuracy, decision-making, and more innovative employees.

6. Creation

The final stage of knowledge management is to create more knowledge.

It should never be considered a one-and-done process. A single audit and rollout won’t deliver the results you are looking for.

Knowledge management is a continual process that maximizes a company’s performance for the expertise available to it.

Whether it is a team discovering a new, more efficient approach to a task or a better way of capturing data related to company performance, organizations should constantly be innovating and creating new knowledge to pass on to future employees.

Depending on what the company needs, their knowledge management will look different.

Below we have listed common examples of knowledge management methods in action:

1. Tutoring & training, communities of practice, and Q&A

These examples all involve transferring information directly from the knowledge holder to other employees.

This could be through in-person tutoring, company-wide training sessions, online chats, and group discussions – or a mix of these options and others.

Many companies value building a skills matrix that maps each employee’s expertise. This simplifies finding the employee with the most experience or knowledge in a given field. In addition, it identifies knowledge gaps within the workforce and shows areas requiring focus for specific knowledge management methods and training.

Some examples of this type of knowledge management may not require a formalized structure. For example, perhaps your company is having problems with a new project, which reminds you of a previous situation. Using the company Slack, for example, you can search for similar questions and find old threads discussing how you overcame the problem last time. Prior expertise that you may not have thought about in years is stored and discovered in old communications to help you right now.

• Questions can be immediately answered
• Clarifications can be made if the material is not understood
• Brainstorming sessions can be facilitated, taking advantage of the combined power of the group’s experience and knowledge
• In-person learning tends to be remembered more clearly
• It can be time-consuming and take away from the tasks the knowledge holder is trying to complete
• A system of expertise location can be time-consuming to build and maintain
• It can be challenging to document and save for future use
• Difficulty finding the right expert with good communication skills and knowledge of the company
• You can lose the knowledge if the knowledge holder leaves the company

2. Documentations, guides, guidelines, FAQ, and tutorials

Written communications are great for storing and transferring knowledge.

With text-based knowledge management, a system to store, categorize and navigate subjects is always available.

In many cases, metadata is a great help for this.

• The company has an invaluable source of information of up to date information
• Easy to find and share online (when organized well)
• Can easily combine multiple people’s expertise into one packet
• Requires a lot of time to create and keep up-to-date
• Must be appropriately managed to ensure relevant knowledge is easily found
• Requires infrastructure (internet access, etc.)
• It takes time to consume

3. Forums, intranets, and collaboration environments

These online resources spark conversation and bring many knowledge holders into the same place.

Threads, subforums, and groups can be divided by topic, level of expertise, or any number of other classifications.

• Collaboration drives innovation
• Many experts can be brought together into one place, no matter their location globally
• Facilitating contact with remote teams helps teamwork and knowledge transfer
• It can be a chaotic, noisy environment
• Knowledge is not actively being vetted as it is added to discussions
• Searching through many messages and threads for relevant answers is time-consuming
• Messages and threads might not be archived

4. Learning and development environments

Creating an environment where learning is considered an asset will continuously drive employees to educate themselves.

Incentivizing them to take advantage of your knowledge management systems will result in upskilled employees ready to take on leadership roles in your organization.

For this to happen, there must be structured and accessible learning and development technology in place that employees can use.

• Motivated employees can develop themselves at will
• Training pathways can be set out
• Wide range of resources available to produce a constant flow of fresh content
• The structure allows for easier discovery of subjects
• Authoring tools available such that internal experts can build company-specific courses
• Analytic tools are available to help find knowledge gaps inside the company
• Requires a lot of effort to develop and maintain in house
• Readily available solutions may be too generic to add real value for your company
• Content must be created and continually updated
• Requires an influential learning culture to motivate staff to participate

5. Case studies

These in-depth studies into particular areas serve as complete guides to a subject.

Looking at the actions taken, the results they produce, and any lessons learned is extremely valuable.

• Allow for complete documentation and archiving of lessons learned
• Easily shareable
• Efficient for communicating complex information
• It takes a lot of time and skill to create
• The case study may have limitations or require approval from the parties involved
• Can be too specialized to apply the knowledge broadly
• In fast-paced fields that are constantly innovating, case studies can become out of date quickly

6. Webinars

These online seminars can be beneficial in widely disseminating ideas throughout teams, branches, or the entire company.

• Accessible for all interested employees to attend
• Potential for interactivity where attendees can ask questions specific to issues they are having
• Can be recorded and reused
• Planning, finding the right speakers, and settling on a topic is time-consuming
• Requires organization
• External experts can cost a lot
• Requires time to find answer

Knowledge management systems are IT solutions that allow for the storage and retrieval of the information stored within the company, allowing for better collaboration and more efficient problem-solving.

Depending on what your company needs, they will have different features.

Examples of knowledge management systems are:

• Feedback database – Everyone involved in a product, from designers to salespeople to customers, can share their feedback with the organization. All stakeholders can access the feedback and thus quickly make fundamental changes armed with better information.
• Research files – In developing projects and ideas, a company does market and consumer research to determine what is needed, what niches are yet to be filled in the market, and what trends can be forecasted. The files are then shared within the organization to allow all departments to benefit from the research conducted.

Shared project files – This system allows for greater collaboration and teamwork, especially across distances.

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Knowledge management (KM) is the process of identifying, organizing, storing and disseminating information within an organization.

When knowledge is not easily accessible within an organization, it can be incredibly costly to a business as valuable time is spent seeking out relevant information versus completing outcome-focused tasks.

A knowledge management system (KMS) harnesses the collective knowledge of the organization, leading to better operational efficiencies. These systems are supported by the use of a knowledge base. They are usually critical to successful knowledge management, providing a centralized place to store information and access it readily.

Companies with a knowledge management strategy achieve business outcomes more quickly as increased organizational learning and collaboration among team members facilitates faster decision-making across the business. It also streamlines more organizational processes, such as training and on-boarding, leading to reports of higher employee satisfaction and retention.

Use this model selection framework to choose the most appropriate model while balancing your performance requirements with cost, risks and deployment needs.

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The definition of knowledge management also includes three types of knowledge—tacit, implicit, and explicit knowledge. These types of knowledge are largely distinguished by the codification of the information.

• Tacit knowledge:  This type of knowledge is typically acquired through experience, and it is intuitively understood. As a result, it is challenging to articulate and codify, making it difficult to transfer this information to other individuals. Examples of tacit knowledge can include language, facial recognition, or leadership skills.
• Implicit knowledge:  While some literature equivocates implicit knowledge to tacit knowledge, some academics break out this type separately, expressing that the definition of tactic knowledge is more nuanced. While tacit knowledge is difficult to codify, implicit knowledge does not necessarily have this problem. Instead, implicit information has yet to be documented. It tends to exist within processes, and it can be referred to as “know-how” knowledge.
• Explicit knowledge:  Explicit knowledge is captured within various document types such as manuals, reports, and guides, allowing organizations to easily share knowledge across teams. This type of knowledge is perhaps the most well-known and examples of it include knowledge assets such as databases, white papers, and case studies. This form of knowledge is important to retain intellectual capital within an organization as well as facilitate successful knowledge transfer to new employees.

While some  academics  (link resides outside ibm.com) summarize the knowledge management process as involving knowledge acquisition, creation, refinement, storage, transfer, sharing and utilization. This process can be synthesized this a little further. Effective knowledge management system typically goes through three main steps:

• Knowledge Creation:  During this step, organizations identify and document any existing or new knowledge that they want to circulate across the company.
• Knowledge Storage:  During this stage, an information technology system is typically used to host organizational knowledge for distribution. Information may need to be formatted in a particular way to meet the requirements of that repository.
• Knowledge Sharing:  In this final stage, processes to share knowledge are communicated broadly across the organization. The rate in which information spreads will vary depending on organizational culture. Companies that encourage and reward this behavior will certainly have a competitive advantage over other ones in their industry. 

There are a number tools that organizations utilize to reap the benefits of knowledge management. Examples of knowledge management systems can include:

• Document management systems  act as a centralized storage system for digital documents, such as PDFs, images, and word processing files. These systems enhance employee workflows by enabling easy retrieval of documents, such as lessons learned.
• Content management systems (CMS) are applications which manage web content where end users can edit and publish content. These are commonly confused with document management systems, but CMSs can support other media types, such as audio and video.   
• Intranets  are private networks that exist solely within an organization, which enable the sharing of enablement, tools, and processes within internal stakeholders. While they can be time-consuming and costly to maintain, they provide a number of groupware services, such as internal directories and search, which facilitate collaboration.
• Wikis  can be a popular knowledge management tool given its ease of use. They make it easy to upload and edit information, but this ease can lead to concerns about misinformation as workers may update them with incorrect or outdated information.
• Data warehouses  aggregate data from different sources into a single, central, consistent data store to support data analysis, data mining, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning. Data is extracted from these repositories so that companies can derive insights, empowering employees to make data-driven decisions.

While knowledge management solutions can be helpful in facilitating knowledge transfer across teams and individuals, they also depend on user adoption to generate positive outcomes. As a result, organizations should not minimize the value of human elements that enable success around knowledge management.

• Organizational Culture:  Management practices will affect the type of organization that executives lead. Managers can build learning organizations by rewarding and encouraging knowledge sharing behaviors across their teams. This type of leadership sets the groundwork for teams to trust each other and communicate more openly to achieve business outcomes.
• Communities of practice:  Centers of excellence in specific disciplines provide employees with a forum to ask questions, facilitating learning and knowledge transfer. In this way, organizations increase the number of subject matter experts in a given area of the company, reducing dependencies on specific individuals to execute certain tasks.

Armed with the right tools and strategies, knowledge management practices have seen success in specific applications, such as:

• Onboarding employees:  Knowledge management systems help to address the huge learning curve for new hires. Instead of overwhelming new hires with a ‘data dump’ in their first weeks, continually support them with knowledge tools that will give them useful information at any time.  Learn more
• Day-to-day employee tasks:  Enable every employee to have access to accurate answers and critical information. Access to highly relevant answers at the right time, for the right person, allows workforces to spend less time looking for information and more time on activities that drive business.  Learn more
• Self-serve customer service:  Customers repeatedly say they’d prefer to find an answer themselves, rather than pick up the phone to call support.  When done well, a knowledge management system helps businesses decrease customer support costs and increase customer satisfaction.  Learn more

Companies experience a number of benefits when they embrace knowledge management strategies. Some key advantages include:

• Identification of skill gaps:  When teams create relevant documentation around implicit or tacit knowledge or consolidate explicit knowledge, it can highlight gaps in core competencies across teams. This provides valuable information to management to form new organizational structures or hire additional resources.
• Make better informed decisions:  Knowledge management systems arm individuals and departments with knowledge. By improving accessibility to current and historical enterprise knowledge, your teams can upskill and make more information-driven decisions that support business goals.
• Maintains enterprise knowledge:  If your most knowledgeable employees left tomorrow, what would your business do? Practicing internal knowledge management enables businesses to create an organizational memory. Knowledge held by your long-term employees and other experts, then make it accessible to your wider team.
• Operational efficiencies:  Knowledge management systems create a go-to place that enable knowledge workers to find relevant information more quickly. This, in turn, reduces the amount of time on research, leading to faster decision-making and cost-savings through operational efficiencies.  Increase productivity not only saves time, but also reduces costs.
• Increased collaboration and communication:  Knowledge management systems and organizational cultures work together to build trust among team members. These information systems provide more transparency among workers, creating more understanding and alignment around common goals. Engaged leadership and open communication create an environment for teams to embrace innovation and feedback.
• Data Security:  Knowledge management systems enable organizations to customize permission control, viewership control and the level of document-security to ensure that information is shared only in the correct channels or with selected individuals. Give your employees the autonomy access knowledge safely and with confidence.

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Importance of knowledge management in organizations | Benefits & Examples

Knowledge management. Have you ever known just two words to bear so much weight?

If you are reading this blog, chances are that you are a knowledge worker too. That’s two more heavy words, right there.

We can’t escape these big, heavy words, though. We work and live in the knowledge economy where economic input and output are both rooted in information.

How do we handle so much (too much?) information that always seems to be clamoring for our limited attention spans? And how do we decide where to invest our mental faculties to get the maximum returns? 

We turn to our favorite words, of course: knowledge management. 

As important as knowledge management is for individuals (personal knowledge management), it becomes radically more essential for organizations where many people come together to work with significantly higher quantities of information.

Access the information you need, instantly. Try OSlash today!

What is knowledge management (km) in an organization.

Knowledge management (KM) is the process of creating, identifying, organizing, storing, using, and sharing collective information within an organization. 

Knowledge management in an organization helps transform heaps of raw, scattered information — Slack threads, Jira tickets, Google Docs, Github PRs — into useful assets. 

In the absence of organizational knowledge management, employees have to constantly jump through hoops, looking for the relevant resource. If we look at this McKinsey report, employees already spent 1.8 hours every day — 9.3 hours per week, on average — searching and gathering information, back in 2012. That means about 1 in every 5 employees hired spends all their time just looking for things, and not getting any real work done. Scary, isn't it?

Understandably, companies with a robust knowledge management system can avoid draining their time and money resources.

Importance of knowledge management in an organization

Heeding knowledge management is important for all kinds of organizations for many of the following reasons.

1. Fast and efficient access to the organizational knowledge base

Imagine a new, remote hire logging in for work on their first day. They are expected to go through the organizational charts, workflows, company handbook, and a bunch of other documents before they can get started. In the absence of a central repository, they would be dependent on their colleagues (whom they don’t know) or their manager (who may not have enough time) to share these and even walk them through it all.  A knowledge management system can help. If employees know where to look for information, they don’t have to wait on others or lose their mind trying to get there. In this case, the knowledge management system can be as thorough as a company intranet, as standard as a well-defined onboarding process, or even as simple as access to a common, shared folder for essential ‘Getting Started’ resources.  P.S. For 10x the speed and efficiency, consider creating a single source of truth for all important resources in the organization 

Organize and discover workplace resources blazingly fast. Try OSlash today!

2. creates a shared organizational memory.

People may come and leave, but organizations are ‘going concerns’. As people leave, their knowledge also leaves the company if it is not documented or shared. To benefit from the experience and expertise of outgoing employees, it’s essential for organizations to have a knowledge management strategy. 

3. Stimulates more informed decision-making

In a typical software company, such as OSlash, product managers need access to customer feedback to know which features to prioritize, developers need access to bug reports to build better software, sales teams need access to qualified leads to focus their sales efforts on the right audience, and so on. A knowledge management system facilitates speedy and hassle-free access for better data-driven decisions.

4. Improves business operations and efficiency

Knowledge management systems enable knowledge workers to spend less time searching for information and more time using it. They are also not forced to learn and relearn information and processes or duplicate work. This can weed out operational inefficiencies and turbocharge productivity. Lew Platt, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, said: “If HP knew what HP knows, we would be three times more productive.”

5. Enhances workplace collaboration and trust

Teams build trust with the help of knowledge management systems. The transparency and ease of access to organization-wide information leads to a shared understanding, fosters collaboration, and creates alignment around common goals. 

6. Increases employee satisfaction

When an organization creates systems for providing employees the information they need, it shows them that their time and skills are far too valuable to be wasted on just looking for information. Additionally, employees who have access to the right information can contribute more, achieve better outcomes, and in turn feel more aligned with the work they do. 

Now that we know why organizations need knowledge management, let’s dive into how they can implement it.

Examples of knowledge management in organizations

Organizations that take knowledge management seriously will typically choose one or more of the following systems to capture, curate, and leverage information.

1. Document management systems

Think of document management systems as e-filing cabinets for digital documents, such as PDFs, images, word processing files, spreadsheets etc. They support knowledge management by allowing quick and easy access, retrieval, and sharing of documents. Popular document management systems include Confluence, Google Drive, Adobe Acrobat etc.

2. Content management systems

Content management systems (CMS) are simply an extension of document management systems that can store not just documents but also media files including audio and video data. Cases in point are WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Magento, Microsoft Sharepoint etc.

3. Databases

Most companies work with a variety of databases to store, index, and interact with data. Everything from an employee directory to a customer relationship management (CRM) system in a company is a form of database. Organizations often also store inventory and accounting information in a database. In addition, for financial management purposes, companies may implement transaction categorization systems to classify and organize their financial transactions into specific categories.

4. Intranets

An intranet is a private internet maintained by an organization. Intranets are social networks that ease access to company-wide information. Among other things, companies use them for announcements, employee advocacy and recognition, and shared access to centralized resources. They are particularly useful for enhancing collaboration, especially for remote and geographically dispersed teams.

Wikis are collaborative web-pages where anyone (or in some cases permitted individuals and/or teams) can autonomously publish and store public information. This open access is both an advantage and a limitation of wikis. While it fosters a culture of trust, transparency, and initiative among employees, it can also backfire if the data uploaded to the wiki is distorted.

Build a powerful knowledge base for your org. Get started with OSlash today!

How does knowledge management help in organizational growth.

One of the main benefits of knowledge management in an organization is that it improves organizational performance and accelerates growth. By becoming a knowledge-sharing organization, a business

1. Speeds up new employee onboarding 

Getting new employees up to speed quickly is crucial to their productivity. An enterprise knowledge management system can fastrack their access to information, obliterate frustration in searching for answers, and reduce training time and costs. 

2. Allows existing employees to spend more time on impactful, outcome-driven work

It’s safe to assume that nobody gets up in the morning excited to answer a bunch of emails and Slack messages, or spend their valuable hours searching for the right Google Doc. People want to do meaningful work that drives meaningful outcomes. And a knowledge management system can help by curbing the constant chat and email noise to give them quick, easy, and hassle-free access to enterprise knowledge.

3. Decreases customer support time and costs

An extensive knowledge base relating to the business and its offering can be a great resource for customers looking for answers. Tutorials, Guides, Playbooks, Help Articles, Demos, and Webinars etc. can add to customer knowledge and encourage the self-serve attitude, decreasing time and costs spent on customer support .  The knowledge base will also help reps to have quick access to all the product or service related information at their fingertips, leading to faster ticket resolution and greater operational efficiency. 

For inspiration, check out our Help Center at OSlash .

4. Improves quality of information and data available 

Creating a single source of truth for the whole organization is the key objective of a good organizational knowledge management system. No more sitting on graves of obsolete, discarded, unfinished documents. No more running around for the latest version of this presentation , that report. Everybody is on the same page (quite literally) right from the start!

5. Promotes a culture of innovation

Improving access to enterprise knowledge empowers teams to make informed decisions. This access also allows them to learn from the mistakes of others and leverage these learnings to succeed faster. Knowledge management encourages team collaboration, and the sharing of ideas acts as a catalyst to drive change and create a culture of innovation.

OSlash — your go-to solution for enterprise knowledge management

Enterprise knowledge management isn’t a child’s play. But it doesn’t have to be like moving a mountain, either.

This was our vision behind building OSlash, the knowledge management platform that lets you build a company wiki for everyone — instantly and intuitively.

With OSlash, you can create simple and easy-to-recall shortcuts to all your links. By letting you name your everyday links using everyday words, OSlash lets you find, navigate, and share workplace information at lightning speed.

So your product roadmap can be accessed at o/roadmap instead of https://www.notion.so/xhtryE/roadmap-d60645aa5640422ebcd8238510e156eaxty and your everyday standup meeting opens at o/standup instead of the random Google meet link meet.google.com/bcj-jddu-kat 

By simplifying URLs, OSlash simplifies finding information at fingertips — for you, your team, your department, and your entire organization. And saves you all that productive time wasted on looking for the right resources.

It allows you to create custom collections — folders of shortcuts grouped by topic, function, or any other criterion you like. And lets you surface related information using tags. You can also update destination documents as often as you like, to maintain a dynamic and living repository of enterprise knowledge, without changing URLs.

Try OSlash –

Your go-to solution for knowledge management

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Knowledge Management 101: Knowledge Management Cycle, Processes, Strategies, and Best Practices

By Becky Simon | August 28, 2017 (updated August 11, 2023)

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Regardless of industry or product, all companies rely on the knowledge of their employees to be successful. Organizations must treat knowledge as an asset, but it’s not enough to simply hire skilled employees. Instead, successful companies should build in processes to store, grow, and share knowledge to increase the knowledge base of the overall workforce. This concept is known as knowledge management.

In this article, you’ll find everything you need to know about knowledge management: what it is, types of knowledge, and the history and evolution of the field. Then, we’ll break down the benefits and challenges of implementing knowledge management, and discuss multiple models of the knowledge management life cycle. Finally, we’ll look at the rise of knowledge management systems, and offer free, downloadable templates to get you started building a knowledge management plan.

What Is Knowledge Management?

Knowledge management (KM) is the process(es) used to handle and oversee all the knowledge that exists within a company. Knowledge management relies on an understanding of knowledge, which consists of discrete or intangible skills that a person possesses.

The field of knowledge management identifies two main types of knowledge. Explicit knowledge is knowledge or skills that can be easily articulated and understood, and therefore easily transferred to others (this is also called formal or codified knowledge). Anything that can be written down in a manual - instructions, mathematical equations, etc. - qualify as explicit knowledge. Tacit knowledge , by contrast, is knowledge that is difficult to neatly articulate, package, and transfer to others. These are usually intuitive skillsets that are challenging to teach, such as body language, aesthetic sense, or innovative thinking. (A third knowledge type is implicit knowledge , which is information that has not yet been codified or transferred, but that would be possible to teach. Implicit knowledge is different from tacit knowledge, which is unlikely to be able to be codified. For this article, however, we will primarily discuss explicit and tacit knowledge.)

You can break these knowledge types down further into four categories:

• Factual Knowledge is measurable, observable, and verifiable data.
• Conceptual Knowledge relates to perspectives and systems.
• Expectational Knowledge is knowledge rooted in expectations, hypotheses, or judgments.
• Methodological Knowledge deals with decision-making and problem-solving.

Knowledge management enables organizational learning, a concept where companies are invested not only in the reliable, expert production of a product or service, but in the knowledge that underlies these production processes. Companies devoted to organizational learning are interested in maintaining and building upon internal knowledge at an organizational level - not just helping individuals accrue special skills, but ensuring that this knowledge is available to and dispersed throughout the workforce.

As one Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) paper states, the core goal of knowledge management is to connect “knowledge nodes” - those with knowledge and those seeking knowledge - to ultimately increase the knowledge within an organization. Within that goal, the authors identify four objectives of KM: to capture knowledge, to increase knowledge access, to enhance the knowledge environment, and to manage knowledge as an asset.

Ultimately, knowledge management is an integrated system of accumulating, storing, and sharing knowledge within a team or organization. KM consists of several components, as well as strategies to implement it successfully - we’ll delve deeper into these later in the article.

Who Uses Knowledge Management?

Knowledge management can be implemented enterprise-wide across a number of industries. However, the way you implement KM might change depending on factors such as industry and company size.

KM is often used differently for small vs. large organizations, however. Small (and/or young) companies must carve out a competitive market advantage early on, and therefore benefit from KM by codifying and storing internal knowledge from the get-go. Large organizations - even those with unwavering strength in their market - use KM to act quickly in the digital age, where business changes constantly and often without warning. Without a reliable system to store existing knowledge and accumulate new knowledge, it would be difficult to react to these market changes. However, both large and small companies can benefit from KM because it treats the knowledge that every individual brings as an asset, so employees feel respected for their skills in the workplace.

For those looking to implement knowledge management in a specific department, you can also tailor the practice to sub-fields. Other than enterprise KM, knowledge management is most commonly implemented in IT/information systems and science, organizational management, business administration, human resources management, content management, or for personal use.

History of Knowledge Management

Efforts to formally manage knowledge have been in place for most of the past half century. In the late 20th century, however, with the evolution of computers, organizations began implementing more reliable storage systems. In the 1990s, the Swedish financial service provider Skandia created the first Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) position, which paved the way for other companies to treat knowledge management as an integral part of their structure.

In fact, several academics have formalized the topic, and knowledge management is now regarded as a scientific discipline. In the mid-1990s, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi published the first academic research on knowledge management, and coined the SECI model (socialization, externalization, combination, internalization) as a path of knowledge transfer. Since then, Nonaka and Takeuchi have studied several other aspects of knowledge within a company, as have other academics. The knowledge management life cycle, which details how to store and disseminate knowledge throughout an organization, was also set forth by business academics in the l990s and early 2000s; the four most popular models are Wiig (1993), Zack (1996), Bukowitz and Williams (2000), and McElroy (2003).

In general, knowledge management has evolved from a loose tendency to accumulate, store, and teach (and therefore increase) knowledge within a team or organization into a prioritized method of building a knowledgeable workforce - all with the goal of gaining a competitive advantage. As we will discuss later on, there are several theories of how to best store knowledge and stimulate knowledge transfer within an organization. Skeptics say that today’s knowledge management is simply a “fad,” while others argue that its principles are here to stay: its strategies, methods, and implementation systems will simply continue to evolve as technology and business does, too.

What Is the Primary Benefit of Knowledge Management?

While it may not seem directly related to the tactics of knowledge management, the primary goal is to increase company efficiency to improve business decision-making. The idea is that building expertise into your organization - and dispersing it amongst employees - empowers you to make more informed, faster, and ultimately more profitable decisions.

Of course, there are several secondary benefits. Successful KM will enable you to:

• Increase collaboration and idea generation
• Optimize a culture of knowledge sharing
• Protect intellectual capital
• Treat human capital as an asset (which makes employees feel respected for their knowledge)
• Capture and store knowledge for the future workforce

Kevin D. Murray, CPP, CISM is a technical surveillance countermeasures (TSCM) specialist with an extensive career in information security and counterespionage consulting for business and government. He breaks the benefits of KM into four value areas:

Control: Not knowing where your information is is the first step to losing it.

Security: ‘You gotta keep the bait in the bucket, not in the pond.’

Access: When you need your information, you will get it faster.

Responsibility: With all the eggs in one basket, one is forced to carry the basket more carefully, meaning you provide better protection for your information.  

RELATED:  [Infographic] How Much Time Are You Wasting on Siloed Information?  

What Are the Challenges of Knowledge Management?

There are many challenges that businesses face when implementing knowledge management. Here is a list of some of the most common ones:

• Creating a culture of flexibility and collaboration: This is one of the most significant and enduring challenges of KM. Companies already struggle to implement new policies, because people naturally tend to resist change. However, KM can be especially difficult because employees might want to protect their skills and knowledge, or be reluctant to learn from their peers.
• Security: You have to design a knowledge transfer system that makes it easy for the appropriate people to access information, while protecting sensitive or private  intelligence from outsiders.
• Measuring knowledge: It can be difficult to define metrics to measure the knowledge within your organization, especially for tacit knowledge that cannot be easily quantified. To overcome this, some experts recommend focusing on the purpose of knowledge, rather than the efforts or results (which are often also unquantifiable).
• Identifying an expert: There won’t always be a single “keeper” of every knowledge type, but you will still have to identify who within the company possesses certain knowledge, and use them as the base level of knowledge from which you want to build. This process is difficult tactically, but can also be delicate among employees who might feel competitive about their skill levels.
• Document storage and management: While not all knowledge makes for straightforward documentation, it will have to be stored and organized in some form. Document management is a challenge for many companies, but organization is a vital aspect of KM - otherwise, it will be impossible to locate and use the knowledge you have stored. Consider using a dedicated document management system to keep everything organized.
• Disseminating knowledge throughout an organization: You’ll need to devise a process where, once you store the knowledge, other team members can access it. This is complicated both theoretically and tactically, so many organizations opt for a software system designed specifically for this purpose. We’ll take a closer look at KM systems later on.
• Continual improvement: Like most process-driven strategies, you should continually improve upon the knowledge management system you implement. Stage periodic reviews or, if possible, dedicate resources to continually optimize your process.
• Determining where KM is housed: If KM serves your entire organization, decide which department will “own” the strategy. Companies most commonly house KM in HR or IT. Remember, this department is not only responsible for effectively managing the knowledge itself, but also for maintaining the community of knowledge sharing and organizational learning.

How Does Knowledge Management Work? Basic Components and Strategies

As we’ve discussed, the theory behind knowledge management is that in order to make the best business decisions, the workforce must be as educated and skillful as possible. One way to ensure an educated - and continually learning - workforce is to stimulate organizational learning, which companies can do by implementing knowledge management. This practice ensures not only that existing knowledge (both explicit and tacit forms) is codified and stored, but that it can be dispersed among other employees so that people can continue to amass skills. Another benefit is that KM evenly distributes knowledge so no one is contributing in silos.

As Nonaka and Takeuchi first stated in their seminal academic papers, there are three main ways that people approach knowledge management:

• People-centric: Centered on people, relationships, and how people form learning communities and other informal ways of knowledge sharing. This idea is also known as ecological KM theory .
• Tech-centric: Focused on the technology that facilitates knowledge storage and transfer, and aims to create technology systems that encourage knowledge sharing.
• Process-centric: Interested in how the organizational structure and processes accommodate and encourage knowledge sharing and organizational learning. This concept includes the production processes, the organizational hierarchy, and the cultural framework.

The approach you take will depend on how your company currently functions. Organizational structure, politics, management style, and existing processes all create parameters around what kind of KM implementation is workable. Regardless of the approach you choose, however, implementing KM will inevitably affect your organization’s people, technology, and processes. Therefore, it’s best to keep all three in mind when enacting a knowledge management strategy.

Theoretical approaches aside, there are some common tactical ways of handling knowledge. The common strategies include:

• Storing knowledge vs. sharing knowledge: Storing knowledge involves accumulating, codifying, and maintaining knowledge in a reliable storage system. This is a good first step, but successful knowledge management also requires a system to disperse that stored knowledge.
• Codification vs. personalization: The difference between these strategies are similar to the previous example. Codification is any activity where you are collecting knowledge (creating and maintaining databases, content architecture, training to support software storage systems), and creating awareness of these collection systems. Personalization, is connecting people to this codified knowledge by forming learning communities, promoting active discussion and knowledge transfer, and facilitating group interaction.
• Push vs. pull: These represent two opposing strategies. In a push strategy, individuals actively encode their knowledge to make it available for others. In a pull strategy, team members seek out experts to request knowledge sharing, so you only transfer knowledge on an as-needed basis.
• Socialization: Tacit to tacit, where knowledge is transferred intuitively through observation, guidance, and practice.
• Externalization : Tacit to explicit, which codifies intuitive, intangible knowledge in order to be taught. This type of knowledge transfer is the most difficult because tacit knowledge is extremely difficult to break down into digestible directives.
• Combination: Explicit to explicit, where codified knowledge is transferred or combined with other codified knowledge. This type of knowledge transfer is the simplest.
• Internalization: Explicit to tacit, where an organization follows and practices codified knowledge so that it becomes intuitive.

Data mining is a process of discovering data patterns based on algorithms, and is another common element of sophisticated knowledge management programs. Because codifying all of your internal knowledge will result in a huge knowledge library, data mining can help identify patterns and extract data. It still uses qualitative methods of data analysis, but automated programs will likely rely on algorithmic work.

The Knowledge Management Life Cycle

As we’ve discussed, the process of knowledge management follows general steps. Today, this progression has been formalized by several scholars, along with how knowledge should be stored and disseminated throughout an organization. This includes the processes, tools, and technologies that make up the knowledge management life cycle.

While each life cycle differs in specific steps, this infographic shows the basic steps.

There are multiple, semi-competing theories of the knowledge management life cycle. However, despite the nuanced theoretical and syntactical differences, the top four all follow a similar pattern. Here are the top four KM life cycle models:

• Wiig Model (1993): This model relies on the principle that in order for information to be useful, it must be organized. Therefore, this model is primarily concerned with organizing all data once it is codified, but also outlines how knowledge is built, stored, pooled (with other stored knowledge), and then extended into the organization. The phases of the Wiig model are creation, sourcing, compilation, transformation, and application.
• Zack Model (1996): While the phases here are similar to the Wiig model, the Zack model prioritizes a logical, standardized process when advancing to each new stage. The phases of the Zack model are acquisition, refinement, storage/retrieval, distribution, and presentation.
• Bukowitz and William Model (2000): This model builds upon the previous two by expanding the definition of knowledge storage to include the infrastructure that supports this learning community (such as communication, hierarchy, and working relationships). Bukowitz and William also emphasize the need for not only maintaining your knowledge repository, but also building it over time. The phases here are: get, use, learn, contribute, and assess.
• McElroy Model (2003): Building upon the process focus of the Bukowitz and William model, McElroy is concerned with knowledge production and integration. It creates ways for team members to submit “claims” when they fail to receive or understand knowledge, all in an effort to improve group learning. The phases in the McElroy model are learning, validation, acquisition, integration, and completion.

Here’s how all the different phases of these model relate to each other:

The integrated knowledge management cycle, proposed by Kimiz Dalkir, Ph.D., combines several of the concepts we’ve discussed into one general framework. Dalkir identifies three key stages in her model: knowledge capture and/or creation, knowledge sharing and dissemination, and knowledge acquisition and application. In this model, Dalkir emphasizes the cycle aspect in order to ensure continual improvement - not only in the amount and quality of knowledge stored, but of the underlying processes, as well

How to Improve Knowledge Management

Even with an understanding of the KM life cycle, knowledge management can be difficult to implement. Below are a few tips on how to improve knowledge management:

• Understand the flow of knowledge in your organization: While the various KM life cycle models list phases to follow, they are merely a blueprint. Knowledge management will only be successful if you understand how your organization already naturally gains, stores, and shares knowledge, so use the existing flow of information to structure your formal knowledge management process.
• Clearly define your goals and how you will measure them: Just like any project, you won’t be able to judge your success without clearly defined goals. Choose objectives and how you will measure them before you implement KM.
• Encourage socialization: One way to foster an environment of knowledge transfer is to let it happen naturally, by talking and casually sharing. Allow team members to talk and form relationships in-office, which will make them more likely to turn to each other for information or advice, or to learn new skills.
• Generate new knowledge: Remember that knowledge management is not only concerned with storing existing knowledge; rather, you need to create processes to manage the ongoing stream of new information. Actively generate new knowledge within your organization not only to create a robust knowledge stream, but also to show your employees that you treat new knowledge - and their knowledge - as an asset. This will make workers more apt to adopt KM.
• Employ technology: Technology can play a huge role in standardizing and organizing the KM process. However, remember that technology itself is not knowledge management, but simply a tool to enhance your processes. We’ll discuss knowledge management technology in depth in the next section.

What Is a Knowledge Management System?

A knowledge management system is any technology that is used to store and manage knowledge - essentially, a tool to oversee knowledge management. However, a successful knowledge management system also taps into the underlying goals of KM: codifying knowledge, retrieving knowledge, improving collaboration, and stimulating overall organizational learning.

Knowledge management systems have evolved from a useful tool to optimize KM processes to an integral component of KM itself. Today, organizations rely on KM systems to perform many of the functions of knowledge management - data storage is an obvious example, but technology systems can also help foster collaboration and group learning, among other objectives.

There are several emerging features in contemporary knowledge management systems. Here’s a look at some of the most prominent ones:

• Content and document management: This is a critical component because codifying knowledge almost always results in documentation (or another form of created content). When choosing a KM system, make sure the platform can support the file size, type(s), and volume that you need. This is especially important for enterprise companies who will need to store massive amounts of data, and scale regularly. (For this functionality, look for enterprise portals.)
• Lessons learned databases: These are systems that aim to make intangible (often tacit) knowledge clear and available to other users. The focus with lessons learned databases is as the name implies: on lessons learned by experts that others should follow (think of it as best practices). The key here is to find a database that can house this kind of qualitative information and make it accessible.
• Groupware: As we’ve discussed, collaboration is a key component of KM. Groupware refers to any collaborative work platform, and is usually intended for workers who need to communicate remotely. Groupware is broken down into two categories: synchronous groupware (collaborate and update in real time) and asynchronous groupware.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI): The adoption of AI (as telepresence) into KM systems replaces the human consultants that had been analyzing the data and monitoring the KM processes. Today, cognitive computing, adaptive technology, and intelligent filtering tools, in particular, have huge implications for codifying knowledge, and will likely be adopted by more KM systems. However, the importance of human quality assurance (QA) in much of today’s data work has raised concerns about AI’s ability to fully take over this space.

Although KM systems can help automate and standardize knowledge management, there are several challenges when implementing a system. Security, data accuracy, and changes in technology (cost, implementation, usability) are focused difficulties that you should keep in mind from the get-go. A much more pervasive and ongoing challenge, however, is creating a culture of collaboration and knowledge sharing via technology. People may already be reluctant to share information with their peers, and technology can create even more barriers for doing so. Therefore, you’ll need to build in processes that support and stimulate this type of knowledge transfer.

Kevin Murray offers four key things to look for when choosing a KM system:

• Security: Information is valuable. Like any other valuable, there are people who will steal it.
• Accountability: Information is valuable only when it is accurate. Limit access. Log intensively. Test for accuracy.
• Backup: Everyone knows the value of backing up. Not everyone knows how to do it. Hiding a backup drive in the CEO's desk won't help if the building floods or burns. Creating, maintaining, and correctly storing back-ups should be an automatic functionality.
• Ease of Use: If the system is too difficult or demanding to use, people will take shortcuts. Shortcuts usually reduce security and the integrity of the information you're managing.

When discussing the future of KM systems, many critics claim that knowledge management itself is a fad. However, others think that KM and KM systems will simply evolve to meet the demands of today’s business world - likely incorporating more AI-driven systems. Murray agrees with the latter camp.

“It's no fad. It's an imperative. The amount of information being created grows each year. It has to be managed, if you want it to be useful,” he says. “KM systems will continue to increase in popularity, functionality, and ease-of-use, just like the evolution of typewriters and word processing software. Artificial Intelligence (AI) will blend into the mix even more.”

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Strategic knowledge management: theory, practice and future challenges

Journal of Knowledge Management

ISSN : 1367-3270

Article publication date: 10 October 2018

Issue publication date: 12 March 2020

Ferreira, J. , Mueller, J. and Papa, A. (2020), "Strategic knowledge management: theory, practice and future challenges", Journal of Knowledge Management , Vol. 24 No. 2, pp. 121-126. https://doi.org/10.1108/JKM-07-2018-0461

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

Theoretical background

The current knowledge economy requires companies to create new business structures and new concepts for the management of its resources to remain competitive. The latest approaches to strategic management ( Ferreira et al. , 2016 ) tend to consider strategic alliances (as sources of knowledge) and intellectual capital (human, structural and relational capital) as the main sources for a sustainable competitive advantage. In an increasingly globalized world, the survival of business management depends on their organizational intelligence, which is the result of information and knowledge systems they have, the skills of its employees and how they relate to its stakeholders ( Durst and Edvardsson, 2012 ).

Strategic knowledge management (SKM) relates to the processes and infrastructures organizations use to attain, create and share knowledge for formulating strategy and making strategic decisions ( Zack, 2002 ). A knowledge strategy defines the overall approach an organization intents to take to align its knowledge resources and capabilities to the intellectual requirements of its strategy. A strategic attitude is necessary to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.

From a practice perception, businesses are seeing the prominence of managing knowledge if they are to persist competitive and grow. Consequently, several firms everywhere are starting to dynamically manage their knowledge and innovation ( Ferreira et al ., 2015 ). Knowledge does matter, but the question is when, how and why? ( Carayannis and Campbell, 2009 ). Today, knowledge matters further and in forms that are not always predictable or even controllable. Knowledge systems are so highly complex, dynamic and adaptive ( Carayannis and Campbell, 2009 ).

Numerous views on knowledge are discussed in several different scientific areas, such as strategy, management, organization theory literature and philosophy. Different views on knowledge lead to different conceptualizations of (strategic) knowledge management. Our starting point is knowledge as a strategic resource. This is in accordance with the business strategy theory, specifically the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm. The main proposition of the RBV is that competitive advantage is based on valuable and unique internal resources and capabilities that are costly to imitate for competitors ( Wernerfelt, 1984 ; Barney, 1991 ).

What resources can be used to create, acquire and integrate knowledge in knowledge-intensive processes?

How can knowledge-intensive processes be designed, redesigned and adapted to changing technological and market conditions?

What resources and capabilities can be used to design the processes?

In this regard, a key aspect of the process of knowledge creation and innovation is the ability of the organization to absorb external knowledge – absorptive capacity. Absorptive capacity has emerged as a concept that connects across the literature on dynamic capabilities and organizational learning ( Teece et al ., 1997 ; Zollo and Winter, 2002 ). Absorptive capacity was defined by Cohen and Levinthal (1989 , p. 569) as “the firm’s ability to identify, assimilate and exploit knowledge from the environment.”

Later, seeking to analyze the multidimensional nature of the concept, Zahra and George (2002) visualize absorptive capacity as a set of dynamic capabilities through which companies acquire, assimilate, transform and apply to external information and therefore constitutes a pre-requirement needed to implement innovation processes. Absorptive capacity could enhance organizations’ capabilities to facilitate knowledge exchange processes, which can increase innovation performance ( Patterson and Ambrosini, 2015 ) and competitive advantage ( Zahra and George, 2002 ; Carayannis et al. , 2016 ).

SKM considers the interaction between technological and intellectual resources essential for organizational survival ( Heisig et al. , 2016 ). This interaction is based on the distinction between the “old world of business” and the “global knowledge networking.”

Overview of the contributions to the special issue

Following those premises, this special issue took inspiration from the observation of this scenario, and it widely focused on the application of strategic patterns and innovative practices of knowledge management within the organizations by emphasizing a holistic research question based on: “How knowledge management becomes the real matter of competitiveness for modern organizations and what are the challenges for the future?”

Based on the discussion thus far, the purpose of this special issue of the Journal of Knowledge Management (JKM) was to seek together scholarly thoughts from different disciplines to extant paradigms and/or to develop new theoretical conceptualizations.

Conscious of many underexplored phenomena that should be scientifically and practically addressed, this special issue aimed at analyzing empirical and practical applications of best practices, comparative analyses, cross-studies, network analyses and synthesize the prior theoretical literature.

With this in mind and based on the interesting research offered for this special issue, this volume aims at collecting both theoretical and empirical research papers.

Several research questions stemmed out from the articles selected, and we may hardly summarize them. Submitted papers consisted of theoretical and applied research in topics addressing the benefits and criticalities of business management worldwide.

The selected papers witness research collaborations between scholars from different nations, include contributions worldwide and discuss empirical findings across multiple levels of analysis from a wide range of organizational archetypes. The research methodologies used for gathering empirical data vary from quantitative surveys to exploratory case studies based on qualitative data. Several rounds of blind peer review resulted in the final form of this volume for publication here. We aimed at selecting papers reporting on the application of innovative methods to real world problems. We were looking for studies containing both some form of novel innovation and a documented application. We looked for contributions, which should widely focus on the application of innovative methods to practical problems of the modern enterprise. Nevertheless, all the selected articles demonstrated predictable applications coming from cross-cultural management aimed at discovering the phenomenon of innovation within the business organizations. Readers of this special issue should be technically savvy, scientifically demanding and drawn to practically relevant phenomena.

This volume opens with a quantitative research by Guillermo Ruiz-Pava and Clemente Forero-Pineda titled “Internal and external search strategies of innovative firms: the role of the target market.” This study finds that search strategies of firms are more effective for innovation depending on the target market. Firms searching for both internal and external ideas generate ideas leading to products new to international markets. The researchers developed the concept of internal search of ideas to show the contrast between search strategies adopted by firms that introduce new products into local and international markets. Based on data from 2,652 innovative firms, the paper uses factor analysis to explore and confirm appropriate groups of sources of innovative ideas. The analysis differentiates between internal and two types of external sources. Logistic and bivariate regressions reveal different search strategies for innovation in local and international markets. In conclusion, firms reporting products new to international markets exhibit search strategies combining ideas from internal sources with ideas from other firms. Firms reporting products new to the local market reveal a search strategy centered on ideas from other firms. From a practical side, managers and policymakers wishing to promote innovations for international markets should concentrate their resources on developing the organizations’ capacity to generate ideas internally while monitoring other firms’ ideas. Managers targeting local markets may focus their efforts on intelligence over ideas coming from other firms.

The second article, by an Italian team, entitled as “Dual relational embeddedness and knowledge transfer in European multinational corporations and subsidiaries,” is written by Alberto Ferraris, Gabriele Santoro and Veronica Scuotto. The research emphasizes the relevance of the knowledge transfer process in multiple directions, evoking the central role of dual-embedded subsidiaries. The authors are able to investigate the relationship between the level of subsidiaries’ internal and external relational embeddedness and the degree of subsidiaries’ knowledge transfer. More specifically, they empirically explore dual embeddedness of subsidiaries involved in the knowledge transfer process within multinational corporations’ (MNCs) networks by analyzing 165 European subsidiaries to demonstrate the crucial role of dual relational embeddedness in the transfer of knowledge within MNCs. Results show that internal embeddedness directly and positively influences the degree of subsidiaries’ knowledge transfer, whereas external embeddedness does not. Notwithstanding, a higher level of both types of embeddedness – known as dual embeddedness – generates multiplicative and positive effects on the degree of subsidiaries’ knowledge transfer. Best practices and relevant knowledge follow a reverse transfer of knowledge from the subsidiaries to the internal MNC network that is facilitated by the relational embeddedness of subsidiaries. This has resulted in developing a dual embeddedness, which introduces new routines and scripts, as well as more relational links.

“A holistic model for inter-plant knowledge transfer within an international manufacturing network” is the third article selected for this special issue, written by Farhad Noruzi, Daniel Stenholm, Peter Sjögren and Dag Bergsjö. This study addresses a deep literature review that is able to support the choice of an appropriate strategy for conducting a knowledge transfer (KT) project in an international manufacturing network (IMN) environment. Despite the abundant research in KT area, not many research projects provide holistic views on the KT process. The focus has rather been sectional and concentrated on specific aspect within the KT. In this regard, scholars propose a model that includes multiple aspects of a KT project along with guidelines on each aspect. The results of this paper detail the key issues of five KT projects. The proposed learning network model improves the performance of KT projects by providing a holistic view including several factors that the organization should emphasize to succeed with inter-plant KT. Furthermore, an aggregated model comprising the main aspects and strategies for a KT project within an IMN has been proposed to compromise and identify the main aspects and strategies for a KT that will eventually increase the odds for successfully performing such projects. Following these assumptions, a multiple case study method was adopted. Data have been collected by conducting semi-structured interviews regarding five KT projects in three multinational corporations. Data were triangulated by means of comparisons to complementary data acquired through observations and archival documents.

The fourth article in this volume is authored by Ying Guo, Pavlina Jasovska, Hussain Gulzar Rammal, Elizabeth L. Rose, and it is titled “Global mobility of professionals and the transfer of tacit knowledge in multinational service firms.” This study takes the unique approach of studying barriers to the movement of professionals and a firm’s strategic response. It identifies the pressures and barriers that companies face in the global economy and highlights the role of government agencies and other stakeholders in facilitating or restricting the transfer of knowledge within a firm’s international network. The paper articulates the implications for policy and practice and a future research agenda. The use of expatriates to transfer individual and organizational know-how and knowledge is a practice widely used by multinational enterprises (MNEs). However, for service firms, the mobility of employees across national borders depends on the commitments made by countries under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). In particular, the Mode 4 form of supply under GATS can limit the ability of professionals to enter a particular country and can restrict the intra-organizational transfer of knowledge in multinational service firms. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how MNEs attempt to overcome these barriers and transfer knowledge through their global network. As Nonaka and Takeuchi’s SECI model of knowledge transfer, the authors study the intra-organizational knowledge transfer practices of an Indian multinational service firm. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 key informants involved with the organization. As a result, the company uses global teams to transfer tacit knowledge and facilitates impatriation through an internship program that helps the firm overcome nationality requirement that restricts the movement of their managers to other countries, which in turn limits their ability to transfer knowledge in the intra-organizational setting by also facilitating the relationship with the Indian Government.

“A Jack of all trades or a master of none: the performance effects of balancing exploration and exploitation within vs across alliance portfolio domains” is the fifth paper selected for the special issue authored by Jennifer Sexton Jennifer, Christopher Peneny, Jim Combs and Nolan Gaffney. This study predicts a balancing of exploratory and exploitative learning (i.e. ambidexterity) across alliance portfolio domains (e.g. value chain function and governance modes) increases firm performance, whereas balance within domains decreases performance. Prior empirical work, however, only assessed balance/imbalance within and across two domains. To ensure that theory generalizes beyond specific domain combinations, we investigate across multiple domains whether alliance portfolios should be imbalanced toward either exploration or exploitation within domains and balanced across domains. We also extend prior research by exploring whether the direction of imbalance matters. Current theory only advises managers to accept imbalance without helping with the choice between exploration vs exploitation. An alliance portfolio that allows for exploration in some domains and exploitation in other domains appears more difficult to implement than prior theory suggests. Firms benefit mostly from using the alliance portfolio for exploratory learning. With respect to the balance between exploration and exploitation within each of the five domains investigated, hypotheses are tested using fixed-effects GLS regression analysis of a large 13-year panel sample of Fortune 500 firms from the years 1996 to 2008. The results show imbalanced alliance portfolios had higher firm performance, while no evidence was found that balance across domains relates to performance. Instead, for four of the five domains, imbalance toward exploration related positively to firm performance.

A team composed of Leyland Pitt Leyland, David Hannah, Michael Parent and Pierre Berthon have authored a conceptual research framework, and it is titled “Secrets and Knowledge management strategy: the role of secrecy appropriation mechanisms in realizing value from firm innovations.” The purpose of this research is to explore in depth the mechanisms that organizations use to keep their innovations secret. This paper examines how, when and why secrecy appropriation mechanisms (SAMs) can enable innovators to appropriately value from their innovations. The authors aim at adding a new view to previous research that has identified secrecy as an important appropriation mechanism for firms by exploring the origins, characteristics and effects of secrecy appropriation mechanisms. Building on the innovation and secrecy literature, the authors provide that SAMs can have both positive and negative effects on a number of organizational dynamics. SAMs involve tradeoffs, and the key to understanding whether they create value for organizations lies in understanding that these tradeoffs exist and the nature of these tradeoffs. While most managers recognize the importance of secrecy in innovations, many struggles with the practical challenges of doing so. The paper presents guidance that managers and theoreticians can use to meet these challenges as a form of testable propositions and recommendations for practitioners.

“Assessing the relationship between market orientation and business performance in the hotel industry – the mediating role of service quality” is the seventh quantitative article accepted for the special issue, and it is coauthored by Carlos Sampaio, José Hernández-Mogollón and Ricardo Rodrigues. This study seeks to explore the nature of the relationship between market orientation and business performance in the Portuguese hotel industry and to evaluate the mediating role of service quality in this relationship. On one hand, research on the hospitality sector has been conducted mainly using tools developed for the manufacturing and consumer goods sectors. On the other hand, little has been done to explore the nature of the mediating effect of service quality on the relationship between market orientation and business performance in the hotel industry. Moreover, despite the contribution of the tourism industry to the Portuguese GDP, research on the hotel industry is scarce. A literature analysis on market orientation, service quality and hotel business performance was conducted. The structural model was developed, and the measurement scales’ items were generated. Working data were obtained by sending a survey to Portuguese hotel managers. A purification process was conducted, and the convergent and discriminant validity, as well as the reliability of the measurement models, were assessed. The structural model was tested by conducting a path analysis, as well as by evaluating the coefficient of determination ( R 2) and the predictive relevance indicator ( Q 2). Research results show that market orientation has a positive direct effect on business performance. Moreover, the results indicate that market orientation effects on business performance are mediated throughout the hotels’ ability to provide service quality.

In conclusion, the last article, “Improving innovation performance through knowledge acquisition: the moderating role of employee retention and human resource management practices,” developed by Armando Papa, Luca Dezi, Gian Luca Gregori, Jens Mueller and Nicola Miglietta aims to fill research gaps in the existing literature, evaluating the effects of knowledge acquisition on innovation performance and the moderating effects of human resource management (HRM), in terms of employee retention and HRM practices, on the aforementioned relationship. This starts from the assumption that the knowledge base of the firm resides in the people who work for the firm and that some HRM factors can influence innovation within firms. According to an increasing proclivity toward engaging in open innovation, firms are likely to face some tensions and opportunities leading to a shift in the management of human resources. Despite this, there is a lack of research investigating the link between knowledge acquisition, HRM and innovation performance under the open innovation lens. This paper intends to fill this gap and nurture future research by assessing whether knowledge acquisition influences innovation performance and whether HRM moderates such a relationship. More specifically, for testing these hypotheses a sample of 129 firms operating in a wide array of sectors has been used to gather data through a standardized questionnaire for testing the hypotheses through ordinary least squares regression models. As a result, the authors show that knowledge acquisition positively affects innovation performance, and HRM moderates the relationship between knowledge acquisition and innovation performance.

Concluding thoughts

In this special issue, we have been able to combine different perspectives of thought and develop new theoretical conceptualizations within this complex and amazing research area. The authors have demonstrated much innovativeness and rigor, as well as commitment and resilience through the review rounds. However, they embody only a small portion of a large cast of scholars that was involved in bringing this special issue into success. Furthermore, this essay provided some empirical and theoretical issues that will generate future academic debates.

The limitations found in our papers in this special issue also yield additional gaps for future research. We wish to encourage scholars from strategy and knowledge management to focus on these gaps to help fill them and suggest a wider and multidisciplinary perspective on what constitutes SKM will lead to better theory and more insights in the field. Future studies might also pursue other opportunities unearthed in this special issue by testing construct measurements and models across different SKM contexts and relationships.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Editor-in-Chief, Professor Manlio Del Giudice, reviewers at JKM for their efforts in making this special issue possible and authors who tirelessly worked under time pressure to improve the quality of the submitted manuscripts.

About the authors

João Ferreira is based at the University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal.

Jens Mueller is Professor at Waikato Management School, The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand.

Armando Papa is Post Doc Research Fellow in Management at Department of Informatics, University of Turin, Italy.

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Knowledge Management in Modern Day Organization Essay

Introduction, list of references.

The essay will focus on summarizing two articles that focus on the topic knowledge management. The essay introduces the topic by explaining the need fro organizations to have knowledge management mechanism.

The introduction also explains why knowledge management is important in modern day professional management of organizations. Furthermore it also introduces the two type of knowledge: tacit knowledge, the type of knowledge acquired through experiences and explicit knowledge, the type of knowledge explained in books.

It also explains why and how the organization leadership should be at the forefront in establishing knowledge management mechanism. Furthermore the role of employees, who should be actively involved in seeking as well as sharing it amongst themselves as well as with fellow employees, is clearly explained. The two articles clearly state the reasons why knowledge sharing is important for organizational success.

Furthermore the role of leaders in the entire process clearly explained. However the articles fail to explain the process of gathering and classifying knowledge for easier utilization by organizations. Furthermore they only identify only one type of knowledge: tacit knowledge, thus ignoring other types of knowledge.

Knowledge management is a growing discipline among organizational management experts (Davidson 1996). Reports indicate that organizational success does not only depend on the type on knowledge that organization have but also on how the organization manages and utilizes that knowledge. As such management professionals have to ensure that they create a knowledge data base for their organization.

This knowledge library becomes a very valuable resource for all employees. If the knowledge management process is simple the organization is assured success (Bontis 2002). Furthermore there are two main types of knowledge sources: professional gurus as well as knowledge in books. While it is easy to manage knowledge in books, professional gurus must be treated with respect so as to feel compelled to share the knowledge they have. Thus knowledge management becomes the key for organization success.

Knowledge management is the key to a successful organization in modern management. The way an organization manages its knowledge determines the level of success achievable. Efforts’ to manage knowledge in organizations are the functions of the organization leadership. Organizational managers need to deliberately devise efficient methods to gather as well as share relevant knowledge with all employees. Thus mean that there is need to create a user friendly information library fro organizations.

Furthermore employees have to take initiative to acquire knowledge from professionals’ experts especially retiring employees in a respectful way. This would ensure that the gurus feel respected enough and thus compelled to share the knowledge they have. Such forms of knowledge transfer ensure that both tacit and explicit knowledge is transferred for profitable utilization (Collins 2010).

Knowledge management involves sharing available information with all the employees of the organization. This means that leaders must make a concerted efforts to ensure that all the knowledge that is require is available for use at the time and place where it is needed. Whereas knowledge sharing primarily the function of organization management.

Employee must also be actively involved in the process. Employees have the responsibly to proactively tap in the tacit knowledge base existing in professional gurus. The need to respectfully search is exemplified in the case of the two Indian brothers, Ram and Lakshman. While Ram was very respectful to the cruel king in requesting for knowledge Lakshman was rude. The result is that the cruel king was compelled to share his wisdom to Ram and ignored Lakashman.

The act of managing knowledge involves the development of a clear process of sharing available information. The process involves having the necessary mechanism to ensure that knowledge spreads easily across the organization (Handzic 2007). This means that organization leadership has to organize for strategic meetings to download knowledge. The meetings will also involve employee sharing whatever knowledge they have to other employees.

Existing knowledge must be sought. This literature does not highlight the effective ways to seek this knowledge. It also only identifies only one source of knowledge: retiring professionals. Furthermore, knowledge is not just useful to any situation in the organization. Effective knowledge management also requires the classification of that knowledge into related genres (Seipel, 2005). In addition knowledge gathering is also an important part of the knowledge management process.

Any successful organization goes beyond the acquisition and use of the latest technological application to acquire the best human resource. The organization would not be successful if it does not provide its human resource with the right information to aid their professional undertakings.

As such organizations must not only acquire relevant knowledge but also ensure that that knowledge is effectively distributed amongst employees. Furthermore employee must also be encouraged to share the knowledge they have with other employees. Organizations must also be able to tap in the knowledge that exist in retiring professionals’. These professional are among many other sources of knowledge’s that an organization can utilize.

Bontis, N. (2002) world congress on intellectual capital readings. Massachusetts: Butterworth-Heinemann

Collins, H. M. (2002). Tacit and explicit knowledge . Chicago: University Of Chicago Press

Davidson, Mike. (1996). The Transformation of Management , Massachusetts: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Handzic, M. (2007). Socio-technical knowledge management: studies and initiatives. London: IGF Publishing

Seipel, D. (2005). Applications of declarative programming and knowledge Management . Berlin: Springer

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Knowledge Management: Important Tips

What do it managers need to know about ‘knowledge management’ in our days.

The unprecedented growth of knowledge in the 20 th and now in the 21th century has brought about the necessity to manage knowledge. The new world order, though far from being fully defined and agreed to, is beginning to already point at some of the strategic threats and opportunities that would be determining factors in our ability to help shape a new century that we can look back as symbolic of the human spirit and its collective accomplishment at its best and most current stage in the evolution. As knowledge increasingly becomes the key strategic resource of the future our need to develop comprehensive understanding of knowledge processes for the creation, transfer and deployment of this unique asset are becoming critical. In the face of a globally expanding and highly competitive knowledge-based economy, the traditional organizations are urgently seeking fundamental insights to help them nurture, harvest and manage the immense potential of their knowledge assets for capability to excel at the leading edge of innovation. Hence, the management of knowledge has become extremely important to the business world. This has brought about the rise of knowledge management. This article tries to ascertain the areas that managers should know in order to deal with knowledge management and knowledge management systems in organizations.

In order to understand knowledge management and its importance to today’s business, we need to understand what knowledge management actually means. Knowledge can be defined as the understanding managers gain which is attained through the process of experience or appropriate study. Before we try to define knowledge management, it is important to understand what knowledge is. Knowledge has been described by many as “information combined with experience, context, interpretation, reflection and is highly contextual” (Barnes, 2001). Hence, according to this definition knowledge is considered to be information plus something more. Knowledge can be of two types: tacit and explicit. Tacit knowledge as described by Poliyani refers to the information that we know but are not aware of knowing such information. In other words, our mind knows more than what we know. Explicit knowledge is the information that we hold (Barnes, 2001). It seems an insurmountable task to talk about knowledge and reach general consensus about it. Since human individuals have written all the literature, in other words, individual knowledge has created knowledge; all access is individual in turn. Publications over the past decades lack general consensus on the definition of knowledge management (Wilson). By contrast, different patterns of definitions originate from different academic disciplines, such as organizational theory, information science, psychology, and sociology (Wilson).

This definition of knowledge has been criticized by Wilson (2002 ). He studies the approach to knowledge management in different scholarly articles, by consultants, and in education institutes. According to his research, knowledge has been misinterpreted as information and has been used as synonymous terms. Even the concept of tacit knowledge has been deliberately misinterpreted by consultants and academicians in order to make knowledge management a new management fad.

Taking the available definition of knowledge in the literature, we consider knowledge taking the form of intellectual capital. Barnes (2001) describes information as explicit knowledge and intellectual capital as tacit knowledge. This intellectual capital becomes the true component of the organizations today. Further, knowledge has different process associated and it is important to identify the processes that can be managed (Barnes, 2001). This leads us to the problem of managing knowledge.

Know when it comes to defining knowledge management it is difficult choose the right definition as there are numerous definition provided in the literature (Wilson, 2002 ). The term “Knowledge Management” is used to describe everything from the application of new technology to harnessing of the intellectual capital of an organization. From an organizational context, it has become fashionable to downplay the significance of an organization’s information processing and communication capabilities for the success of knowledge management (Cross & Baird, 2000). It is certainly true that knowledge management’s salient issues go far beyond the infrastructure of information systems (Wilson, 2002 ). Knowledge management has been used in several frameworks such as organizational learning, improved levels of organizational performance, and use of analytical software for high performance in organizational learning (Wilson). As defined by Barnes (2001):

Knowledge management is the attempt to improve/maximise the use of knowledge which exists in an organisation. More specifically it aims to stimulate its creation and encourage its capture, sorting, sifting, access, linking, storage and distribution. In short, it addresses itself to the processes identified above.

Knowledge management is the deliberate and systematic coordination of an organization’s people, technology, processes and organizational structure in order to add value through reuse and innovation. This coordination is achieved by creating, sharing and applying knowledge as well as through feeding the valuable lessons learnt and incorporating the best practices into corporate memory in order to foster continued organizational learning (Dalkir). KM also facilitates flow of knowledge and sharing to improve the efficiency of individuals and hence the organizations. There are many factors that adversely affect the success of KM implementation in the organizations, known as KM barriers (Cross & Baird, 2000). These may be internal and external type barriers. Internal barriers originate from organizational cultures, organizational structures, etc. The second group of barriers is outside the immediate control of the organization.

On this discussion, it is important to understand the knowledge management barrier which becomes hindrances to establishing Knowledge management in organizations. Barriers, which hinder organizations to implement KM, have been identified from various authors who have researched and written directly on this issue. One of the earliest sets of barriers for implementing KM was reported by a study of Fraunhofer Stuttgart. According to this study, scarcity of time and lack of awareness about KM were the most important barriers to implement KM (Bullinger, Worner, & Prieto, 1997)Aligned with this type of approach, another study to explore the practices has identified three major barriers namely scarcity of time, lack of awareness and lack of top management support, to implement KM[20]. Based on lessons captured from leading organizations, two of the KPMG (Wilson, 2002 ) studies have proposed four (lack of time, lack of understanding of KM and its benefits, lack of funding and lack of senior management support) and five (lack of time, the sharing of one’s own knowledge, an unclear strategy, weaknesses of information communication technology support, and unclear information demand) key barriers respectively to KM initiatives (KPMG, 1998).

The Delphi study has proposed three barriers, among which culture was the top most barrier and immature technology and lack of need of KM were the minor barriers (Wilson, 2002 ). Another survey has identified culture, leadership, lack of understanding, efforts vs. reward, technology and knowledge complexity as barriers to KM implementation (Wilson, 2002 ). A survey of Indian engineering industries has proposed twenty barriers, amongst them, lack of understanding of KM and lack of top management commitment have been identified as top most barriers. According to this survey, there is a need for KM strategy which must be supported by top management and requires a good KM infrastructure, staff retention, and incentives to encourage knowledge sharing. Reference shows culture as a main barrier and lack of time, and lack of ownership of problem as two other barriers. Reference (Riege, 2005) classifies barriers into three categories namely organizational, individual, and technological barriers. Organizational barriers are lack of leadership, organizational structure, processes etc. Individual barriers are lack of time to share knowledge, job security, benefit of knowledge management, low awareness, and realization of the value etc. Technological barriers are lack of integration of information technology system, unrealistic expectation of employees, lack of training etc.

But there are problems that are faced while a knowledge management systems are implemented which leads to the failure of most knowledge management (Wilson, 2002 ). Knowledge management excessively takes the path of using information system. Knowledge building, externalized, organizational memory provides a powerful resource for knowledge advancement, and advances are realized through collective responsibility knowledge creation. What is important for today’s managers to know is how knowledge management can be accomplished. KM aims to increase the ability of workers to perform knowledge-intensive tasks. From the perspective of work as creative design, we can restate this purpose simply as understanding the problem at hand (Fische & Ostwald, 2001).

Hence, to manage knowledge it is important to identify process of determining overall business objectives, identifying target knowledge consumers, and conducting detailed needs assessment will typically result in a much larger vision than originally envisaged (Talisma, 2006). There are different barriers which arise in the way of knowledge sharing and management and need special attention to take care of these problems. Another problem that can be observed for implementation go knowledge managed is “KM [Knowledge Management] implementations do not pay enough attention to the actual knowledge content—Web pages, documents, FAQs, solution finders, searchable databases, and external syndicated information. The challenge is to not get inundated with information, and yet identify adequate and relevant knowledge to kick-start user adoption of the KM system.” (Talisma, 2006, p. 8). But there are questions that linger pertaining to the implementation of knowledge management systems and its excessive inclination on information system. Hence, managers should know that knowledge management systems are not information systems.

Works Cited

Barnes, P. C. (2001). A primer on knowledge management.  2008. Web.

Bullinger, H., Worner, K., & Prieto, J. (1997). Knowledge management today: Data, facts, trend, (in german). Institut fur Fraunhofer fur Arbeit Management und Organisation (IAO): Stuttgart.

Cross, R., & Baird, L. (2000). Technology is not enough: improving performance by building organizational memory. Sloan Management Review Vol. 41, No. 3 , 69–79.

Dalkir, K. Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice. Burlington: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.

Fische, G., & Ostwald, J. (2001). KM aims to increase the ability of workers Problems, Promises, Realities, and Challenges. IEEE Intelligent Systems , 60-74.

KPMG. (1998). Knowledge management research report 1998. in: KPMG Management (K. Consulting, ed.). Consulting.

Riege, A. (2005). Three-dozen knowledge-sharing barriers managers must consider. Journal of Knowledge Management 9(3) , 18–35.

Talisma. (2006). Knowledge Management Implementation Best Practices. Web. 

Wilson, T. (2002). The nonsense of ‘knowledge management’.  2008. Web.

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