Knowledge management is concerned with storing and sharing the wisdom, understanding and expertise accumulated in an organization about its processes, techniques and operations. It treats knowledge as a key resource. As Ulrich (1998) comments, ‘Knowledge has become a direct competitive advantage for companies selling ideas and relationships.’ There is nothing new about knowledge management. Hansen et al (1999) remark that ‘For hundreds of years, owners of family businesses have passed on their commercial wisdom to children, master craftsmen have painstakingly taught their trades to apprentices, and workers have exchanged ideas and know-how on the job.’ But they also remark that, ‘As the foundation of industrialized economies has shifted from natural resources to intellectual assets, executives have been compelled to examine the knowledge underlying their business and how that knowledge is used.’
Knowledge management deals as much with people and how they acquire, exchange and disseminate knowledge as with information technology. That is why it has become an important area for HR practitioners, who are in a strong position to exert influence in this aspect of people management. Scarborough et al (1999) believe that they should have ‘the ability to analyse the different types of knowledge deployed by the organization… [and] to relate such knowledge to issues of organizational design, career patterns and employment security.’
The concept of knowledge management is closely associated with intellectual capital theory as described in Chapter 2 in that it refers to the notions of human, social and organizational or structural capital. It is also linked to the concepts of organizational learning and the learning organization as discussed in Chapter 36. Knowledge management is considered in this chapter under the following headings:
Knowledge management deals as much with people and how they acquire, exchange and disseminate knowledge as with information technology. That is why it has become an important area for HR practitioners, who are in a strong position to exert influence in this aspect of people management. Scarborough et al (1999) believe that they should have ‘the ability to analyse the different types of knowledge deployed by the organization… [and] to relate such knowledge to issues of organizational design, career patterns and employment security.’
The concept of knowledge management is closely associated with intellectual capital theory as described in Chapter 2 in that it refers to the notions of human, social and organizational or structural capital. It is also linked to the concepts of organizational learning and the learning organization as discussed in Chapter 36. Knowledge management is considered in this chapter under the following headings:
● definition of the process of knowledge management;
● the concept of knowledge;
● types of knowledge;
● the purpose and significance of knowledge management;
● approaches to knowledge management;
● knowledge management issues;
● the contribution of HR to knowledge management.
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