Knowledge management: strategy or software?

Abstract

Knowledge management is a rapidly growing, and rapidly changing discipline. While the link between knowledge assets and competitive advantage has been accepted for some time, it is not obvious how this translates into the techniques and software tools that are labelled as knowledge management processes. This article details the strategic requirements linking the conceptual “mission” of knowledge management with the processes that serve it.

A model for assessing the coherence of companies’ knowledge strategy

“…Nevertheless the academic literature on knowledge sharing strategy is wide-ranging (e.g. DiBella et al, 1996;Beckett et al, 2000;Schulz & Jobe, 2001;Maier & Remus, 2003;Jasimuddin et al, 2005;Wu & Lee, 2007;Choi et al, 2008), and the classification between personalisation and codification of knowledge, which reflects Polanyi's (1967) historical division between explicit and tacit knowledge, is universally recognised and accepted. However, there exists an academic debate concerning the balance between and focalization of the two policies of knowledge sharing.…”

“…Knowledge development, characterised by the two policies of internal and external development (or exploration) of organisational knowledge, as stated in Zack's (1999) seminal contribution and subsequently developed by Beckett et al (2000), Bierly & Daly (2002), Maier & Remus (2003), Pai (2005) and Choi et al (2008). …”

“…The final perspective concerns the formulation and implementation of companies' knowledge strategies (Hansen et al, 1999;Zack, 1999, Beckett et al, 2000Bierly & Daly, 2002, Choi et al, 2008. Here, the fundamental assumption is that the real competitive advantage of KM remains only a potential advantage if it is not linked to the strategy that drives business (Hansen et al, 1999;Zack, 1999;Smith, 2004;Halawi et al, 2006) as well as its organisational context and competitive environment (Wang, 2001;Droge et al, 2003;Thornill, 2006;Merono Cerdan et al, 2007).…”

Dynamic capabilities and operational capabilities: A knowledge management perspective

“…However, a shared understanding and acceptance of a mission can provide a rationale for action for executives to generate alternative strategic initiatives. Each alternative is associated with certain knowledge requirements that need to be articulated in order to implement the initiative (Beckett et al, 2000). For example, in case research at a European innovation and technology center, Cepeda, Galan, and Leal (2004) observe that the exercise of examining the center's explicit mission helped the top management team to articulate and evaluate a set of strategic projects and the most desired knowledge configurations associated with them.…”

Knowledge Management Practice at a Bulgarian Bank

“…The last step is to select the appropriate KM process to move along each migration path identified. Beckett et al (2000) suggest that KM strategy should consist of three categories, which includes knowledge acquisition, knowledge retention and knowledge exploitation. For knolwedge acquistion, organizations should develop ways to capture new knowledge from within and outside the organization.…”