The concept of Knowledge Management and its evolution

The concept of Knowledge Management and its evolution

The concept of Knowledge Management and its evolution

The business environment of the twenty-first century is dominated by a powerful influence: the knowledge and information revolution. Knowledge is thought to be the only meaningful resource in this knowledge-based economy. The traditional factors of production have become secondary. In the current economy of increased global competition companies are using knowledge as a means to gain competitive advantage. Their ability to succeed largely depends on how well they can manage knowledge. Without a doubt, Knowledge Management (KM) has become increasingly important for all organizations. Knowledge Management is a concept and a term that arose approximately two decades ago, roughly in 1990. Quite simply one might say that it means organizing an organization’s information and knowledge holistically, but it is not the whole picture. Very early on in the KM movement, Davenport (1994) offered the still widely quoted definition: “Knowledge management is the process of capturing, distributing, and effectively using knowledge.” This definition has the virtue of being simple, stark, and to the point. A few years later, the Gartner Group created another second definition of KM, which is perhaps the most frequently cited one (Duhon, 1998): “Knowledge management is a discipline that promotes an integrated approach to identifying, capturing, evaluating, retrieving, and sharing all of an enterprise’s information assets. These assets may include databases, documents, policies, procedures, and previously uncaptured expertise and experience in individual workers.” Both definitions share a very organizational, a very corporate orientation. KM, historically at least, is primarily about managing the knowledge of and in