Book Description

Knowledge Management is here to stay. This book is a compilation of a number of important papers on this subject selected by two leaders in this field of study. A wide range of topic have been chosen which leads the reader through some of the most important considerations in the field today. The book argues that this thing called Knowledge Management has been around for at least 25 years. Yet despite being accused, at several times in that period, of being nothing more than a passing management fad or fashion, it has retained or rather sustained interest by both academics and practitioners. Publication levels in a variety of related journals remains high and organisations continue to implement strategies, processes and systems to create and share knowledge assets of importance to their business. One reason for this situation is the reality that Knowledge Management is, to a large degree, an amalgam of a number of different academic areas. A variety of academic disciplines (strategy, sociology, psychology, IT, library sciences and accounting, to mention only a few) have all made contributions. Practitioners recognize the key terms and have a loose understanding of the general subject matter, however formal education in the field is still limited and focused in a few areas. Indeed only a few KM departments exist across the world and most KM education seems to occur in the library science and IT faculties, and not in the business studies departments, where it truly belongs. This book is an important text for academics, researchers, students and practitioners.