One more time with feeling: what is KM and why does it exist?

Over the years the same question still rages when it comes to organisational Knowledge Management (I am not going to digress into the fact that we should be talking about Knowledge Capability here, I've done that enough lately):

• "How can I describe what Knowledge Management is?" (or variations on the theme)

When people ask this question discussion boards light up with ambiguous answers that are really not helpful, such as these recent examples:

• there is no definition of what Knowledge Management "is" or "does"

• it's whatever you want it to be

• anything can be KM

• everything is KM

• it's what you make it

To answer what Knowledge Management is supposed to "do" in an organisation, you first have to be able to answer why it exists in the first place - the two questions are inextricably linked - and I hope the following will help you.

• KM is about the organisation's ongoing ability to efficiently and effectively design, develop, deliver and maintain products and/or services that existing and future customers want.

• KM achieves this by leading on the organisation's awareness of, and capability to, acquire and embed (store), share, use (deploy) and develop knowledge.

For those interested, the evidence for this involves a peer-reviewed meta-analysis of over 1k KM journal/professional articles/publications. Let me know if it helps.

#knowledgecapability #knowledgemanagement #definition #rationale #research