Making the case for knowledge management: the bigger picture

Despite several years of hearty media and academic interest, for most people “knowledge management” still remains an ill‐defined and woolly concept. The problem may be that knowledge management proponents have usually focused on either the minutiae of implementation ‐ intranets and data mining techniques ‐ or worse, on abstract theories such as the value of trust in a knowledge sharing culture. This article contends that it is only really possible to appreciate the concrete importance of knowledge management in the workplace if the subject is seen in a much broader context ‐ as causally related to the enormous changes taking place in the global economic framework itself. These more fundamental changes to the economic environment are what are driving organizations toward adopting the sophisticated new set of policies and practices known as “knowledge management”. In short, there is a broad “knowledge‐based revolution” taking place, and it comes in a matching set: the knowledge‐based economy for nations, and knowledge management for organizations themselves.