The Origins and Development of Knowledge Management

Abstract

Though it had earlier antecedents, the concept of Knowledge Management (KM), as we now know it, evolved as a concept in the late 1980s. The term originated in the consulting community. It arose from the merger of two factors: the recognition of the importance to an organisation of its information and knowledge assets, and from the emergence of the Internet and the almost immediate recognition of the utility of the Internet as an information and knowledge sharing tool, particularly for geographically dispersed organisations. KM has gone through four stages: (1) An emphasis upon the new technology and upon the development of "best practices" or "lessons learned". (2) An increased recognition of human and cultural factors, and upon the development of "communities of practice" to facilitate the sharing of information. (3) An increased recognition of the importance of designing the systems for retrievability, and the importance of data design and structure, including taxonomy development and utilisation. (4) An emphasis upon extending KM systems beyond the parent organisation to include, for example, vendors and suppliers, customers, users, alumni, etc. KM has exhibited remarkable staying power and growth in a fashion that is dramatically different from all other business enthusiasms of the late 20th century.

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