There is no universal definition of knowledge management (KM), just as there's no agreement as to what constitutes knowledge. For this reason, it's best to think of KM in the broadest context. KM is the process through which organizations generate value from their intellectual and knowledge-based assets. Most often, generating value from such assets involves sharing them among employees, departments and even with other companies in an effort to devise best practices (Santosus & Surmacz, 2001). The goal of KM is to simultaneously manage data, information, and explicit knowledge while leveraging what people know (tacit knowledge) through a combination of technology and management practices (Emery,

Management behavior and commitment requires that managers need to treat knowledge as a real asset and support the philosophy behind knowledge management (Giannetto & Wheeler, 2000).

The appraisal and reward system in an organization can either encourage people to be open and share their knowledge with others or make them feel that sharing makes them less valuable to the organization (Giannetto & Wheeler, 2000).

KM is a practice, not a technology (Reynolds, 1998). While technology can support KM, it’s not sufficient enabler of KM. Current information management technology is knowledge-enabling and playing a strong role in managing explicit knowledge. The primary purpose of technology’s ability to capture and manage explicit knowledge is to assist transfer of knowledge from person to person. “……companies are investing in technology thinking that they will create knowledge – that’s wrong. What you can have is an information management system that enables knowledge creation in various parts of an organization. A KM system is actually the whole organization” (Sveiby, as qtd in, Emery, 1999).

Knowledge and differences between Knowledge and Information

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