Knowledge Management Research and Practice

Knowledge management is a term that has worked its way into the mainstream of both academic and business arenas since it was first coined in the 1980s. Interest has increased rapidly during the last decade and shows no signs of abating. The current state of the knowledge management field is that it encompasses four overlapping areas: - Managing knowledge (creating/acquiring, sharing, retaining, storing, using, updating, retiring), - Organisational learning, - Intellectual capital, - Knowledge economics. Within (and across) these, knowledge management has to address issues relating to technology, people, culture and systems. Perhaps as a consequence of this diversity, the knowledge management literature is at present fragmented. Many of the most influential articles on knowledge management appear in journals in fields as diverse as information systems, general management, strategy, organisational sociology or human resources. The literature also often, somewhat misleadingly, presents the subject as split. Current examples of these "splits", which should rather be debates, include those between the "codification" and "collaboration" schools of thought, and between "Western" (meaning North American) and "Eastern" (meaning Japanese) approaches. The intention for this journal is not only to accommodate these and other perspectives, but also to seek common ground between them.