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TopKnowledge Management, Evolution Of A Discipline
Knowledge has been considered as of central importance for the functioning and competitiveness of organisations in modern life (Jennex & Olfman, 2005, Soliman, 2000). In consequence, knowledge management has emerged over the last decade of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first century as one of the major improvements in managerial theory (Fugate, Stank & Mantzer, 2009; Pappa et al., 2009).
The term ‘knowledge management’ appeared in 1974 in a landmark article by Henry (1974). Henry states (1974, p. 189):
By knowledge management, I mean public policy for production, dissemination, accessibility, and use of information as it applies to public policy formulation. In this sense, knowledge management constitutes what Yehazkel Dror calls ‘metapolicy’; that is policy for policy-making procedures.
However, Tiwana (2004) argues that knowledge management developed after the 1950s and improved in many forms. In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, the appearance of Management by Objective (MBO), Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT), and Strategic Planning formed the first characteristics of knowledge management tools and techniques.