'Knowledge Management': A Telling Oxymoron?

Abstract

As organisations continue to seek optimal levels of competitive advantage and innovation, the search continues for more powerful and successful ways of achieving these goals. One such is the emerging discipline of Knowledge Management (KM). This is an approach, which is becoming firmly embedded in the panoply of management methods, as noted by Scarborough et al. (1999), “Knowledge Management (and the learning organisation) represent important new approaches to the problems of competitiveness and innovation confronting organisations.” These are not insignificant claims and, typically, pursuing them requires organisational investment, which is also substantial. This paper seeks to develop a critique of KM, with a view to supporting more informed theory and practice in this area. This critique is based upon recent empirical research (Sutton, 2000; Sutton and White, 2000; White and Sutton, 2000). The nature, methods, and key findings of that research are, therefore, briefly described here.