Affective Factors for Successful Knowledge Management

Background

Most managers will agree that their organization's capability to act is heavily dependent on its knowledge assets and how they are managed. In this regard, information technology (I/T) may be used to create, capture, organize, access and use the intellectual assets of the organization; however as Davenport and Prusak assert (1998; p. 123) “Knowledge management is much more than technology, but ‘Techknowledgy’ is clearly part of knowledge management”. In other words I/T is an enabler (Allee, 1997). Coakes (2006; p. 581-582) tabulates the several roles and ways that I/T may support KM, but counsels “Successful knowledge management continues to need a socio-technical approach where the social aspects of knowledge creation, storage, and sharing need to be considered alongside the technical” (Coakes, 2006; p. 591).