Major Approaches to Knowledge Management - Essay Example

Peter Drucker introduced the first related term ‘Knowledge Worker’ in 1960. Over the years, there has been a significant growth in this field and various authors and scholars have brought a number of different areas of focus on the subject. Carlie (1998) highlighted that several theories were developed to manage the intellectual capital in the 21st century. Graham and Thomas (2008) believed that KM is supported as a means of harnessing and utilizing intellectual resources to address challenges, as well as improving innovation, business performance and client approval.

Since 1996, there has been immense and rapid growth in terms of KM. Knowledge is the awareness of what one knows through study, reasoning, experience or association, or through various other types of learning (McInerney, 2002). KM consists of four key processes to include knowledge acquisition, knowledge sharing, scoring knowledge and knowledge use. DeNoni, Orsi, and Pilotti (2009) believed that the implementation of knowledge management needs effective methods of accessing, measuring and controlling information to manage increasing complexity.

This paper aims at highlighting the major approaches that have been developed for KM. This paper addresses the various approaches that have been developed and the importance that this plays in the success of a business. A comparison of the similarities and the differences of the major approaches are discussed. Finally, the importance of computer technology in capturing the unique level dependent organizational knowledge will also be discussed. It is essential to briefly understand the meaning of KM before moving into the various approaches.

KM has been discussed and described by several experts. Ron Young, CEO of Knowledge Associates International has defined KM as, “the discipline of enabling individuals, teams and entire organizations to