Can knowledge be managed?

From an organisational point of view knowledge has a far more importance and value than an individual. Managing the available knowledge is critically an important aspect to an organisation for its growth and success. But this process has to do with lot of caution since knowledge is a very sensitive entity.

According to Polanyi’s (1967) concept has two dimensions for knowledge which are tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge. Tacit knowledge which is bounded into individuals which mostly gain from experience and personal-interactions is hard to express where as explicit knowledge is easy to articulate or capture.

Predominantly based on this concept different scholars have presented number of knowledge management models from organisational and social aspects. The SECI model of Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) is one very famous knowledge management model. Even though it is most popular as a knowledge management model, it is more focused in knowledge creation process. The model is about transferring of tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge to others by story telling, documenting, through discussions and inventing of knowledge, etc. Further more the model addresses knowledge dissemination through the processes of “socialisation” and “combination” which is sharing knowledge with others in the forms of tacit and explicit respectively. To be able to share the knowledge more successfully within a modern organisation knowledge storage is also essential. A knowledge base system is one example for storing knowledge.