A knowledge worker is an employee who possesses valuable experience, knowledge and expertise about the methods, processes and technology used to complete tasks. A manual worker may have lots of valuable experience too, but manual workers do not own the means of production. A knowledge worker, however, owns the means of production, and this knowledge is portable and an enormous capital asset (Drucker, 2000). Therefore, manual workers are usually seen as a cost , while knowledge workers are seen as capital assets . Costs need to be controlled and reduced, while assets need to be made to grow (Drucker, 2000).

Businesses need competent people to interpret and utilize information and knowledge effectively to survive and remain competitive within their respective markets. They rely on key individuals to innovate and guide other employees through business processes. They also rely on subject matter experts to provide input into specific applications. Therefore, firms must consider how to attract, develop, track and retain knowledgeable people as part of their KM domain (Tannenbaum and Alliger, 2000). When advocating the usefulness of KM, a rationale often heard is that when a competent or key employee leaves, the firm loses vital knowledge and, in the worst case scenario, an aspect of its competitiveness (Hildreth et al., 2000). With the growing mobility in the labour market, businesses should pay increasing attention to this problem, specifically focusing on improving the conditions for internal knowledge sharing.