Overview

One of the clear indicators of knowledge management s youth as a discipline is the extent to which its position in corporate structures can vary wildly from one firm to another. Indeed, one of the more vexing problems for would-be knowledge managers is determining where to position themselves in the corporate hierarchy. Let s consider the options.

Perhaps the most common and knee-jerk reaction to the question of where to put KM is to lodge it somewhere on the IT side of the house. The logic here, of course, is that KM is just another application of IT, and so it rightfully belongs in the hands of the CIO (chief information officer). This approach accounts for the fact that many IT trade publications, such as CIO magazine, have embraced KM as one of their own, and now routinely treat it as though KM is nothing more than the latest rage in IT. But is it?

From here, the field of play gets increasingly fuzzier. Even in cases where knowledge management is presided over by a Chief Knowledge Officer, or CKO, oversight of this function can still vary widely, from IT functions on the one hand, to R&D, finance, or HR on the other. Unfortunately, the mere act of establishing a CKO title does little to resolve the central question of where KM logically belongs in a firm. Let s continue looking at the options beyond IT, all of which typically begin by making reference to the value chain (see Figure...