Overview

Leveraging the intellectual assets of the organisation continues to be a key strategic concern for many business leaders and should be one of the top priorities for HR.

New markets, new ways of doing business, together with new organisational structures to support these broader changes, all call for a greater focus on managing knowledge. The survey findings reported in Chapter 1 on how seriously organisations are taking knowledge management, indicate that this is moving higher up the strategic agenda for business, and now for the HR community too. However, this has not been the case to date for HR. Indeed, HR have come under criticism for not being more proactive in the knowledge management arena. This is despite the fact that managing know how , which if we unpack this is about managing and getting the best out of knowledgeable people, maps directly onto HR s core competence.

The need to get a better handle on managing knowledge has more of a direct impact on some types of businesses than others. In high-tech businesses, as well as in consultancies, it is easier to see the link between managing knowledge and business results. After all what these types of organisations are selling is their know how no know how , no sale, or certainly no repeat sale.

However, managing knowledge is now moving higher up the strategic agenda in other business sectors. Public sector organisations, for example, are under pressure to become more performance orientated, which includes adopting a more customer-focused approach.