Knowledge Management in Organisations:A Critical Review

The purpose of this paper is to conduct an in-depth review of various concepts related to knowledge management (KM) and investigate the importance and process of KM as well. The word “Knowledge” means that which is known. In the process of knowing there are two parties (entities): one man, the knower and the other the knowee, i.e., things and concepts. Impact and interaction between the two gives birth to knowledge. The knower is always man and the knowee is made up of entities, i.e., things or concepts. When man knows the entities, Knowledge is established. KM is a process, which deals with knowledge creation, acquisition, packaging and application or reuse of knowledge. In the present study, various scholarly articles were identified using multiple databases. The main search terms that were used on the databases were KM, KM systems, knowledge, information systems, information theory. When choosing which articles to include the finding result was limited to articles and then a selection of relevant ones was made. At first, few theoretical bases about KM which include definitions and stages about KM have been summarised and analysed. Then, a comprehensive review about the major approaches for designing the KM system from different perspectives has been conducted. The contributions of this paper will be useful for both academics and practitioners for the study of KM. The result shows that KM is the main key for the organisations to stay competitive. Besides, KM also creates innovation and ideas that are unique from others. The analysis of the paper is based on literature review; therefore, the concepts developed in the paper need empirical testing.