10.7 Roles of People in Knowledge Management

Managing knowledge typically requires a full-time staff who examines, structures, filters, catalogues, and stores knowledge so that it is meaningful and can be accessed by people who need it.

If they identify specific knowledge that an employee or client might need, they send it directly to them, thus adding value to the organization.

Members of knowledge management teams include:

Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO)

CEO

Other officers and managers

Members and leaders of communities of practice

KMS developers

KMS staff

CKO's must do the following:

Set strategic priorities for knowledge management

Establish a knowledge repository of best practices

Gain a commitment from senior executives to support a learning environment

Teach information seekers how to ask better and smarter questions

Establish a process for managing intellectual assets

Obtain customer satisfaction information in near real time

Globalize knowledge management

The CEO is responsible for championing the KM effort. 

Communities of practice (COP) have appeared within organizations that are serious about their knowledge management efforts. 

A COP is a group of people in an organization with a common professional interest. The community is responsible for the accuracy and timeliness of the knowledge it contributes and for identifying its potential use.