Abstract

Management theorists and practitioners have been allured recently to the contemporary field of knowledge management. This is a burgeoning subject that has enticed the involvement of specialists from established domains that are broad based in themselves: strategy, organizational behaviour, operations and information technology. In arguing the importance of knowledge in the strategic purpose of the organization, authorities essentially endorse practices that have been supported in the past: practices that appreciate the social context of knowledge. This paper reviews the debates in strategic theory that support the contemporary 'knowledge-based' view of the organization, and describes how established practices relating to knowledge transfer and creation have been recently revitalized.