Knowledge, Culture, and Cultural Impact on Knowledge Management

Abstract

This chapter offers a taste of the ingredients for further debates that continue to emerge from within knowledge management communities. The author has identified the nuts and bolts of the debate encountered by managers who find themselves faced with high costs involved in breaking cultural barriers, and offers suggestions as to how these can be overcome. From an academic perspective, the author argues that successful knowledge creation and management comes from the combination of two schools of thought – social and technological - and that any considerations that sideline either of these will be wrong or may be hard to justify, when related to the claim of best practice and/or the rationale of quality delivery of the business case. The chapter argues that current organisational practices involving a strong emphasis on team work and the ability to use technologies dominate business operations hence, it is equally important to unblock the human factors that are likely to hinder people’s interaction within a team as it is to keep to the minimum physical barriers and systems that may impede this exercise.