The Role of Effective Chief Knowledge Officer in Facilitating Knowledge Management

Abstract

This paper addresses the need to appoint a chief knowledge officer (CKO) in an organisation and where that position be placed within the organisation structure. It also presents a comprehensive review of the literature in an attempt to answer the question regarding the elements: attributes and responsibilities of the CKO, and organisational conditions that contribute to the CKO success. Moreover, this paper highlights the role of the effective CKO in facilitating knowledge management (KM). Finally, this paper addresses the challenges that the CKO may encounter and forecasts what will be tomorrow's CKO. The approach of this paper is based on an intensive and comprehensive literature review that aim to study the CKO position and address different aspects related to the real potential of the CKO's role that is, transforming intellectual capital into profit. An integrative conceptual research model is adopted and modified to encompass the CKO attributes, responsibilities, and organisational conditions that contribute to the CKO success and his/her role in facilitating KM. Both quantitative and qualitative studies that addressed related aspect to CKO have been reviewed. From these studies it can be concluded that the primary role of the CKO is to convert knowledge into profit by leveraging the organisation's intellectual assets through facilitating KM. This study is probably one of the first studies to introduce a research model that delineates and integrates multiple issues that contribute to the success of the CKO and comprehensively present a detailed literature about this position. The findings of this paper have implications for both academicians and organisational executives.