Building knowledge management systems has become a major concern for organisations globally.  The question of knowledge management tools been pragmatic enough to support the expanding landscape of organisational processes and practice is increasingly becoming the focus of today’s researchers and proponents of situated practical theory.  Organisations must therefore embrace, not only a functionalist, but a pragmatic and epistemological approach to knowledge management in driving efficiency in processes and practice. Organisations process and manage knowledge for all categories of transactions using knowledge management systems and tools.  The drive for the efficient creation, representation, storage and processing of knowledge is an integral part of every organization, and as such using a practical approach to building knowledge management systems is key to the success of this process.  Knowledge assets in oragnaisations require a navigation tool such as a knowledge map to search and graphically explore the knowledge necessary for the transfer and application of knowledge.  Data mining and learning tools, repositories of knowledge, electronic bulletin boards, electronic mail, collaboration tools, directories of knowledge, and several other tools such as expert systems and decision support tools give credence to the usage scenarios of knowledge management systems in organisations.

The era of information technology, and the fast pace of development witnessed in this direction has also affected the way knowledge is coded and used in the context of the processes and practice of organisations.  For organisations to succeed in the management of knowledge, efforts in the direction of searchable knowledge repositories must be driven beyond the capture and sharing of the organisation’s document knowledge.  However, the question of the capture and sharing of experiential knowledge will always arise as more knowledge is captured, coded and shared.  This question requires answers, and these answers must be based on not just the explicitly documented knowledge of organisations but the knowledge of subject matter experts represented in a manner that can be easily stored, retrieved and distributed.  To achieve this and help organisations develop more intelligent systems and processes, collaboration among the academia and practitioners must be a consideration at all times.

 

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