To compete in the emerging knowledge-centric economy, many organizations around the world have undertaken various initiatives to manage their most important yet volatile asset—knowledge. Knowledge management (KM) refers to a systematic and organizational process for acquiring/creating, organizing, sharing, transferring, using/applying, and updating both tacit and explicit knowledge to enhance the organizational performance, improve organizational adaptability, increase values of existing products and services, and/or create new knowledge-intensive products, processes and services. While KM was developed first in industries and business functions that are basically selling knowledge—professional services, pharmaceuticals, research and development functions—it is quickly becoming prevalent in other industries, including manufacturing, financial services, and government organizations. It can be expected that most of industries will view themselves as knowledge-intensive and will develop or adopt some KM initiatives in their business units and functions.

The purpose of this course is to provide a comprehensive overview on the emergent practices in KM. Specifically, in this course, we will explain the concepts, theories, and technologies that establish the foundation for KM, processes and strategies for developing and deploying KM initiatives, and organizational, managerial, and behavioral perspectives concerning various KM activities.