Yes, this will be a debate, I’m sure! Lots of opinions and points of view available.
I closely follow any new jobs posted for Knowledge Managers to try to determine what is going on out there. In short, I believe there is confusion. Yes, I agree, the role and responsibilities will be organization-specific, but when digging into the story behind the story, most of the job posts are not actually fully knowledge management-specific. The main focus is mostly related to the utilization of information technology to support knowledge management functions, with a sub-focus on people, processes, and systems. In truth, all these pillars need attention at the same level. Organizations exist because of humans. Who knows, maybe in the future AI will start its own organizations. I’ll leave that for a sci-fi movie. To synthesize all the activities, where do you start: people, processes, systems, or information technology?
I argue that people are crucial. What is clearly missing is the applied psychological aspect of knowledge management. (If anybody knows of studies related to this, please let me know.) If you are looking at knowledge management from this perspective you are opening doors to a new world. A definition for Applied Psychology states: "Applied Psychology is the branch of psychology that uses psychological principles and theories to address real-world issues. It focuses on solving problems and improving well-being in various contexts, such as workplaces, education, and health. Examples include industrial-organizational psychology, clinical psychology, and educational psychology." Who ultimately manages processes, systems, and information technology? Now you know why it is hard to get tacit knowledge from a Knowledge Worker. Most knowledge management issues relate to social psychological attributes with an organization. A knowledge manager needs apply psychological skills. There is no way in any organizational hierarchy that certain knowledge will be fully shared from top to bottom or from the bottom up. This is normal and will never change. Knowledge flows according to a social psychological context and hierarchy (Bureaucratic or orthodox organisations, professional organisations, representative democratic organisations, hybrid or postmodern organisations, network organisations*). If you have a knowledge management strategy that includes applied psychology I argue it will solve quite a few knowledge management issues. We have Industrial and organizational psychology, but the focus here is more on the wellbeing of employees. Therefore, I see two options: the industrial and organizational psychologist either needs to assist the Knowledge Manager in creating a new model, or the Knowledge Manager will need to learn the application of applied psychology specifically for knowledge management . This new model will need to be grounded in a social psychological view, with the application of applied psychology, specifically for knowledge management.
In conclusion, a new applied psychology method should also be added to a Knowledge Manager's roles and responsibilities.
* Diefenbach, Thomas and John A.A. Sillince (Nov. 2011). ‘Formal and Informal Hierarchy
in Different Types of Organization’. In: Organization Studies 32.11, pp. 1515–1537.