Process Moves in The Intra-organizational Diffusion of Knowledge Management: Preliminary Findings from A Study on CKO Effectiveness

Abstract

The existing literature on Chief Knowledge Officers (CKOs) focuses on individual characteristics and organizational context but fails to convincingly address the issue of process dynamics in terms of effective and ineffective CKO moves and strategies. In order to address this gap we review propositions from the management fashion, diffusion of innovations and issue selling literatures, and identify sets of effective and ineffective CKO process moves based on an empirical study of CKOs in large industrial and financial service companies in Germany and Switzerland. The paper proposes an agenda for future CKO research, and concludes with a set of guidelines for organizational practice.Knowledge management; implementation; innovation diffusion; management fashion, issue selling