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invented and will differ from industry to industry. The KM executive ’ s duties may be
as varied as recommending whether a company should buy, sell, or make its technolo-
gies, or determining where technology is going and where new competitors may arise.
KM executives identify critical knowledge needs within a company as well as any
knowledge gaps that need to be addressed. KM executives need to be good relationship
builders as the fundamental issues revolve around people, culture, roles, behaviors,
and the business processes in the organization.
Skyrme (1997) defi nes a CKO as a senior executive who is responsible for ensuring
that an organization maximizes the value it achieves through one of its most impor-
tant assets — knowledge. Although only a few companies have people with this
explicit title, those with similar responsibilities include Director of Intellectual Capital
and Director of Innovation. CKOs will typically contribute to the following KM goals:
• Maximize the returns on KM investment in knowledge — people, processes, and intel-
lectual capital.
• Exploit intangible assets, for example, know-how, patents, customer relationships.
• Repeat successes and share best practices.
• Improve innovation and the commercialization of ideas.
• Avoid knowledge loss and leakage after organizational restructuring.
The responsibilities associated with the job function of KM executive revolve around
converting the KM strategy into specifi c KM initiatives that help achieve organiza-
tional business goals. KM initiatives fall into general categories such as:
• Promoting the importance of knowledge sharing
• Creating a technical infrastructure to ease that sharing
• Promoting a cultural climate that rewards knowledge sharing behaviors
• Measuring the value to the organization of knowledge and KM practices
Potentially the most important part of the job function is promoting a corporate
culture that encourages knowledge sharing, a long-term proposition. The CKO works
as a change agent to build a cultural climate that rewards sharing behavior ( Earl and
Scott 1999 ). Because of the power associated with expertise, employees may be reluc-
tant to share their knowledge and skill. The old adage that knowledge equals power
may prevail as employees with specialized knowledge may elect to use this as a source
of personal power ( Gordon 2002 ).
The CKO argues against perceived reasons for hording knowledge, ( Stewart 1998 )
persuades workers that knowledge-sharing initiatives are to their benefi t ( Earl and
Scott 1999 ), and uses motivational techniques to reward a sharing climate. The CKO