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420 Chapter 12

• KM skills span the range from business awareness and experience, management
skills, learning abilities, communication, and interpersonal skills, as well as informa-
tion management and information technology expertise.
• In general, KM professionals should be profi cient in retrieving information, evaluat-
ing/assessing information, organizing and analyzing content, presenting content,
ensuring the security of content, and collaborating around valuable content.
• Major types of KM roles include knowledge manager, knowledge journalist, KM
champion, KM navigator, knowledge synthesizer, content editor, knowledge pub-
lisher, coach or mentor, and help desk activities. More senior roles are chief learning
offi cer and chief knowledge offi cer.
• CKOs ensure that KM goals are in line with organizational strategies and
objectives.
• CLOs ensure that the organization acts like a learning organization, improving over
time with the help of accumulated best practices and lessons learned.
• Wide ranges of organizations employ KM professionals, including private, academic,
and public sector companies.
• The KM profession is an emerging one and is in the process of examining the ethics
that KM professionals should be espousing in their work. As with all professions, KM
must be practiced in an ethical fashion. A KM code of ethics should be formulated
and shared with key stakeholders for all KM projects.

Discussion Points

1. What are some of the major types of KM roles or jobs that exist in organizations
today? Describe the types of tasks that each would be expected to carry out.
2. How would you devise a training program or a course curriculum to train KM
professionals in the critical job skills they will need in the workplace?
3. What types of competencies should be present in a good KM team? What is the
contribution of each skill set?
4. List some of the major types of organizations that offer KM positions and discuss
why they need these KM skills.
5. Compare and contrast professional KM training courses with academic degree
programs that integrate KM within their curricula.
6. What core skills will KM professionals need in the next fi ve years? Why do you feel
these will be important in the future?