Navigating the IT/HR turf wars over KM

Knowledge management comes primarily out of two disciplines, each with its own mental model: human resources and "learning" knowledge on one hand, and information systems and "storing" knowledge on the other. To no surprise, it appears that the people specialists think in terms of getting people to understand and use the knowledge, while the technologists focus on the “stuff" (the bits and bytes, the knowledge itself). This sets up conflicts which can impede successful KM implementations. A recent article in Intelligent KM discusses the issue and provides examples of success and failure in the battle over controlling the access and use of an organization’s knowledge.