Organisational Knowledge Capital
Overview
Guthrie and Petty (2000:259) noted that the relationship between the study of overall Intellectual Capital (IC) in an organisation and knowledge management (KM) was often unclear. This chapter will seek to study how knowledge management extends to the construction of overall organisational Knowledge Capital.
In this chapter we will consistently examine how organisations build total knowledge as the study of Knowledge Capital (KC) formation. In so doing we will also come to appreciate the constituent components that form KC. As we progress it will become clear from our review of authors, select research and the readings presented this chapter that the term KC is more commonly referred to as Intellectual Capital (IC). While Europeans tend to use IC, North Americans use both terms, key contributions elsewhere have often strongly support the abandonment of IC in favour of KC.
Study in this chapter will identify the key components of KC and disclose the relationship between KC and earlier work on knowledge management.
Learning outcomes
At the completion of this chapter, you should be able to:
- Define organisational Knowledge Capital
- Establish the relationship between Intellectual Capital and Knowledge Capital
- Establish how knowledge can be managed to create value for the organisation as a capital asset
- Differentiate structural, social and human knowledge capital assets