It seems to me that part of the problem with knowledge management, apart from the word “knowledge" which I’ve discussed elsewhere , is a decent definition of “management”. Whole books have been written on management and what it means, and there is a healthy literature that seeks to define the differences between management and leadership. Despite this there is no exact meaning for management, although the generally accepted meaning, as will be seen later, is much more precise than knowledge. The concepts of management and leadership are intrinsically linked to work and organisation. Indeed Drucker said that management is a ‘… specific kind of work’ and ‘… is a generic function of all organizations, whatever their specific mission’. He also said management is quite simply ‘the application and performance of knowledge’. But just what we mean by knowledge, management, work, and organisation depends on whether we adopt a social action or an instrumental discourse.

Time, like the term knowledge, is an elusive concept. Like knowledge, a definition of time that is satisfactory to everyone has defied the greatest minds from Antiphon to Newton, and on to Einstein and Planck. Yet time is pervasive across cultures, and at least in the Western world, drives much of what we do. Time is also intrinsically linked to knowledge management, and provides some insights as to why knowledge management is so difficult.

Take for example the common platitude –“just in time knowledge management”. I take this to mean that the right information (I have chosen my words carefully) should be available to decision-makers at the right time and in the right place, and not before or after the time it is actually required! Now this begs all sorts of questions, like:

• How do we determine what is the right information?
• How do we know who should receive that information?
• What is the right format for the information, so it can actually be used?
• How do we know what the right time is?

I could go on but you should get the idea of just how difficult, if not impossible this is. This brings me to my second idea – knowledge management is about the effective use of data or information at some future point in time. Our knowledge management activities collect data, or information, or even anecdotes, from the past and try to make sense of them so we can do something in the future. We use these collections and apply previous experience, and perhaps some context, to predict an outcome. In other words we expect a better outcome as a result of our efforts.

Again this begs all sorts of questions, like: