KnowledgeManagement Implementation Frameworks: A Review

One reason why many organizations are still struggling with knowledge management (KM) and failing in their endeavours to realize its full potential is that they lack the support of a strong theoretical foundation to guide them in its implementation. A sound KM implementation framework helps to fulfil this need by providing important guiding principles and directions. However, developing such a framework can be a challenging task for managers and practitioners as they may lack the knowledge of what characteristics, elements and constructs should be included in it. Implementation frameworks that do not have the necessary elements in place can paint an incomplete picture of KM and its implementation process, thus providing a suboptimal guidance for conducting KM. This paper reviews the existing KM implementation frameworks presented in the literature in order to determine and propose a set of guidelines for constructing them. By utilizing these guidelines to develop a KM implementation framework, it is hoped that a stronger theoretical foundation can be constructed, thus facilitating the accomplishment of KM. Copyright # 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.