Knowledge Needs: Uncharted Area in Knowledge Management

In the knowledge management domain, few researchers have studied knowledge maps in depth. Most discussions on using knowledge maps as a transfer mechanism focus on the benefits they can bring to organisations and the different mapping schemes that can be used to develop maps serving different business requirements. No literature has explored the role of knowledge maps in the context of knowledge transfer models. This paper contributes to this by looking at how knowledge maps are used by using knowledge transfer models to consider their role at both high and low levels. It is suggested that current knowledge maps used to advertise locations of available knowledge can be enhanced with a complementary mechanism that allows people to express their knowledge needs. Knowledge needs maps are suggested for this purpose. A subject-based and a task-based mapping schemes are proposed in this paper as ways to implement knowledge needs maps. Needs mapping gives people more choices to search for knowledge and helps them understand others‟ needs for knowledge, so that knowledge transfer can take place more easily.