Knowledge Governance: Addressing Complexity Throughout the Knowledge Processing Cycle

Effective knowledge governance requires organizations to develop core competencies as well as organizational structures and policies. Knowledge governance mechanisms must be put into place for the creation, sharing, storage, and transfer of knowledge, which in turn foster synergy and create value. However, knowledge governance needs to go beyond the “simple” knowledge management (KM) process cycle to also encompass organizational learning and improvement processes for both explicit and tacit knowledge. An integrated knowledge governance (IKG) model is needed for the processes of knowledge creation, sharing/dissemination, organizing/storing, using/reusing, and learning for organizational improvement. An IKG can also better address the complexity in governing knowledge at three levels (individual, group, and organizational) using both formal and informal approaches. This chapter uses the Evans et al. holistic knowledge process cycle to map specific governance activities to each knowledge process as it provides a holistic view of the knowledge life cycle by building on previous life cycles models and by extending previous models to integrate the notion of second order or double loop learning. Best practices from research and an illustrative organizational implementation will be used to highlight recommendations. The chapter will conclude with some research gaps that still remain to be addressed.