Towards a holistic knowledge management model

Abstract

Knowledge management (KM) has been gradually established as a strong methodology to support business viability, competitiveness and growth; however, the lack of maturity is obvious, as evidenced by divergent points of view in critical sub‐domains of the related theory and practice, such as the spectrum of processes and the clusters of tactics scheduled to underpin them. The systems thinking logic, the discipline for seeing structures underlying complex phenomena, is perceived as a promising direction for consolidating the various approaches and developing a holistic KM paradigm. Through the integration of the fragmented landscape of knowledge management on a transparent and concrete framework based on cause‐effect relationships, not only the underlying theoretical assumptions are clarified and subjected to further analysis at a strategic level, but also practical issues concerning planning and decision making become less complicated, increasing effectiveness.