C H A PT E R 2

Background Bibliographic

Analysis

One measure of the influence of a discipline is to track the “formal communications” or published works in that discipline [Koenig,M., 2005, Ponzi, L., 2004]. Ponzi observed that “knowledge management is one emerging discipline that remains strong and does not appear to be fading”[Ponzi, L., 2004, p. 9]. Articles about KM were and are being published in the fields of computer science, information systems, management, engineering, communication, and library and information science.

In the early years of KM, it was probably a very safe assumption that almost all KMarticles would have the phrase “knowledge management” in the title, but as the KM field has grown, that almost certainly is no longer a safe assumption. There are now numerous articles about “communities of practice” or “enterprise content management” or “lessons learned” that clearly are KM focused, but they do not use the phrase “knowledge management” in the title. The significance of theKMgrowth pattern becomesmuch more apparent when one compares it with the pattern of other major business enthusiasms of recent years.

BACKGROUNDBIBLIOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS

Figure 2.1: Knowledge Management Growth. Number of KM articles published by year.

See Figure 2.3 below for the publication pattern. In general, the number of dissertations focusing on some aspect of knowledge management rises gradually until 2006 and has remained steady with about 100 theses produced each year in English with, however, a decline in 2008 and 2009. The number of scholarly papers and dissertations devoted toKMdemonstrates that there has been and continues to be a scholarly interest in knowledge management even if that research has taken a small downturn.An examination of the types of research being conducted shows that over the years the subject matter of KM studies has changed somewhat from an emphasis on technological systems to a focus on communication and interaction among people. Also, the terminology has changed as well. Although ‘knowledge management’ may have been commonly used in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, scholars have adopted terms such as ‘knowledge sharing,’ ‘communities of practice,’ and ‘learning organizations’ as knowledge management processes became more mainstream in organizations.