Systems to manage the wealth of knowledge inside companies can help junior staff get a leg up in career advancement.
Knowledge management systems help connect workers to knowledge and other people regardless of physical distance. They are wide-ranging and can vary from custom-designed knowledge repositories to web-based systems which comprise discussion forums, file sharing and organisation charts, to name but a few features. There is no shortage of companies offering IT-based solutions to help harvest an organisation’s collective intelligence and these have only expanded in number since the advent of Web 2.0. “Electronically linked communities”, “expertise locators” and “lessons-learned databases” will be familiar terms to Chief Knowledge Officers (CKOs) ̶ those seeking to share wisdom throughout the organisation. But how much of an impact do these systems have on the careers of those using them?
