Just What is Management and Knowledge Management?

[Graham Durant-Law]

It seems to me that part of the problem with knowledge management, apart from the word “knowledge" which I’ve discussed elsewhere , is a decent definition of “management”. Whole books have been written on management and what it means, and there is a healthy literature that seeks to define the differences between management and leadership. Despite this there is no exact meaning for management, although the generally accepted meaning, as will be seen later, is much more precise than knowledge. The concepts of management and leadership are intrinsically linked to work and organisation. Indeed Drucker said that management is a ‘… specific kind of work’ and ‘… is a generic function of all organizations, whatever their specific mission’. He also said management is quite simply ‘the application and performance of knowledge’. But just what we mean by knowledge, management, work, and organisation depends on whether we adopt a social action or an instrumental discourse.

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