‘Second-Generation KM; A White Paper’ Knowledge Management vol 4, no 3.

According to McElroy, head of Macroinnovations, KM strategies can be divided into two ‘generations’. The first generation of KM strategies focused on addressing the problem of inadequate knowledge sharing. The approach taken to address this problem was heavily supply-side driven, and frequently involved implementing technical solutions such as data warehousing, document management or codification of existing knowledge. The second generation of KM strategies, on the other hand, have tried to move beyond this technical approach and towards more process-oriented and demand-side driven initiatives. This requires moving beyond codification of existing knowledge to strategies designed to facilitate the creation of new knowledge. An environment that stimulates creativity is vital. McElroy gives the following advice to agencies that wish to implement successful KM and learning strategies:

‘Feed the processes that spawn the production and integration of new knowledge in human affairs, and innovation and better organizational performance will follow.’