How do the top 40 business schools in the UK understand, teach and implement KM in their teaching?

Abstract

PurposeThe emergence of “knowledge economies” brings along new lenses to organizational management and behaviour. One of the key concepts at the heart of this new wave is knowledge management (KM). The purpose of this paper is to scrutinize how KM is taught and discussed within the context of business schools around the UK.Design/methodology/approachThe general research question is: how do top 40 business schools in the UK understand, teach and implement KM in their teaching? To answer this question, the author reviewed the curriculums of leading schools and contacted all schools to collect more information and data.FindingsThe study reveals that KM has yet to carve a self-standing place for itself within taught programmes in UK business schools.Research limitations/implicationsThe study’s methodological design can explore the relevance of KM as a term, but it can only provide limited perspective into how this complex and multidimensional concept is operationalized in business schools’ curriculums. Moreover, the capacity of business schools to frame KM holistically is beyond the scope of this research.Practical implicationsFraming KM discourse within the relevant academic literature, this paper outlines that, while KM is being scrutinized as a research topic, interest in KM has yet to be translated into a widespread integration of KM as a taught skill within business schools.Originality/valueThe study is considered as one of the first attempts to investigate how KM is understood, taught and implemented in teaching and curriculum design within the UK business schools.