An Analysis of Knowledge Management Lifecycle Frameworks: Towards a Unified Framework

Abstract

Abstract: Knowledge management (KM) has gained popularity in recent times because knowledge is regarded as a vital resource in todays economy. The popularity of KM has led to the creation of the KM field. Organisations have adopted KM because of its association with competitive advantage. Over the years, theories, models and frameworks have been developed to inform KM research and practice. KM lifecycle frameworks seem to dominate the KM literature. Too many of them have been created over the years, thus causing confusion about which one to choose for research and practice. The study analyses 20 prominent KM lifecycle frameworks, and proposes a unified framework. The unified framework aims to eliminate the confusion created by having too many frameworks with many different processes. Quantitative and qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the 20 frameworks. Processes appearing in all frameworks were listed and counted to determine the most prominent. After eliminating synonyms used to describe the processes, qualitative content analysis was used to group them into themes. Five prominent KM processes were discovered: knowledge transfer, storage, application, creation, and acquisition (K‑TSACA). The conclusion of the study is that organisations and researchers seem to focus mostly on five KM processes, hence their popularity/dominance over others.