Preface for the Third Edition - Read

164 B. Concepts and Theories
The term CKO has been in use to denote the head of knowledge management for
quite a while, even though in the beginning it was more connected to AI and expert
systems and its relation to executives (Hertz 1988, 45ff). Today, in many organizations,
the terms “CKO” and “knowledge manager” refer to the same position.
However, especially in multinational professional services companies there are
also examples where one CKO supervises several knowledge managers which are
responsible for KM, e.g., in one particular business unit (e.g., Ezingeard et al.
2000, 811).
According to the interviews and the KM cases reported in the literature, the primary
responsibilities of a Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) are 297 :
to build a knowledge culture, to raise awareness, to get commitment of business
leaders and to motivate employees to share knowledge,
to design a KM strategy aligned to the business strategy of the organization and
to set the appropriate scope for knowledge initiatives,
to launch knowledge-based products and services,
to design, implement and oversee schemes and processes for knowledge codification
and transfer,
to lead a separate organizational unit which is designed to e.g., broker knowledge
or to research and develop new knowledge,
to establish new knowledge-related roles,
to get a knowledge (best practice, experiences, skills) data base up and running,
to oversee the concept, design, implementation and management of ICT supporting
knowledge management, e.g., Intranet, knowledge repositories, data
warehouses, Groupware etc.,
to globalize knowledge management and thus coordinate several existing KM
initiatives,
to measure the value of intangible assets.
As an individual member of the organization, a CKO has to represent many of
the positive connotations that KM approaches have. The CKO acts as a symbol and
promoter for extensive knowledge sharing, a trustful organizational culture, the use
of new methods in training and education for employees, teams, and communities,
the application of KM-related ICT systems and last but not least the integration of
KM-related measures into corporate accounting and leadership systems (see Bontis
2001, 31ff).
In practice, the CKO is often a highly educated, experienced organizational performer,
previously mostly in managing line jobs, who has been with the current
organization for quite some time and is attracted to the position because of its newness,
the challenge, receiving intrinsic rewards and an understanding that knowledge
management can make a visible change within the organization (McKeen/
297. See also Apostolou/Mentzas 1998, 13, Guns 1998, 316ff, Ezingeard et al. 2000, 811,
Bontis 2001, 31ff, McKeen/Staples 2003, 32ff