4. People, Knowledge and Technology: Connecting the Dots from a Social Perspective

This chapter analyses the contribution of human resource management (HRM) to building up and deepening organisational knowledge. If we perceive the management of knowledge as a collective phenomenon, based on persons, their qualities and interests, we need to question just how organisations may attract, develop, motivate and retain such members of staff. Throughout this chapter, we seek to respond to this question and demonstrate just how HRM may contribute to the effective management of knowledge. In parallel, we also aim to understand the way in which information and communication technologies may encourage and motivate such interactions between persons. To this end, we put forward a set of HRM practices susceptible to benefiting from the utilisation of technology in terms of encouraging both intra- and inter-organisational flows. The suggestions and examples presented provide important guidelines for the implementation of HRM practices structured around boosting the potential for knowledge management success.