The Wall Street Journal has a good column today on knowledge management. It addresses the question of my prior post, is the KM cup half-full or half-empty, albeit from a different angle. 

Companies Struggle To Pass On Knowledge That Workers Acquire (WSJ, 1/23/06, B1, $) notes that “one of the modern workplace’s most vexing problems [is] the issue of knowledge management.” Though everyone is now a knowledge worker, few organizations have figured out how to share or preserve know-how, despite repeated attempts. The value of informal sharing is very high, but this has limited scope. “Employees rarely learn from colleagues they don’t already know… Hence the urge to collect tips in centralized computer databases. But it’s not easy to create the critical mass that makes these databases worthwhile.”

The bottom line: “Managers keep trying because the notion of sharing knowledge remains as captivating as it is elusive.” So, is the cup half-full or half-empty?