**3. Distinguishing two main approaches underlying knowledge management**

In this section we will refer to our research that leads to distinguishing two main approaches underlying KM: (i) a technological approach that answers a demand of solutions based on the technologies of information, communication, and artificial intelligence and (ii) a managerial and sociological approach, which is peoplefocused and integrates knowledge as resources contributing to the implementation of the strategic vision of the organization.

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*Toward Management Based on Knowledge DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86757*

Snowden [28] consolidates our research when writing about developing practices of knowledge management (pp. 241–242). He identifies two different approaches to KM: (1) an approach that arises from information management where knowledge is seen as a thing or entity that can be managed and distributed through advanced use of technology and (2) an approach that sees the problem from a sociological vision where knowledge is seen as human capability to act.

Taking into account our researches and observations, we can say that technological approach of KM is the most widespread. Considered from the point of view of the information system, knowledge is implicitly treated as an object independently of the person who creates and uses it. It is a positivist approach that can be considered according to the cognitivist perspective of knowledge within organizations. In this perspective, knowledge exists as a "truth" that can be stored and transmitted. Typically, the positivist approach considers knowledge independently of its links to the action and context of its implementation. As a result, it neglects the role of tacit knowledge. The same phenomenon is analyzed by [21] who states: The fact that we can possess knowledge that is unspoken is of course a common-place and so is the fact that we must know something yet unspoken before we can express it in words. It has been taken for granted in the philosophical analysis of language in earlier centuries, but modern positivism has tried to ignore it, on the ground that

**3.1 Technological approach of knowledge management**

tacit knowledge was not accessible to objective observation (p. 306).

creation, storage, retrieval, transfer, and application."

ing and managing knowledge stocks.

In the technological approach, the KM refers to information systems and databases. Emphasis is placed on the quality of the IT system to create and preserve knowledge in order to create value. Most often, the goal is oriented by the notion of knowledge management system (KMS). For instance, let us quote the definition [29]: "Knowledge management systems refer to a class of information systems applied to managing organizational knowledge. That is, they are IT-based systems developed to support and enhance the organizational processes of knowledge

Moreover, although authors are careful to propose a definition to distinguish between data, information, and knowledge concepts, when applications are addressed in terms of computer systems, these three concepts are rapidly declining in terms of data processing: knowledge being only a form of enriched data. This leads to the characterization and organization of knowledge according to a hierarchical vision of objects. Thus, the authors who join this perspective are mainly interested in the content of the knowledge of the organization. They focus on build-

**3.2 Managerial and sociological approach of knowledge management**

The emergence of the managerial and sociological approach of knowledge

based on the resources," to which Edith Penrose strongly contributed. She was the first one to begin this change of paradigm in 1959, with the publication of her book entitled "*The theory of the growth of the firm"* [30]. She explains in this work that the company undergoes a loss of capital when a capable employee, who is an employee whose services interfere in the process of production, leaves the firm. By conferring on the knowledge an economic value, in the same way as any other

*First phase*: a change of paradigm of the corporate strategy called "the approach

*3.2.1 Current of economic and managerial research influence*

management comes, according to [11], in three phases:

<sup>3</sup> SIGECAD Research Group is created in 1998, in which domain topics are information system, knowledge management, and decision aid.
