oa South African Journal of Information Management - Position and role of the chief knowledge officer in South Africa - a discrepancy between theory and practice?

Abstract

In the knowledge economy, it is not products and services that give enterprises a competitive advantage, but how well they manage their knowledge, in other words, what they know and whether they know how to do new things quickly. This process requires a senior executive, the chief knowledge officer (CKO), who is responsible for focusing and driving the knowledge management initiatives in the enterprise. The aim of this article is to report on an investigation of the South African business world's perspective of the role and responsibilities of the CKO and the analysis of the findings against a theoretical background. It was found that although the position of CKO is still unique and relatively new in South Africa, it compares very well with the literature review on other countries.