The revolution in technical affairs during the 1990s is acting as a catalyst for a revolution in organisational affairs. To understand the latter, it is necessary to see knowledge management as essential not merely to the retention of corporate memory and acquisition of information assets, but also to the development of corporate self-awareness. By developing a critical understanding of the relationship between intangible intellectual capital and the value of an organisation's work, knowledge leaders can guide the conservation and creation of appropriate knowledge content.
Knowledge management concerns the capture, warehousing and interrogation of facts.
From a leadership perspective, knowledge management is also a living process, dramatically and irreducibly imbuing the activity of the human members of an organisation. For the knowledge leader, knowledge management demands skills in epistemology and the human sciences to match developments in information technology.