Knowledge management as a course is multidisciplinary in nature and embodies inputs from a range of management disciplines, and from information science and technology management.

Knowledge management emerged from the convergence of globalisation and the nexus of organisational and technological change, developments which have resulted in fundamental changes both to economies and to organisations. Central to such changes is recognition of knowledge as the most valuable resource available to organisations and as the most likely source of competitive advantage.

The management of knowledge in itself is an ambitious undertaking, not least owing to its inherently intangible nature, and its location within individual and collective experiences. However, management disciplines can be applied to those conditions enabling the creation of knowledge, to systems and technologies, to processes and capabilities and in proper circumstances to people. The course deals with the nature and properties of knowledge, in the context of resource-based theory and what this implies for organisational structures, strategies and systems, staff competencies and management styles.