FRONTIERS OF E-BUSINESS RESEARCH 2002 THE FINNISH TOP 50’S OUTLOOKS AND USE OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN HUMAN RESOURCES CONTEXT Jussi Okkonen M.Soc.Sc. (econ.), Senior Research Fellow Tampere University Of Technology jussi.okkonen@tut.fi Mika Hannula Dr. Tech., Professor Tampere University Of Technology mika.hannula@tut.fi Marianne Kukko M.Sc. (econ.), Researcher Tampere University Of Technology marianne.kukko@tut.fi Terhi Laukkanen Research Assistant Tampere University Of Technology terhi.laukkanen@tut.fi Abstract In order to survive, companies, and other organisations too, are in need of the competitive advantage of more efficient exploitation of human resources and intellectual capital. As the nature of organisations has become more knowledge-intensive, the importance of competencies, i.e. knowledge and skills, is emphasised. Intellectual capital management is one of rising functions in Finnish companies. Most important part of it is knowledge management. This study is based on a survey conducted in autumn 2002. The sample was the TOP 50 Finnish companies and the informants were from HR. The aim of the study is to enlighten the use of knowledge management in Finnish companies in HR context. It was assumed that every Finnish TOP 50 company uses knowledge management in some extent. Earlier there has been only case studies, thus need for this study. The survey considers the background history and the content of knowledge management, how knowledge management function is organised in Finnish TOP 50 companies, and what are the near future aspects for knowledge management. Contributions of this study are firstly to describe the history and the current state of knowledge management. Secondly, to describe where knowledge management is placed in the organisations and how the functions are organised. Thirdly, to see what are the rationales 343