Individual and collective congruence in the knowledge management process Y. Merali Information Systems Research Unit, Warwick Business School, The University of Warwick, Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK Abstract This paper is concerned with the cognitive infrastructure underpinning the socially situated process of knowledge management in dynamic contexts. It describes the cognitive congruence framework (Fourth International Conference on Competence Based Management (1998); Knowl- edge Management and Organizational Competence, Oxford University Press (2001)) and shows how it can be used as a sensemaking device to reconcile some of contentious issues in knowledge management literature. Three case study vignettes are employed to illustrate the importance of individual and collective cognitive congruence and the utility of the framework as a diagnostic tool for highlighting ¯aws in the cognitive infrastructure. The implications of the framework for theory and practice are discussed. q 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Knowledge management; Cognitive congruence; Schema; Relationship scripts; Knowledge management 1. Introduction Knowledge management is a focal point for trans-disciplinary management research. Literature on the subject focuses extensively on the classi®cation of knowledge under the tacit/explicit and personal/collective dimensions and with issues of converting one type of knowledge to another (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Spender, 1998). Recent literature on competence-based competition (Sanchez and Heene, 1997; Sanchez et al., 1996; Hamel and Prahalad, 1994; Hamel and Heene, 1994) and dynamic capabilities (Lei et al., 1996; Teece et al., 1997) highlights knowledge management and organisational learning in strategic competition. In terms of the resource-based view of the ®rm (Wernerfelt, 1984; Peteraf, 1993), the capability to create and utilise knowledge has Journal of Strategic Information Systems 9 (2000) 213±234 0963-8687/00/$ - see front matter q 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S0963-8687(00)00044-5 www.elsevier.com/locate/jsis E-mail address: yasmin.merali@warwick.ac.uk (Y. Merali).