Journal of Business & Economics Research – November, 2010 Volume 8, Number 11 137 Knowledge Management And Organizational Effectiveness: Considering Applications For Leadership Timothy Ewest, Wartburg College, USA ABSTRACT This essay will explore the change of the organizational environment from a structured production model, bureaucracy, to an information-based organization that is directed to manage knowledge. Moreover, this essay will discuss how organizations and leaders can all play a part to enhance knowledge transfer and create more efficient organizations. Keywords: Knowledge management, information-based organizations, systems thinking, learning organizations, knowledge transfer, knowledge-based leadership INTRODUCTION ax Weber, the 19 th century philosopher and father of sociology, proposed a revolutionary idea of what organizations could become and how, through this structure, they could service humanity. Weber’s timely vision was the catalyst which allowed organizations to be the caretaker s of society in a time when countless numbers of people needed to raise their standard of living. His vision of how people could come together in efficient structures created what is commonly understood as bureaucracy. Bureaucracy provided a necessary organizational frame for people to collaborate with each other in their pursuit of common goals (Wren, 2005, p.26). Alfred North Whitehead said “all of philosophy is a footnote to Plato” (Russell, 2005, p.67). It could also be said “all of organizational theory is a footnote to Weber” – until recently. Weber was able to suggest a paradigm for organizations, which has had import to this day; however, today is a new day. The modern era is commonly understood as the information age. Bennet and Bennet (2001) argue that organizations have always used knowledge, but the new intense focus on knowledge in organizations has risen out of the organizations’ need to manage their own growing complexity and yet remain competitive (2001). Organizations have long been creating, storing, integrating, tailoring and making available the right knowledge (10) because it is knowledge that creates a sustainable advantage; but in today’s world, the knowledge skill is becoming the skill to master. While Knowledge Management (KM) is still in its embryonic form, two definitions point us in the right direction. What is KM? KM is “A discipline that promotes an integrated approach to identifying, capturing, evaluating, retrieving, and sharing all of an enterprise’s information assets. These assets may include databases, documents, policies, procedures, and previously uncaptured expertise and experience of individual works” (Srikantaiah, 2001, p.3). KM refers to these as “The tools, techniques, and strategies to retain, analyze, organize, and share business expertise“(Groff and Jones, 2003, p.11). KM may lack some of the structure of other quality improvement programs, but from these aforementioned definitions, one can see both the broad scope of KM within organizations, as well as potential broad applications. Yet, in the end, it is people who will implement KM within organizations. More specifically, KM must start with leaders and managers. M