Divergent Approaches to Knowledge and Innovation in the Public Sector

This review of the knowledge management literature reveals differences between mainstream and public sector literatures. This is demonstrated in the predominant representation of managerialist perspectives of knowledge in organizations in the public sector literature and the relative lack of reference to contemporary practice-based perspectives. It is argued that the resulting gap has implications for public sector innovation and effectiveness. The review underlines the paucity of public sector case studies that present organizational practices as emergent, self-organizing sites of knowledge in action.