Individual and collective congruence in the knowledge management process

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); Knowledge 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 flaws in the cognitive infrastructure. The implications of the framework for theory and practice are discussed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.