What bars organisations from managing knowledge successfully?

Knowledge management has been implemented both successfully and less successfully in organisations globally. In these implementations many barriers have been encountered that made the implementations complex. Implementations in every organisation would be unique due to the unique culture and unique circumstances in that particular organisation. This article seeks to understand what barriers have already been identified in knowledge management implementations in organisations globally today. The article also seeks to understand the context of these barriers in order to understand the bigger picture within which they take place. It also looks at how these barriers are being or has been managed, and if it has not been managed, what alternatives could have been put into place to overcome these barriers to ensure a smooth knowledge management implementation. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.