Knowledge management: Theoretical approaches

Knowledge management has become one of the main topics of study in the field of people. Managing knowledge means managing the processes of creation, development, dissemination and exploitation of knowledge to gain competitive edge. According to Woodman (1985) "Managing knowledge is a process that covers everything related to getting the right information in the right way, for the right person, at the right cost, at the right time in the right place, in order to take the right action". This description covers all the objectives of information management, that is to say potentiate and take advantage of the benefits of information management, minimize costs of acquiring knowledge and ensure a continuous supply of information. The consideration of knowledge as an essential strategic resource and the ability from the organizations to create it and apply it as a fundamental skill, it leads to an important advance in the evolution of strategic management. According to some authors, the basic resource in today's organizations is no longer the capital but the knowledge. If before the core asset was the capital, today knowledge replaces the capital as a critical resource, which constitutes a challenge for organizations, the ability to generate knowledge, manage it and build processes to integrate and leverage the most important resources, the knowledge and its skills. In the present work, from an organized lens are exposed, the most important theoretical aspects of what is known as knowledge management, approaches to the concept, explanatory models and application in organizations. The methodology used is the systematic review without meta-analysis, by which the existing literature is revised and organized with the objective of providing a critical view of the topic brought up.