Knowledge Management in Social Work-Towards a Conceptual Framework

Knowledge management (KM) is receiving increasing attention in the human services such as social work. Social service organizations have started to use information and communication technology for knowledge management purposes with the aim of improving service efficiency and effectiveness. Existing KM studies, particularly in the commercial or industrial sectors, mainly focus on the reductionistic "knowledge-as-object" view, while other perspectives such as "knowl-edge-as-process" are less discussed. This paper argues that these mainstream conceptions of knowledge in KMdo not fully fit with that of social work knowledge, and that a spectrum view may be more useful for future practice and inquiry in the area. (C) 2007 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.