Understanding Chief Knowledge Officer Role: A Myth or Reality — Empirical Evidence from a Knowledge-Intensive Firm

The role of the chief knowledge officer (CKO) within organisations has grown in importance. The information management literature has discussed the notion of CKO, but has not effectively addressed the rationale behind the creation of CKO position in an innovation firm. This paper explores the need for and value of a CKO by investigating a high-tech innovation-driven multinational corporation. The paper is conceptually grounded in reviews of the relevant literature supported by an empirical work. This research was carried out as an exploratory case study, which allowed to observe the phenomenon in a natural setting. Although much has been written on the notion of CKO provides an unambiguous description, the paper provides a working definition of CKO. The CKO can take an active role through advising knowledge contributors to deposit knowledge in a repository; asking knowledge contributors to update the stored knowledge, and helping prospective knowledge users in finding the right source and using it in their new product and process development. The results of this study justify the need for such a person. This paper also contributes by identifying several challenges for senior management in legitimising the presence of CKO.