It is important, at the outset, to assert that the knowledge management paradigm is a complex one. Knowledge
can also be considered as existing in arrays of forms, such as symbolic, embodied, embrained and encultured
(Collins, 1995). In a sense, this typology helps us to differentiate, for example, knowledge of information (such
as catalogue and explanatory knowledge) and context dependent knowledge relating to skill and competence
(e.g. process, social and experiential knowledge). Catalogue and explanatory knowledge are symbolic in nature
and therefore are more readily transmittable than the contextually sensitive encultured knowledge (e.g. process,
social and experiential knowledge). One explanation of this is because encultured knowledge is learned through
socialisation, or through immersion in communities of practice (CoP). As a result, encultured knowledge is
intrinsically tied to its context. The knowledge is ‘situated’ and produced – in-use. For such knowledge to be
formally transmitted, it will need to be decontextualised, and may lose its ‘special character’. Knowledge within
an organisation may therefore exist at different levels of usefulness. This is to say that an individual or
organisation may have varying abilities to apply different forms of knowledge to carry out actions that help an
organisation to accomplish its goals. The above discourse shows that managing knowledge in organisations is
not a punctual act. It involves the consideration of a host of factors. In their conceptual framework for
understanding and studying knowledge management in project-based environments (Figure 1) Egbu, Bates and
Botterill (2001), highlighted culture, people, process as well as technology as being worthy of consideration.