Professional media and management fashion: The case of knowledge management

The initial stage of the study involved a qualitative and quantitative review of the IS and HR literature to identify the critical elements of their response to the KM discourse. This highlighted the role of legitimation, differentiation and inter-professional competition as features of professional media's 'theorization' of new management fashions. A further element of the study focussed on a particular HR magazine sponsored by the HR profession. Analysis of these articles suggests that this magazine has evolved a distinctive perspective on KM, one which highlights the employee and behavioural issues associated with its application compared to the more IT-driven rhetorics found in the mainstream literature. The rhetorical claims of the new discourse were thereby interwoven with the overarching knowledge claims of the HR profession.