The 2nd wave of knowledge management: The management control of knowledge resources through intellectual capital information

Through the 1990s, knowledge has become a phenomenon to be managed and intellectual capital information has been suggested to be medium for this ambition. In this paper, we propose a method to analyse (and design) intellectual capital information so that it can be an input to the management of knowledge resources. We use a distinction between 1st and 2nd wave knowledge management to illustrate two possible objects of knowledge management: the creative individual and the network of knowledge resources. We suggest that intellectual capital information is related to the management control of knowledge resources where knowledge resources are related to questions about economising, organising and modularising them. In effect, intellectual capital information sees knowledge resources from a management control perspective. We illustrate this with an analysis of the firm Coloplast's intellectual capital statement.