Communication education for managers managing knowledge

Communication education for managers remains undervalued, including in the area of knowledge management (KM). As a consequence, many KM professionals design KM initiatives without understanding how knowledge creation and sharing is enabled by organisational communication (OC). This paper reports research across two somewhat distinct scholarly fields—KM and OC—emphasising communication climate's role in facilitating knowledge sharing. It proposes that communication audits provide a measure of willingness to share knowledge and information by providing data on perceptions of other organisational members' communication openness. The research results highlight that: 1. KM initiatives are only as good as the knowledge staff have about how KM facilities can be incorporated into their work activities; 2. higher levels of willingness to share knowledge are associated with communication in interpersonal contexts, except when that communication is with top management; and 3. lower levels of willingness are associated with communication experiences in organisational contexts. These findings demonstrate that education in organisational communication is a necessity for managers of organisational knowledge processes.