Organizational Communication and Knowledge Management - Separated at Birth yet Joined at the Hip

There is an emerging tendency – at least in continental Europe – that the corporate communication function of larger companies tends to enter into some kind of symbiosis with the companies’ Knowledge Management function. This should come as no surprise to neither the researcher nor the practitioner; after all who can say where a corporation’s knowledge work ends and where its communication begins – and vice versa? In this paper I will present a theoretical outline of the disciplinary trajectories that have given rise to this symbiosis. In this outline I will address relevant recent aspects of the conceptualizations of ‘organization’, ‘communication’ and ‘Knowledge Management’ respectively and view them – in their synthesis – as an expression of a new practice of communicating knowledge within the field of internal corporate communication. The presentation ends with a case study dealing with pertinent issues of this new practice in corporations.

Key words: Internal corporate communication, Knowledge Management, triple helix of disciplinary trajectories