Abstract:

Knowledge is acknowledged as competitive assets for an organization which requires secure protection from outsiders and other threats. Although knowledge protection (KP) is imperative in implementing knowledge management, there is scarce attention on the respective topic. Researchers often focus on intellectual property rights and tend to ignore the “soft” protection methods which are strategy and culture of organization in implementing KP. Hence, this paper is intended to fill up the gaps and provide a better classification of KP approaches. Importance of KP in knowledge management is identified and further explained. Each KP approach is reviewed and categorized based on formal and informal protection. Furthermore, this paper also discusses the current KP issues in organization which can act as a guideline for future directions.