Brigit and David, You seem concerned that the process of knowledge management is some kind of spiritual rip off. I am not suggesting that OST might be used to capture the essential essence of people and leave them less than they were, or their system less that it was.
The truth is that knowledge has always been managed in every culture. Some of them write it down, and some of them tell stories and some sing songs. But knowledge has always been managed. Even widom. When you read a book by a spiritual teacher you are experiencing knowledge about spritual issue that has been managed (clarified, refined, given context, leverged, applied to varied contexts, written down, etc). The followers of that teacher have probably arranged speaking engagements for her or him so that they could see the wisdom spread more effectively. That is managing the proliferation of wisdom. The education you received took place within a system where knowledge was managed. When a experienced nurse in a neo natal unit says "this baby doesn't look right" inspite of the readings on the monitor and saves the babies life then other staff need to know what she was picking up on so that they can save a live or two themselves. Making her tacit knowledge explicit is one of the things that knowledge management is about. I don't get what you guys are saying. Joe