ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses what knowledge management is; why it is important to the shipping industry; and how it may be applied. It provides the differences and linkages between human resource management and knowledge management. The driving force for knowledge management comes from the continuous quest of organisations for business success. The integration of individual knowledge into the organisational level is considered the most important and yet challenging task for organisations to develop organisational knowledge for competitive advantages. The process of integration requires commitments from both the organisation and employees. At organisational level, explicit knowledge is contained in the technology and information system an organisation has developed, process manuals, and intellectual property that has been created through operations or research and development activities. Given the high mobility of seafarers and a range of issues associated with employee retention at an organisational level, a shift of attention is needed.
