Knowledge Management as Operational Infrastructure examines knowledge management as a form of operational infrastructure in nonprofit organizations. The paper considers how information systems , documentation practices, staff knowledge, data access, and organizational memory shape nonprofit capacity and continuity.
The paper is especially concerned with organizations that depend heavily on informal knowledge: the long-tenured employee who knows where everything is, the spreadsheet only one person understands, and the process that works because someone remembers how it has always been done. These arrangements can appear functional while creating significant organizational dependence on particular people, files, systems, and workarounds.
The paper argues that knowledge management should be treated not as an administrative extra, but as core infrastructure for mission performance and organizational sustainability. Effective knowledge infrastructure connects people, processes, information systems, documentation, and institutional memory so that critical organizational knowledge can survive transitions and remain available for decision-making.