This paper is part of an exploration of the role of overarching policy, standards and frameworks and models for enabling the management of knowledge in organisations. It reports an empirical study of how large Australian government agencies are using policy and standards in their pursuit of managing knowledge. The study focuses its enquiry on the role of the Australian Standard for KM within the situated complexity of organisational reality. It examines whether the Australian Standard and other encompassing frameworks or policies are in use and, if so, how they are applied within the organisation to support the knowledge endeavours of the enterprise.