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Knowledge management it

might not be what you think it is!

INTRODUCING KNOWLEDGE WORK:


PROCESSES, PURPOSES AND CONTEXTS*
What Is Knowledge?
Structural Perspectives and Types of
Knowledge
Process and Practice Perspectives: Knowledge
and Knowing
Perspectives Compared

INTRODUCTION*
Importance of managing knowledge

WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE?*
The classical Greek period

WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE?*
The classical Greek period

WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE?*
The classical Greek period
The 'knowledge as possession' view

WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE?*
The classical Greek period
The 'knowledge as possession' view
The epistemology of practice view

WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE?*

Individuals and groups clearly make use of knowledge, both


explicit and tacit, in what they do; but not everything they know
how to do, we argue, is explicable solely in terms of the
knowledge they possess. We believe that individual and group
action requires us to speak about both knowledge used in
action and knowing as part of the action (Cook and Brown,
1999, p. 382).

Organizations are better understood... if knowledge and knowing


are seen as mutually enabling (not competing). We hold that
knowledge is a tool for knowing, that knowing is an aspect of
our interaction with the social and physical world, and the
interplay of knowledge and knowing can generate new
knowledge and new ways of knowing (Cook and Brown, 1999,
p. 381).

WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE?*

The classical Greek period


The 'knowledge as possession' view
The epistemology of practice view
Working definition of knowledge
'the ability to discriminate within and across
contexts' (Swan, 2008).

WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE?*

The classical Greek period


The 'knowledge as possession' view
The epistemology of practice view
Working definition of knowledge
'the ability to discriminate within and across contexts'
(Swan, 2008).
'a learned set of norms, shared understandings and
practices that integrates actors and artefacts to
produce valued outcomes within a specific social and
organizational context' (Scarbrough, 2008).

STRUCTURAL PERSPECTIVES AND


TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE*
Structural perspectives on knowledge draw
largely from the epistemology of possession

STRUCTURAL PERSPECTIVES AND


TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE*
Structural perspectives on knowledge draw
largely from the epistemology of possession
Frameworks for understanding knowledge
types

STRUCTURAL PERSPECTIVES AND


TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE*
Nonaka's framework (1994)

STRUCTURAL PERSPECTIVES AND


TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE*
Nonaka's framework (1994)
Originating 'ba

STRUCTURAL PERSPECTIVES AND


TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE*
Nonaka's framework (1994)
Originating 'ba
Interacting 'ba'

STRUCTURAL PERSPECTIVES AND


TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE*
Nonaka's framework (1994)
Originating 'ba
Interacting 'ba
Cyber 'ba'

STRUCTURAL PERSPECTIVES AND


TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE*
Nonaka's framework (1994)
Originating 'ba
Interacting 'ba
Cyber 'ba
Exercising 'ba'

STRUCTURAL PERSPECTIVES AND


TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE*
Nonaka's framework (1994)
Originating 'ba
Interacting 'ba
Cyber 'ba
Exercising 'ba

The SECI model of Nonaka and his colleagues


is not without critics

STRUCTURAL PERSPECTIVES AND


TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE*
Spender's framework (1996, 1998)

STRUCTURAL PERSPECTIVES AND


TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE*
Blackler's framework (1995)

STRUCTURAL PERSPECTIVES AND


TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE*
Critique of structural perspectives
Theoretical objections

STRUCTURAL PERSPECTIVES AND


TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE*
Critique of structural perspectives
Theoretical objections
Practical objections

PROCESS AND PRACTICE PERSPECTIVES:


KNOWLEDGE AND KNOWING*
Failure of previous knowledge management
initiatives

PROCESS AND PRACTICE PERSPECTIVES:


KNOWLEDGE AND KNOWING*
Failure of previous knowledge management
initiatives
Knowing is not a static embedded capability or
stable disposition of actors, but rather an
ongoing social accomplishment, constituted
and reconstituted as actors engage the world
in practice (Orlikowski, 2002, p. 249).

PROCESS AND PRACTICE PERSPECTIVES:


KNOWLEDGE AND KNOWING*
Practice perspectives

PROCESS AND PRACTICE PERSPECTIVES:


KNOWLEDGE AND KNOWING*
Practice perspectives
social philosophers; social theorists; cultural
theorists; ethnomethodologists

PROCESS AND PRACTICE PERSPECTIVES:


KNOWLEDGE AND KNOWING*
Practice perspectives
social philosophers; social theorists; cultural
theorists; ethnomethodologists
knowledge is 'sticky'

PROCESS AND PRACTICE PERSPECTIVES:


KNOWLEDGE AND KNOWING*
Practice perspectives
social philosophers; social theorists; cultural
theorists; ethnomethodologists
knowledge is 'sticky'
when we perform practice we use many kinds of
material and physical objects

PROCESS AND PRACTICE PERSPECTIVES:


KNOWLEDGE AND KNOWING*
Practice perspectives
social philosophers; social theorists; cultural
theorists; ethnomethodologists
knowledge is 'sticky'
when we perform practice we use many kinds of
material and physical objects
implications for managing knowledge work

PROCESS AND PRACTICE PERSPECTIVES:


KNOWLEDGE AND KNOWING*
Practice perspectives
social philosophers; social theorists; cultural
theorists; ethnomethodologists
knowledge is 'sticky'
when we perform practice we use many kinds of
material and physical objects
implications for managing knowledge work

knowledge work actually takes place in a broader


'field of practices'

PROCESS AND PRACTICE PERSPECTIVES:


KNOWLEDGE AND KNOWING*
Practice perspectives
social philosophers; social theorists; cultural theorists;
ethnomethodologists
knowledge is 'sticky'
when we perform practice we use many kinds of
material and physical objects
implications for managing knowledge work

knowledge work actually takes place in a broader


'field of practices'
investment of knowledge in peoples' practice

PERSPECTIVES COMPARED*
Epistemology of
Possession

Epistemology of Practice

Structural

Process

Practice

View of social life

View of Knowledge

Major locus of
Knowledge

Link between
knowledge
and organizational
Performance

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Major focus for


managing
knowledge
Work

13

14

15

Major tasks of
Knowledge
Management

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