Aantekeningen ‘Knowledge in Organizations’
,College 1
Whats happening?
- Automation/ industrial society (Fordism)
Production of industrial manufactured goods, supported by technology
- To digitization (Post-Fordisme/ post industrial society)
Service sector, offering knowledge-based goods/ services. Growing importance of
(theoretical) knowledge
- To digitalization/ datafication (Surveillance capitalism). Zuboff, 2019)
Capitalization based on surplus data/ Googlism, Work supported buy algorithms & al.
Quantifying by what is done in real life. Transfer that to other organizations.
Surveillance capitalism= How big tech organization get a lot of information; how do they
turn this into capital/profit? How is benefit from the fact that you type something in Google.
Or clicking on something, the next time, they know what you have clicked before and what
you are interested in. Future online behavior. Behavioral surplus data.
(Explicit) Knowledge = competitive advantage. Capture in repositories, emphasis on explicit.
Digital storage (how can you capture what people know)
- Less complex
- ’80s/’90s
(Tacit) Knowledge= experiential, captured in doing, tacit knowledge, communities, locators
of expertise, learning before/during/after doing.
- More complex
- 2000/2010
(Collective) Knowledge= created by ICT facilitated conversation and combining and creating
based on big data, decision-support systems. Embedded in technology.
- Most complex
, - 2010/2020
3 Problems with concept of ‘knowledge’
It is…
1. Ontologically/ epistemologically incoherent
a. Both subjective and objective
2. Vague: ‘knowledge is everything and everything is knowledge’
3. Not neutral, not even always functional
What is knowledge ‘management’?
- Bit ‘common sense’?
- Designing, coordination, controlling, of work processes
- Normative control, ‘community’ (shared values/norms/ideas), protocols, manuals.
“The more emphasize on management, the less it is about knowledge. The more emphasize on
knowledge, the less management matters”. (Alvesson & Kärreman, 2001)
Epistemology dimension
How knowledge is defined is a matter of epistemology:
Epistemology= philosophy addressing the nature of knowledge. Knowledge about
knowledge. How do we define what is true? What is regarded as valid knowledge and why?
Dualism – what is knowledge? - Objectivist
Objective, frozen-in-time, either/or, subjective/objective; self/other; macro/micro; binaries,
mutually exclusive opposites, uni-directional, an object has separate identity.
, Duality – when is knowledge? – Practice based
Both/and/as well as, no clear cut distinction, one does not exist without the other, pragmatism,
theories of practice (knowledge is in the doing, associated with emergence, cyclical causality,
object is continuously shaped by context/situated practice).
Social order dimension
Social order= continuum bounded by:
- Sociology of regulation – society tends towards ideal state of integration, equilibrium
and order consensus.
o Trust – common interest – science/knowledge is neutral
- Sociology of radical change – forces of coercion, conflict and change are
continuously challenging the established social order (‘truce’ is only temporary)
dissensus.
o Suspicion – conflict of interest - science/knowledge is political
Four discourses on Knowledge Management (Schultze & Stabell, 2004)
Epistemology
Practice based Objectivist (dualism)
(duality)
Dissensus Dialogical discourse Critical discourse
Knowledge= Knowledge= power.
discipline. Role of knowledge in
Deconstruction of organizational
totalizing knowledge underclass; reformation
claims, creation of of social order,
multiple knowledges, domination, and
never-ending process emancipation. Marxism,
Social order of knowing and labour processes. If you
correcting (the self) have access to
knowledge then you
have power.
Consensus Constructivist Neo-functionalist
discourse Knowledge= asset.
Knowledge= mind. Objective, measurable,
socially constructed it can be acquired:
in the doing progressive
(practice), shared enlightenment,
context, generation of reduction of
understanding, uncertainty, optimal
coordinating mindful allocation of resources.
action of
interdependent
individuals with only
partial knowledge
Epistemology: Practice based (duality, ‘and’) or Objectivist (dualism, ‘either/or’)
Social order: Dissensus or Consensus (hoe je denkt dat de wereld in elkaar steekt,
wereldbeeld). Drijvende kracht die achter de order zit.
,College 1
Whats happening?
- Automation/ industrial society (Fordism)
Production of industrial manufactured goods, supported by technology
- To digitization (Post-Fordisme/ post industrial society)
Service sector, offering knowledge-based goods/ services. Growing importance of
(theoretical) knowledge
- To digitalization/ datafication (Surveillance capitalism). Zuboff, 2019)
Capitalization based on surplus data/ Googlism, Work supported buy algorithms & al.
Quantifying by what is done in real life. Transfer that to other organizations.
Surveillance capitalism= How big tech organization get a lot of information; how do they
turn this into capital/profit? How is benefit from the fact that you type something in Google.
Or clicking on something, the next time, they know what you have clicked before and what
you are interested in. Future online behavior. Behavioral surplus data.
(Explicit) Knowledge = competitive advantage. Capture in repositories, emphasis on explicit.
Digital storage (how can you capture what people know)
- Less complex
- ’80s/’90s
(Tacit) Knowledge= experiential, captured in doing, tacit knowledge, communities, locators
of expertise, learning before/during/after doing.
- More complex
- 2000/2010
(Collective) Knowledge= created by ICT facilitated conversation and combining and creating
based on big data, decision-support systems. Embedded in technology.
- Most complex
, - 2010/2020
3 Problems with concept of ‘knowledge’
It is…
1. Ontologically/ epistemologically incoherent
a. Both subjective and objective
2. Vague: ‘knowledge is everything and everything is knowledge’
3. Not neutral, not even always functional
What is knowledge ‘management’?
- Bit ‘common sense’?
- Designing, coordination, controlling, of work processes
- Normative control, ‘community’ (shared values/norms/ideas), protocols, manuals.
“The more emphasize on management, the less it is about knowledge. The more emphasize on
knowledge, the less management matters”. (Alvesson & Kärreman, 2001)
Epistemology dimension
How knowledge is defined is a matter of epistemology:
Epistemology= philosophy addressing the nature of knowledge. Knowledge about
knowledge. How do we define what is true? What is regarded as valid knowledge and why?
Dualism – what is knowledge? - Objectivist
Objective, frozen-in-time, either/or, subjective/objective; self/other; macro/micro; binaries,
mutually exclusive opposites, uni-directional, an object has separate identity.
, Duality – when is knowledge? – Practice based
Both/and/as well as, no clear cut distinction, one does not exist without the other, pragmatism,
theories of practice (knowledge is in the doing, associated with emergence, cyclical causality,
object is continuously shaped by context/situated practice).
Social order dimension
Social order= continuum bounded by:
- Sociology of regulation – society tends towards ideal state of integration, equilibrium
and order consensus.
o Trust – common interest – science/knowledge is neutral
- Sociology of radical change – forces of coercion, conflict and change are
continuously challenging the established social order (‘truce’ is only temporary)
dissensus.
o Suspicion – conflict of interest - science/knowledge is political
Four discourses on Knowledge Management (Schultze & Stabell, 2004)
Epistemology
Practice based Objectivist (dualism)
(duality)
Dissensus Dialogical discourse Critical discourse
Knowledge= Knowledge= power.
discipline. Role of knowledge in
Deconstruction of organizational
totalizing knowledge underclass; reformation
claims, creation of of social order,
multiple knowledges, domination, and
never-ending process emancipation. Marxism,
Social order of knowing and labour processes. If you
correcting (the self) have access to
knowledge then you
have power.
Consensus Constructivist Neo-functionalist
discourse Knowledge= asset.
Knowledge= mind. Objective, measurable,
socially constructed it can be acquired:
in the doing progressive
(practice), shared enlightenment,
context, generation of reduction of
understanding, uncertainty, optimal
coordinating mindful allocation of resources.
action of
interdependent
individuals with only
partial knowledge
Epistemology: Practice based (duality, ‘and’) or Objectivist (dualism, ‘either/or’)
Social order: Dissensus or Consensus (hoe je denkt dat de wereld in elkaar steekt,
wereldbeeld). Drijvende kracht die achter de order zit.
