LEADERSHIP AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Leadership and Knowledge Management



Leadership and Knowledge Management

The Concept of Knowledge

The historical development of the concept of knowledge helps to understand how a reductionist perspective entered the debate between philosophers in the West and took an important role in the development of the theory of knowledge. It also shows how the latest philosophical and scientific developments provoked an evolution of the concept of knowledge symbolizing the convergence of views from the East and the West towards a holistic view of knowledge. The current literature on knowledge management is replete with distinctions among knowledge, information, data, and wisdom. It is also common to see distinctions drawn between different kinds of knowledge, such as tacit and explicit, actionable and passive, or knowledge and meta-knowledge. Similarly, data are considered as broader than facts, which are typically treated as a form of proven or verified data. Most of the authors define knowledge, fewer define information, fewer still define data, and almost none define wisdom.

One area of agreement is that there is a hierarchy among the concepts of data, information, knowledge, and wisdom. The knowledge hierarchy is usually seen as a pyramid ascending from data to wisdom. One area of potential controversy regarding the definitions and nature of the various knowledge related constructs relates to the distinction between tacit and explicit aspects. However, no overall consensus exists in the field of knowledge management about the concept of knowledge.

Knowledge processing systems

Western management has traditionally viewed organizations as highly structured and passive information processing machines, gathering information from their environments, employing it in order to resolve existing problems. This is a view of the organization that ignores the underlying dynamism of knowledge creation processes. Instead, an organization should be seen as a venue or a field that facilitates interactions among the members of the organization. Guided by the rules specific to the given field, the role of an organization's members is to identify and analyze problems, in essence to apply existing knowledge of patterns of movement in an ever-changing, complex environment. This process results in the development and application of new knowledge.

The knowledge management literature abounds in models of knowledge transformations or conversions; however, little is said about the distinction between knowledge management and knowledge processing. As argued by McElroy (2003), knowledge management is not so much about managing knowledge but about managing knowledge processes. Therefore, the focus of knowledge management should be on studying the knowledge processing system (KPS), defined as the system of social processes through which knowledge is created, diffused, and utilized within a human organization. In order to understand an organization's knowledge management capabilities, it is therefore more important to appreciate the dynamics of its KPS than to ascertain the depths and/or scope of its existing knowledge base.

Origins and Developments

The search for knowledge has always been a focal point in the evolution of mankind. As the earliest civilizations appeared in Mesopotamia, Egypt, India and China, they were heavily influenced by their environment ...