Summary, lectures & articles of Knowledge in Organisations (KIO): MAN-BCU322A

KIO SUMMARY

HC1

- 24 multiple choice questions
- 1 open question



Automation/industrial society (Fordisme)  To digitization (Post-Fordisme/post-industrial society) 
To datafication/digitalization



DEVELOPMENT OF KNOWLEDGE (voor het beeld)

80’s/90’s: Knowledge = competitive advantage, explicit knowledge, digital storage

2000: Knowledge = experiential, captured in doing, tacit knowledge, communities (CoP)

2010: Power, tool and object in conflicts

2020: Never-ending cycle of knowing and correcting, disciplinary power of knowledge

Further away: Collective knowledge, created by ICT big data, decision-support systems



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?




EPISTEMOLOGY DIMENSION:

 Dualism (objectivist, either/or) [what is knowledge?] = knowledge can be codified &
separated from people who possess it
- Either/or -> e.g. water boils at 100 degrees (if it’s not boiling, then it’s not 100 degrees or it
isn’t water)
 Duality (practice-based, both/and) [when is knowledge?] = knowledge is embedded in,
developed through and inseparable from people’s workplace. Knowledge is in the doing. it
can be in our heads but if we don’t use it, there’s no knowledge. Knowledge situated in a
context, can be something else within the next hour
- Both/and -> e.g. people with different opinions, but still both got valid information

SOCIAL ORDER DIMENSION:

 Consensus (sociology of regulation) [glass half full] = existing social relations are
unproblematic and challenging them isn’t considered
- Trust – common interest – science/knowledge is neutral
 Dissensus (sociology of radical change/conflict) [glass half empty] = social relations are
problematic and reinforce power differentials
- Suspicion – conflict of interest – science/knowledge is political

, EPISTEMOLOGY

SOCIAL ORDER Practice-based (duality) Objectivist (dualism)
Dissensus Dialogical discourse Critical discourse (knowledge
(knowledge = discipline) = power)
Consensus Constructivist discourse Neo-functionalist discourse
(knowledge = mind) (knowledge = asset)
*Discourse = perspective

Knowledge = asset -> objective, measurable, it can be acquired

Knowledge = mind -> socially constructed, in the doing (practice), shared context, generation of
understanding (‘collective minds’ -> there is a common thought when you work together a lot)

Knowledge = power -> role of knowledge in organizational underclass: reformation of social order,
domination and emancipation (e.g. Marxism, labour process)

Knowledge = discipline -> deconstruction of totalizing knowledge claims, creation of multiple
knowledges, never-ending process of knowing and correcting (the self) (e.g. ‘10.000 steps is healthy’
rule is normalized, but is it actually healthy?)



Neo-functionalism (most dominant) = regional integration which downplays globalisation,
reintroduces territory into its governance

- other word for Neo-functionalism = objectivist

Social constructivism = collaborative nature of learning, knowledge develops from how people
interact with each other



Explicit knowledge (e.g. data, spreadsheet) Tacit knowledge (e.g.
biking)

 Objectivist perspective - subjective intuition
 Expressed in language and shared through data
 Objective - subjective
 Impersonal - personal
 Context-independent - context-dependent
 Easy to share
 Codifiable - difficult to codify




3 TYPES OF COLLECTIVE KNOWLEDGE

 Shared = knowledge held by individuals in a group
 Complementary = knowledge regarding the division of expertise in a group
 Artifactual = knowledge embedded in collective group artifacts