Nasa Taxonomy

Beyond "Knowledge of the love of knowledge"

Quick ± 25 words or less, to define knowledge management. Unable to do? You're not alone.

There are an assortment of disciplines that have influenced the field of knowledge management (KM) thought and practice - the most important philosophy in the definition of knowledge, cognitive science (in the understanding of knowledge workers) , social sciences (in the understanding of motivation, people, interactions, culture and environment) management science (in the optimization of operations and integrate them into the business), science information (in capacity building related to knowledge), knowledge engineering (leading and codification of knowledge); artificial intelligence (in the automation of routine work and knowledge intensive) and the economy (to determine priorities). Consequently, there are enormous working definitions of KM and emerging philosophies circulating in the literature and in society in the world.

We can not have a clear understanding and definition of what KM is without considering the different concepts of knowledge and information (including data) and the implicit and explicit dimensions of knowledge, tacit. A Much of the current confusion that still surrounds the question of KM is based on various "interpretations and suggestions for researchers to distinguish information and knowledge the conditions and terms implied, implicit and explicit.

What is knowledge?

Some authors seem to try to avoid the epistemological debate on the definition of knowledge by comparing the data, information and knowledge. However, von Krogh et al. (2000) or Kakabadse et al. 'S (2003) understanding of knowledge as "justified true belief" goes back to the original work of Michael Polanyi (we know more than we can express) (Polanyi 1958), an epistemological position that is known to have developed from discourses of Plato (Meno, Phaedo and Theaetetus). This definition has been adopted especially by Western philosophy (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995), which provides a complete classification of knowledge models, the concept of Plato has been discussed since Aristotle , one of his students, throughout the continental rationalism, and of German philosophy (Kant 1965, Marx, 1976; Hegel 1977); British empiricism (Locke 1987) century philosophers of the twentieth (Dewey 1929, Sartre, 1956, Habermas, 1972; Tsoukas 1996, cited in Kakabdse et al. 2003, p. 77).

The discourse above implies that knowledge itself is a multifaceted concept very different with many variations and definitions. Based on the fact that the nature of knowledge is widely recognized in various stands epistemological individual contributors, but ultimately led to the following definition of "knowledge":

"Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information, and insight of experts that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information. It originates and is applied in the minds of connoisseurs. In organizations, it often becomes embedded not only in documents or repositories but also in organizational routines, processes, practices and standards. "(Davenport and Prusak 2000, p. 5).

Tacit knowledge / implicit / explicit

"Tacitus' knowledge is not expressible and can in no case be made directly explicit or in other words codified in the rules and formulating them.