Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

CiteULike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references - click here to get started.

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Journal of Information Science
This Article
Right arrow Abstract Freely available
Right arrow Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Jashapara, A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Moving beyond tacit and explicit distinctions: a realist theory of organizational knowledge

Ashok Jashapara

School of Management, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK, Ashok.Jashapara{at}rhul.ac.uk

This paper challenges the popular notions of tacit and explicit organizational knowledge and argues that its philosophical underpinnings derived from Gilbert Ryle are problematic due to their logical behaviourist perspective. The paper articulates the philosophical problem as the neglect of any role for the mind in organizational activity and the representation of mental activity as purely a set of behaviours. An alternative realist philosophy is advanced taking into account the potential of adopting a number of competing philosophical perspectives. The paper forwards a realist theory of organizational knowledge that moves beyond the surface behaviours of tacit and explicit knowledge and argues that collective consciousness and organizational memory play primary and deeper roles as knowledge processes and structures. Consciousness is not a Hegelian world spirit but rather a real process embedded in people's brains and mental activity. Further, the paper argues that organizational routines provide the contingent condition or `spark' to activate organizational knowledge processes. The implications of this model are explored in relation to the measurement of intellectual capital. The theory developed in this paper represents the first attempt to provide a coherent philosophically grounded framework of organizational knowledge that moves organizational theory beyond neat conversion processes of tacit and explicit knowledge.

Key Words: organizational knowledge • realism • consciousness • memory • tacit knowledge • explicit knowledge • past experience • organizational routines • philosophy

References

  • L. Empson, Fear of exploitation and fear of contamination: impediments to knowledge transfer in mergers between professional service firms, Human Relations 54(7) (2001) 839—62.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  • P.F. Drucker, Managing in a Time of Change ( Truman Talley, New York, 1995).
  • P.F. Drucker, Knowledge-worker productivity: the biggest challenge, California Management Review 41(2) (1999) 79—85.[Web of Science]
  • Department for Education and Employment, Opportunity for All: Skills for the New Economy (DfEE, London, 2000).
  • E.T. Penrose, The Theory of Growth of the Firm ( Blackwell, Oxford, 1959).
  • J.B. Barney, Is the resource-based "view" a useful perspective for strategic management research? Yes, Academy of Management Review 26(1) (2001) 41—56.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • J.B. Barney, Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage, Journal of Management 17(1) (1991) 99—120.[Abstract]
  • K.R. Conner, A historical comparison of resource-based theory and five schools of thought within industrial organisation economics: do we have a new theory of the firm? Journal of Management 17(1) (1991) 121—55.[Abstract]
  • A. Etzioni, Modern Organizations (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1964).
  • J.C. Spender, Making knowledge the basis of a dynamic theory of the firm, Strategic Management Journal 17(Winter Special Issue) (1996) 45—62.[Web of Science]
  • R.M. Grant, Toward a knowledge-based theory of the firm, Strategic Management Journal 17(Winter Special Issue) (1996) 109—22.[CrossRef]
  • R.M. Grant and C. Baden-Fuller, A knowledge accessing theory of strategic alliances, Journal of Management Studies 41(1) (2004) 61—84.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • E. Abrahamson and M. Eisenman, Why management scholars must intervene strategically in the management knowledge market, Human Relations 54(1) ( 2001) 67—75.[Free Full Text]
  • M.T. Hansen and M.R. Haas, Competing for attention in knowledge markets: electronic document dissemination in a management consulting company, Administrative Science Quarterly 46(1) (2001) 1—28.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • W.J. Orlikowski, Knowing in practice: enacting a collective capability in distributed organizing, Organization Science 13(3) (2002) 249—73.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  • P.R. Carlile, A pragmatic view of knowledge and boundaries: boundary objects in new product development, Organization Science 13(4) (2002) 442—55.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  • G. Ryle, The Concept of Mind (Hutchinson, London, 1949).
  • M. Polanyi, The Tacit Dimension (Doubleday, New York, 1967).
  • I. Nonaka, A dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation, Organization Science 5(1) (1994) 14—37.[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • M. Alvesson and D. Karreman, Odd couple: making sense of the curious concept of knowledge management, Journal of Management Studies 38(7) ( 2001) 995—1018.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • H. Tsoukas and E. Vladimirou, What is organizational knowledge? Journal of Management Studies 38(7) (2001) 973—93.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • G.F. Lanzara and G. Patriotta, Technology and the courtroom: an inquiry into knowledge making in organizations, Journal of Management Studies 38(7) (2001) 943—71.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • J.R. Searle, Mind, Language and Society: Philosophy in the Real World (Basic Books, New York, 1999).
  • A. Sayer, Realism and Social Science (Sage, London, 2000).
  • A. Brown, G. Slater and D.A. Spencer, Driven to abstraction? Critical realism and the search for the `inner connection' of social phenomena, Cambridge Journal of Economics 26(6) (2002) 773—88.[Abstract]
  • R. Bhaskar, A Realist Theory of Science (Harvester Wheatsheaf, Hemel Hempstead, 1978).
  • R. Harré (ed.), Varieties of Realism (Blackwell, Oxford, 1986).
  • S. Ghoshal, Bad management theories are destroying good management practices, Academy of Management Learning and Education 4(1) (2005) 75—91.
  • J. Macmurray, The Form of the Personal (Vol. 1): The Self as Agent (Faber, London, 1957).
  • J. Macmurray, The Form of the Personal (Vol. 2): Persons in Relation (Faber, London, 1961).
  • J. Macmurray, The Philosophy of Communism ( Faber, London, 1933).
  • R. Stones, Sociological Reasoning: Towards a Post-Modern Sociology (Macmillan, London, 1996 ).
  • A. Collier, In Defence of Objectivity and Other Essays: On Realism, Existentialism and Politics (Routledge, London, 2003).
  • D.J. Haraway, Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: the Reinvention of Nature (Free Association Books, London, 1991).
  • S. Harding, Whose Science, Whose Knowledge? Thinking from Women's Lives (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1991).
  • J. Grimshaw, Philosophy, feminism and universalism, Radical Philosophy, 76 (1996) 19—28.
  • D. Sole and A. Edmondson, Situated knowledge and learning in disperse teams, British Journal of Management 13(s2) (2002 ) S17-S34.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • J.R. Searle, The Mystery of Consciousness (Granta Books, London, 1997).
  • L.A. Zaibert, Collective intentions and collective intentionality, American Journal of Economics and Sociology 62(1) (2003) 209—32.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • M. Foucault, The Order of Things: an Archaeology of the Human Sciences (Tavistock Publications, London, 1970).
  • C.K. Prahalad and G. Hamel, The core competence of the corporation, Harvard Business Review 68(3) (1990) 79—91.[Web of Science]
  • J.G. March, Exploration and exploitation in organizational learning, Organization Science 2(1) (1991) 71—87.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  • A.C. Inkpen, Learning through joint ventures: a framework of knowledge acquisition, Journal of Management Studies 37(7) (2000) 1019—43.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • G. Hamel and C.K. Prahalad, Strategic intent, Harvard Business Review, 67(May-June) ( 1989) 63—76.[Web of Science][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • D. Leonard and S. Sensiper, The role of tacit knowledge in group innovation, California Management Review 40(3) (1998) 112—32.[Web of Science]
  • G. Nunberg (ed.), Farewell to the Information Age (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1996).
  • D. Fallis, On verifying the accuracy of information: philosophical perspectives, Library Trends 52(3) (2004) 463—87.[Web of Science]
  • B. Hjørland, Arguments for philosophical realism in library and information science, Library Trends 52(3) (2004) 488—506.[Web of Science]
  • E.K. Jacob, Classification and categorization: a difference that makes a difference, Library Trends 52(3) (2004) 515—40.[Web of Science]
  • S.R. Ranganathan, Colon Classification: Basic Classification (Asia Publishing House, London, 1960).
  • J. Mills, Faceted classification and logical division in information retrieval, Library Trends 52(3) (2004) 541—70.[Web of Science]
  • L. Floridi, On defining library and information science as applied philosophy of information, Social Epistemology 16(1) ( 2002) 37—49.[CrossRef]
  • L. Floridi, LIS as applied philosophy of information: a reappraisal, Library Trends 52(3) (2004) 658—65.[Web of Science]
  • R. McDermott, Why information technology inspired but cannot deliver knowledge management, California Management Review 41(4) ( 1999) 103—17.[Web of Science]
  • X. Martin and R. Salomon, Tacitness, learning, and international expansion: a study of foreign direct investment in a knowledge-intensive industry, Organization Science 14(3) (2003) 297—311.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  • J. Birkinshaw, R. Nobel and J. Ridderstrale, Knowledge as a contingency variable: do the characteristics of knowledge predict organization structure? Organization Science 13(3) (2002) 274—89.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  • U. Zander, Exploiting a Technological Edge: Voluntary and Involuntary Dissemination of Technology (Institute of International Business, Stockholm, 1991).
  • B.L. Simonin, Ambiguity and the process of knowledge transfer in strategic alliances, Strategic Management Journal 20(7) (1999) 595—623.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • U. Zander and B. Kogut, Knowledge and the speed of transfer and imitation of organizational capabilities: an empirical test, Organization Science 6(1) (1995) 76—92.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  • S.K. McEvily, S. Das and K. McCabe, Avoiding competence substitution through knowledge sharing, Academy of Management Review 25(2) (2000) 294—311.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • A.W.M. Meijers, Can collective intentionality be individualized, American Journal of Economics and Sociology 62(1) (2003) 167—83.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • J.R. Searle, The Construction of Social Reality (The Free Press, New York, 1995).
  • S. Gherardi and D. Nicolini, To transfer is to transform: the circulation of safety knowledge, Organization 7(2) (2000) 329—48.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  • A.G. Karamanos, Complexity, identity and the value of knowledge-intensive exchanges, Journal of Management Studies 40(7) (2003) 1871—90.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • R.J. Boland, J. Singh, P. Salipante, J.D. Aram, S.Y. Fay and P. Kanawattanachai, Knowledge representations and knowledge transfer, Academy of Management Journal 44(2) (2001) 393—417.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • A.V. Cicourel, Cognitive Sociology (Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1973).
  • J. Orr, Sharing knowledge, celebrating identity in war stories and community memory in a service culture. In: D. Middleton and D. Edwards (eds), Collective Remembering: Remembering in a Society (Sage, Beverly Hills, CA, 1990) 63—77.
  • M.S. Granovetter, Problems of explanation in economic sociology. In: N. Nohria and R. Eccles (eds), Networks and Organizations: Structure, Form and Action (Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA, 1992) 32—48.
  • C.U. Stephens, The ontology of trust and the transformation of capitalism in a knowledge economy — a commentary on Paul Adler's `Market, hierarchy, and trust: the knowledge economy and the future of capitalism ', Organization Science 12(2) (2001) 238—40.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  • P.S. Adler, Market, hierarchy, and trust: the knowledge economy and the future of capitalism, Organization Science 12(2) ( 2001) 215—34.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  • J. Coleman, Foundations of Social Theory (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1990).
  • T.Y.M. May, M. Korczynski and S.J. Frenkel, Organizational and occupational commitment: knowledge workers in large corporations, Journal of Management Studies 39(6) (2002) 775—801.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • I. Parker, Group identity and individuality in times of crisis: psychoanalytic reflections on social psychological knowledge, Human Relations 50(2) (1997) 183—96.[Abstract]
  • W.P. Tsai, Knowledge transfer in intraorganizational networks: effects of network position and absorptive capacity on business unit innovation and performance, Academy of Management Journal 44(5) (2001) 996—1004.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • M.T. Hansen, Knowledge networks: explaining effective knowledge sharing in multiunit companies, Organization Science 13(3) (2002) 232—48.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  • P.M. Lencioni, Make your values mean something, Harvard Business Review 80(7) (2002) 113—17.[Web of Science][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • M.T. Hansen, The search-transfer problem: the role of weak ties in sharing knowledge across organization subunits, Administrative Science Quarterly 44 (1999) 82—111.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • G. Szulanski, Exploring internal stickiness: impediments to the transfer of best practice within the firm, Strategic Management Journal 17(Winter Special Issue) ( 1996) 27—43.[Web of Science]
  • E. von Hippel, `Sticky information' and the locus of problem solving: implications for innovation, Management Science 40(4) (1994) 429—39.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • M.A. Lyles and C.R. Schwenk, Top management, strategy and organizational knowledge structures, Journal of Management Studies 29(2) (1992) 155—74.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • J.P. Walsh, Managerial and organizational cognition: notes from a trip down memory lane, Organization Science 6(3) (1995) 280—320.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  • D. Middleton and D. Edwards (eds), Collective Remembering ( Sage, London, 1990).
  • J.P. Walsh and G.R. Ungson, Organizational memory, Academy of Management Review 16(1) (1991) 239—70.
  • D. Middleton, Succession and change in the socio-cultural use of memory: building-in the past in communicative action, Culture and Psychology 8(1) (2002) 79—95.[CrossRef]
  • W.M. Cohen and D. Levinthal, Absorptive capacity: a new perspective on learning and innovation, Administrative Science Quarterly 35 (1990) 128—52.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • J. Brockmeier, Remembering and forgetting: narrative as cultural memory, Culture and Psychology 8(1) (2002) 15—43.
  • J.S. Bruner, The `remembered' self. In: U. Neisser (ed.), The Remembering Self (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1994) 41—54.
  • K. Tschuggnall and H. Welzer, Rewriting memories: family recollections of the national socialist past in Germany, Culture and Psychology 8(1) ( 2002) 133—48.
  • J. Assmann, Ancient Egyptian antijudaism: a case of distorted memory. In: D.L. Schacter et al. (eds), Memory Distortion: How Minds, Brains and Societies Reconstruct the Past ( Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1995) 365—76.
  • P.M. de Holan and N. Phillips, Remembrance of things past? The dynamics of organizational forgetting, Management Science, 50(11) (2004) 1603—13.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • P.M. de Holan, N. Phillips and T.B. Lawrence, Managing organizational forgetting, MIT Sloan Management Review 45(2) (2004) 45—51.
  • B.L.T. Hedberg, How organizations learn and unlearn. In: P.C. Nystrom and W.H. Starbuck (eds), Handbook of Organizational Design (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1981).
  • R.L. Purvis, V. Sambamurthy and R.W. Zmud, The assimilation of knowledge platforms in organizations: an empirical investigation, Organization Science 12(2) (2001) 117—35.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  • W.P. Tsai, Social structure of `coopetition' within a multiunit organization: coordination, competition, and intraorganizational knowledge sharing, Organization Science 13(2) (2002) 179—90.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  • R.R. Nelson and S. Winter, An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Growth (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1982).
  • M. Feldman and A. Rafaeli, Organizational routines as sources of connections and understandings, Journal of Management Studies 39(3) ( 2002) 309—31.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • A. Jashapara, Knowledge Management: an Integrated Approach (Prentice Hall, Harlow Essex, 2004).
  • R. Krauss and S. Fussell, Mutual knowledge and communicative effectiveness. In: J. Galegher, R. Kraut, and C. Egido (eds), Intellectual Teamwork: Social and Technological Foundations of Cooperative Work ( Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, 1990) 111—46.
  • M. Zollo and S.G. Winter, Deliberate learning and the evolution of dynamic capabilities, Organization Science 13(3) (2002) 339—51.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  • C. Argyris and D.A. Schon, Organizational Learning: a Theory of Action Perspective ( Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1978 ).
  • K. Eisenhardt and J. Martin, Dynamic capabilities: what are they? Strategic Management Journal 21(10/11) (2000) 1105—21.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • K.E. Weick, K.M. Sutcliffe and D. Obstfeld, Organizing and the process of sensemaking, Organization Science 16(4) (2005) 409—21.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  • K.E. Weick, Sensemaking in Organizations (Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, 1995).
  • J.M. Bloodgood and J.L. Morrow, Strategic organizational change: exploring the roles of environmental structure, internal conscious awareness and knowledge, Journal of Management Studies 40(7) (2003) 1761—82.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • R. Reinhardt, M. Bournemann, P. Pawlowsky and U. Schneider, Intellectual capital and knowledge management: perspectives on measuring knowledge. In: M. Dierkes et al. (eds), Handbook of Organizational Learning and Knowledge (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2001) 794—820.
  • D. Cohen and L. Prusak, In Good Company: How Social Capital Makes Organizations Work ( Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA, 2001).
  • J. Nahapiet and S. Ghoshal, Social capital, intellectual capital, and the organizational advantage, Academy of Management Review 23(2) ( 1998) 242—66.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • J. Mouritsen, P.N. Bukh, H.T. Larsen and M.R. Johansen, Developing and managing knowledge through intellectual capital statements, Journal of Intellectual Capital 3(1) ( 2002) 10—29.[CrossRef]

This version was published on December 1, 2007

Journal of Information Science, Vol. 33, No. 6, 752-766 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0165551506078404
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?



This Article
Right arrow Abstract Freely available
Right arrow Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Jashapara, A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?