This work draws on the discipline of Discursive Psychology for a theory of language, shown to be ... more This work draws on the discipline of Discursive Psychology for a theory of language, shown to be all but absent in the organizational knowledge management literature, and a methodology for the study of discourse. Organizational knowledge sharing is selected as the topic of primary research for its accessibility to analysis, and because it is considered to be an underpinning action to new knowledge creation. The research approaches discourse as actionorientated and locally situated, as constructed and constructive, with function and consequence for speakers. Indicative research questions are concerned with the discursively accomplished phenomena of trust, risk, identity and context, how these are accomplished in rhetorical interaction and with what effect on organizationally situated knowledge sharing. Recordings of organizations' everyday knowledge sharing meetings, as well as an online discussion forum, are analysed focusing on these four themes. Findings show them to be accomplished as speakers' live concerns in knowledge sharing talk. It is claimed that trust, risk and identity, as contexts displayed and oriented to by speakers themselves, are tacitly and collaboratively accomplished actions, shown to be co-relational and influential to knowledge sharing scope and directions. A further claim is that the analysis of discourse for what contexts in general speakers invoke displays speakers' orienting to trust, risk and identity. Limitations of the present study are discussed, along with speculated implications for knowledge management and future directions for research. This work aims to contribute to the field of knowledge management in three ways. First, in extending the directions that some scholars and practitioners are already indicating through focusing the interest of study on organizational discourse. Secondly, the study seeks to understand how tacit knowing, as a phenomenon invoked by speakers themselves, is accomplished and how it influences the scope and directions of knowledge sharing actions, and with what effect. Finally, it is claimed that the research provides some support for those theorists in the knowledge management field who promote the knowing how-knowing that formulation, and those who are critical of conventional knowledge management's heavy reliance on technology to deliver its objectives.
Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emerald-srm:48775... more Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emerald-srm:487754 [] For Authors If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information.
Knowledge Management (KM) is an organisational practice which seeks to leverage knowledge within ... more Knowledge Management (KM) is an organisational practice which seeks to leverage knowledge within organisations. It is marked by substantial definitional issues, differences of approach, and controversy, yet it remains a practice of organisations globally. KM attempts to address fundamental questions concerning knowledge, its nature and structure, questions which have interested critical social psychologists for decades. This study adopts a discourse analytic (DA) approach to examine how professional KM practitioners construct KM as a practice in their interactional discourse, comparing and contrasting these to issues and debates in the literature. DA sites discourse as the location of action and achievement, which is occasioned and socially interactional: in this paradigm, knowledge is something that we do. A core finding suggests that KM practitioners axiomatically treat knowledge as object: consequently KM may be managing the wrong “thing”. Few discourse studies have been made in ...
Big Data Analytics is a rapidly developing field which already shows early promising successes. T... more Big Data Analytics is a rapidly developing field which already shows early promising successes. There are considerable synergies between this and Knowledge Management: both have the goal of improving decision-making, fostering innovation, fuelling competitive edge and economic success through the acquisition and application of knowledge. Both operate in a world of increasing deluges of information, with no end in sight. Big Data Analytics can be seen as a threat to the practice of knowledge management: it could relegate the latter to the mists of organizational history in the rush to adopt the latest techniques and technologies. Alternatively, it can be approached as an opportunity for knowledge management in that it wrestles with many of the same issues and dilemmas as knowledge management, The key, it is argued, lies in the application of the latter’s more social and discursive construction of knowledge, a growing trend in knowledge management. The present paper explores the syner...
This article offers a new taxonomy of KM theory which will enable the practitioner to more readil... more This article offers a new taxonomy of KM theory which will enable the practitioner to more readily identify theories of interest. Theory is classified on two bisecting continua: knowledge as object vs. knowledge as social action, and the unit of analysis’ focus on organizational knowledge vs. personal knowledge. A trend towards a more ecological view of knowledge as social action is shown. Secondly, the paper focuses on the most influential theory in the domain of KM – the dynamic theory of the knowledge creating firm, contrasting this dominance with the concerted criticism to which it is subject. A fresh approach to the study, practice and theorizing of KM is offered as an alternative, building on existing work.
Purpose – The purpose of this viewpoint paper is to question the widely adopted tacit-explicit di... more Purpose – The purpose of this viewpoint paper is to question the widely adopted tacit-explicit distinction of knowledge, arguing that this is based on a misappraisal of the original source of the “tacit” phenomenon. Design/methodology/approach – It is argued that Michael Polanyi’s theory of personal knowledge and philosophical grounds have been misinterpreted. The tacit problem is approached from three different directions: knowledge management, cognitive psychology and discursive psychology. The first offers an imperative to regard the tacit as vital to organizational success and an underplayed “implicit” perspective on the tacit. The second offers empirical evidence for the formulation of the tacit as acquired automatically and unconsciously through implicit learning and as influencing action. The last offers a theory and methodology for studying what is argued as being the primary site of knowledge work – discourse. Findings – A novel aspect of the tacit – “tacit knowing” – is sh...
Purpose-Knowledge management (KM) is a global organizational practice that focuses on core questi... more Purpose-Knowledge management (KM) is a global organizational practice that focuses on core questions around knowledge sharing and creation, and which is characterized by definitional issues and a schism over the nature of knowledge. Against this by definition problematic background, this study aims to investigate how KM practitioners construct identities as expert in an online discussion forum, showing how knowledge sharing is inextricably linked to identity construction. Design/methodology/approach-The study adopts a discourse analytic approach, grounded in the discourse psychology paradigm, and its underlying theory that all language, including both talk and text, is situated action in social interaction, marked by variation, function and consequences. Findings-Analysis demonstrates how forum contributors deploy discursive devices constructively, actively and relationally to formulate membership of an expert elite group, and that group membership is marked by inter-group competitive rivalry. This has synergies with the theory of creative abrasion. Practical implications-The study has implications for KM theories and practice in showing how attention to the social-interaction practices of talk and text can reveal deeper understanding of how people share knowledge, and in demonstrating the important and consequential relationship between identity construction and knowledge. Originality/value-This is among the first studies to take a discursive approach to the study of language in the KM domain, and demonstrates the rich potential for future studies.
This work draws on the discipline of Discursive Psychology for a theory of language, shown to be ... more This work draws on the discipline of Discursive Psychology for a theory of language, shown to be all but absent in the organizational knowledge management literature, and a methodology for the study of discourse. Organizational knowledge sharing is selected as the topic of primary research for its accessibility to analysis, and because it is considered to be an underpinning action to new knowledge creation. The research approaches discourse as actionorientated and locally situated, as constructed and constructive, with function and consequence for speakers. Indicative research questions are concerned with the discursively accomplished phenomena of trust, risk, identity and context, how these are accomplished in rhetorical interaction and with what effect on organizationally situated knowledge sharing. Recordings of organizations' everyday knowledge sharing meetings, as well as an online discussion forum, are analysed focusing on these four themes. Findings show them to be accomplished as speakers' live concerns in knowledge sharing talk. It is claimed that trust, risk and identity, as contexts displayed and oriented to by speakers themselves, are tacitly and collaboratively accomplished actions, shown to be co-relational and influential to knowledge sharing scope and directions. A further claim is that the analysis of discourse for what contexts in general speakers invoke displays speakers' orienting to trust, risk and identity. Limitations of the present study are discussed, along with speculated implications for knowledge management and future directions for research. This work aims to contribute to the field of knowledge management in three ways. First, in extending the directions that some scholars and practitioners are already indicating through focusing the interest of study on organizational discourse. Secondly, the study seeks to understand how tacit knowing, as a phenomenon invoked by speakers themselves, is accomplished and how it influences the scope and directions of knowledge sharing actions, and with what effect. Finally, it is claimed that the research provides some support for those theorists in the knowledge management field who promote the knowing how-knowing that formulation, and those who are critical of conventional knowledge management's heavy reliance on technology to deliver its objectives.
Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emerald-srm:48775... more Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emerald-srm:487754 [] For Authors If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information.
Knowledge Management (KM) is an organisational practice which seeks to leverage knowledge within ... more Knowledge Management (KM) is an organisational practice which seeks to leverage knowledge within organisations. It is marked by substantial definitional issues, differences of approach, and controversy, yet it remains a practice of organisations globally. KM attempts to address fundamental questions concerning knowledge, its nature and structure, questions which have interested critical social psychologists for decades. This study adopts a discourse analytic (DA) approach to examine how professional KM practitioners construct KM as a practice in their interactional discourse, comparing and contrasting these to issues and debates in the literature. DA sites discourse as the location of action and achievement, which is occasioned and socially interactional: in this paradigm, knowledge is something that we do. A core finding suggests that KM practitioners axiomatically treat knowledge as object: consequently KM may be managing the wrong “thing”. Few discourse studies have been made in ...
Big Data Analytics is a rapidly developing field which already shows early promising successes. T... more Big Data Analytics is a rapidly developing field which already shows early promising successes. There are considerable synergies between this and Knowledge Management: both have the goal of improving decision-making, fostering innovation, fuelling competitive edge and economic success through the acquisition and application of knowledge. Both operate in a world of increasing deluges of information, with no end in sight. Big Data Analytics can be seen as a threat to the practice of knowledge management: it could relegate the latter to the mists of organizational history in the rush to adopt the latest techniques and technologies. Alternatively, it can be approached as an opportunity for knowledge management in that it wrestles with many of the same issues and dilemmas as knowledge management, The key, it is argued, lies in the application of the latter’s more social and discursive construction of knowledge, a growing trend in knowledge management. The present paper explores the syner...
This article offers a new taxonomy of KM theory which will enable the practitioner to more readil... more This article offers a new taxonomy of KM theory which will enable the practitioner to more readily identify theories of interest. Theory is classified on two bisecting continua: knowledge as object vs. knowledge as social action, and the unit of analysis’ focus on organizational knowledge vs. personal knowledge. A trend towards a more ecological view of knowledge as social action is shown. Secondly, the paper focuses on the most influential theory in the domain of KM – the dynamic theory of the knowledge creating firm, contrasting this dominance with the concerted criticism to which it is subject. A fresh approach to the study, practice and theorizing of KM is offered as an alternative, building on existing work.
Purpose – The purpose of this viewpoint paper is to question the widely adopted tacit-explicit di... more Purpose – The purpose of this viewpoint paper is to question the widely adopted tacit-explicit distinction of knowledge, arguing that this is based on a misappraisal of the original source of the “tacit” phenomenon. Design/methodology/approach – It is argued that Michael Polanyi’s theory of personal knowledge and philosophical grounds have been misinterpreted. The tacit problem is approached from three different directions: knowledge management, cognitive psychology and discursive psychology. The first offers an imperative to regard the tacit as vital to organizational success and an underplayed “implicit” perspective on the tacit. The second offers empirical evidence for the formulation of the tacit as acquired automatically and unconsciously through implicit learning and as influencing action. The last offers a theory and methodology for studying what is argued as being the primary site of knowledge work – discourse. Findings – A novel aspect of the tacit – “tacit knowing” – is sh...
Purpose-Knowledge management (KM) is a global organizational practice that focuses on core questi... more Purpose-Knowledge management (KM) is a global organizational practice that focuses on core questions around knowledge sharing and creation, and which is characterized by definitional issues and a schism over the nature of knowledge. Against this by definition problematic background, this study aims to investigate how KM practitioners construct identities as expert in an online discussion forum, showing how knowledge sharing is inextricably linked to identity construction. Design/methodology/approach-The study adopts a discourse analytic approach, grounded in the discourse psychology paradigm, and its underlying theory that all language, including both talk and text, is situated action in social interaction, marked by variation, function and consequences. Findings-Analysis demonstrates how forum contributors deploy discursive devices constructively, actively and relationally to formulate membership of an expert elite group, and that group membership is marked by inter-group competitive rivalry. This has synergies with the theory of creative abrasion. Practical implications-The study has implications for KM theories and practice in showing how attention to the social-interaction practices of talk and text can reveal deeper understanding of how people share knowledge, and in demonstrating the important and consequential relationship between identity construction and knowledge. Originality/value-This is among the first studies to take a discursive approach to the study of language in the KM domain, and demonstrates the rich potential for future studies.
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