Bridging Epistemologies
The Generative Dance Between Organizational Knowledge and Organizational Knowing
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23329010 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Scott D N Cook (San Jose State University), S D Noam Cook (Palo Alto Research Center), John Seely Brown (Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, 3333 Coyote Hill, Palo Alto, California 94304) |
| Year | 1999 |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 381-400 |
| Publication date | 1999-08-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Organization Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1047-7039 • E-ISSN: 1526-5455 |
| Publisher | Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1287/orsc.10.4.381 |
| OpenAlex | W2134230545 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 249 |
| References cited | 35 |
Much current work on organizational knowledge, intellectual capital, knowledge-creating organizations, knowledge work, and the like rests on a single, traditional understanding of the nature of knowledge. We call this understanding the “epistemology of possession,” since it treats knowledge as something people possess. Yet, this epistemology cannot account for the knowing found in individual and group practice. Knowing as action calls for an “epistemology of practice.” Moreover, the epistemology of possession tends to privilege explicit over tacit knowledge, and knowledge possessed by individuals over that possessed by groups. Current work on organizations is limited by this privileging and by the scant attention given to knowing in its own right. Organizations are better understood if explicit, tacit, individual and group knowledge are treated as four distinct and coequal forms of knowledge (each doing work the others cannot), and if knowledge and knowing are seen as mutually enabling (not competing). We hold that knowledge is a tool of knowing, that knowing is an aspect of our interaction with the social and physical world, and that the interplay of knowledge and knowing can generate new knowledge and new ways of knowing. We believe this generative dance between knowledge and knowing is a powerful source of organizational innovation. Harnessing this innovation calls for organizational and technological infrastructures that support the interplay of knowledge and knowing. Ultimately, these concepts make possible a more robust framing of such epistemologically-centered concerns as core competencies, the management of intellectual capital, etc. We explore these views through three brief case studies drawn from recent research.
Body of knowledge · Bridging (networking) · Descriptive knowledge · Epistemology · Epistemology of Wikipedia · Explicit knowledge · Framing (construction) · Generative grammar · Intellectual capital · Knowledge management · Knowledge value chain · Organizational learning · Personal knowledge management · Possession (linguistics) · Social epistemology · Social science · Sociology · Tacit knowledge · Complex Systems and Decision Making · Computer Science · Innovation and Knowledge Management · Knowledge Management and Sharing · Psychology
Do We Really Understand Tacit Knowledge
Introduction to E-learning Research
Kun tietoa mitataan euroissa
Educação Profissional e Tecnológica
The Constitution of Collective Memory in Virtual Game Worlds
An Overview of Discourses on Knowledge in Policy
Embedding researchers into organisations
Knowledge practices in integrated care
Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration and Learning
Rethinking Partnerships with the Aim of Producing Knowledge with Practical Relevance
The European Water Framework Directive
Articulating Divides in Distributed Knowledge Practice
Bridging ‘The Great Divide’
The Significance of Distinctiveness
Comunicación y Transferencia en las Innovaciones Sociales. Codificación y Comunidades de Conocimiento
Trayectos en el mapa
Energizing Project‐Based Inquiry
A qualitative study and model of the use of e‐mail in organisations
The Trouble with ‘Tacit Knowledge’
Can We Make Sense of Knowledge Management’s Tangible Rainbow? A Radical Constructivist Alternative
Community of Practice
Pragmatic Learning Theory
That obscure object of desire
Localized sources of knowledge and the effect of knowledge spillovers
Conservation of Contemporary Art
Philosophy and Design
Knowledge-Based View
Tacit Knowledge, Psychology of
Urban Living Labs
Culture and Evidence-Based Management
Learning
Handbook of Strategy and Management
Inside Asylum Bureaucracy
Building Theory about Theory Building
Re-Embedding Situatedness
Perspective—Tacit Knowledge and Knowledge Conversion
Constitutional Amendments
International practices
The Intersection of Organizational Identity, Knowledge, and Practice
Writing Integrative Literature Reviews
Organizational Learning
Theorizing Practice and Practicing Theory
Collaborative policymaking
Through the practice lens
Identifying a core set of science teaching practices
Knowledge-Sharing Dilemmas
Open for innovation
Instructional Activities as a Tool for Teachers' and Teacher Educators' Learning
Knowledge, Clusters, and Competitive Advantage
Knowledge Sharing in Organizations
On the nature of markets and their practices
Practice as the Site of Knowing
Knowledge and Organization
Knowledge for Theory and Practice
A Dialogical Approach to the Creation of New Knowledge in Organizations
A Pragmatic View of Knowledge and Boundaries
Sharing Meaning Across Occupational Communities
Coordinating Expertise Among Emergent Groups Responding to Disasters
Stylized Facts in the Geography of Innovation
Knowing in Practice
Understanding policy practices
Configurations of Craft
Regional security practices and Russian–Atlantic relations
Theoretical strategies of poststructuralist policy analysis
Deliberative Policy Analysis
Materiality, Sociomateriality, and Socio-Technical Systems
Distance as asset? Knowledge collaboration in hybrid virtual communities
Cultivating Communities of Practice
Developing innovation capability through learning networks
Mobilizing Knowledge in Frontline Work
Stretching tacit knowledge beyond a local fix? Global spaces of learning in advertising professional service firms
Affordances of Virtual and Physical Laboratory Projects for Instructional Design
Strategy as Practice
Une ethnographie organisationnelle constructiviste et orientée vers les pratiques situées
L’activité collective, processus organisant
Patients’ with Multimorbidity and Psychosocial Difficulties and Their Views on Important Professional Competence for Rehabilitation Coordinators in the Return-to-Work Process
Organizational Learning
Actualisation et « mise en scène » de connaissances organisationnelles
Research on Preparing Pre-service Teachers for Leading Mathematical Discussions
A pragmatic approach of knowledge acquisition in adult training. Elements for a conceptual framework
Process expertise in policy advice
Practicing equity-centered improvement
Connected or compartmentalized knowledge use
Barriers to creating a science of the art of teaching via Participative Action Research; learning from the tribulations of Lesson Study in different epistemic cultures
Does a teacher need authority to teach students self-direction? Reflections on embracing a paradox
Information ecology in digitalising welfare services
A capital framework for professional learning and practice
The ‘how’ rather than the ‘what’ of research impact
A Relational Unfolding
Fostering innovation speed and quality in ICT firms
Connected epistemic practices in laboratory‐based engineering design projects for large‐course instruction
The Concept of Organizational Routines and Its Potential for Investigating Educational Initiatives in Practice
Powerful knowns and powerful knowings
Learning for knowledgeable action
Navigating policy in (trans)action
Plunging into the process
Flows of power
Where Are the Poor in Mainstream International Economics
How to follow and Study Through the Sites and Situations of Expert Knowledge Diffusion in International Politics
International practices
Bounded Rationality and Organizational Learning
Culture and Organizational Learning
What Firms Do? Coordination, Identity, and Learning
The Tacit Dimension
Technology affordances
Organizational Routines Are Stored as Procedural Memory
The social organization of distributed cognition.
Organizational Learning and Communities-of-Practice
A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation
The reflective practitioner
The Concept of Mind
Structuration Theory
Outline of a Theory of Practice
Borderline Issues
Situating Action II
Institutional Ecology, `Translations' and Boundary Objects
Organizational Learning
The social theory of practices
Talking about machines
Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning
Autonomy, Interdependence, and Moral Governance
Central Problems in Social Theory
Situated Learning
| Unique citing works | 249 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 9,58 |
| Citation span | 2000 - 2026 (27) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | Yes |
| Citation types | Neutral: 226 |