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INTRODUCTION 3

>> WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE?
Philosophers have wrestled over what knowledge is since the classical Greek
period. Thus there is a whole branch of philosophy, ‘epistemology’ – from the
Greek words episteme (knowledge) and logos (word/speech) – that deals with,
and debates on, the nature, origin and scope of knowledge. These debates are
many and varied but in studies of knowledge work in organizational settings
two views stand out. These have been usefully summarized as the ‘epistemology
of possession’ and ‘the epistemology of practice’ (Cook and Brown, 1999). In
short, the epistemology of possession treats knowledge as something people have
whereas the epistemology of practice treats knowledge as something people do.
The epistemology of possession view on knowledge emphasizes its cognitive
aspects – knowledge is seen as a possession of the human mind and treated as a
mental (or cognitive) capacity, or resource, that can be developed, applied and
used to improve effectiveness in the workplace. Those adopting this view often
describe knowledge as a kind of pyramid, or hierarchy, comprising data, informa-
tion and knowledge and even wisdom (Ackoff, 1989) – see Figure 1.1. Data is
described as a discrete physical entity, external to the individual, and having no
intrinsic value of its own – the dots of ink on this page, for example. Information
is data that is organized in some way such that it has a recognizable shape – the
words and sentences on this page that are inscribed by data. Like data, information
is also ‘out there’ – an objective property of the world, external to any particular
individual, which can be searched, stored, sorted, transmitted, sent and received.
In contrast to data and information, knowledge is a different kind of thing
altogether. Knowledge, according to the epistemology of possession, is seen as
a personal property of the individual knower who is able to confer meaning on
data and information by drawing from his or her own subjective experiences,
perceptions and previous understandings. This is the sense in which knowledge

Wisdom

Knowledge

Information

Data

Figure 1.1 A knowledge ‘Hierarchy’ (e.g. Ackoff, 1989)

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