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18 MANAGING KNOWLEDGE WORK AND INNOVATION

Table 1.1 Perspectives on knowledge work compared

Epistemology of Possession Epistemology of Practice
Structural Process Practice
View of social life Individuals navigate in Individual & collective Materially interwoven
an objective external interpretations (human & non-human)
world through cognitive embedded in social practices centrally
processes interactions, roles & organized around
structures shared practical
understandings
View of Knowledge Knowledge as a Knowing as a social & Knowing as practice –
cognitive entity – a organizational activity – constituted by and
resource to be socially constructed constituting fi elds
accumulated, captured, through interactions in of interconnected
transferred particular contexts practices
Major locus of Embrained and Embedded & Embedded, embodied
knowledge embodied in the skills encultured in social and invested in practice
and heads of individuals context
or organizations
Link between knowledge Knowledge directly Relationship between Relationship between
and organizational related to, and knowledge and knowledge and
performance functional (good) for performance socially performance mediated
performance & politically mediated: through practice:
refl ecting interests of Knowledge paradoxical
powerful groups for performance – sticks
at practice boundaries
Major focus for Transfer/convert Share, translate & Transform knowledge
managing knowledge knowledge from legitimate knowledge through overlapping
work one type (e.g. tacit amongst interacting practices
to explicit) or groups
location (individual,
organizational) to
another
Major tasks of Capturing/transferring Translating knowledge Transforming practice
Knowledge Management knowledge, e.g. using IT across social groups, and transversing
e.g. by building social boundaries of practice,
networks & trust e.g. using objects and
creating communities
of practice

>> SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT AS KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT
The importance of managing knowledge to improve the production process is
not new. As long ago as 1890 Alfred Marshall suggested that knowledge was the
most powerful engine of production. However, it was not really until the advent
of Scientific Management at the beginning of the twentieth century that firms

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