Page 37 -

26 MANAGING KNOWLEDGE WORK AND INNOVATION

and control structure of Taylorist times and demand a new form of management
and organization more reminiscent of the orchestra than the traditional manu-
facturing firm. Like musicians, knowledge workers seek outlets for their creative
abilities and become absorbed in interesting challenges and the stimulation of
working with other specialists. This poses new challenges for management in
knowledge-based organizations that we shall consider through the course of this
book, which are to:

• Develop enabling contexts – including organizational cultures, structures,
opportunities for collaborative forms of work and coordination, reward and
recognition systems and career opportunities – that support knowledge work.
• Understand knowledge processes – that is the processes and practices through
which knowledge is shared, integrated, translated and transformed (but also
hoarded, constrained and protected).
• Deploy knowledge for specific purposes – that is to accomplish specific tasks as
set by particular interest groups (and not assuming that knowledge is neces-
sarily good, or good for its own sake)
• Align context, knowledge processes and purpose in the management of knowl-
edge work.

Throughout the following chapters our emphasis is on combining theories with
practical examples and case studies – many of which are drawn from our own
research – that enable us to better understand knowledge work and its man-
agement through aligning processes, purposes and enabling contexts. In the
next chapter, however, we focus on the management of knowledge-based or
‘knowledge-intensive firms’, as they tend to be referred to in the literature as
these pose distinctive challenges for managing knowledge work. Using the case
of ‘ScienceCo’, we explore in particular the structural and cultural contexts that
support and enable knowledge work.

Summary of key learning points

>> Knowledge is highly contextual thus distinguishing it from information or data.
>> Two major ways of understanding knowledge underpin approaches to managing knowledge
work: the epistemology of possession and the epistemology of practice.
>> The epistemology of possession treats knowledge as something people have and tries
to identify types and forms of knowledge – knowledge creation is seen as involving the
conversion of one type of knowledge to another.
>> The epistemology of practice treats knowledge (or knowing) as something that people do
and tries to understand processes by which people and organizations come to know and
apply this knowing in practice – knowledge creation is seen as an ability, rooted in action
and social practice.

6/5/09 6:56:38 AM
9780230_522015_02_cha01.indd 26
9780230_522015_02_cha01.indd 26 6/5/09 6:56:38 AM