Abstract
How to manage uncertain and unpredictable situations has been a major challenge facing managers and academics for decades. The development of practice and theory in knowledge management has been one important response. This chapter, however, argues that knowledge and knowledge management may not be sufficient when dealing with emergent and unforeseen situations as knowledge tends to be past-oriented in terms of its formative components, while emergent situations are future-oriented, which may or may not be rooted in the past. Therefore, authors explore this past-present-future conundrum by explaining how mere reliance on the past may restrict organizations' ability to deal with emergent situations in the future. Finally, the role of innovation and wisdom will be introduced as a bridge connecting current past-oriented knowledge to unknown and unpredictable future-oriented events.
TopSources Of Knowledge
Taking a continental philosophical perspective on knowledge and knowledge management, Hassell (2007) argues that knowledge is embodied. He articulates knowledge by differentiating between ‘computerized knowledge’ and ‘embodied knowledge’, and notes that knowledge resides in a physical human being and, therefore, there is no knowledge outside of experience. Knowledge is associated with a social group as knowledge develops and manifests through human action in a societal context. In this sense, knowledge engages emotions, which makes any attempt to capture knowledge doomed to failure (Hassell, 2007). Computerized knowledge is simply un-/semi-structured and structured data. Knowledge management systems cannot computerize embodied knowledge (or as stressed by Hassell, “the real knowledge”).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Turbulent Business World: A business environment replete with numerous emergent phenomena.
Emergent Decision Situations: The manifestation of new phenomena or events that are sometimes impossible to predict. These are circumstances that an organization or manager may not have experienced before and for which their knowledge may be irrelevant or inadequate.
Decision Situation: “Decision situation, or decision-demanding situation, refers to a situation when decision making is inevitable. In the decision situation, the need for a decision is apparent and the decision maker must begin to define the problem and get involved in the decision making process.” ( Intezari & Pauleen, 2019 , p. 11).
Knowledge Implementation: An embedding process through which knowledge is incorporated into products and services to gain competitive advantage.
Wise Decisions: Wise decisions are informed decisions and actions that in addition to reliable and relevant data and information, take into consideration other factors such as 1) multiple stakeholders, 2) the role of intuition, feelings, and prior knowledge, and 3) analysis of possible consequences of the decision in order to compare and enhance the quality of the decision or action.