Knowledge Management and the Tribunal of Experience

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07/15/2009

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"Knowledge" is an elusive, abstract concept, yet we use it everyday. I would like first to take the time to discuss this concept, highlig... (More) "Knowledge" is an elusive, abstract concept, yet we use it everyday. I would like first to take the time to discuss this concept, highlight its key dimensions and suggest how knowledge management should be sensitive to a proper theory of knowledge. To do so, I will briefly revisit (at a high level, it's Tuesday night for Pete's sake!) the main tenets of contemporary epistemology, i.e., the theory of knowledge. The goal is to make the case for a conception of knowledge that properly differentiates knowledge from information. One of the key differentiators is that knowledge has to be justified, and ultimately it must face what Quine called the "Tribunal of Experience": empirical evidence.

Having put that in place, I will argue that the framework known as "Evidence-Based Management" (Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management, by Sutton & Pfeffer, 2006, HBS) is the surest bet as to how we should manage knowledge and even that Evidence-Based Management is Evidence-based Knowledge Management. A commitment to fact and evidence, I will suggest, should make us sensitive not only to facts about organizations but also to important facts about the Knowledge Worker: our own cognitive biases are the worst threat to knowledge, hence to its optimal management. (Less)