Complex Knowledge

In this book Haridimos Tsoukas, one of the most imaginative organization theorists of our time, examines the nature of knowledge in organizations, and how individuals and scholars approach the concept of knowledge. Tsoukas firstly looks at organizational knowledge and its embeddedness in social contexts and forms of life. He shows that knowledge is not just a collection of free floating representations of the world to be used at will, but an activity constitutive of the world. On the one hand the organization as an institutionalized system does produce regularities that can can be captured via propositional forms of knowledge. On the other, the organization as practice, as a lifeworld, or as an open-ended system produce stories, values, and shared traditions which can only be captured by narrative forms of knowledge. Secondly, Tsoukas looks at the issue of how individuals deal with the notion of complexity in organizations: Our inability to reduce the behaviour of complex organizations to their constituent parts. Drawing on concepts such as discourse, narrativity, and reflexivity, he adopts a hermeneutical approach to the issue. Finally Tsoukas examines the concept of meta-knowledge, and how we know what we know. Arguing that the underlying representationalist epistemology of much of mainstream management causes many problems, he advocates adopting a more discursive approach. He describes what such an epistemology might be, and illustrates it with examples from organization studies and strategic management. An ideal introduction to the thinking of a leading organizational theorist, this book will be essential reading for academics, researchers, and students of Knowledge Management, Organization Studies, Management Studies, Business Strategy, and Applied Epistemology.

ISBN 0199275580   Pages 432 ISBN13 9780199275588 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher Oxford University Press   Weight (grammes) 650 Imprint Oxford University Press   Published in Oxford Format Paperback   Height (mm) 232 Publication date 02 Dec 2004   Width (mm) 157 Library of Congress 2004024137   Spine width (mm) 24 DEWEY 658.4028   Academic level Professional / Scholarly DEWEY edition DC22

		Introduction : Professor Bleent, the Floon Beetle, and organizational epistemology		1
1		The tyranny of light : the temptations and the paradoxes of the information society		13
2		David and Goliath in the risk society : making sense of the conflict between Shell and Greenpeace in the North Sea		39
3		Forms of knowledge and forms of life in organized contexts		69
4		The firm as a distributed knowledge system : a constructionist approach		94
5		What is organizational knowledge?		117
6		Do we really understand tacit knowledge?		141
7		Understanding social reforms : a conceptual analysis		165
8		On organizational becoming : rethinking organizational change		181
9		Chaos, complexity, and organization theory		210
10		Complex thinking, complex practice : the case for a narrative approach to organizational complexity		230
11		What is organizational foresight and how can it be developed?		263
12		Noisy organizations : uncertainty, complexity, narrativity		280
13		Refining common sense : types of knowledge in management studies		299
14		The practice of theory : a knowledge-based view of theory development in organization studies		321
15		The conduct of strategy research : meta-theoretical issues		340
16		New times, fresh challenges : reflections on the past and the future of organization theory		378

"Tsoukas presents a collection of previously-published essays and conference presentations which he wrote or co-authored during the past decade. The text employs Gregory Bateson's view of epistemology to examine the notion of organizational knowledge. For academics, researchers, and students of knowledge management, organization studies, management studies, strategic management, and applied epistemology."--Reference & Research Book News

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