Draws together theorizing in learning, organization and management studies in order to consider the nature of the problems by which the practice of knowledge management is animated. Though in places propositional, the points being made remain deliberately suggestive insofar as they invoke a wide-ranging past to consider what might be probable futures. The conclusion invokes a return to the past, in suggesting that the potential for knowledge management lies with its returning to a time when theorizing was grounded in what we now choose to ignore, namely managers' experiences and practices as they use their imagination in wealth-creating activity.
Ackoff, R.L. (1989) `From Data to Wisdom', Journal of Applied Systems Analysis16: 3—9.
2.
Alavi, M. and Tiwana, A. (2003) `Knowledge Management: The Information Technology Dimension', in M. Easterby-Smith and M. A. Lyles (eds) The Blackwell Handbook of Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management, pp. 104—21. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
3.
Antal, A.B., Dierkes, M., Child, J. and Nonaka, I. (2001) `Introduction: Finding Paths Through the Handbook ', in M. Dierkes, A. B. Antal, J. Child and I. Nonaka (eds) Handbook of Organizational Learning and Knowledge, pp. 1—7. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
4.
Argyris, C. (1982) Reasoning, Learning and Action: Individual and Organizational. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
5.
Ashkanasy, N. M., Wilderom, C. P. M. and Peterson, M. F. (eds) (2000) Handbook of Organizational Culture and Climate . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
6.
Axelrod, R. (1997) The Complexity of Cooperation: Agent-Based Models of Competition and Collaboration. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
7.
Bales, R.F. (1950) `A Set of Categories for the Analysis of Small Group Interaction', American Sociological Review15: 257—63.
8.
Bandura, A. (2000) `Exercise of Human Agency Through Collective Efficacy' , Current Directions in Psychological Science9(3): 75—8.
9.
Barnard, C.I. (1951) The Functions of the Executive. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
10.
Barney, J.B., Wright, M. and Ketchen Jr, D.J. (2001) `The Resource-based View of the Firm: Ten Years after 1991', Journal of Management27(6): 625.
11.
Becker, G.S. (1993) Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis, with Special Reference to Education (3rd edn). Chicago: University of Chicago Press .
12.
Blackler, F. (1995) `Knowledge, Knowledge Work and Organizations: An Overview and Interpretations', Organization Studies16(6): 1021—46.
13.
Boisot, M. (1998) Knowledge Assets: Securing Competitive Advantage in the Information Economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
14.
Bruner, J. (1990) Acts of Meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
15.
Chaiklin, S. and Lave, J. (eds) (1993) Understanding Practice: Perspectives on Activity and Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
16.
Cohen, M. D. and Sproull, L. S. (eds) (1996) Organizational Learning . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
17.
Cook, S.D. and Brown, J.S. (1999) `Bridging Epistemologies: The Generative Dance between Organizational Knowledge and Organizational Knowing', Organization Science10(4): 381—400.
18.
Cyert, R.M. and March, J.G. (1963) A Behavioral Theory of the Firm. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
19.
Dierkes, M., Antal, A. B., Child, J. and Nonaka, I. (eds) (2003) Handbook of Organizational Learning and Knowledge. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
20.
Dreyfus, H.L. (1979) What Computers Can't Do: The Limits of Artificial Intelligence (revised edn). New York: Harper and Row.
21.
Drucker, P.F. (1988) `The Coming of the New Organization', Harvard Business Review66(1): 45—53.
22.
Easterby-Smith, M. and Lyles, M.A. (2003) `Introduction: Watersheds of Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management', in M. Easterby-Smith and M. A. Lyles (eds) The Blackwell Handbook on Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management , pp. 1—15. Malden, MA: Blackwell .
23.
Emirbayer, M. and Mische, A. (1998) `What is Agency?', American Journal of Sociology103(4): 962—1023.
24.
Engeström, Y. (1991) `Developmental Work Research: Reconstructing Expertise through Expansive Learning', in M. I. Nurminen and G. R. S. Weir (eds) Human Jobs and Computer Interfaces, pp. 265—90. Amsterdam : North-Holland.
25.
Engeström, Y. (2000) `Comment on Blackler et al. Activity Theory and the Social Construction of Knowledge: A Story of Four Umpires', Organization7(2): 301—10.
26.
Field, J. (2003) Social Capital. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
27.
Fiol, M.C. and Lyles, M.A. (1985) Organizational Learning. Academy of Management Review10: 803—13.
28.
Gagné, R.M. (1984) `Learning Outcomes and the Effects: Useful Categories of Human Performance', American Psychologist37(4), 377—85.
29.
Ginsburg, H. and Opper, S. (1969) Piaget's Theory of Intellectual Development: An Introduction. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
30.
Gourlay, S. (2004) `Knowing as Semiosis: Steps Towards a Reconceptualization of “Tacit Knowledge”', in H. Tsoukas and N. Mylonopoulos (eds) Organizations as Knowledge Systems, pp. 86—105. Basingstoke , UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
31.
Graubard, S.R. (1988) The Artificial Intelligence Debate: False Starts, Real Foundations. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
32.
Halbwachs, M. (1992) On Collective Memory. Chicago : University of Chicago Press.
33.
Hambrick, D.C. (1994) `1993 Presidential Address—What if the Academy Actually Mattered', Academy of Management Review19(1), 11—16.
34.
Jensen, M.C. and Meckling, W.H. (1976) `Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behavior, Agency Costs, and Ownership Structure', Journal of Financial Economics3(4), 305—60.
35.
Knight, F.H. (1965) Risk, Uncertainty and Profit. New York: Harper and Row.
36.
Lave, J. and Wenger, E. (1992) Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation . New York: Cambridge University Press.
37.
Loasby, B.J. (2007) `A Cognitive Perspective on Entrepreneurship and the Firm', Journal of Management Studies44(7): 1078—106.
38.
Luhmann, N. (1995) Social Systems, trans. J. Bednarz and D. Baecker . Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
39.
Machamer, P. and Silberstein, M. (eds) (2002) The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Science. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
40.
March, J.G. (1991) `Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning', Organization Science2: 71—87.
41.
Maturana, H.R. and Varela, F.J. (1980) Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Reidel.
42.
Menand, L. (2001) The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America . New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux .
43.
Middleton, D. and Edwards, D. (eds) (1990) Collective Remembering. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
44.
Mintzberg, H. (2004) Managers not MBAs: A Hard Look at the Soft Practice of Managing and Management Development. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.
45.
Nelson, R.R. and Winter, S.G. (1982) An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.
46.
Nonaka, I. (1994) `A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation' , Organization Science5(1): 14—37.
47.
Nonaka, I. and Takeuchi, H. (1995) The Knowledge-creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation. New York: Oxford University Press.
48.
Penrose, E.T. (1995) The Theory of the Growth of the Firm (3rd edn). New York: Oxford University Press.
49.
Polanyi, M. (1962) Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-critical Philosophy (corrected ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
50.
Popper, K.R. (1969) Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (3rd edn). London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
51.
Reber, A.S. (1993) Implicit Learning and Tacit Knowledge: An Essay on the Cognitive Unconscious. New York: Oxford University Press.
52.
Scheffler, I. (1974) Four Pragmatists: A Critical Introduction to Peirce, James, Mead, and Dewey. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
53.
Schneider, B. (ed.) (1990) Organizational Climate and Culture. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
54.
Schreiber, G., Akkermans, H., Anjewierden, A., de Hoog, R., Shadbolt, N., Van de Veide, W. et al. ( 2000) Knowledge Engineering and Management. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
55.
Senge, P.M. (1990) The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. New York: Doubleday.
56.
Simon, H.A. (1997) Administrative Behavior: A Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organization (4th edn). New York: Free Press.
57.
Singley, M.K. and Anderson, J.R. (1989) The Transfer of Cognitive Skill. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
58.
Spender, J.-C. (1992) `Knowledge Management: Putting your Technology Strategy on Track', in T. M. Khalil and B. A. Bayraktar (eds) Management of Technology, Vol. 3, pp. 404—13. Norcross, GA: Institute of Industrial Engineers.
59.
Spender, J.-C. (1993) `Competitive Advantage from Tacit Knowledge? Unpacking the Concept and its Strategic Implications', Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings, 37—41.
60.
Spender, J.-C. (1994) `Knowing, Managing and Learning: A Dynamic Managerial Epistemology', Management Learning25: 387—412.
61.
Spender, J.-C. (1996) `Competitive Advantage from Tacit Knowledge? Unpacking the Concept and its Strategic Implications', in B. Moingeon and A. Edmondson (eds) Organizational Learning and Competitive Advantage, pp. 56—73. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
62.
Spender, J.-C. (1998) `The Dynamics of Individual and Organizational Knowledge', in C. Eden and J.-C. Spender (eds) Managerial and Organizational Cognition: Theory, Methods and Research, pp. 13—39. London: Sage.
63.
Spender, J.-C. (2003) `Knowledge Fields: Some Post-9/11 Thoughts about the Knowledge-based Theory of the Firm', in C. W. Holsapple (ed.) Handbook on Knowledge Management, Vol. 1, pp. 59—71. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
64.
Spender, J.-C. (2007a) `Data, Meaning and Practice: How the Knowledge-Based View Can Clarify Technology's Relationship With Organizations', International Journal of Technology Management38(1/2): 178—96.
65.
Spender, J.-C. (2007b) `Management as a Regulated Profession: An Essay' , Journal of Management Inquiry16(1): 32—42.
66.
Spender, J.-C. and Marr, B. (2005) `A Knowledge-based Approach to Intellectual Capital ', in B. Marr (ed.) Perspectives on Intellectual Capital, pp. 183—95. Burlington , MA: ElsevierButterworth-Heinemann .
67.
Spender, J.-C. and Scherer, A.G. (2007) `The Philosophical Foundations of Knowledge Management: Editors' Introduction', Organization14(1), 5—28.
68.
Suchman, L. (1987) Plans and Situated Actions: The Problems of Human—Machine Communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
69.
Takeuchi, H. and Nonaka, I. (1986) `The New Product Development Game', Harvard Business Review Jan—Feb: 137—46.
70.
Teece, D.J. (2003) `Knowledge and Competence as Strategic Assets', in C. W. Holsapple (ed.) Handbook on Knowledge Management, Vol. 1, pp. 129—52. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
71.
Ten Berge, T. and Van Hezewijk, R. (1999) `Procedural and Declarative Knowledge: An Evolutionary Perspective', Theory andPsychology9(5): 605—24.
72.
Thompson, J.D. (1967) Organizations in Action: Social Science Bases of Administrative Theory. New York: McGraw-Hill.
73.
Tsoukas, H. (1996) `The Firm as a Distributed Knowledge System: A Constructionist Approach', Strategic Management Journal17(Winter): 11—25.
74.
Tsoukas, H. (2005) Complex Knowledge: Studies in Organizational Epistemology . Oxford: Oxford University Press .
75.
Tsoukas, H. and Mylonopoulos, N. (eds) (2004) Organizations as Knowledge Systems: Knowledge, Learning and Dynamic Capabilities. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
76.
Tsoukas, H. and Vladimirou, E. (2001) `What is Organizational Knowledge?', Journal of Management Studies38(7): 973.
77.
Veblen, T. (1965) The Theory of the Business Enterprise. New York: Augustus M. Kelley.
78.
Vera, D. and Crossan, M. (2003) `Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management: Toward an Integrative Framework', in M. Easterby-Smith and M. Lyles (eds) The Blackwell Handbook of Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management , pp. 122—41. Malden, MA: Blackwell .
79.
Von Krogh, G., Roos, J. and Kleine, D. (eds) ( 1998) Knowing in Firms: Understanding, Managing and Measuring Knowledge. London: Sage.
80.
Vygotsky, L.S. (1978) Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
81.
Weick, K.E. (1969) Social Psychology of Organizing. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
82.
Weick, K.E. and Roberts, K.H. (1993) `Collective Mind in Organizations: Heedful Interrelating on Flight Decks', Administrative Science Quarterly38: 357—81.
83.
Wertsch, J.V. (1985). Vygotsky and the Social Formation of Mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
