Contribuţii Privind Managementul Cunoaşterii

The science of biology is founded in Darwinian evolutionary theory (1859), Mendelian genetics (rediscovered and understood in 1900), and biochemical metabolism, molecular biology and biochemical genetics (from the mid 1940s and 50s). By comparison, the knowledge management discipline still lacks a physically based and commonly accepted theory of knowledge. Compared to biology, it is still practicing what is the equivalent of pre-Darwinian "natural history". This can be revealed in any KM practitioner forum by asking what it is they study. The issues in organizational science are equally dire (McKelvey undated). However in the last decade or so some concrete progress has been made towards a scientifically grounded theory of organizational knowledge. This paper reviews the nature of a foundational framework the authors of this paper are developing from physically based biology, and presents our early attempts to apply aspects of the framework in an engineering knowledge management environment. Varela et al (1974) and Maturana and Varela (1980; 1987) introduced "autopoiesis" (= self production) as a term for the minimum set of properties entities must have to be considered living. Von Krogh and Roos (1995) and Magalhaes (1996, 1998, 1999) suggested that human organizations might be autopoietic. Hall (2003a, 2005) took the idea further, basing his ideas in Karl Popper's epistemology (1972; 1994), hierarchical complexity theory (Pattee 1965 and later; Simon 1962, Salthe 1985, 1993), non-equilibrium thermodynamics (Prigogine 1955; Morowitz 1968; Kay 1984; Schneider 1988; and Schneider and Kay 1994) and evolutionary biology (Gould 2002). Evolving (and hence autopoietic) entities may exist at several levels in the structural hierarchy of life from cells to social systems (Simon 1962, Salthe 1985, 1993; Gould, 2002; McShea & Chanqizi 2003). Organizations such as firms have "hereditary" properties transcending those of their individual members (e.g., Nelson and Winter, 1982), justifying their treatment as evolutionary individuals. Hall (2005) argued that organizational learning and knowledge growth were inevitable products of autopoietic processes in living organizations. This paper graphically extends Hall's (2005) formulation. Autopoiesis and the origin and evolution of knowledge are first described in general terms applicable to complex organized entities. We then argue that at least some human social organizations have the necessary properties to be considered autopoietic. We conclude by describing 2 how the theory applies to some real-world cases we are studying in a large engineering project management organization. It should be noted that McKelvey (1997, 1999, 1999a, 1999b, 2001, 2002, 2004; McKelvey & Baum 1999; Henrickson & McKelvey. 2002) is also working to establish a critical scientific realist framework for organizational studies. Similar to the approach we take here, McKelvey bases his approach on evolutionary epistemology (Donald Campbell's version), non-equilibrium thermodynamics, evolutionary biology, complexity theory and concepts of "organizational heredity" as introduced by Nelson and Winter (1982). We come to broadly similar conclusions, but by analyzing our differences we should more closely approach the underlying truths of organizational dynamics. Unfortunately it is beyond the scope of the present sketch to compare the two approaches here in any detail.