Knowledge-Based Management: The Creative Power of Tacit Knowledge in the "Age of New Normal"

Contrary to managerial habits expressed by the statement of an objective or a demand for immediate solutions defined a priori according to a deterministic paradigm, the COVID-19 pandemic crisis induced a reversal of thought and the transition to a constructivist paradigm. This approach, which integrates hazards uncertainty (the path is made by walking), promotes an identification of problems independent of any anticipation of solutions. Thus, it leads to a Knowledge-Based Management without a representation of a predefined world. Organizations become sociotechnical systems, which are condemned to a permanent transformation. The cooperation and the mobility become dominant ways of work, which rests on a permanent personal and collective learning. Beyond the information processed in the digital information systems, the creative power of the tacit knowledge, which is in each individual's brain, cannot be ignored. Decision-makers are confronted to unknown situations, and managers placed in hybrid (face-to-face and remote) working modes have to pass from a posture of authority and of control to a posture of incitation, of support, and of accompaniment. The models that are introduced in this chapter result from a constructivist and sociotechnical vision of knowledge management. They emphasize the role of tacit knowledge in the "age of new normal."