Knowledge-as-Action and Knowledge Development

Abstract

This paper takes a critical look at the way in which knowledge development programmes are constructed by management in organisations. It is suggested that even though an increasing number of individuals in charge of human resource management is realising that knowledge development is not only concerned with the spreading of information, the difficulties arise when theory has to be put into practice. The paper is a pilot study for a larger project on knowledge development in mergers and acquisitions and is based on the empirical material collected by means of open-ended interviews with human resource managers at 11 large Swedish multinational corporations over a period of roughly half a year. Above all, we will argue that managers can explicate their novel thoughts on knowledge management, but when knowledge development is implemented in organisations, they act within the confines of their existing understanding of reality which is based on modernistic ideals of abstract, expert knowledge and rational tools of making the world more transparent.