On managerial knowledge

R. Chia, R. Holt

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

    27 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    This article investigates what it means for a manager to be knowledgeable. It identifies, on the one hand, a rational tendency to sublimate knowledge as something more exact, definitive and logical than mere learning, and, on the other hand, a practical tendency to subjugate knowledge to social conventions. Articulating a third way between these views, the article critically develops the work of those management scholars for whom the objectivity of knowledge claims is perpetually upset by the recurring influence of environmental context, novel use and localized, community agreement. The influence of what Wittgenstein refers to as background conditions is identified and this background is woven into personal, empirical experiences of events as the bedrock upon which knowledgeable conditions rest. It is not profound, or inaccessibly 'deep', but right there before us; it is ordinary belief. It is argued that very often it is these everyday settings that are most revealing when it comes to investigating and understanding what goes by the name managerial knowledge.
    LanguageEnglish
    Pages141-158
    Number of pages17
    JournalManagement Learning
    Volume39
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Apr 2008

    Fingerprint

    Managers
    Logic
    Objectivity
    Third way

    Keywords

    • knowledge
    • sublimation
    • uncertainty
    • Wittgenstein

    Cite this

    Chia, R. ; Holt, R. / On managerial knowledge. In: Management Learning. 2008 ; Vol. 39, No. 2. pp. 141-158.
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    Chia, R & Holt, R 2008, 'On managerial knowledge' Management Learning, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 141-158. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507607087579

    On managerial knowledge. / Chia, R.; Holt, R.

    In: Management Learning, Vol. 39, No. 2, 04.2008, p. 141-158.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

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    Chia R, Holt R. On managerial knowledge. Management Learning. 2008 Apr;39(2):141-158. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507607087579

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