Knowledge emerging from chaos : organisational sensemaking as knowledge creation

[摘要] Organisations find themselves in a world of ever-increasing rate of change. Increasinglyorganisations operate in what is known as the edge of chaos-that zone which paradoxicallymight lead to paralysis and disaster or to creativity and innovation. In this area of uncertainty,organisations rely on their ability to create new organisational knowledge. What is unclear isexactly how new knowledge comes into being under these conditions and what would countas new organisational knowledge.The thesis tries to shed light on the process by which new organisational knowledge comesinto being by considering the context of complexity as an environment that demandsinnovation while at the same time being the catalyst for knowledge creation. The debate onthe nature of organizational knowledge is revisited and contrasted from individualknowledge. A review of the mainstream theories of organisational knowledge creation led upto Boisot's Social Learning Cycle as the benchmark theory that is used in the rest of theargument.Thereafter the work of Weick on Organisational Sensemaking is discussed. It is argued thatthe condition of complexity leads to an increase in occasions that activate and heightenorganizational sensemaking processes. Parallels are noted between the process ofsensemaking and parts of the Social Learning Cycle. It is shown that under conditions ofcomlexity, organisational knowledge creation processes and sensemaking processes are notonly similar, but that organisational sensemaking can be seen as the mechanism whereby neworganisational knowledge is created when organisations operate at the edge of chaos.This has a number of implications. The theory of organisational sensemaking is applied to anarea of organisational life where it has not been seen as applicable, organisational knowledgecreation processes are shown to be much more fundamental phenomena than the literaturesuggests, and combining Boisot and Weick leads to greater theoretical elegance.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University