Differences in the epistemology are manifested by different ways of
categorizing knowledge. This means, for example, that by uncovering
the epistemological roots of a project one can better understand the
characteristics of knowledge creation needed in it. ‘In order to manage
knowledge assets, we need not merely to identify them but to understand
them – in depth – in all their complexity: where they exist,
how they grow, how managers’ actions affect their viability’ (Leonard-
Barton, 1995: xii). According to Venzin et al. (1998), to be familiar with
different possible epistemologies means having a larger knowledge management
repertoire, and a better understanding of the limitations of each
approach. The following two sub-sections provide short illustrations of
cognitivist and autopoietic epistemologies (cf. Varela et al., 1991; von
Krogh and Roos, 1995).
Furthermore, as said above, the field of management and organization
studies has not paid considerable attention to the fundamental issues of
epistemology. Knowledge has mostly been taken for granted, often as
a ‘fuzzy’ and substitutable concept. Therefore the objective of the epistemological
discussion here is to give the reader an observational scheme
to better understand knowledge development on both the individual
and the organizational scale.