Cognitivist epistemology
The traditional cognitivist epistemology is based on the idea that the
human mind has the ability to exactly represent reality in a way
that corresponds to the outer world, be it objects, events, or states.
This is also frequently referred to as the ‘intentionality of the mind’
(cf. Goldman, 1986). Broadening the idea, the organizations like project
teams and project-based companies are considered to be systems that
develop knowledge by formulating increasingly accurate representations
of their pre-defined worlds. Because knowledge is seen as a representation
of these worlds, knowledge accumulation and dissemination are the
major knowledge development activities in an organization: the more
knowledge an organization can gather, the closer the presentation will
be to reality.
Learning in the cognitivist epistemology means to improve representations
of the world through assimilating new experiences (Varela, 1979;
von Krogh et al., 1996). According to Bruner and Anglin (1973: 397), an
individual actively constructs knowledge by relating incoming information
to a previously acquired frame of reference. In other words, when
gathering information from the external environment a project team
member stores facts, relates them to existing experiences and creates
a picture of the world. The world is considered to be a pre-given object,
event, or state, which can be perceived in an objective way. What varies
from one team member to another is the ability to represent reality. The
truth of knowledge is understood as the degree to which a team member’s
inner representations correspond to the world outside. As new things are
learned, this truth will constantly be improved