Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Intellectual ...

Organization’s Knowing or Organizational Knowing?
Palmira Juceviciene 1 and Vyda Mozuriuniene 2
1 Kaunas University <strong>of</strong> Technology, Kaunas, Lithuania
2 Comfort Heat Ltd., Vilnius, Lithuania
palmira.juceviciene@ktu.lt
wim@comfor<strong>the</strong>at.eu
Abstract: A number <strong>of</strong> researchers have analyzed organizational knowing, referring to it, in general terms, as
explicit and tacit knowledge which is significant for an organization. Stankeviciute (2002) has been among <strong>the</strong>
first researchers making reference to organization’s knowing. In Juceviciene and Mozuriuniene’s earlier research
(2009) on <strong>the</strong> structure <strong>of</strong> organization’s knowing, its two parts have been identified: 1) organizational knowing,
which an organization considers important and, <strong>the</strong>refore, attempts to increase, 2) organization’s informal
knowing, <strong>the</strong> existence <strong>of</strong> which <strong>the</strong> organization does not consider important for its performance. The latter is
usually composed <strong>of</strong> employee’s personal knowledge, obtained by different informal groups within and outside
<strong>the</strong> organization, that <strong>the</strong> organization does not consider important for its performance. However, is
organization’s informal knowing really not important for successful performance <strong>of</strong> an organization? That is, is it
sufficient to refer to organizational knowing or, on <strong>the</strong> contrary, is it more relevant to stress all <strong>the</strong> knowing at an
organization that is organization’s knowing, ra<strong>the</strong>r than only organizational knowing?. The purpose <strong>of</strong> this article
is to ground organization’s knowing as a necessity for employees’ successful work by revealing <strong>the</strong> limitations <strong>of</strong>
organizational knowing. The following research methods have been employed: a) research literature analysis to
highlight specific features <strong>of</strong> organization’s knowing in relation to organizational knowing; b) empirical research,
based on a case study <strong>of</strong> a multinational company; observation, discussion, document analysis, and survey used
for <strong>the</strong> same purpose. The research conducted has allowed providing <strong>the</strong> evidence that successful performance
<strong>of</strong> employees requires not only organizational knowing, but also informal organization’s knowing. This means, no
entire organizational competence, which grants successful organization’s performance, and even no
competencies at particular “work places“ can be completely predicted. It should be admitted that organization’s
knowing is <strong>the</strong> formation which secures organization’s prosperous activity more than organizational knowing
does. This challenges <strong>the</strong> future research on organization‘s knowing creation processes, as well as managerial
practices to perform smarter while developing learning organizations.
Keywords: organization’s knowing, organizational knowing, tacit knowledge, explicit knowledge
1. Introduction
Researchers (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Tsoukas, 1996; etc.) have analyzed organizational
knowing, generally referring to it as explicit and tacit knowledge, significant for an organization.
Stankeviciute (2002) has been among <strong>the</strong> first researchers to make reference to organization’s
knowing.
In <strong>the</strong> research by Juceviciene and Mozuriuniene (2009) on <strong>the</strong> structure <strong>of</strong> organization’s knowing,
its two parts were identified: 1) organizational knowing, which an organization considers important
and attempts to increase, 2) organization’s informal knowing, <strong>the</strong> existence <strong>of</strong> which an organization
does not consider important for its performance.
Is organization’s informal knowing really not important for successful performance <strong>of</strong> an organization?
That is, is it sufficient to refer to organizational knowing or, on <strong>the</strong> contrary, is it more relevant to
stress all <strong>the</strong> knowing at an organization, that is organization’s knowing? If organization’s knowing is
more sufficient, what kinds <strong>of</strong> tasks arise <strong>the</strong>re for researchers and practitioners in this respect?
The purpose <strong>of</strong> this article is to ground organization’s knowing as <strong>the</strong> necessity for employees’
successful work by revealing <strong>the</strong> limitations <strong>of</strong> organizational knowing.
A conceptual basis <strong>of</strong> this article is <strong>the</strong> approach that knowing is not only knowledge as a process
(Cook and Brown, 1999), as situated in <strong>the</strong> system <strong>of</strong> ongoing practices (Gherardi and Nicolini, 2000);
it is also based on knowledge as a deep understanding (Bennet, 2002).
In this work, <strong>the</strong> following research methods are employed: a) research literature analysis to highlight
specific features <strong>of</strong> organization’s knowing in relation to organizational knowing; b) a case study as a
basis for empirical research; document analysis and observation to introduce <strong>the</strong> researched
organization, a multinational company, headquartered in Finland; a discussion with <strong>the</strong> members <strong>of</strong>
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