Knowledge is essentially “information in context” which is interpreted and acted upon by those who must perform a given function. Organisational Knowledge, unlike individual or personal knowledge, is only of value if it is shared with those who need it. By implication then, the popular statement that “Knowledge is Power” is therefore only true, if it drives appropriate action.
Knowledge is defined variously by the Oxford Dictionary as:
expertise, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education in the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject,
what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information or
awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation.
Philosophical debates in general start with Plato's formulation of knowledge as "justified true belief". There is however no single agreed definition of knowledge presently, nor any prospect of one, and there remain numerous competing theories, mainly because “Knowledge Acquisition”involves the complex cognitive processes of perception, learning, communication, association and reasoning.
The term knowledge is also used to mean the confident understanding of a subject with the ability to use it for a specific purpose, if appropriate.
Epistemology or theory of knowledge is a branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge. The term was introduced into English by the Scottish philosopher James Frederick Ferrier (1808-1864).
Much of the debate in this field has focused on analysing the nature of knowledge and how it relates to similar notions such as truth, belief, and justification. It also deals with the means of production of knowledge, as well as skepticism about different knowledge claims.
In other words, epistemology primarily addresses the following questions: "What is knowledge?", "How is knowledge acquired?", and "What do people know?“
Ontology on the other hand, is a study of conceptions of reality and the nature of being. It seeks to describe or posit the basic categories and relationships of being or existence to define entities and types of entities within its framework. It is the science of what is, of the kinds and structures of the objects, properties and relations in every area of reality.
Aristotle, arguably one of the greatest, if not the greatest chief knowledge architect of the ancient world, defined knowledge as follows
“ We suppose ourselves to possess unqualified scientific knowledge of a thing, as opposed to knowing it in the accidental way in which the sophist knows, when we think that we know the cause on which the fact depends, as the cause of that fact and of no other, and, further, that the fact could not be other than it is. Now that scientific knowing is something of this sort is evident — witness both those who falsely claim it and those who actually possess it, since the former merely imagine themselves to be, while the latter are also actually, in the condition described. Consequently the proper object of unqualified scientific knowledge is something which cannot be other than it is”.
Ultimately, each organisation must define for itself, what the term “Knowledge” means to it as an organisation and not as a theoretical, philosophical or psychological construct and the simpler and more succinct this definition is, in the minds and activities of the average “Knowledge Worker’s” terminology and frame of reference, the more likely it will be understood and the sharing of it, to take place.
