A survey of epistemology and its implications for an organisational information and knowledge management model

This is a theoretical chapter which aims to integrate various epistemologies from the philosophical, knowledge management, cognitive science, and educational perspectives. From a survey of knowledgerelated literature, this chapter collates diverse views of knowledge. This is followed by categorising as well as ascribing attributes (effability, codifiability, perceptual/conceptual, social/personal) to the different types of knowledge. The authors develop a novel Organisational Information and Knowledge Management Model which seeks to clarify the distinctions between information and knowledge by introducing novel information and knowledge conversions (information-nothing, information-information, information-knowledge, knowledge-information, knowledge-knowledge) and providing mechanisms for individual knowledge creation and information sharing (between individual-individual, individual-group, group-group) as well as Communities of Practice within an organisation. © 2011, IGI Global