Taking Actors' Perspectives Seriously: Whose Knowledge and What is Managed? Knowledge Management in a Transdisciplinary Perspective

Abstract

Knowledge is often considered to be the most important intangible asset of the future. The management of knowledge is generally understood as management of data and information Consequently, most approaches see knowledge management primarily as a matter of sophisticated information technologies. In this contribution, knowledge is understood as something that is generated, transferred and reproduced in interaction processes. Hence, knowledge is an irreducible part of the interaction process itself. To assess, exchange, and eventually, manage knowledge all actors participating in a knowledge interaction process and their specific perspectives have to be taken into account. To be able to do so, a transdisciplinary perspective in indispensable in theory, method, and the implementation of knowledge management strategies and tools. A promising way to study the different actor’s perspectives is by analysing the use and role of language in knowledge management processes as proposed here