Knowledge

Knowledge is the representation of contextualized information in individual mental models exploited as both accessible facts and tacit skills or values of a fluid nature. In organizations, knowledge is a core resource, which is allocated by individual members and becomes a system's good when shared either within or between units. Knowledge transfer among units provides an opportunity for mutual learning, creation of new knowledge, and thus an organization's ability to innovate.

Modern perspectives on knowledge are based on far-reaching metaphysical discussions on what it means to know something. In antiquity, Plato and Aristotle promulgated theories on the origin of knowledge, claiming deductive thinking or pure sense experience as its source. In the early 1950s, the cognitive approach evolved, defining knowledge on a micro level as structured ...