The Concept of 'Knowledge Creating': Re-conceptualising the Problems of Knowledge Transfer and Creation Processually

How knowledge is created remains the subject of much debate (Kuhn, 1962). In fields of management, organisation studies and knowledge management, the hegemonic approach to studying the role of knowledge in management, and how it comes into being has predominantly been influenced by a knowledge transfer agenda. Recent attempts to explore a specific theory of knowledge creation (Nonaka, 1994) per se, have continued to rely on assumptions inherited from this knowledge transfer agenda. Here ‘events of transfer’ have been replaced with an emphasis on ‘events of creation’ suggesting that events of organisational knowledge creation require similar solutions to those addressing problems of knowledge transfer. This presents theoretical, philosophical and indeed methodological problems for researchers who argue different and often conflicting understandings of what ‘knowledge’ is and how it comes into being.