Can you really own,
inventory, quantify, value and exchange a knowledge asset?
Depends on how you describe and define 'your' knowledge asset.
If you consider explicit representations, stable practices and proven capabilities
that can be transferred reliably and error free, and where context is of
minimal concern, you may just be able to grasp the asset. There will always be
problems with a changing external environment (and markets) influencing judgments,
imposing different conditions, increasing uncertainty and risk.
Emergent knowledge
The very concept of a knowledge asset is contestable & questionable, if you
believe knowledge
is emergent, ephemeral, socially constructed and arises from the
co-construction of meaning in dialog & gestures.
"Human knowledge is not the aggregation of discrete, objective
information, but a result of emergent processes of knowing through human
subjective interpretations, or sense-making, dependent on complex historical
contexts." (p6)
Stacey, 2002
puts forward the view that knowledge is a process of responsive relating, it's
ephemeral and emergent in conversation, social engagement and gesture- not
located as a mental model in an individuals head, - so it cannot be made
explicit and shared. Knowledge assets lie in the pattern of relationships not
abstractions than can be captured, explicated, assigned a value or stored.
Do these views not make the very concept of knowledge assets highly
problematic? - what then happens to the field of knowledge measurement?
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