Improving the Quality of Leaders' Decision Making in IT Companies to Achieve Better Predictions about Future Developments for Competitive Advantage
©2005
Diplomarbeit
133 Seiten
Zusammenfassung
Inhaltsangabe:Abstract:
Over the last few years, professional dealing with information named Knowledge Management, in the following abbreviated as KM, has developed into an important issue in modern economy: Due to causes like worldwide networks, accelerated product life cycles and faster changing markets, knowledge and its management gains growing attention. These impacts lead to managers inability dealing with knowledge in the right way at the right point of time to achieve a high quality of decisions with positive and sustainable influence.
The approach is based on the author's hypothesis to optimize the decisions quality by capturing senior practitioners knowledge at management level working for a German IT Company. The approach's core is to capture and utilise this certain type of knowledge captured in professional biographical case studies. The thesis goal is to design a method by demonstrating the example in capturing this so called tacit knowledge of three IT practitioners as a needful complementation to software solutions. This might help to reflect and prepare for upcoming changes.
This thesis aims to clarify the status quo of knowledge capture currently used in IT companies. In industrialised societies, tacit knowledge becomes a continuously more important asset to sustain or expand competitiveness. Existing management systems, mainly software solutions, basically capture explicit knowledge and are of limited use for company and staff: As these systems do not completely capture the aspects of tacit knowledge, especially possessed by senior employees, the thesis' approach is sorting out problems, possibilities and requirements for finding benefits and solutions in capturing and using this type of knowledge.
For addressing these problems, three senior decision makers have been chosen to bundle some of their above mentioned knowledge within a case study. In arrangement with the authors principal supervisor, Dr Mark C. Williams, the methodology of reflective practitioner research as a heuristic enquiry is used to allow the discovery of insights.1 Not only by the affective domain of human experience, but also by the arts-based enquiry, e.g. poetry, as Germany is a nation of poets and philosophers. It will be significant considering action research, reflective practitioner methodology and the transformation of tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge.
In this case, heuristic data is collected by email-questionnaires. Data is then […]
Over the last few years, professional dealing with information named Knowledge Management, in the following abbreviated as KM, has developed into an important issue in modern economy: Due to causes like worldwide networks, accelerated product life cycles and faster changing markets, knowledge and its management gains growing attention. These impacts lead to managers inability dealing with knowledge in the right way at the right point of time to achieve a high quality of decisions with positive and sustainable influence.
The approach is based on the author's hypothesis to optimize the decisions quality by capturing senior practitioners knowledge at management level working for a German IT Company. The approach's core is to capture and utilise this certain type of knowledge captured in professional biographical case studies. The thesis goal is to design a method by demonstrating the example in capturing this so called tacit knowledge of three IT practitioners as a needful complementation to software solutions. This might help to reflect and prepare for upcoming changes.
This thesis aims to clarify the status quo of knowledge capture currently used in IT companies. In industrialised societies, tacit knowledge becomes a continuously more important asset to sustain or expand competitiveness. Existing management systems, mainly software solutions, basically capture explicit knowledge and are of limited use for company and staff: As these systems do not completely capture the aspects of tacit knowledge, especially possessed by senior employees, the thesis' approach is sorting out problems, possibilities and requirements for finding benefits and solutions in capturing and using this type of knowledge.
For addressing these problems, three senior decision makers have been chosen to bundle some of their above mentioned knowledge within a case study. In arrangement with the authors principal supervisor, Dr Mark C. Williams, the methodology of reflective practitioner research as a heuristic enquiry is used to allow the discovery of insights.1 Not only by the affective domain of human experience, but also by the arts-based enquiry, e.g. poetry, as Germany is a nation of poets and philosophers. It will be significant considering action research, reflective practitioner methodology and the transformation of tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge.
In this case, heuristic data is collected by email-questionnaires. Data is then […]
Leseprobe
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Rainer Knaack
Improving the Quality of Leaders' Decision Making in IT Companies to Achieve Better
Predictions about
Future Developments for Competitive Advantage
ISBN: 978-3-8366-0301-0
Druck Diplomica® Verlag GmbH, Hamburg, 2007
Zugl. Universität der Künste zu Berlin, Berlin, Deutschland, Diplomarbeit, 2005
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Abstract
Page
III
Rainer Knaack, Diploma Thesis, Mat. Nr. 352177, 18 November 2oo5
ii. ABSTRACT
Over the last few years, professional dealing with information named Knowledge
Management, in the following abbreviated as KM, has developed into an important issue in
modern economy: Due to causes like worldwide networks, accelerated product life cycles
and faster changing markets, knowledge and its management gains growing attention. These
impacts lead to managers' inability dealing with knowledge in the right way at the right point
of time to achieve a high quality of decisions with positive and sustainable influence.
The approach is based on the author's hypothesis to optimize the decisions' quality by
capturing senior practitioners' knowledge at management level working for a German IT
Company. The approach's core is to capture and utilise this certain type of knowledge
captured in professional biographical case studies. The thesis' goal is to design a method by
demonstrating the example in capturing this so called tacit knowledge of three IT
practitioners as a needful complementation to software solutions. This might help to reflect
and prepare for upcoming changes.
This thesis aims to clarify the status quo of knowledge capture currently used in IT
companies. In industrialised societies, tacit knowledge becomes a continuously more
important asset to sustain or expand competitiveness. Existing management systems, mainly
software solutions, basically capture explicit knowledge and are of limited use for company
and staff: As these systems do not completely capture the aspects of tacit knowledge,
especially possessed by senior employees, the thesis' approach is sorting out problems,
possibilities and requirements for finding benefits and solutions in capturing and using this
type of knowledge.
For addressing these problems, three senior decision makers have been chosen to bundle
some of their above mentioned knowledge within a case study. In arrangement with the
author's principal supervisor, Dr Mark C. Williams, the methodology of reflective
practitioner research as a heuristic enquiry is used to allow the discovery of insights.
1
Not
only by the affective domain of human experience, but also by the arts-based enquiry, e.g.
poetry, as Germany is a nation of poets and philosophers. It will be significant considering
action research, reflective practitioner methodology and the transformation of tacit
knowledge to explicit knowledge.
1
The Heuristic Paradigm is a perspective on science and generating knowledge in the social and behavioural sciences on knowing about
humans, their nature, culture and societies with a focus on social justice and fostering constructive changes in human systems at all levels, in:
Dick, B.; Williams, M. (2oo4), Write a doctoral thesis about work professional action research, p. 47.
Abstract
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Rainer Knaack, Diploma Thesis, Mat. Nr. 352177, 18 November 2oo5
In this case, heuristic data is collected by email-questionnaires. Data is then analysed within
the context of an ongoing literature review and the reflective experiences of the researcher.
From this analysis, conclusions are drawn and recommendations are made, oriented to
decision making processes. The aim is to demonstrate how the selected, worldwide-acting IT
Company can convert senior worker tacit knowledge into a usable explicit form to optimize
its decisions in a sustainable way.
The results of the case study add to the theory and what is known by now about knowledge
capture and the reflective practitioner methodology. Using this methodology, it is intended to
be constructed the reflective way so that findings can be suited to practice.
The subject company can benefit from the results of the study, as well as other companies
faced with similar problems.
Auszug (engl.: abstract) aus Rainer Knaacks Diplomarbeit
,,Verbesserung der Entscheidungsqualität der Führungskräfte in Unternehmen des IT-
Sektors mit dem Ziel besserer Geschäftsplanung zur Sicherung des
Wettbewerbsvorsprunges"
Innerhalb der letzten Jahre hat sich der professionelle Umgang mit Information, bezeichnet als
Wissensmanagement, zu einem wichtigen Thema in der modernen Wirtschaft entwickelt.
Aufgrund von weltweiten Netzwerken, schnelleren Produktlebenszyklen und sich stärker
wandelnden Märkten wird dem Wissen und dessen Management mehr und mehr Beachtung
geschenkt. Diese Einflussfaktoren führen dazu, dass Manager nicht mehr in der Lage sind, ihr
Wissen in richtiger Weise und zum richtigen Zeitpunkt in nachhaltige Entscheidungen
umzuwandeln.
Der Ansatz fußt auf der Hypothese des Autors, die Entscheidungen auf Führungskräfteebene
eines deutschen IT-Unternehmens zu optimieren. Der Kern des Ansatzes zielt darauf ab, das sog.
implizite Wissen zu sammeln und zu nutzen. Dieses wird zunächst anhand fachlicher
biographischer Fallstudien dreier, erfahrener Entscheidungsträger jener Firma generiert. Ziel ist
es, eine Möglichkeit zu entwerfen, um implizites Wissen zu speichern - eine nötige Ergänzung
zu Softwarelösungen. Dies könnte nützlich sein zur eigenen Reflektion sowie zur Vorbereitung
von anstehendem Wandel.
Diese Diplomarbeit analysiert den Status Quo der Verwaltung von Wissen in IT-Unternehmen. In
industrialisierten Gesellschaften nimmt implizites Wissen an Wichtigkeit zu, um die
Wettbewerbsfähigkeit zu erhalten. Bestehende Managementsysteme hauptsächlich
Softwarelösungen speichern explizites Wissen und sind nur von begrenztem Nutzen für das
Unternehmen und die Mitarbeiter. Da solche Systeme diese Art von Wissen vor allem von
ranghöheren Mitarbeitern nicht gänzlich speichern, zielt diese Diplomarbeit darauf ab,
Probleme, Möglichkeiten und Anforderungen herauszuarbeiten, um Nutzen und Lösungen für
das Bündeln von solchem Wissen zu generieren.
Zur Umsetzung wurden drei Entscheidungsträger des Unternehmens ausgewählt, um einen Teil
ihres impliziten Wissens mittels einer Fallstudie zu erhalten. In Absprache mit dem Betreuer der
Diplomarbeit, Dr. Mark C. Williams, wendet der Autor die Methode des ,reflective practitioner
research' an. Dabei handelt es sich um eine heuristische Befragung, die auch tiefere Einblicke
ermöglicht: es geht nicht nur um den emotionalen Bereich menschlicher Erfahrung, sondern
auch um den künstlerischen Bereich, z.B. Poesie schließlich ist Deutschland die Nation der
Dichter und Philosophen. Dies wird für alle beeinflussenden Strömungen von Relevanz sein
hinsichtlich ,action research', ,reflective practiotioner methodology' sowie der Transformation
von implizitem Wissen in explizites Wissen.
Im vorliegenden Falle werden heuristische Daten mit Hilfe von Email-Fragebögen generiert.
Diese Daten werden im Zusammenhang einer andauernden Literaturrecherche und den
reflektierenden Erfahrungen des Autors analysiert. Anhand dieser Analyse können
Schlussfolgerungen gezogen und Empfehlungen gegeben werden, die sich an
Entscheidungsprozessen orientieren. Es wird aufgezeigt, wie das ausgewählte weltweit
agierende IT-Unternehmen das implizite Wissen von Entscheidungsträgern so umwandeln kann,
dass die zu treffenden Entscheidungen auf nachhaltige und werthaltige Weise getroffen werden
können.
Die Ergebnisse der Fallstudie ergänzen die Theorie und was bisher über das Verwalten von
Wissen sowie die ,reflective practitioner methodology' bekannt ist. Die Anwendung dieser
Methode zielt darauf ab, reflektierend zu gestalten, damit die Ergebnisse in der Praxis
angewandt werden können.
Nicht nur das im Rahmen dieser Diplomarbeit ausgewählte Unternehmen kann von den
Ergebnissen dieser Untersuchung profitieren es sind ebenso andere Unternehmen, die
derartige Herausforderungen in diesem Bereich sehen.
Acknowledgements
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Rainer Knaack, Diploma Thesis, Mat. Nr. 352177, 18 November 2oo5
iii. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The following people deserve special recognition for the roles that they played in the
completion of this thesis.
My principal supervisor - Dr Mark Campbell Williams encouraged with advice, different
perspectives, amazing thoughts out of the box, support and leadership into areas of heuristic
inquiry and self-reflection were essential for creating this thesis that would otherwise have
been a totally different one.
Mark's colleague in the School of Management Information Systems at Edith Cowan
University - Dr Paul Jackson - provided great help in advance for organisation and
preparation, source of information and strategic thinking within an organisational context.
I wish to thank my lovely wife Kerstin who offered me the love and encouragement that I
needed throughout research, writing and the changes and disappointments that occurred.
Final thanks go to colleagues and friends of both universities and work who I met on the way
and who offered the needed support: My practical supervisor Felix Meyer, my associate
supervisor Philip Wölki, Norbert Seibt, Jaakko Johanssen, Prof. Dr. Dr. Thomas
Schildhauer, Barry Whitehorn, Prof. Dr. Janice Burn, Lindsay Davies-Moore, Prof. Dr.
Dieter Fink, Prof. Craig Standing, Martin Dortschy and to members of Curriculum in School
of Management Information Systems at Edith Cowan University: Athol Barrett, Edward La
Vertu, Shirley-Ann Knight, Martin Barnett, Helen Cripps, Dr. Rosemary Stockdale.
Table of Contents
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Rainer Knaack, Diploma Thesis, Mat. Nr. 352177, 18 November 2oo5
iv.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
i.
DECLARATION ... II
ii.
ABSTRACT ...III
iii. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... V
iv. TABLE OF CONTENTS ...VI
v.
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ...IX
vi. LIST OF FIGURES...XI
vii. LIST OF TABLES... XII
viii. LIST OF APPENDIX...XIII
1
Introduction ... 1
1.1
Problem Statement ... 2
1.2
Justification for Thesis... 3
1.2.1
Initial Idea and Approach... 4
1.2.2
Business Impact... 5
1.2.2.1
Knowledge Management Systems' Characteristics ... 1
1.2.2.2
Society's Change... 4
1.2.2.3
Employees' Psychological Barriers... 5
1.2.2.4
Economy's Demand... 6
1.3
Purpose of Thesis... 7
2
Review of Academic Literature... 8
2.1
Research on Major Thinkers as Theoretical Framework ... 8
2.2
Models as Supporting Evidence... 14
2.3
Definitions of Terms... 18
2.3.1
Knowledge and its Management... 18
2.3.1.1
Tacit Knowledge ... 20
Table of Contents
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Rainer Knaack, Diploma Thesis, Mat. Nr. 352177, 18 November 2oo5
2.3.1.2
Explicit Knowledge... 21
2.3.2
Knowledge Worker ... 21
2.3.3
Knowledge Creation through Senior Knowledge Workers... 22
2.3.4
Quality of Decision Making... 22
2.3.5
Competitive Advantage... 24
2.4
Scope, Delimitation and Conclusion after Review... 24
3
Research Methodology ... 25
3.1
Area of Research: Qualitative Social Research ... 26
3.2
Reflective Action Practitioner Research... 26
3.2.1
Description of Research Methodology ... 27
3.2.2
Justification for Research Methodology ... 29
3.2.3
Author's Autobiographical, Personal Voice... 29
3.3
Research Approach ... 31
3.3.1
Research Problem... 31
3.3.2
Research Design ... 33
3.3.3
Research Writing Style ... 34
3.3.4
Rich Picture ... 36
3.3.5
Development of Title ... 38
3.3.6
Research Question(s) ... 40
3.4
Research Objectives ... 42
3.4.1
German IT Company as an Example of Enhancement ... 42
3.4.2
Sources of Data for Research... 44
3.4.2.1
Primary Data: Email Based Interviews ... 44
3.4.2.2
Secondary Data: Literature, Articles and Papers ... 45
3.4.3
Gathering Data by Interviewing Practitioners ... 47
3.4.3.1
Selection of Interview Candidates ... 47
3.4.3.2
Development of email-based Questionnaire ... 48
3.5
Conclusion of Research Methodology... 50
4
Findings: Improving Decision Making By Capturing Tacit Knowledge ... 51
4.1
Qualitative Findings Through email-Based Questionnaires ... 52
4.1.1
Case #1: Interviewee `Head of Knowledge Management' ... 52
4.1.2
Case #2: Interviewee `Manager of Global Knowledge Centre'... 54
4.1.3
Case #3: Interviewee `Product Manager' ... 55
4.2
Analysis of Interviewees´ Reactions to Questions... 57
Table of Contents
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Rainer Knaack, Diploma Thesis, Mat. Nr. 352177, 18 November 2oo5
4.3
Author's Reflection ... 58
4.3.1
Observations, Impressions and Additions ... 58
4.3.1.1
Benefits Both for Knowledge Workers and Company ... 59
4.3.1.2
Challenges for the Company... 60
4.3.1.3
Barriers of Managing Tacit Knowledge ... 61
4.3.1.4
Success Factors of Managing Tacit Knowledge ... 62
4.3.1.5
Recommendations For The Company's Future Competition ... 64
4.3.2
Modification and Optimization... 66
4.4
Conclusion of Findings... 67
5
Case Study: Capturing Tacit Knowledge Through Academics ... 69
5.1
Institute of Higher Education and related Partner Companies... 69
5.2
Academic Sector as Research Field... 70
5.3
Reflective Approach of Case Study ... 71
5.3.1
Model for Capturing Professional Knowledge through Academics ... 71
5.3.2
Reflective Practitioner's Instructions for Students and the IT Company ... 72
5.4
Conclusion of Case Study ... 74
6
Conclusions ... 75
viii. REFERENCES ...XVI
ix. APPENDIX ...XVIII
List of Abbreviations
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Rainer Knaack, Diploma Thesis, Mat. Nr. 352177, 18 November 2oo5
v.
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
AG
Aktiengesellschaft
(=
joint-stock
company)
AMC
Application
Management
Centre
B2B
Business
to
Business
B2C
Business
to
Customer
BI
Business
Intelligence
bzw.
beziehungsweise (= or rather)
ca.
circa
CEO
Chief Executive Officer
CIO
Chief
Information
Officer
CV
Curriculum
Vitae
D
Deutschland (= Germany)
d.h.
das heißt (= that is to say)
eBusiness Electronic
Business
ECU
Edith Cowan University
e.g.
ex
generate
email
electronic
mail
EnBW
Energie Baden-Württemberg (=German company producing energy)
esp.
especially
etc.
et
cetera
e.V.
eingetragener
Verein (= registered society)
evtl.
eventuell
(=
possibly)
GBU
Global
Business
Unit
HQ
Headquarters
HR
Human
Resources
HW
Hardware
List of Abbreviations
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Rainer Knaack, Diploma Thesis, Mat. Nr. 352177, 18 November 2oo5
ICT
Information and Communication Technology
IDC
International
Data
Cooperation
i.e.
id est (= that is to say)
IEB
Institute
of
Electronic
Business
IM
Information
Management
IS Information
Services
IT
Information
Technology
KM
Knowledge
Management
KMS
Knowledge
Management
Systems
o.g.
oben genannt/e/r (above mentioned)
PI Philosophical
Investigation
SECI
Socialisation Externalisation Combination - Internalisation
TQM
Total
Quality
Management
UdK
Universität der Künste Berlin (= University of Arts)
UIPKCI
University-Industry Professional Knowledge Capture Initiative
UK
United
Kingdom
US
United
States
v.a.
vor allem (= above all)
WA
Western
Australia
WAP
Wireless
Application
Protocol
WWW
World Wide Web
Y2K
Year
2ooo
z.B.
zum Beispiel (= for instance)
z.T.
zum
Teil
(=
partially)
List of Figures
Page
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Rainer Knaack, Diploma Thesis, Mat. Nr. 352177, 18 November 2oo5
vi.
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Research Involving Humans, 1999...II
Figure 2: Say not the struggle naught availeth, by Arthur Hugh Clough, 1819-1861... 1
Figure 3: Access to company portal, a company-wide community portal ... 3
Figure 4: Model showing credited thinkers in the Western tradition, by M. Williams. ... 9
Figure 5: Cycle of moods when decisions in business are made, in: PLAN magazine... 14
Figure 6: Boiling Frog Syndrome (by Johnnie Silver Bear, 2oo5)... 15
Figure 7: SECI model describing two types of knowledge (adapted from Nonaka, 1999). ... 16
Figure 8: Overview of Types of knowledge, own figure... 19
Figure 9: Cognitive types of tacit knowledge, own figure. ... 20
Figure 10: Ways of knowledge capture within companies, by Grothe et al. ... 32
Figure 11: Author's text boxes, by M. Williams/ G. Duczynski ... 35
Figure 12: Rich picture showing the thesis' ongoing, own figure... 37
Figure 13: Capturing knowledge systematically by using software systems, own figure. ... 43
List Of Tables
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Rainer Knaack, Diploma Thesis, Mat. Nr. 352177, 18 November 2oo5
vii. LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Perceived Benefits of Knowledge Management Systems (KMS). ... 2
Table 2: Knowledge as power of productivity #1 (McKinsey & Company, 2oo4)... 4
Table 3: Major research methodologies applied style shown in grey. ... 28
Table 4: Major writing styles used in writing research theses - used styles shown in grey. ... 34
Table 5: Relation of knowledge depending on the levels of hierarchy, own table. ... 44
Table 6: Major sources of empirical data for research - used style shown in grey. ... 45
List Of Appendix
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Rainer Knaack, Diploma Thesis, Mat. Nr. 352177, 18 November 2oo5
viii. LIST OF APPENDIX
Appendix 1: Practitioners' Backgrounds Interviewee #1... XIX
Appendix 2: Practitioners' Backgrounds Interviewee #2... XXI
Appendix 3: Practitioners' Backgrounds Interviewee #3...XXII
Appendix 4: Interview #1, Head of Knowledge Management...XXIV
Appendix 5: Interview #2, Manager of Global Knowledge Centre ...XXVI
Appendix 6: Interview #3, Product Manager ... XXXVII
Improving the Quality of Leaders' Decision Making in IT Companies to Achieve
Better Predictions about Future Developments for Competitive Advantage
Page
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Rainer Knaack, Diploma Thesis, Mat. Nr. 352177, 18 November 2oo5
1 Introduction
Figure 2: Say not the struggle naught availeth, by Arthur Hugh Clough, 1819-1861.
2
Welcome - this academic work is starting with an uncommented, old poetry as a component
of art signalising the different type of applied research methodology. Due to some words of
old English, the reader might have to read it slowly and concentrated - which is the purpose
of getting this thesis started: It took the author many times to understand not only the
content, but more the `message behind'. He suggests reading it few times before and after the
main part the artistic way of describing the content side from an unusual point of view
becomes clearer, might even make think and enrich.
The first chapter states the problem, justifies the work itself and presents the initial idea and
approach by analysing four core business impacts, closing with the purpose.
2
See http://www.bartleby.com/101/741.html, 25 October 2oo5, o3.12 pm.
Say not the struggle naught availeth,
The labour and the wounds are vain,
The enemy faints not, nor faileth,
And as things have been they remain.
If hopes were dupes, fears may be liears
It may be, in yon smoke concealed,
Your comrades chase e'en now the fliers,
And, but for you, possess the field.
For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,
Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through ereeks and inlets making,
Comes silent, flooding in, the main.
And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light,
In front, the sun climbs slow, how slowly,
But westward, look the land is bright!
Improving the Quality of Leaders' Decision Making in IT Companies to Achieve
Better Predictions about Future Developments for Competitive Advantage
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Rainer Knaack, Diploma Thesis, Mat. Nr. 352177, 18 November 2oo5
1.1 Problem Statement
"Experience' and `judgment' aspects of knowledge management reflect the tacit and implicit
knowledge, which is difficult to capture and formalize!"
3
This thesis focuses on the current radical changes of technological advanced societies,
moving towards business and trade with information and knowledge. Latest by the beginning
of industrialisation, a big variety of infrastructure has been created in most parts of the
Western world. Meanwhile, an immense amount of knowledge has been created and stored
in lots of different ways, literature, minds and media devices like computer, handhelds and
the internet. More and more countries of the second and first world now step into the fourth
era of society, named `knowledge society' also impacting the corporate world.
4
From a
company's perspective, this causes two main impacts:
5
a) It has been a chance and opportunity for enabling different business with new types
of work like consulting, taxation or accounting.
b) It will be harder to compete and survive on the markets: An increasing number of
countries, especially the ones with lower costs of labour, now have the ability to
produce similar products or have access to the needed knowledge. The advantage of
progress, time and innovation becomes smaller of a sudden, the company's origin
doesn't matter that much anymore.
As a response to this change, the author suggests to focus on capturing tacit knowledge. This
will serve two core goals: improve the quality of leaders' decision making to achieve better
predictions about future developments on the one hand and keep up competitive advantage
on the other hand.
According to the above statement, the tacit type of knowledge is related to `experience' and
emphasises the difficulty of handling such in general. This leads to the thesis' origin and
challenge, which is the systematic use and capture of tacit knowledge for creating more
valuable and sustainable decisions for knowledge companies in the corporate world.
6
3
Bonner, D. (2ooo), Leading Knowledge Management and Learning, American Society of Training & Development, Virginia, p. 81.
4
See paragraph 1.2.2.2, page 4.
5
Turban, E.; McLean, I.; Wetherbe, J. (2oo2), Information Technology for Management, New York, pp. 412.
6
Explanation of term `tacit knowledge', see paragraph 2.3.1.1, p. 20.
Improving the Quality of Leaders' Decision Making in IT Companies to Achieve
Better Predictions about Future Developments for Competitive Advantage
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Rainer Knaack, Diploma Thesis, Mat. Nr. 352177, 18 November 2oo5
1.2 Justification for Thesis
"The things that we know (...) include problems and hunches, physiognomies and skills, the
use of tools, probes, denotative language, and (...) all the way to include the primitive
knowledge of external objects perceived by our senses."
7
In Western societies
8
, there is a development of a certain type of knowledge becoming
continuously more important. An obvious shift from the character of a service society to a
knowledge society can be recognised. Following, the amount of knowledge that can be
stored grew enormously and became an essential basis for companies in the sector of IT. For
about fifteen years, companies have tried to face the challenge in storing and capturing by
software and other solutions, e.g. internal databases or intranets. Meanwhile, there are two
aspects to consider:
-
Knowledge management systems (KMS) have increasingly become slower and intricate
in handling, complex and expensive in administration.
9
This thesis focuses on the core
aspect that KMS are not able to deal with tacit knowledge, which has strong impact on
opportunities in competition regarding prices and quality as it cannot be exported nor
copied like physical products.
-
Apart from strengthening the own position on competitive markets, the company, which
mainly deals with knowledge as an operative asset, has to minimize its operational risks,
whether they pop up by accident, through accident or fluctuation. However, valuable and
unique knowledge suddenly would be no longer available anymore.
How can the existing knowledge management in an information services company be
enhanced regarding better decision making for present and future? For answering this
question, the author faces the problem by applying the method of the `Reflective
Practitioner' to find out and analyse how professionals think in action.
10
This relatively
young methodology of academic research mainly stems from the practitioners' working life
no matter in which sector the person is working in, which implicates the important role of
the practical aspect. To apply best, this thesis focuses on the `Reflective practitioner case
studies' that are included to collect, reflect and communicate practical knowledge. The
implementation of this unusual approach happens by focussing on capturing and using senior
7
Polanyi, M. (1983), The Tacit Dimension, Massachusetts, p. 29.
8
Nonaka, I.; Reinmöller, P.; Toyama, R. (1999), Integrated Information Technology Systems for Knowledge Creation, Oxford Press, p. 827.
9
Nonaka, I.; Ichijo, K.; von Krogh, G. (1999), Enabling Knowledge Creation How to unlock the mystery of tacit knowledge and release the
power of innovation, New York, p. 4.
10
Schön, D. A. (1983), The Reflective Practitioner How professionals think in action, Massachusetts.
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Rainer Knaack, Diploma Thesis, Mat. Nr. 352177, 18 November 2oo5
staff's experience. This is done through interviewing senior knowledge practitioners plus
parts of own reflection as a knowledge worker out of the academic environment.
All three selected interviewees work for the same company, based at different locations in
Germany. The author is grateful they made it possible and took the chance of participating
and offering parts of their tacit knowledge through an email based questionnaire.
The combination of academic sources and personal bias, existing of subjective opinions and
experiences, serves as the basis for research. This process and the knowledge thus
communicated have allowed developing a scenario of knowledge communication and also
assertions about present and future trends. The aim is to construct a model for wider use.
The contribution of this thesis is to empirically clarify certain aspects of today's situation in
the sector of Information Systems (IS). The author investigates in three cases all senior
practitioners working with tacit knowledge. The goal is to create a bridge between the
theoretical models and problems of practical life: Today, the systematic use and capture of
tacit knowledge to achieve a higher quality of decision making processes in knowledge
organizations has not been implemented on a satisfying standard yet."
11
1.2.1 Initial Idea and Approach
"Wenn Siemens wüsste, was Siemens weiß."
12
Since the early 1990s, knowledge management has become a hot issue. Everybody thought,
knowledge creation would focus on the needs of knowledge workers, meet the demands of
post-industrial information economy and develop into a source of competitive advantage.
13
The above cited, well-known saying by Siemens' former CEO Dr. Heinrich von Pierer
brings it to the point: It raises the core question of how much relevant and (re-) usable
knowledge within the company as a whole exists in total - if it knew all its employees'
knowledge. The bigger the institution or the company the higher the inefficiency and loss of
relevant, needful information, called knowledge. In this thesis, the author's research is not
about storing knowledge kept on paper, in folders or computers' memories it is about how
to trigger, capture and use the knowledge kept in employees' minds.
11
Nonaka, I.; Ichijo, K.; von Krogh, G. (1999), Enabling Knowledge Creation How to unlock the mystery of tacit knowledge and release the
power of innovation, New York, p. 9.
12
Pierer (von), Heinrich, Chief Executive Officer of Siemens AG: Pressekonferenz Siemens The E-Driven Company, 1o December 2ooo,
Munich. http://w4.siemens.de/de2html(press_release_archive/releases/2000101002d.html2000, downloaded on o5 July 2oo5, 1o.12 am.
13
Nonaka, I.; Ichijo, K.; von Krogh, G. (1999), Enabling Knowledge Creation How to unlock the mystery of tacit knowledge and release the
power of innovation, New York, p. 3.
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In 2oo3, when working as an intern for the focussed company, this asked thought created the
author's initial hypothesis:
`It is important to retain and capture employees' tacit knowledge to enable efficient
dealing with knowledge and improve future decisions.'
Usually, explicit knowledge is seen as documented knowledge and can be referred back
whereas tacit knowledge is considered as endless or in a person's head.
14
Out of this, the next
hypothesis is derived:
`As an IT Company, to make the best decisions at the right moment, you best should know
and mind of the decision makers' opinions, fears, experiences, wishes, thoughts, opinions,
ideas, plans, attitudes, visions, limits and many more.'
The approach is mainly done from the company's perspective and to be seen as a `Tacit-
Knowledge-Creation Initiative'. It is based on the initial idea in finding solutions of how
future decisions can be made on a sustainable, responsible, value-driven level within the
`corporate world'. To find out more and to get a deeper view, have a read on the next
paragraph.
1.2.2 Business Impact
This section can best be started with a quotation of the author's supervisor Dr Mark C.
Williams:
15
14
See chapter 2.3.1.1 onwards to find out more about different types of knowledge.
15
Williams, M. (2oo4), Supervisor and professor at School of Information Systems, Edith Cowan University, Perth/ Western Australia.
"Several times, whilst working for the company, it has been irritating working for a
certain task and at the same time having had the feeling that there would be another
colleague who had already worked on the same or a similar sort of question. And if
so can't I just find it within the system or is it still in another employee's mind?"
"Unless IT Companies capture the tacit knowledge of
their senior staff, they will not be sustainable."
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From the author's point of view, there are currently four major influences listed in the
sections below: KMS' characteristics, society's change, employees' psychological barriers
and economy's demand: They all impact each IT Companies mainly working with
knowledge differently in their daily business. As this topic of research is wide-spread and
highly differentiated, the four named ones don't have to be all there are. While there are
many different approaches to knowledge management, their objectives are the same: The
aim to effectively manage and use both tacit and explicit knowledge in an organization.
16
There is a need for KMS in adding value through knowledge management. This facilitates
the generation, preservation and sharing of knowledge.
17
1.2.2.1 Knowledge Management Systems' Characteristics
"I wish I had a management system that can find all hidden knowledge of data that exists
and offers the access".
18
"Knowledge management (KM) is currently receiving considerable attention, from both
academics and practitioners, and is being addressed by a broad range of academic literature
and popular press."
19
Knowledge-capture through KMS has existed since about 199o.
Meanwhile, there are four aspects of dealing, managing, archiving and reusing knowledge
that continuously become a more and more important matter of business life. In accordance
with the importance of knowledge as an organizational asset which enables sustainable
competitive advantage, many firms are developing KMS designed specially to facilitate the
sharing and integration of knowledge thus making a distinction between the data and
information.
20
KMS can play important roles in managing organization's knowledge - some
of the common applications of KMS are:
-
Organizing, sharing and transferring of internal benchmarks and best practices,
-
Constructing corporate knowledge directories, such as corporate directory,
-
Creating knowledge networks and knowledge maps; among many others.
21
16
Nonaka, I.; Reinmöller, P.; Toyama, R. (1999), Integrated Information Technology Systems for Knowledge Creation, Oxford Press, p. 829.
17
Duke, S.; Makey, P.; Kiras, N. (1999), Knowledge Management, Report Series, Butler Group, Hull, UK.
18
Original phrase quoted in German:,,Ich wünsche mir ein Managementsystem, das verstecktes Wissen in Daten auf intelligente Weise aufspürt
und zugänglich macht", translated out of German by Classen, Utz, CEO of EnBW (2oo4), in: Wirtschaftswoche Nr. 53, 23 Dec. 2oo4, p. 1o8.
19
20
Nonaka, I.; Ichijo, K.; von Krogh, G. (1999), Enabling Knowledge Creation How to unlock the mystery of tacit knowledge and release the
power of innovation, New York, p. 12.
21
Alavi, M.; Leidner, D.E. (2oo3), Knowledge management and knowledge management systems, MIS Quarterly, Vol. 25, pp. 1o7-146..
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Rainer Knaack, Diploma Thesis, Mat. Nr. 352177, 18 November 2oo5
In particular, bigger firms realized the need that employees would have to have fast and
simple access to other knowledge workers and representatives in complex topics. Translated,
the citation says "I wish I had a management system that can find all hidden knowledge of
data that exists and offers the access" and clearly shows the deep wish of leaders working in
the corporate world seeking for information offering individual high value, defined as
knowledge.
22
By accessing and owning this, the company rather possesses the competitive
advantage and runs its business a safer way: The more valid and the higher the quality of
information, the more the company avoids risks or knows to handle them with a proper
vision of decisions on a sustainable basis.
Based on empirical studies in the German top 1ooo and European top 2oo firms, Vorbeck,
Heisig and Mertins report that "KMS have achieved such improvements as cost/time
reduction, increase of productivity, of structures and processes, facilitation of decisions and
predictions, quality improvement, staff qualification and satisfaction and success of market
leadership."
23
Perceived Benefits of KMS
% of Respondents
Effectiveness
97.2
Knowledge Building
96.9
Avoiding same mistakes
96.2
Benefits to Decision Makers
94.8
Productivity Improvement
94.4
Better Customer Services
94.1
Creativity
84.3
Cost Reduction
83.6
High-Tech Image
63.4
Table 1: Perceived Benefits of Knowledge Management Systems (KMS).
24
So, what is KMS's demanded benefit by the corporate world? Have a look at Table 1 and see
the aspect `Benefits to Decision Makers' and the ones above: The respondents' answers tend
to show the preference of dealing with knowledge that they can handle effectively, use to
build up own further knowledge and that functions as a pusher for decision makers. In the
past, many information systems (IS), named as management information systems, executive
22
See chapter 2.3, page 18.
23
Vorbeck, J., Heisig, P. and Mertins, K. (2oo1), Introduction, in: Knowledge Management best practices in Europe, Springer Verlag, pp. 1-1o.
24
Xu, J.; Quaddus, M. (2oo4), Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management Systems in Australia: Results Of A National Survey,
Perth/Australia.
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Rainer Knaack, Diploma Thesis, Mat. Nr. 352177, 18 November 2oo5
information systems, decision support systems and knowledge-based systems have been
focusing on explicit knowledge. KMS are supposed to provide the opportunities to extend
the operating scope of IS through facilitating organization's effort in trying to manage both
tacit and explicit knowledge.
The problem: Former and current solutions that are used, mostly software systems, are not
able to filter relevant knowledge for improving decision making out of these growing and
complex masses of data. `Creativity' and `high-tech image' come up in this research and are
not considered to be a benefit of KMS.
25
Currently, the demanded benefits of captured
knowledge do not correspond to what these software systems actually can deliver and
achieve. A growing essence is the capture of tacit knowledge. Unfortunately, this is one of
the biggest hindrances of itself: Most of high-quality knowledge hasn't been documented
electronically by KMS.
26
Today, this type of `classic software solution' is embedded in many companies'
environment, especially at the ones working with intranets so that the knowledge portals can
run easily on the existing infrastructure. Figure 3 demonstrates an example of a big company
that has already implemented such a tool in different versions.
Figure 3: Access to company portal, a company-wide community portal
27
25
Alavi, M. Leidner, D. E. (1999), "Knowledge Management Systems: Issues, Challenges and Benefits", Vol. 1
26
See Alavi, M.; Leidner, D.E., (2oo3) Knowledge management and knowledge management systems, MIS Quarterly, Vol. 25, pp. 1o7-146.
27
https://sharenet.siemens.com/login, 15 September 2oo5, 16.o3 pm.
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1.2.2.2 Society's Change
Western industrialised societies like Germany have already been moving from a service-
oriented society towards a knowledge-oriented society. During the last decades, most of
infrastructure and services have been invented and established for the long run. Today's
society moves directly into being an information society, supported by the internet's
technology. Those days, a trend of growing demand for `knowledge-intensive' companies,
e.g. like Google and products, e.g. like software, can be registered.
28
In future, economically
developed countries will have to focus and concentrate more on their future main resource
which is their captured, tacit knowledge. This is due to the fact that other countries either
possess enormous amounts of natural resources or produce almost the same products for a lot
cheaper costs of labour. Though, meanwhile there is too much information which does not
automatically have the character of being knowledge. A lot of people might not even realize
the difference, e.g. when it comes to paying for content.
Table 2: Knowledge as power of productivity #1 (McKinsey Company, 2oo4).
29
Nowadays, there is a proofing trend in economy, especially industrialised countries, creating
a picture of work by smoking more employees' brains than companies' chimneys. Due to the
fact that we are just at the beginning of information society, the author supposes that this is
the very start of showing reaction to the changing factors of work within economy and
society.
28
See Herbst, D.; Landenberger, H. (2oo3), Visionen zum Wissensmanagement, in: Schildhauer, T.; Braun, M; Schultze, M., Corporate
Knowledge, Thüringen, p. 283-292.
29
Aschenbrenner, N. (2oo4), Knowledge as power of productivity #1 (by McKinsey Company), in: Pictures of the Future, p. 67.
0
1 0
2 0
3 0
4 0
5 0
6 0
7 0
8 0
9 0
1 9 o o
1 9 3 o
1 9 6 o
2 o o o
2 o 2 o
W o rk ers (Gat h er n at ural reso urces,
Creat e p ro duct s, In st all m ach in es)
Serv ice W o rk ers (A dm in ist er,
T rade, Cat er, T ran sp o rt ,...)
K n o wledge W o rk ers
W o rk ers in St rat egy
Co o rdin at io n (Care, A dv ice,
T each , O rgan ise, M an age,
Research , D ev elo p )
Percent
Year
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Rainer Knaack, Diploma Thesis, Mat. Nr. 352177, 18 November 2oo5
1.2.2.3 Employees' Psychological Barriers
There are people working for this huge worldwide-acting IT Company, who are well-
educated, obtain several skills, opportunities and a big variety of possibilities. And still: Why
is it relevant improving the quality of leaders' decision making to achieve better predictions
about future developments for competitive advantage? Nowadays, one of the company's
central tasks is to realize their profit through knowledge. For several years, managers have
tried to solve this problem by investing in software technology, especially data storing
systems with moderate success.
30
Out of a study by the market research company IDC,
companies with more than 1ooo knowledge workers loses about six million US dollar
annually.
31
This is due to the fact that employees:
-
Cannot find existing knowledge within the company,
-
Waste a lot of time for watching out for knowledge that doesn't exist,
-
Add new external knowledge for money that would exist within the company, but
cannot be found. Finally, the costs of getting access to the demanded knowledge are
higher than the advantage out of it.
32
In the past years, employees felt mostly confronted with three kinds of problems in finding
the needed knowledge:
Searching for, looking through and rating the information. These employees' experiences
and frustrations are usually similar ones, no matter whether it is about a profit-, non-profit-
oriented one nor what size, sector or location. The knowledge worker would already be
frustrated after having had to check several data bases in a row. The next step of frustration
comes up as soon as the potential needful content is found, but only in the form of confusing
results. From time to time, the systems' content is too old or redundant which makes it
difficult estimating the information's level of relevance.
Users don't have the motivation nor do they receive the expected outcome in regard to
dealing with software systems. As they have not served the core benefit of finding the
wanted information within the shortest period of time yet, this leads to frustration, avoiding
30
See paragraph 1.2.2.1, page 1.
31
See http://www.idc.com/research/simplesearchres.jsp, o5 September 2oo5, o4.34 pm;
Davenport, t.; Prusak, L., ,What is the Big Idea? Creating and Capitalizing on the Best Management Thinking', Boston, 2oo3, in:
Wirtschaftswoche, version 5, 27 January 2oo5, p. 7o.
32
See Davenport, t.; Prusak, L., ,What is the Big Idea? Creating and Capitalizing on the Best Management Thinking', Boston, 2oo3, in:
Wirtschaftswoche, version 5, 27 January 2oo5, p. 7o.c.
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Rainer Knaack, Diploma Thesis, Mat. Nr. 352177, 18 November 2oo5
and boycotting such internal knowledge management software. It shows that knowledge
workers are not convinced of KMS yet.
Due to the fact that the IT Company inherits several not integrated - data bases, employees
don't have the access to all the existing information within one search. Integrated data bases
in the sense of a complete information management integrate information on customers,
suppliers, competitors, internal service delivery and technological restrictions.
The author expects, through reflective practitioner research, professional action research, and
professional knowledge communication research, to find and discover new ways to gain a
more efficient, more effective, and more empowered method of capturing tacit knowledge
within IT Companies both for the organisation, and in each professional and personal life.
1.2.2.4 Economy's Demand
"In an economy where the only certainty is uncertainty, the one sure source of lasting
competitive advantage is knowledge."
33
The phenomenon of the dot.com-boom in the years 1998 until 2ooo and its final crash is a
suitable, recent example of economic life demonstrating the research problem. This chapter
describes and sensitizes to processes of inadequate, slow and unqualified decisions made by
decision making professionals in past years. There is a core aspect why IT Companies will
have to be more sensitive, aware and careful of creating and handling with future decision
processes:
By today, most of the realised decisions which have been made during the `dotcom-era'
afterwards got cancelled due to missing success. Those new economy's decisions mainly
cost immense money, people's energy and time of work. How could the company's CEO
avoid making such decisions once again under the condition of being responsible for the
budget?
As pressure of innovation and competition increases, more and more companies realize to
consider knowledge as an essential factor of production and competitive advantage.
34
They
start to capture their employees' knowledge, centralize it and create access companywide by
intranets or other KMS. In past times, KM was either treated as a `thing' that had to be
implemented without respecting the firm's processes or culture or it just was there at the
33
Nonaka, I. (1998), The Knowledge-Creating Company, in: Harvard Business Review on Knowledge Management, Boston, p.22.
34
See Dohmann, H. (2oo2), Knowledge-Management, in: Dohmann, H.; Fuchs, G.; Khakzar, K., Die Praxis des eBusiness technische,
betriebswirtschaftliche und rechtliche Aspekte, p.257.
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Rainer Knaack, Diploma Thesis, Mat. Nr. 352177, 18 November 2oo5
edge, like a trendy tool a company had to have. As the economic success, in the sense of
innovations or more profit out of increasing sales, didn't show up, decision makers got
disappointed. Pretty soon, people tended to criticize that this would be the next flop after the
`dot.com-bomb'. Paragraph 1.3 explains how it came differently.
1.3 Purpose of Thesis
Awake companies reacted quickly, drew their teachings out of that and took the basis for
starting a second try to establish a valid and continuous fundament for a companywide
KM.
35
Since, most reached the level of owning a more or less successful software tool.
The present problem is that these tools still show a growing lack and demand a different
solution in capturing relevant and updated knowledge. These summarized aspects of decision
making, tacit knowledge management, competitive advantages, and economical environment
lead to questioning the thesis' title:
`Improving the Quality of Leaders' Decision Making in IT Companies to Achieve Better
Predictions about Future Developments for Competitive Advantage?'
This thesis is enabling a different method to create valid future decisions at a sustainable
level. Mind the difference: Improving decision making does not automatically mean the
improvement of productivity it is about a higher quality of decisions for going competitive,
clear and reliable ways in future.
36
When talking about the quality, this corresponds to the
decisions' outcome, not its process.
The core basis of knowledge is the availability of high-qualitative information, which can be
seen as a strategic resource for the IT Company. Regarding the thesis' title, to achieve the
named competitive advantage, this can be faced by enabling decision makers to get access to
this type of information. The following chapters demonstrate the approach of how this
relevant, tacit knowledge can be created and offered for having a safer and more reliable
fundament for future decisions.
37
What are the purposes and the desired outcomes of this thesis? The first chapter clearly
stated the main hypotheses to find the suiting research questions and answers by contributing
35
See Saphörster, S. (2oo4), Mobilisiertes Wissen, out of: Pictures of the Future, p. 68.
36
Definitions see paragraph 2.3, p.18.
37
http://intranet.ct.siemens.de/de/referate/irc/index.html, 13 December 2oo4, o2.41 pm.
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ideas, creating solutions through developing a tacit knowledge-capturing model and
providing practical recommendations for the company. It is to develop a concept for a
university-industry-initiative to trigger, capture and use tacit knowledge in a different way
within this representative company, acting in the sector of IT.
2 Review of Academic Literature
"Social research (...) deals in some way with people. They function at least as informants,
directly or indirectly, for instance by being observed. A much more participative approach
may involve them as co-researchers. The levels of participation (...) determine the
effectiveness of both the action and the research."
38
The second chapter serves for analysing the theoretical framework through verifying
different academic literature like books, peer-reviewed papers and conference publications.
Furthermore, the author does research on non-academic sources, such as reputable business
magazines, newspapers, online magazines and other sources on the internet. For discovering
the theoretical methods that already exist, the author conducts this autobiographical ongoing
literature review by doing web searches on three major thinkers in chapter 2.1. Both the
thinkers and theoretical frameworks handle with analysis and concepts of the three main
aspects of this thesis: Knowledge, Communication and Decision Making. Finally, the section
of definitions explains and clarifies the technical terms and key expressions.
2.1 Research on Major Thinkers as Theoretical Framework
"What is the kind of knowing in which competent practitioners engage? How is professional
knowledge independent from the kinds of knowledge presented in academic textbooks,
scientific papers, and online journals? In what sense, if any, is there intellectual rigor in
professional practice?"
39
This section offers an insight by relating to what past major thinkers thought about
knowledge, communication, reflection or being in action in their respective era. The author
38
Dick, B.; Williams, M. (2oo4), Write a doctoral thesis about work professional action research, pp. 33.
39
Schön, D. A. (1983), The Reflective Practitioner How professionals think in action, Massachusetts, p. viii.
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Rainer Knaack, Diploma Thesis, Mat. Nr. 352177, 18 November 2oo5
comments that each still influences our life today in his own way. In this thesis, they even
impact the selected methodology. The intention is to find solutions as answers to the
questions Donald A. Schön raises in the quote above. This happens by doing initial literature
review on three chosen philosophical personalities, reflection on statements and brief
summarising comments. See the extract of 14 major thinkers in Figure 4, each representing a
different world of view.
Figure 4: Model showing credited thinkers in the Western tradition, by M. Williams.
40
This research's purpose is to build up a theory by demonstrating and discussing relevant
thinkers' definitions and statements. To get an overview over 2oo years, the author selected
Hegel, Wittgenstein and Habermas forming the theoretical framework in combination with
Schön. This can be seen as the supplement to the chosen literature and gathered information
from practitioners. To find a simple philosophical encyclopedia and dictionary, the research
has been done mainly by web searches. In regard to the limited size of the thesis, Don
Cupitt's antirealism, Richard Rorty's neo-pragmatism, Derrida's post-modernism,
Checkland's system theory and other named thinkers are not considered for further research.
40
Williams, M. (2oo4), A rich model, designed for masters and doctoral candidates, for developing thinking through basic philosophy, in:
Thinking Map of Thoughts and Projects, Perth/Australia.
Antirealism, esp. Cupitt
Neo-pragmatism, esp. Rorty
French post-modernism, esp. Derrida
Critical Theory: esp. Habermas
Systems theory, esp. Checkland
Late Wittgenstein
Existentialism, esp. Early Heidegger
Nietzsche
Marx
Hegel
Kant
Locke, Hume
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle
Pre-Socratics, (e.g. Heraclitus
Present
Past
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Rainer Knaack, Diploma Thesis, Mat. Nr. 352177, 18 November 2oo5
a) Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
The German philosopher Hegel
41
is the earliest of the chosen philosophers. Modern
philosophy, culture and society seemed to him fraught with contradictions and tensions, such
as those between the subject and object of knowledge, mind and nature, self and other,
freedom and authority, knowledge and faith, and others. His main philosophical project was
to take these contradictions and tensions and interpret them as part of a comprehensive,
evolving, rational unity that (...) he called `the absolute idea' or `absolute knowledge'.
42
Hegel was aware of his 'obscurantism' and saw it as part of philosophical thinking that
grasps the limitations of everyday thought and concepts and tries to go beyond them.
43
His
first and best-known major work was the `Phenomenology of Spirit', his account of the
evolution of consciousness from sense-perception to absolute knowledge.
History progresses by learning from its mistakes.
44
This important aspect supports the
ongoing for this thesis' approach, because a better quality of decisions can be realised best
by reflecting past actions and situations. Hegel's ultimate legacy will be debated for a very
long time. He has been a formative influence on such a wide range of thinkers that one can
give him credit or assign him blame for almost any position. Some of the most influential
thinking of the last 16o years was nurtured - the radical critique and fierce debates of the
Young Hegelians inspired and shaped influential ideas of atheism, humanism, communism,
anarchism and egoism.
b) Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
45
was one of the most influential philosophers of the 2oth century, who
contributed "several ground-breaking works to modern philosophy, primarily on the
foundations of logic and the philosophy of language."
46
His early work was deeply
influenced by Arthur Schopenhauer. The only philosophical book he published in 1921 is
called `Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus'. With the moment of publication, he thought he had
solved all unanswered questions of philosophy, so he changed his profession by abandoning
his studies and worked as a schoolteacher, a gardener and an architect. Regarding the applied
41
*27 August 177o, +14 November 1831.
42
See Kadvany, J. (2oo1), Imre Lakatos and the Guises of Reason, Durham / London, Duke University Press, p.142.
43
See Forster, M. (1998), Hegel's Idea of a Phenomenology of Spirit, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, pp. 57.
44
See Pinkard, T. (2ooo), Hegel: A biography, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, p. 92.
45
*26 April 1889, +29 April 1951, born in Austria.
46
Glock, H.-J. (1996), A Wittgenstein Dictionary, pp. 17.
Details
- Seiten
- Erscheinungsform
- Originalausgabe
- Jahr
- 2005
- ISBN (eBook)
- 9783956362286
- ISBN (Paperback)
- 9783836603010
- Dateigröße
- 1 MB
- Sprache
- Englisch
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- Universität der Künste Berlin – Institute of Electronic Business
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- 2007 (Mai)
- Note
- 2,3
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