Tacit Knowledge in Organizations

Abstract

Philippe Baumard, in his book ‘Tacit Knowledge in Organizations’ (translated by Samantha Wauchope), brings classical epistemology together with a historian's approach to four contemporary business situations. The re-suit is a sharply drawn knowledge-based theory of the firm—or, rather, of its management. Baumard is interested in a particular model of corporate strategizing, which he defines as finding ways to deal with the ‘fog’ and confusion that periodically overcome organizations in today's hypercompetitive environment. Baumard's theory is that firms make progress through such fog by strategically shifting the way they think (their adopted epistemology), as well as what they think about.