CHANGES IN ORGANIZATIONAL KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION

Abstract

The explosion of knowledge production within business and other organizations poses a critical challenge to current modes of teaching and research within our business schools. We need to consider new strategic positions closer to the knowledge production being carried on within the organizations we study, without assuming that immediate relevance is our primary objective. The academic advantage. in my opin- ion, still lies in generalization and abstraction. Last year, at the British Academy of Manage- ment, I was asked to participate in a workshop with Michael Gibbons, who talked about his coauthored book The New Production of Knowl- edge (Gibbons et al., 1994). His claim was that university life as we have known it is rapidly being eclipsed by knowledge produced collabo- ratively, in practice. Although the book focuses on changes in science and technology, I recom- mend it as an introduction to issues that have significant implications for business schools. It has encouraged me to think in new ways about alternative paths that business schools might follow in the near future and to strongly advo- cate that many schools strategically reposition their research efforts.