{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,5]],"date-time":"2026-08-05T22:08:08Z","timestamp":1785967688771,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS)","issue":"4","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Organization Science"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[1999,8]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Much current work on organizational knowledge, intellectual capital, knowledge-creating organizations, knowledge work, and the like rests on a single, traditional understanding of the nature of knowledge. We call this understanding the \u201cepistemology of possession,\u201d since it treats knowledge as something people possess. Yet, this epistemology cannot account for the knowing found in individual and group practice. Knowing as action calls for an \u201cepistemology of practice.\u201d Moreover, the epistemology of possession tends to privilege explicit over tacit knowledge, and knowledge possessed by individuals over that possessed by groups. Current work on organizations is limited by this privileging and by the scant attention given to knowing in its own right. Organizations are better understood if explicit, tacit, individual and group knowledge are treated as four distinct and coequal forms of knowledge (each doing work the others cannot), and if knowledge and knowing are seen as mutually enabling (not competing). We hold that knowledge is a tool of knowing, that knowing is an aspect of our interaction with the social and physical world, and that the interplay of knowledge and knowing can generate new knowledge and new ways of knowing. We believe this generative dance between knowledge and knowing is a powerful source of organizational innovation. Harnessing this innovation calls for organizational and technological infrastructures that support the interplay of knowledge and knowing. Ultimately, these concepts make possible a more robust framing of such epistemologically-centered concerns as core competencies, the management of intellectual capital, etc. We explore these views through three brief case studies drawn from recent research.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1287\/orsc.10.4.381","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2008,10,31]],"date-time":"2008-10-31T22:47:32Z","timestamp":1225493252000},"page":"381-400","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1676,"title":["Bridging Epistemologies: The Generative Dance Between Organizational Knowledge and Organizational Knowing"],"prefix":"10.1287","volume":"10","author":[{"given":"Scott D. N.","family":"Cook","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Philosophy, San Jose State University, San Jose, California 95192, and Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, 3333 Coyote Hill, Palo Alto, California 94304"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"John Seely","family":"Brown","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, 3333 Coyote Hill, Palo Alto, California 94304"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"109","reference":[{"key":"B2","volume-title":"Organizational Learning","author":"Argyris C.","year":"1978"},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/CBO9780511812507"},{"key":"B4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3102\/0013189X018001032"},{"key":"B5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/orsc.2.1.40"},{"key":"B6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1207\/s15327051hci0901_2"},{"key":"B7","volume-title":"Managing New Product and Process Development","author":"Clark K. B.","year":"1992"},{"key":"B8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/978-1-349-20255-3"},{"key":"B9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/orsc.5.4.554"},{"key":"B10","unstructured":"Cook S. D. N. Part of what a judgment is. (1982) . Ph.D. dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (available from the author or from University Microfilms)"},{"key":"B11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/0002764294038001012"},{"key":"B12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/105649269324010"},{"key":"B13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/108844.108856"},{"key":"B14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1207\/s15326969eco0802_2"},{"key":"B15","volume-title":"The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception","author":"Gibson J.","year":"1979"},{"key":"B16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/978-1-349-16161-4"},{"key":"B17","volume-title":"Competing for the Future","author":"Hamel G.","year":"1994"},{"key":"B18","volume-title":"John Dewey's Pragmatic Technology","author":"Hickman L.","year":"1990"},{"key":"B19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1037\/10096-012"},{"key":"B20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/orsc.7.5.502"},{"key":"B21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/978-1-349-24034-0"},{"key":"B22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/CBO9780511815355"},{"key":"B23","volume-title":"Wellsprings of Knowledge: Building and Sustaining the Sources of Innovation","author":"Leonard-Barton D.","year":"1995"},{"key":"B24","volume-title":"Ambiguity and Choice in Organizations","author":"March J. G.","year":"1976"},{"key":"B25","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/orsc.5.1.14"},{"key":"B26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1093\/oso\/9780195092691.001.0001","volume-title":"The Knowledge Creating Company","author":"Nonaka I.","year":"1995"},{"key":"B27","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2307\/2393771"},{"key":"B28","volume-title":"Talking About Machines: An Ethnography of a Modern Job","author":"Orr J. E.","year":"1996"},{"key":"B29","volume-title":"Collective Remembering: Memory in Society","author":"Orr J. E.","year":"1990"},{"key":"B30","volume-title":"History as a System","author":"Ortega y Gasset","year":"1961"},{"key":"B31","volume-title":"History as a System","author":"Ortega y Gasset","year":"1961"},{"key":"B32","volume-title":"The Tacit Dimension","author":"Polanyi M.","year":"1983"},{"key":"B33","volume-title":"Consequences of Pragmatism","author":"Rorty R.","year":"1982"},{"key":"B34","volume-title":"The Concept of Mind","author":"Ryle G.","year":"1949"},{"key":"B35","volume-title":"The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action","author":"Schon D. A.","year":"1983"},{"key":"B36","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/orsc.2.1.125"},{"key":"B37","volume-title":"The Thinking Organization; Dynamics of Organizational Social Cognition","author":"Sims H. P.","year":"1986"},{"key":"B38","volume":"14","author":"Sitkin S. B.","year":"1992","journal-title":"Res. Organ. Behavior"},{"key":"B39","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4135\/9781446250228.n4"},{"key":"B40","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/030631289019003001"},{"key":"B41","volume-title":"Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth of Organizations","author":"Stewart T. A.","year":"1997"},{"key":"B42","volume-title":"The Social Theory of Practices: Tradition, Tacit Knowledge, and Presuppositions","author":"Turner S.","year":"1994"},{"key":"B44","volume-title":"Climate and Culture","author":"Watsuji T.","year":"1961"},{"key":"B45","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/orsc.2.1.116"},{"key":"B46","volume-title":"Handbook of Organization Studies","author":"Weick K. E.","year":"1996"},{"key":"B47","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2307\/2393372"},{"key":"B48","volume-title":"Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity","author":"Wenger E.","year":"1997"}],"container-title":["Organization Science"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/pubsonline.informs.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.1287\/orsc.10.4.381","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,2]],"date-time":"2024-03-02T07:04:53Z","timestamp":1709363093000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/pubsonline.informs.org\/doi\/10.1287\/orsc.10.4.381"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[1999,8]]},"references-count":46,"journal-issue":{"issue":"4","published-print":{"date-parts":[[1999,8]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1287\/orsc.10.4.381"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1287\/orsc.10.4.381","relation":{},"ISSN":["1047-7039","1526-5455"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1047-7039","type":"print"},{"value":"1526-5455","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[1999,8]]}}}