Knowledge Management - the Knowledge Creating Company Essay

Knowledge Management - the Knowledge Creating Company - Essay Example Another important element of the Japanese perspective on knowledge is how an organization is treated as a living organism. It is not merely a separate legal entity or merely a machine for production wherein people are divided into parts that play specific roles but considered as sentient due to the collective sense of identity and fundamental purpose. According to Nonaka, this makes the area of research, product development, marketing and planning not exclusively the domain of research and development or marketing departments. Rather, each employee contributes something and is a working and functional knowledge worker. The above points were supported by several principles and Nonaka attempted to be as comprehensive as possible, outlining many very important ones. For instance, he cited the idea that innovation would always come from an individual – a manager who has the skill to keep up with the fickleness of the market, a researcher who has the knowledge to develop effective strategies or a cleaner who may have a brilliant idea about effective processes based on his work experiences. So each employee in an organization regardless of his or her position is considered a source of excellent ideas.