Aristotelian phronesis as a key factor for leadership in the knowledge-creating company according to Ikujiro Nonaka

Guillermo Fariñas,Germán Scalzo

doi:10.11144/javeriana.cao31-57.apkfl

Guillermo Fariñas, Germán Scalzo

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.11144/javeriana.cao31-57.apkfl

Copy DOI

Abstract

Some Western organizational studies scholars have proposed that Aristotelian Phronesisrepresents a way of including practical reason in research on business topics such as decision-making, knowledge management, ethics and leadership. Ikujiro Nonaka, a Japanese scholar with notable theoretical and practical contributions to knowledge creation in organizations and with extensive experience in Japanese corporations, has joined this group of academics. As an Eastern thinker, he takes on a Western classical tradition, namely the virtue of Phronesis, making an important contribution to the application of ethical notions to business practice, in this case knowledge management. To locate his conceptualization of Aristotelian practical wisdom, we briefly describe his theory of knowledge creation, pointing to phroneticleadership skills as essential drivers of knowledge creation in organizations. Furthermore, we assess Nonaka’s incorporation of practical rationality from the point of view of the Western classical tradition.To conclude, we discuss the scope and limits of the use of Phronesisin Nonaka´s contribution, and ultimately suggest that incorporating the will helps us to understand prudence as a virtue and not just as an intellectual habit.

Highlights

What is knowledge? How is new knowledge created? How is it transmitted? These questions have been studied for many centuries, from disciplines such as gnoseology, epistemology or logic
The Japanese thinker Ikujiro Nonaka is among the scholars that have most studied the use, typology, and creation of knowledge applied to the business realm
We indicate the scope and limits of the use of phronesis in Nonaka’s contribution as well as some challenges that this proposal represents for contemporary business

Summary

Introduction

What is knowledge? How is new knowledge created? How is it transmitted? These questions have been studied for many centuries, from disciplines such as gnoseology, epistemology or logic. Managing Flow: A Process Theory of the Knowledge-Based Firm (Palgrave, 2008) is his seminal work, which demonstrates more mature thinking, and incorporates ideas and influences from Aristotle, Whitehead, Dewey, Polanyi, Nishida and other philosophical thinkers This evolution is mainly characterized by a transition from information to knowledge (and even at the end of his work to practical wisdom) and from innovation from an external and objective level (products, systems) to another internal or subjective one (skills, habits). Tacit or subjective knowledge is always associated with a context, i.e., certain people and a specific circumstance, so that its generation and transmission is necessarily related to a specific space and time where learning takes place. Within this process, he identifies four basic patterns for creating knowledge: 1.

From Explicit to Tacit or Internalization

Knowledge assets

The environment

Conclusions