Ethos as Enablers of Organisational Knowledge Creation

Abstract

This chapter considers knowledge creation in relation to improvements on the production line in the manufacturing department of Nissan Motor Company and aims to clarify the substance that enables such knowledge creation. For that purpose, firstly, embodied knowledge observed in the actions of organisational members who enable knowledge creation will be clarified. By adopting an approach that adds a first, second, and third-person’s viewpoint to the theory of knowledge creation, this research will attempt to define enablers of knowledge creation. Embodied knowledge, observed in the actions of organisational members who enable knowledge creation, is the continued practice of ethos (in Greek) founded in ethics and reasoning. Ethos is knowledge (intangible) assets for knowledge creating companies. Substantiated analysis classifies ethos into three categories: the individual, team and organisation. This indicates the precise actions of the organisational members in each category during the knowledge creation process and it is easier to commit further to knowledge creation activities.