Knowledge as a New Form of Capital

Abstract

How is human business to be managed in an increasingly knowledge-intensive environment? Can traditional labor- or capital-intensive management systems be ‘reconstructed’ under such fundamentally nontraditional conditions of knowledge dominance? What are the basic characteristics, requirements and potentials of knowledge-oriented management systems? We introduce the notion of the customer-oriented Integrated Process Management (IPM) paradigm as a prototype of emerging knowledge-based management systems. A number of useful cases and examples of IPM praxis are discussed in the Appendix. Broader socio-political implications of extending the principles of representative and direct democracy from political to business and social spheres are also discussed. The systems of absentee-ownership capitalism and etatistic socialism are contrasted with the emerging systems of social participation based on the employee-ownership of the means of production.