The elephant in the room: the applicability of axiomatic approaches to network learning and organisational knowledge

Abstract

Existing network literature focuses at the network rather than knowledge networks, exhibiting an inability to speak of knowledge as a scalable phenomenon. In order to advance understanding of knowledge and learning in networks we present a theoretical framework which addresses how knowledge itself behaves at the network level. First, we discuss a scaling function for knowledge which operates on a concept set, measuring the strength and number of connections between the various constructs therein. Second, we declare a three-tiered framework relating problem-, knowledge- and information-spaces which underwrite the strength of a particular knowledge structure. A case study of a defence project illustrates this. The purpose of this paper is to show how these interrelated ideas bear upon the study of knowledge in networks, particularly in respect of knowledge dispersion, hetero- and homogeneity and upon the study of knowledge as a flow property of generalised social networks.