The Knowledge Work of General Managers

Abstract

Despite widespread acceptance of the idea of the crucial importance of knowledge in business, the way in which knowledge has so far been studied and subject to scrutiny has been restricted and fragmented. Both the scholarly and the practice-based agendas have been restricted to a relatively narrow range of issues, such as the use of ICT for ‘managing’ knowledge and the identification of different types of knowledge. Likewise, most fieldwork studies have concentrated on the use of tacit knowledge at operational levels. Indeed, very little attention has been paid to the characteristic features of knowledge at the strategic apex of organisations. In this article, the focus is on the knowledge work undertaken by the executive members of top management teams. The research reported here reveals insights into the kinds of knowledge deployed by general managers and the ways in which they use this know-how.