Handbook of Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management, Second Edition

Learning, Knowledge, and Emotion

‘Why do people in organizations seek knowledge?’ (Gherardi, 2004: 32) This may seem a question that leads to a certain dead end—people obviously look for knowledge in order to solve their problems and to gain advantage of some sort or other. So what happens if they fail to acquire knowledge or if the knowledge they acquire neither solves their problems nor gains them any advantage? What happens if the knowledge they crave turns out to redefine the nature of the problems they face or the nature of the competitive advantage they seek? And what if, as Gherardi (1999; 2004) reminds us, the pursuit of knowledge becomes an end in its own right, linked to desire, to curiosity, and to fascination with the unknown? Far from leading to a dead end, the ‘why’ question at the start of the paragraph inevitably leads to a view of learning and knowledge inextricably linked to emotion and passion—emotions, such as insecurity, fear, and anxiety may drive the quest for knowledge while passions of curiosity, exploration, and discovery may propel the quest for learning. Put this way, what seems surprising is that knowledge and learning are ever thought about without consideration to the emotions that drive them or the emotions they prompt along the way.

Why then are knowledge and learning so frequently considered independently of emotion and passion? As Fineman argued in 2003, learning and knowledge have long been approached in the rationalist tradition as cognitive ...