Organizational Design for Knowledge Management

Footnotes

Introduction

1 From the 1990s onward, the pace of international exchanges of services intensified. Thus, in the decade from 1990 to 2000, the average annual growth rate of such exchanges reached 6% [WTO 01], which is equal to that of goods exchanges. In 2007, services represented around 19% of world trade [WTO 08].

2 The proportion of activities linked to the immaterial (research, education, software industry, etc.) is tending to increase in the world economy [OCD 96]. Such is the case, for instance, in the United States, where the portion of expenses devoted to R&D activities has more than tripled between 1950 and 2000. In addition, between 1990 and 2000, the intensive activities in technology such as electronics, IT, telecommunications and biotechnologies experienced faster growth than the average in other sectors of the world economy [OCD 00].

Chapter 1: Theoretical Anchoring of Knowledge

1 Therefore, data are objective by nature.

2 Unlike behaviorism, cognitivism aims to open the “black box” – that is the set of phenomena which take place between the stimulation of the subject by the environment and the organism’s observable response. Cognitive psychology was born in the 1950s, around the same time as artificial intelligence (AI). Indeed, once the principle of studying the contents of the black box was accepted, concepts needed to be developed to describe what occurred. The beginnings of computer science saw the development of a conceptual arsenal with which to think ...