The Epistemology of Organizational Knowledge: A Conceptual Framework for Epistemic Justification in Technology-Driven Knowledge Management
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Purpose – This paper examines what philosophically justifies the pervasive but rarely interrogated claim that organizations “know” something, and it proposes an epistemological framework for evaluating knowledge claims generated within technology-driven knowledge management (KM) practice.
Methodology – Following a conceptual-article, theory-synthesis design, the paper systematically synthesizes core positions in analytic epistemology (foundationalism, coherentism, reliabilism, virtue epistemology, and social epistemology) with organizational knowledge-management theory — principally Michael Polanyi's tacit-knowledge thesis and Ikujiro Nonaka's Socialization-Externalization-Combination-Internalization (SECI) model — and triangulates the resulting framework against five recent empirical articles published in the International Journal of Business and Management Technology in Society (IJBMTS).
Findings – The synthesis yields the Epistemic Justification Cycle for Technology-Driven Knowledge Management (EJC-TKM), a four-dimensional framework in which an organizational knowledge claim is justified only insofar as it satisfies conditions of reliability, coherence, epistemic virtue, and social-testimonial corroboration. Applying the framework to the artificial-intelligence-mediated, bibliometric, and trust-based knowledge practices documented in recent IJBMTS scholarship reveals five recurring epistemic risks — algorithmic opacity, automation bias, testimonial injustice toward tacit and frontline knowledge, coherence without correspondence, and scale-induced overconfidence — that knowledge-management models built solely on the tacit-explicit dichotomy do not adequately address.
Originality – The paper offers one of the first attempts to integrate post-Gettier analytic epistemology with organizational knowledge-management theory into a single, practice-usable justification framework, thereby extending Nonaka and Takeuchi's foundational but epistemologically under-specified account of organizational knowledge creation and providing technology-management scholars and practitioners with an auditable procedure for distinguishing justified organizational knowledge from merely asserted data.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
Al-Muzaki, L. (2025). Cooperative game theory: Examining promise, trust and contract interplay. International Journal of Business and Management Technology in Society, 3(1), 28–37. https://doi.org/10.12962/j30254256.v3i1.7870
Alavi, M., & Leidner, D. E. (2001). Review: Knowledge management and knowledge management systems: Conceptual foundations and research issues. MIS Quarterly, 25(1), 107–136. https://doi.org/10.2307/3250961
Argote, L., & Miron-Spektor, E. (2011). Organizational learning: From experience to knowledge. Organization Science, 22(5), 1123–1137. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1100.0621
BonJour, L. (1985). The structure of empirical knowledge. Harvard University Press.
Chisholm, R. M. (1989). Theory of knowledge (3rd ed.). Prentice-Hall.
Davenport, T. H., & Prusak, L. (1998). Working knowledge: How organizations manage what they know. Harvard Business School Press.
Fauzi, R. M. I. A., & Sari, N. A. (2025). Transformational leadership in post-merger organizations: A qualitative study of Indonesian state-owned company. International Journal of Business and Management Technology in Society, 3(2), 77–97. https://doi.org/10.12962/j30254256.v3i2.8792
Floridi, L. (2011). The philosophy of information. Oxford University Press.
Gettier, E. L. (1963). Is justified true belief knowledge? Analysis, 23(6), 121–123. https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/23.6.121
Goldman, A. I. (1979). What is justified belief? In G. S. Pappas (Ed.), Justification and knowledge (pp. 1–23). D. Reidel. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-9493-5_1
Goldman, A. I. (1999). Knowledge in a social world. Oxford University Press.
Gunawan, P. A. (2025). Implementation and challenges of emission trading mechanisms in sustainable supply chain management: A bibliometric-based systematic literature review of the manufacturing sector. International Journal of Business and Management Technology in Society, 3(2), 124–137. https://doi.org/10.12962/j30254256.v3i2.8918
Jaakkola, E. (2020). Designing conceptual articles: Four approaches. AMS Review, 10(1–2), 18–26. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13162-020-00161-0
Nonaka, I. (1994). A dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation. Organization Science, 5(1), 14–37. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.5.1.14
Nonaka, I., & Takeuchi, H. (1995). The knowledge-creating company: How Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation. Oxford University Press.
Polanyi, M. (1966). The tacit dimension. University of Chicago Press.
Septiani, I. D. (2025). The role of AI in digital supply chain transformation in the era of trade wars: Bibliometrics analysis 2021–2025. International Journal of Business and Management Technology in Society, 3(2), 98–108. https://doi.org/10.12962/j30254256.v3i2.8891
Tsoukas, H. (2003). Do we really understand tacit knowledge? In M. Easterby-Smith & M. A. Lyles (Eds.), Handbook of organizational learning and knowledge management (pp. 410–427). Blackwell.
Tyas, T. S. A., Hanoum, S., Cempaka, S. D., & Nikmah, U. (2025). The role of innovation on performance in banking sector: A bibliometric analysis. International Journal of Business and Management Technology in Society, 3(1), 52–67. https://doi.org/10.12962/j30254256.v3i1.8916
Zagzebski, L. T. (1996). Virtues of the mind: An inquiry into the nature of virtue and the ethical foundations of knowledge. Cambridge University Press.