Keynote speech: Dimensions of Change: understanding knowledge and knowledge work

The presentation seeks to construct a framework for understanding knowledge and knowledge work. I argue that knowledge may be understood as a social construction of reality. I argue that people construct their reality by integrating four dimensions of reality: Facts, logic, values and communication. I argue that this framework leads to a new and critical understanding of the disciplines organizational learning and knowledge management. In particular I argue that these disciplines often contain their own image of work and identity, which may be a sharp contrast to extant work forms and identities. As such the work of these disciplines is often rather misplaced and it tends to be rather unsuccessful. I argue that we need to adjust knowledge and learning strategies to local circumstances in order to be more successful in creating new knowledge. The presentation has three parts. First I introduce a basic framework for understanding knowledge. This is done by means of Wittgenstein's concept of language games. Second, I introduce the four dimensions of reality. Third I relate the model to the disciplines organizational learning and knowledge management