Practical wisdom, the (not so) secret ingredient for responsible knowledge management

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to stress the importance of practical wisdom (phronesis) for the knowledge management field. It is a relevant intellectual and ethical resource for responding to recent changes in the business environment and for responsibly and sustainably aligning organizations for the future. Organizations must find ways to reconcile social, environmental and economic goals and meet different and conflicting stakeholder needs. To this end, the authors challenge knowledge management researchers to feature practical wisdom as an enabler for responsible knowledge management built on solid ethical foundations. Design/methodology/approach The authors introduce the concept of phronesis, reaching from Aristotle’s The Nicomachean Ethics to Nonaka and Takeuchi’s The Wise Company. Based on a systematic review of the literature, the authors performed a bibliometric analysis. Moreover, the authors discuss the findings and offer avenues for future research. Findings The results provide an overview of the research on phronesis in the knowledge management field. It points out the leading articles and journals (e.g. Journal of Business Ethics and Journal of Knowledge Management). Likewise, it identifies thematic areas, i.e. knowledge management field, knowledge dynamics, organizational wisdom, leadership and followership, corporate social responsibility and red flags. Originality/value In this essay, the authors advise practical wisdom as a promising candidate for advancing the field of knowledge management towards responsible knowledge management. To pursue this, the authors propose to address instability and continuous change through practical wisdom and outline a research agenda to guide further research.

Co-creating practical wisdom through rational, spiritual and emotional capacities

“…The foremost finding from this study is discovering how rational, spiritual and emotional capacities have an influence on practical wisdom and how a balance between them can address the uncertainty to which an individual is exposed through practical wisdom by managing emotions, using empathy, and behaving according to one’s values. Up until now, to the best of our knowledge, only a few researchers have studied the mechanism that triggers the relationship between knowledge and practical wisdom (Rocha et al. , 2022).…”

Knowmads as Possible Mutants of Knowledge Workers in the Brave post-COVID World

“…Hirsch (2021), unhappiness related to employment circumstances has triggered a "Great Resignation" across a number of different industries. This phenomenon is convergent with the "Anti-Work Movement" (Rocha et al, 2022). Powered by the sense of freedom gained while designing their work away from crowded offices, employees developed a higher sense of autonomy, better understanding of their desires, and, most importantly, courage to seek meaningful career pathways or only quit the irrelevant ones for a while.…”

“…Driven by their values of professional excellence but also personal fulfillment, knowmads become geographical and occupational nomads of knowledge (Cook, 2020;Horwizt et al,2003;Kakihara and Sørensen, 2001;Lee-Kelley et al, 2007;Nelson and McCann, 2010). Therefore, according to Bratianu, Iliescu, and Paiuc, "this As we advance in the late and post-pandemic environment, increasingly more work market trends indicate a progressive shift in the workers' preferences towards knowmad-specific work behaviors (Andriyiv et al, 2021;Rocha et al, 2022). The most significant clues lay in the findings of large-scale corporate studies implemented over the past two years or more.…”

Framework of managerial wisdom: an analysis using the TOPSIS and MICMAC process

“…This result shows that the social trust caused by managerial financial wisdom is considered a factor in gaining more shares in the capital market due to the positive stimulus in this dimension. Although prior studies have not investigated Managerial Wisdom through the mix of analytical processes of this study, but by referring to the researches of Baltrunaite et al (2023), Rocha et al (2022) and Small (2004) can understand that the evaluation of Managerial Wisdom plays an important role in the competitive functions of companies such as reducing financial constraints; strategic capacities; Earnings Persistence and meet the stakeholders' information expectations. For example Geaquinto Rocha et al (2022) advise practical wisdom as a promising candidate for advancing the field of knowledge management towards responsible knowledge management.…”