KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN ESOTERIC MANAGEMENT

Şafak Gündüz
Asst. Prof. Dr., Maltepe University, TURKEY, safakgunduz@maltepe.edu.tr

Abstract

Knowledge Management (KM), which builds learning organisations by making learning routine and stimulates cultural change and innovation, is one of the key elements of successful management.  Managing explicit knowledge is only the surface of knowledge management as it focuses more on transferring tacit knowledge - embedded knowledge we can call- into explicit knowledge. As tacit knowledge due to its being subjective in its nature is hard to codify and has difficulty operationally setting out in tangible form. Transferring tacit knowledge within organisations is the main concern of knowledge management. Knowledge sharing as one of the steps of knowledge management is encouraged in knowledge management. However, on the other hand, knowledge is taught to, limited to or understood by members of a special group in Esoteric Management. Thus, knowledge management and esoteric management principles seem contradictory in literature. This paper aims at clarifying this traditional notion by tracing the similarities between esoteric knowledge and tacit knowledge and demonstrates that in esoteric management, knowledge is not kept, transferred but within some rituals. This paper tries to draw attention and to create awareness that esoteric way of transferring knowledge is also a type of knowledge management and presents a newly coined term and concept, “esoteric management of knowledge that could be used in literature. Esoteric management of knowledge will no longer be an oxymoron. How knowledge management is achieved and conducted in esoteric management will be defined for the first time in literature with the contribution of this paper. The study bears implications for researchers and managers who wish to understand and employ the concept of knowledge management in esoteric management.

Keywords: Esoteric Management, Knowledge Management, Knowledge Transfer, Tacit/Implicit Knowledge, Explicit Knowledge, Esoteric Knowledge, Learning Organisations