Knowledge management beyond codification: knowing as practice/concept

Knowledge has been theorized as being an elementary form of organization in the so‐called knowledge management literature. Although there are numerous analytical strengths in this literature, a reductionist view of knowledge dominates the field. From a reductionist view, knowledge is an extension from data and information. As opposed to this image of knowledge, this paper suggests that knowledge is what is inherent in practices and concepts employed and invented to denote such practices. The notion of knowledge is therefore constituted on a single plane or surface wherein practices and concepts are entangled. As a consequence, knowledge is always indeterminate and fluid because it is immanent in a multiplicity of undertakings and changing language games. In addition, data and information only represents a sub‐set of what we call knowledge. This processual and fluid view of knowledge represents an epistemological break with reductionist views of knowledge and enables for new perspectives on how knowledge is managed as an intangible resource in organizations.