Knowledge Types and Organizational Forms in Knowledge Management

In this article knowledge types are combined with forms of organizations. Knowledge is something individual actors have. Organizations in which primary and organizational (secondary) tasks are performed are multi-actor systems. Organizational (secondary) processes consists of tasks, such as planning, control and communication. Individuals with knowledge perform these tasks. Concerning knowledge not only content, but also knowledge types can be discerned. Three knowledge types are distinguished: tacit, coded and theoretical. With the help these distinctions for the (cognitive) analysis of knowledge management, I will demonstrate that dominance and distributions of knowledge types match well-known organizational forms and coordination mechanisms, such as machine bureaucracy, professional bureaucracy and market.