Systemic Reflections on Knowledge Transfer; Comment on “Sustaining Knowledge Translation Practices: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis”

Abstract

The systemic failure of organisational learning should not come as a surprise – after all every system delivers exactly what it is designed for. Knowledge management/transfer is a property of the organisational system rather than a particular technique. Hence, knowledge management/transfer is about the contextual framing in which learning focused on understanding can occur. Looking through a system lens any research field can be defined as a complex adaptive organisation, and its culture determines if and how learning and knowledge transfer (or shared learning) can occur. Creating and maintain a learning culture requires leadership that perpetuates continuous dialogues to achieve tacit and explicit knowledge exchange.

Keywords

• knowledge transfer
• knowledge translation
• systems thinking
• complex adaptive organisations
• organisational learning
• philosophy of science