Imperfect Knowledge Management -- A Case Study in a Chilean Manufacturing Company

TL;DR

This paper introduces the Fuzzy Autopoietic Knowledge Management (FAKM) model, integrating theories of living systems and cybernetics, and applies it to a Chilean manufacturing company to explore new knowledge management approaches.

Contribution

It presents the FAKM model, a novel approach combining autopoiesis and cybernetic theories for knowledge management in sociotechnical systems.

Findings

Successful application of FAKM in a Chilean manufacturing company

Demonstrates the model's ability to enhance understanding of organizational self-maintenance

Provides insights into knowledge dynamics in autopoietic systems

Abstract

To conceptualize living systems based on the processes that create them, rather than their interactions with the environment, as in systems theory. Maturana and Varela (1969) at the University of Chile introduced the term autopoiesis (from Greek self and production). This concept emphasizes autonomy as the defining feature of living systems. It describes them as self-sustaining entities that preserve their identity through continuous self-renewal to preserve their unity. Furthermore, these systems can only be understood in reference to themselves, as all internal activities are inherently self-determined by self-production and self-referentiality. This thesis introduces the Fuzzy Autopoietic Knowledge Management (FAKM) model, which integrates the system theory of living systems, the cybernetic theory of viable systems, and the autopoiesis theory of autopoietic systems. The goal is to move beyond traditional knowledge management models that rely on Cartesian dualism (cognition/action) where knowledge is treated as symbolic information processing. Instead, the FAKM model adopts a dualism of organization/structure to define an autopoietic system within a sociotechnical approach. The model is experimentally applied to a manufacturing company in the Maule Region, south of Santiago, Chile.