The construction of knowledge in the organizational environment

a psychopedagogical perspective

Abstract

This paper aims to identify and analyze the formal and informal processes of creation and transmission of knowledge in the organizational environment. To address this current challenge for organizations, an investigation was conducted to answer how knowledge is created and shared and whether that process could be understood from a psychopedagogical perspective. The theoretical framework of Jean Piaget's genetic epistemology supported the definition of knowledge as a conjunction between the subject's action and their self-reflection, within the context of social interaction. Reality was understood through a dialectic vision inherent to the complex paradigm, chosen as the optimal approach to provide a concept of organization aligned with Piaget's definition of knowledge. The ideas from both perspectives were confirmed as complementary in the analysis presented in this work. The empirical study was carried out as a multiple case study involving three companies from different service segments, allowing for diversity in the cases examined. The results helped confirm that, in many organizational processes of knowledge creation and transmission, the ways in which they are operated are more important than the content itself. The identification, characterization, and analysis of the processes at work in these companies, from a complex and constructivist viewpoint, can help verify the recurrence of developmental stages on an organizational scale, providing significant clues for psychopedagogical actions within organizations.