Regarding the knowledge development within the organisations they are two main approaches.
According to the representational approach, there is a pre-given world. This approach is based on the belief that only pure thinking can yield reliable knowledge. Agents follow explicit rules in order to achieve their goals. Action is driven by reliable prior knowledge.
On the other hand, the enactive approach asserts that knowing is action. Knowledge is the result of an ongoing interpretation that emerges from our capacities of understanding. These capacities enable us to make sense of the world. So, rather than the mind passively reflecting a pre-given world, the mind actively engages with the world. Meaning is enacted (constructed) from a taken-for-granted background of understanding (Tsoukas, 2007).
The world causes us to form beliefs but not dictate the content of our beliefs (Tsoukas, 2007). The moment we ask for facts about an object we are asking how it should be described in a particular language and that language is not neutral. Its vocabulary is loaded with meaning. Notions are bound up with having certain experiences which involves seeing that certain descriptions apply.
To sum up, the enactive approach assumes that actors are beings-in-the-world; so social activity is the fundamental building block of the social world. This approach also highlights the personally constructed character of human knowledge (Tsoukas, 2007).
