🤖 AI Summary
Traditional knowledge management (KM) is constrained by a symbolic paradigm rooted in Cartesian dualism—specifically, the epistemic separation of cognition and action—which perpetuates subject–object dichotomies and undermines systemic coherence. Method: This paper proposes Fuzzy Autopoietic Knowledge Management (FAKM), the first KM framework integrating autopoiesis theory, the Viable Systems Model (VSM), and General Systems Theory. FAKM conceptualizes knowledge systems through the lens of “organization–structure duality,” capturing their self-maintaining and self-referential nature while transcending dualistic ontologies. It further incorporates fuzzy logic to model uncertainty and dynamic adaptation inherent in socio-technical systems. Contribution/Results: Empirical validation in manufacturing firms in the Maule Region, Chile, demonstrates that FAKM significantly enhances dynamic coupling between knowledge flows and organizational structure, strengthens endogenous knowledge practice, and improves systemic resilience—thereby offering a theoretically grounded and empirically validated paradigm shift in KM.
📝 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.