Knowledge Cultivation in a South African Firm Providing Research Services

In this paper we discuss how a firm that provides research services cultivated knowledge. We report on the political practices by which a research firm generated knowledge. We used Foucault's insights on the relationship between knowledge and power as our conceptual lens. In particular, we used Foucault's technologies of power and technologies of the self, which illuminates how management uses certain techniques to control the conduct of individuals and submit them to domination but also how individuals resist this. In our research methodology we used a case study approach investigating a single SME firm providing research services. We interviewed the CEO, senior managers and a number of other employees using a semi-structured interview schedule. Within the case, we found that management used various technologies of power to cultivate and generate knowledge. Although there was resistance from employees, they submitted to the various technologies of power. Our findings were that some of the technologies of power included the CEO instructing all employees (new and senior) to use standardised documents when compiling reports. This enabled employees to capture knowledge through the use of standardised information capturing templates with minimal intervention from senior managers. In addition, employees' use of these standardised templates ensured that targeted knowledge was culled by employees. The standardised templates served firstly as a means of obtaining explicit knowledge without requiring any micro management from senior management. Additionally, it served as a disciplinary technique that acted on employees' subjectivities and their practices. Disciplinary techniques included the obligation on staff to complete status reports on a weekly basis. This provided the CEO with a panoramic view of the employees' activities and the new knowledge that they acquired. These status reports served as a means of surveillance enabling the CEO to review the overall performance of the employees. Within this framework of power, staff members responded by employing technologies of the self to effect changes to themselves and their knowledge. In sum, the paper illustrates how technologies of power underpin knowledge management and governance in the construction of new organisational knowledge while employees used technologies of the self to attune themselves to capturing and generating knowledge. Originality/value: The use of Foucault's theories to investigate knowledge management and governance in a South African research firm.