Inside Knowledge: Rediscovering the Source of Performance Improvement

Inside Knowledge: Rediscovering the Source of Performance Improvement weaves a suspenseful tale of how several employees working in the fictional Grand Bay company discover how to leverage their knowledge to radically improve performance. Knowledge is often the most reliable sources of sustainable competitive advantage for companies, yet, until now, it has been very difficult to translate employee knowledge into performance improvements. Inside knowledge and pragmatic knowledge are the missing links that make the connection between employee experience and a firm’s ability to gain a competitive edge. Pragmatic knowledge results from continuous experimentation to enables employees to discover new ways to view their work and to improve performance, and is the result of the collaboration of both types of operational employees – workers and managers. Their interactions focus on discovering what works best in practice, and this refines the knowledge that drives performance improvement. This is not simply a theoretical approach, since successful companies such as Toyota have demonstrated that inside knowledge is a vital component to driving organizational innovations. Inside Knowledge offers seven pragmatic principles that allow any person working in any kind of organization to create and continuously improve knowledge for improving performance.

David Fearon is Professor of Management and Organization in Central Connecticut State University's School of Business. His research links learning in the course of work with leadership and innovation. Dr. Fearon is a graduate of Colby College, with an M.A. from Central Michigan University and Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut with emphasis in organizational behavior. Steven A. Cavaleri is also a Professor of Management & Organization Central Connecticut State University's School of Business. Dr. Cavaleri is the Editor of The Learning Organization: An International Journal, and sits on the Editorial Boards of The Journal of Knowledge Management and Knowledge Innovation Journal. Dr. Cavaleri holds a Ph.D. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and has been a Visiting Scholar at M.I.T. as a member of the System Dynamics Group.