Promises and Perils of Technical Knowledge: Bridging Theories of Knowledge and Inequality

• In Event: 413 - Section on Organizations, Occupations and Work Refereed Roundtable Session. Table 01. Culture and Organizations
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 06. Inequality

Abstract

This study connects research on knowledge and inequality in organizations by examining professional service workers’ perceptions of their own marginality within their organization and their beliefs about the knowledge they need to succeed. Interviews with 104 senior leaders in a global investment bank reveal an association between people’s feelings of marginality (on the basis of age, function, geography, position, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, nationality, class, education) and orientations to knowledge. Feeling marginal is associated with valuing technical knowledge and eschewing social knowledge. Feeling mainstream is associated with valuing both technical and social knowledge. I argue that theories about the nature of knowledge can help to explain differences between marginal and mainstream actors’ valuations of knowledge. Social knowledge tends to be “tacit,” transferred through people and interactions. Technical knowledge tends to be “explicit,” stored online and in databases; neither its access nor acquisition requires relationships. Because literature on the properties, content, and transmissibility of knowledge is largely separate from literature on inequality, this article unites topics separately traversed in each research domain. I show that the extent to which individuals feel marginal along the aforementioned categories is associated with the kinds of knowledge they value and are likely to pursue.

Author

• Alexandra Claire Feldberg, Harvard University